Jxdn shows a warm smile when he greets me at the door of his house. He is standing on a multicolored “JXDN” front mat, which is vital because he once renounced his identity. But on this sunny May afternoon with blue skis, Jxdn is proud. We had met the night before at the Warner Music headquarters in downtown Los Angeles, and he became dangerously dehydrated from a fever, which scared him because it was an excuse to return to self-destructive patterns. He had paced anxiously, his head spinning with manic impulses. , and he wanted me to be in his bathtub. But he had gone on to perform acoustic versions of “Sad October”, “You Needed Something I Just Happened To Be There” and “Just Let Go” from When The Music Stops, his second album. now available via DTA Records, because he cares more about music than comfort.

“It’s so important that I went yesterday,” says the 23-year-old artist, born Jaden Hossler. “I can’t say anything more. I have to. “

Jxdn has been working hard to reconfigure its convenience zone. Two Junes ago, her foundation was damaged when Cooper Noriega, her most productive friend and her biggest admirer, died of an accidental overdose. Jxdn hid: what’s the point if he couldn’t? Did you get Coop?– and I stopped listening to music. It’s an incredibly dark descent from the moments of euphoria he’d experienced after Travis Barker tapped him as DTA Records’ first signee, releasing his July 2021 debut album, Tell Me About Tomorrow. (spawning the pop-punk/rock hits “Angels”).

“I don’t need to be noticed anymore,” says Jxdn. I don’t need extremes. I need the gray because that’s where the gold is. No one remains in the gray.

This afternoon we sat in the gray. His friends, including veteran manager Shannon Bayersdorfer and roommates Onyx Mayor and Quinton Griggs, crowd into the film room. The new Maltipoo puppy from the Jxdn logo, Kurt, who goes by the name Kurt Cobain, is quick to scratch. Jxdn moved two months ago after ending his high-profile date with Stassie Karanikalaou. In the past, he would have isolated himself and self-sabotaged, but he learned that he was happiest when his space was filled with other people; Other people decided to replace the world through music, to be more precise.

“Every breakup I’ve been through has destroyed me,” she admits. “I liked this girl. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life. I hadn’t spent time with other people of my nature. “I’m kind of a little rat. I felt a lot of inferiority with my friend and her friends because they are the most important celebrities in the world. It’s still not my fault, but I just had to replace my surroundings. I would have been very pleased with it, but I would not have been very pleased with myself. I needed to remarry music.

In the kitchen, chef TJ unknowingly confirms Jxdn’s decision. “Last week I was on FaceTime with one of my most productive friends in France,” TJ says as he prepares a Southern dinner that Jxdn and his friends will consume in two hours. “He has a daughter and she told me, ‘I’m going to see this guy from California. ‘Her call is Jxdn. She showed me her ticket and it’s you.

Jxdn is cautiously excited about his upcoming European promo for When The Music Stops: “I don’t like leaving my house, but I still have to communicate with my fans. I’m a user on user. I think it’s the most productive way. ” so that other people can at least try to understand what I’m going to do.

So Jxdn asks me if he can play me some songs in progress. Watching him sing and play the air guitar with his eyes closed, as if there were no one in the room, is to perceive him instantly. His all-consuming and painful hobby Transparency covers every inch of When The Music Stops, a 17-track album that summarizes two years, nine genres and infinite emotions.

“Coming out of the hardest time of my life, I can give up completely,” Jxdn says. “I’ve been struggling to feel the way I have felt for as long as I can remember, to the point that it broke me. I’m willing to lose everything to do what I do, but that’s not the only option. I think that’s what other people forget: we don’t want to lose everything to make things better.

Jxdn knows this because he has lost everything.

Growing up, Jxdn moved 15 times. Her adolescence was spent between Texas and Chattanooga, Tennessee, with her two sisters. Her parents were shepherds. He was constantly exposed to new cities and new companions, but remained sheltered and seriously depressed, surviving suicide attempts. “I’ve never been open to the world,” he says. “I didn’t know we could just have signs, I didn’t know we could just move on to concerts. I’m making friends, wasting friends, and still looking for compatibility.

