Cameron McCool
Audio By Carbonatix
When you see JMSN dance for the first time, you never forget it. In a full-body writhe, his limbs are outstretched in every direction, his hips gyrate like a metronome and his body moves like a snake. Over a decade into his career, those unpredictable moves have almost defined him, if not literally with them being such a memorable part of his live act, but also figuratively, because just as you never know what move he’ll hit next, you never know what kind of music he’ll release either. And that’s all part of the plan.
“I’m thinking about the expectations and trying to do the opposite,” says Christian Berishaj, who goes by JMSN (pronounced like Jameson) on stage and on record. On his 2012 debut, Priscilla, the first wave of expectations was set. Heavy. Hedonistic. That sort of leaving-the-club haze pop that defined the early The Weeknd albums.
On his next two releases, 2013’s Pllaje and 2014’s self-titled JMSN, his sound drifted into R&B, all sung with a voice that could be mistaken for Justin Timberlake. In 2016, Whatever Makes U Happy, featured melodies that could be mistaken for Jill Scott.
When Velvet was released in September 2018, things changed. Those R&B sensibilities still prevailed, but the uniquely JMSN brand of funk infused in tracks like “Inferno,” “Levy” and “Talk Is Cheap” became a revelation. This wasn’t another soft-spoken bedroom crooner; Berishaj had the makings to lead his own cult of musicality. 2021’s Heals Me was his best record yet, until 2023’s Soft Spot managed to blow expectations out of the water yet again, pivoting hard from the funk-soul trappings of earlier years into an indistinguishable brand of art pop that only he could create.
After a year-long tour of the album, the Dallas-born and Detroit-based artist releases his ninth studio album this month. A subsequent tour will start on Oct. 28 in Phoenix, including a Dallas date on Nov. 3 at the Cambridge Room at House of Blues.
“My MO has never been to do the same thing,” Berishaj says. “So I’m not going to start doing the same thing now.”
We got our first taste of the new album, titled …it’s only about u if you think it is., this May, when its first single, “Click Bait,” was released with a full aesthetic rebrand for JMSN. Going against the grain is nothing new for him, but “Click Bait” might be his most dramatic left turn yet, coming together like a bass-heavy grunge song that somehow manages to seamlessly fade screeching strings into a chorus of voices. Most of the production is done by Berishaj himself, allowing for the creative control to try off-the-wall things like this. You’ll have to hear it to believe it.
“I tried to start all the songs with the bass line,” Berishaj says of the song and record. “That was a challenge, and I always challenge myself to make songs with the least amount of tracks and instruments as possible.”
You can hear it on the album’s second single, “Dirty Dog,” which was released on Sept. 18. The instrumentation here is almost entirely drum and bass, with layers of Berishaj’s vocals singing the song’s chorus between “Time Of The Season” esque “oohs” and “ahhs.” It maintains a rockier sound compared to any of his previous music, which we’re expecting to hear more of when the full album is released. But then again, we’d know better than to ever give JMSN expectations.
He told us that most of the songs on …it’s only about u if you think it is. were written around the time that Soft Spot was released in 2023. We saw him at Trees in Deep Ellum just a few months after its release, where he delivered an unforgettable set, playing through most of the new album plus a smattering of hits from throughout his career. The album’s title track, “Soft Spot,” particularly put the crowd in Berishaj’s hand, but by the time we left, songs like “Love Me” and “2 High” were still considered the standout tracks on the album.
Almost a full year later, “Soft Spot” exploded on social media, especially TikTok, thanks to a remix that added a rap verse from Detroit rapper Sada Baby.
“This is amazing,” Berishaj remembers thinking. “I already had the next album ready, so we were like, now we can have some time to plan it out. This kind of had a second wind, so we can let it do its thing even longer and give us time to prepare the new one.”
It would be easy to chalk up the sudden surge of popularity to “Soft Spot” managing to land on the right algorithm at the right time, but that’s not exactly what happened. Berishaj and his team, including manager Drew Drialo, deserve a ton of credit for their unconventional rollout strategy with the album, where they essentially never stopped promoting it for almost two full years. New music videos, remixes, live shows. It didn’t matter. There was no “album cycle.” Soft Spot was all that mattered for every second of time between its announcement and the release of the first single to …it’s only about u if you think it is., and the hard work paid off.
“I spent at least a year after it’s out,” Berishaj says. “We had done over 100 shows promoting this album, and it’s funny that the ‘Soft Spot’ stuff happened after our last show.”
Between all the touring, Berishaj managed to find the time to record, mix and master 10 new songs for the record, which is being released on his own label, White Room Records. It marks his ninth studio album in about 13 years, a remarkable and unprecedented output for any artist.
“It’s not out of a necessity to make sure my output is consistent or anything,” he says. “It’s just pure excitement.”
As for the new record, expect the unexpected, as usual.
“It’s heavy at times, it’s groovy at times, and it’s emotional and slow at times,” Berishaj says. “I’m just excited to see what everybody takes from it, and I’m just excited to have it out.”
Although we’ve only heard two songs, we’re happy to report that the album feels just as JMSN as ever, while also sounding wholly unique, both for him or any artist working today. Perhaps it will be the record that skyrockets him into a broader mainstream appeal, and maybe it’ll happen sooner rather than later. If the latter becomes true, we’re reveling in the chance to see an artist as talented as him in a room as small as the Cambridge Room at House of Blues, and we get the feeling that we might not get the chance to experience that again.
“These things stay out forever,” Berishaj says. “You never know what stuff is going to work. I hope it happens when I’m alive, just so I can make stuff easier when I’m here. You know you can’t control those things. Maybe that’s not my journey. You never know.”
JMSN will perform on Monday, Nov. 3, at 7 p.m. at The Cambridge Room at House Of Blues, 2200 N Lamar St. Tickets are available starting at $45.32 on Ticketmaster.
