Transforming
From street skating to hip hop dancing, and now creating RnB music, J Williams has a strong grounding in performance. With a slew of Top 40 singles under his belt and a show coming up on the Gold Coast next month, the busy New Zealander took some time out to introduce himself to Scene.
Tell us about yourself and your music...
I’m just a home-grown South Auckland boy who loves music and dance. Guess you could say I’m passionate about performing and entertaining peeps. My music, I’m really into my RnB/ hip hop, whether it be old school or new school. A big inspiration musically would be Michael Jackson!
You have a new album out called ‘Young Love’. What’s it about and how did that come together?
‘Young Love’ lets listeners hear and see who I really am on an intimate level. It talks of my ups and downs, trials and tribulations with love in my life. When I was around 16 or 17 I wrote some of the tracks that feature on the album, e.g ‘Blow your Mind’, ‘Till It’s Gone’ and more, so in that regard the album is a literal translation of me at that time. When Hard Work was listening to the overall album he asked me what I thought the album should be called – I was giving him a few ideas. He said the theme that ran strongly through the album was young love, so yeah that’s how it came about. All that coupled with the direction that Patriarch and Hard Work had in mind bought ‘Young Love’ to life.
What inspires you to write music?
Anything. The other day I was watching the movie Transformers and it inspired me to write a full throttle, fast, pedal-to-the-metal dance track. Conversations with friends and family, my life experiences, it’s tapping into a truth about either myself, people or the way I see things and bringing them to life.
You are about to perform on the Gold Coast early next month. What can people expect from a J Williams live performance?
Expect the unexpected. Expect to be entertained and just be ready for the next level in live club shows. We are bringing the entire Illegal Musik family, DJCXL, BS Dance Crew, Patriarch and Hard Work. And of course myself and a whole lot more so be ready, we coming with that next level iiiiisssssshhhh!!! Gold Coast - are you ready?
J Williams will perform at Shooters on Tuesday, March 2. 'Young Love' is out now through Illegal Musik.