Jxdn’s chronic preference for compatibility led him to TikTok in 2019, earning him cash and millions of followers. He toured the United States, moved to Los Angeles and attended his first concert. At 18, he saw the late Juice WRLD perform. “Empty” and he knew the music belonged. He made up for lost time, squeezing the world tightly, with Noriega at his side. “I don’t need to discredit the other people in my life, but everyone knows that Cooper was my first and most productive friend,” he says.

After Noriega’s death, Jxdn clashed for 8 weeks with Bayersdorfer, his manager since March 2020 of whom he said “he knows me better than anyone” and cried to Noriega.

“We talked about dying, but it didn’t seem like it was really going to happen,” Jxdn explains. “I died when he died. I started using a lot of drugs and my purpose was not to kill myself, but also not to stay alive.

On May 26, 2023, he performed at London’s Cumberland Hotel, but he was “spiraling, feeling incredibly manic and dissociated,” so he went home early and enrolled in a 21-day therapy program in San Diego.

“I’m not a drug addict; I’m just suffering,” he says. I was more interested in escapism, but it became this weird obsession. “

Jxdn left San Diego sober but convinced he needed to get rid of himself. Shortly after, Jxdn called a meeting to explain to his label why he changed the name of pop star Jaden Hossler, which he briefly did with the October 2023 single, “Chrome Hearted. “Bayersdorfer hadn’t spoken for months. Barker had stopped following Jxdn. Those who had been there since Noriega’s death feared they had lost Jxdan. “After [the assembly], they took me in the car, called their mom and sobbed because I was chasing someone I didn’t know and I can say I was running away from the truth,” Bayersdorfer says.

The fact was faced by Jxdn at the When We Were Young festival last October. Seeing “Jaden Hossler” on screen brought out what he had avoided.

“All my numbers had gone down [online], and that doesn’t matter to me now, it affected me that I no longer got a million likes on everything I posted; I would cut off my left hand to get rid of those videos. – No one praises you anymore,” says Jxdn. I don’t know if I would be here if I hadn’t been ashamed to see myself. You can’t take that shit with you when you’re looking to create something charming. things as an artist you already have enough weight in your head.

A few weeks later, he visited Brazil and was greeted by enthusiasts who tattooed “JXDN” on the spot where he had autographed their bodies about vacationing in Brazil for Lollapalooza 2022 and the strike. He had ruined the most beautiful thing he had ever created.

“[At Lollapalooza] we were with Taylor Hawkins the night before she died,” he continues. “That night, Dave Grohl looked at everyone, pointed at me and said, ‘Hey, take care of that kid. ‘ This doesn’t just happen to people. Coming back to Brazil, I already knew it was going to be special, but [he showed me ] Jxdn it’s not me;

Back home, Jxdn asked Barker to meet in person. He looked his mentor in the eyes and said, “I screwed up. I love you. ” Barker, Blink-182’s iconic drummer, knows firsthand the confusion of young fame and the trauma of wasting a highly productive friend on an overdose. Barker knew Jxdn’s epiphany was a matter of when, not if. Two years ago, he made “Sad October,” a raw, melodic confessional, and Barker told Jxdn, “That’s you. ” Like Noriega, Barker saw Jxdn before Jxdn saw himself.

After their reconciliation, Barker, Jxdn and producer Andrew Goldstein entered the studio and temporarily created When The Music Stops. Barker’s manager produced and played drums. Jxdn missed his emo, punk and rock roots, encountering bands like Deftones, Nirvana, The 1975 or The Strokes, and longed for music meant only to be enjoyed at concerts. “I didn’t need to [chase] hits,” he says. Jxdn’s authenticity encouraged Goldstein, who says, “He knows what he has to say. It’s a smart reminder to me, like, “Oh, being yourself is enough. »

Jxdn and Hunter Moreno, his close friend and photographer/videographer since 2021, shot 15 visual images When The Music Stops, and Moreno watched as Jxdn slowly opened up in the process. Filming the music video for “Drugs,” a hard-hitting acoustic ballad sound, told Jxdn, Moreno and Bayersdorfer that “Cooper is everything, everywhere,” as Jxdn puts it. While placing the candles on set, they found exactly 28 candles uncounted. Noriega’s birthday, June 28, is no coincidence. the release date of When The Music Stops and the 28th his favorite number.

“Years before, I had done this photo shoot with Cooper where I had him sitting in the middle of center-shaped candles,” Moreno says. “It was this beautiful photo that ended up being Jxdn’s canopy for [28 (Songs For Cooper)]. I put Jxdn in the middle of a center surrounded by candles and let him sing this beautiful ballad. It was a capture. The camera didn’t He moved. I cried like a little baby.

Moreno adds: “I don’t think any of us will ever be the same, however, he gets up every morning. I am proud to see the gentleness rekindled in him. All he needs is for his music to be heard and felt, and he doesn’t care how many other people feel it.

Even if it is an exclusive audience. Jxdn sings for Noriega on several songs, such as “Drogas” (“I guess I never know if they ever gave me help / Oh, drugs don’t work anymore / Yeah, I’ve tried them all before”) and “When the Music Stops” (“Are you letting me know / that I deserve to let you go?”)

Jxdn has accepted that no one will ever be able to update Noriega. From this he learned that the way to honor Noriega is to love others as much as Noriega enjoyed him.

Three days before the album release, Jxdn calls me from his lawn. He’s so disappointed by what he’s experienced since we sat together on his lawn that he knows where to start. Most recently, he opened for Blink-182 in Orlando and Miami.

“I went off the level and felt the story of everything,” he says. “I was never in a position to succeed to my full potential. So far, my whole career is just a prequel. My real career, who I am, starts now I blocked Travis after getting that pop kick. I knew he knew, not me, and I knew he would tell me. He had the vision before anyone else. What I’m doing now is the reason he signed me for 4 years. behind.

As crazy as those Blink performances were, Jxdn moved viscerally during his intimate sessions with When The Music Stops fans in late May. In Paris, When the Music Stops echoes in the halls of the Louvre. In London, he met enthusiasts at a skate park and a beer garden. In Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami and New York he rented movie theaters, no phones or masks, just music. It’s like an extension of welcoming his friends to his house.

“We’ll have met someone once, and Jxdn will see it and say, ‘Hey, it’s so smart to see you again,’ and he means it,” Bayersdorfer said. “He remembers them because, in each and every one of them, interaction takes them to the center. Whether it’s for this album, the next one, or when that time comes, Jxdn is going to get his flowers because I know where his center is.

If you ask Jxdn, he is already receiving his flowers because he already knows what kind of flowers he likes. “I want to feel the sun, hear a new song, see other people and have that connection with other people,” she said. he says. ” If only I could have music, sunshine, and other people all together?Oh man, nothing can beat that.

He got all 3 in London. Jxdn sat down to eat applesauce with 30 enthusiasts and saw some familiar faces from his intellectual break in London. Last May, he walked to a nearby park and smoked cigarettes. An enthusiast organization identified him and timidly approached.

“This kid hits me and says, ‘Hey, I don’t need a picture or anything, but is it okay if I sit down with you?'” says Jxdn. “He just wanted to sit down with me, so I had a genuine human moment talking about our struggles. At this listening event, a year later, I saw the child who came to sit with me, I went to give him a hug. It’s such a mundane and somber time that you may just never forget.

Jxdn credits When The Music Stops with saving his life and refuses to waste it. In July, he’ll be happy to leave home for his When The Music Stops tour.

“One percent of me makes music; the other ninety-nine percent enjoy it,” says Jxdn. “Human beings deserve to feel life again. Honestly, it is a human right. This is out of our control because of the things we have in our pockets, our TVs, our computers, or social media. I’m talking about taking off the glasses of habit and music allows me to do so. When the music stops, God – the global – continues to sing. We are music.