Joe Jonas Talks New Single, "Work It Out"

Joe Jonas stops by to talk about his new single, "Work It Out" and his new album due out this October!

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Live from the Mercedes Benz Interview Lounge. Joe Jonas is here Today is to
day, Friday, July nineteenth,the release of Work It Out. It's
out today. What a song.Thank you so much. It feels good
to sing a song, to beback here with you guys. What's good
to have you here, just likehome. It's good to have you here
without those other two. So yeah, I'm glad the other guys are not

(00:25):
here. Yeah, I know,screwed up. I heard you, So
I'm going to play work it Outin a minute. Of course, it's
no secret that at one point thissong could have been a song for all
of you, or a song forDnce even and I heard that. Nick
actually thought, oh, this isour new song, and You're like,
what was that conversation in life?So technically it was a different song.

(00:47):
But the story goes when we wereworking probably four or five months ago for
More Brothers music. I started workingwith this guy Alexander twenty three, producer
musician Justin Tranner, who I wroteKick by the Ocean with, and another
writer Bo and we worked in asong called only Love, and that song
I just felt so close to andI couldn't really find out. I couldn't

(01:10):
figure out why. I felt likeit wasn't right for the brothers and it
wasn't right for DNC, and Ikind of selfish. It was like,
I want to create something. Ihave a lot to say. I don't
feel comfortable with other people being thevoice of these songs. So I kind
of had to sit down. Nickwas gonna go do a movie with Paul
Rudd, Kevin got another season claimingfame, and then I was like,
hey, and I also been wantingto write some music. You guys cool

(01:30):
with that, and I want totake that song you really like And Nick
was like, well, damn,I really like that song. But fine.
So that started the kind of journeyfor me to kind of create a
new album. So there's no viciousfight over a song. Oh there was
a vicious I mean it was alot of blood. Okay, there's a
reason they're out here. But youknow what, we go through these different
chapters in our lives where we havethe challenges, we have the great things

(01:52):
in the sad things, the scarythings, and at those times I wish
we all had songwriting capabilities. Iwish we could all sit down and do
an album. And obviously this albumis a very personal thing. It comes
at an interesting time in your life. And I'm just reading over some of
the things you've said in other interviewsabout how you wake up and to go,
Okay, if I don't start controllingmy life now, it's going to

(02:16):
be like craziness forever. And soyou came to this point in your life
where this album is sort of reflectingthat in your life. Definitely, I
mean, it's very therapeutic for me, and I agree with you. I'm
so grateful that I have music assuch, like a tool to be able
to use as an output. Imean, obviously I think therapy is great

(02:38):
and talking to somebody's great friends,family, but ultimately as creators that we
can put pen to paper and feellike we can release it and sometimes share
it with the world, sometimes justkeep it for yourself, and it's like,
great, I needed to do thatfor myself and for athletes is going
to run. For myself, I'mso happy that I have music. And

(02:59):
you know, the last year doingour tour, seventy plus songs each night
or sixty I think sixty nine,so nice songs. There was a lot
of times where I was I wouldgo through the set list and I'm like,
God, I really don't want toplay this one. But then you
perform it and see how it affectssomebody in the audience, and like,
how lucky am I that I getto do this for almost twenty some years.
There you go and I get tomake people feel something, whether if

(03:22):
it's emotional or you realize, wow, that's their song that got them through
that difficult time. So I wantedto create something that was like, look,
if this helps somebody else through whatthey're going through, great and work
it out. Is essentially that it'sthe idea of a conversation you can have
with yourself in the mirror where you'relike, look, no one's gonna come
save you from me what you're goingthrough. You got to shake it off
yourself and figure this out. Andthen it's kind of explaining it to other

(03:43):
people and saying, all right,I've gone through it, maybe I can
help you along the way, andlike a pop rock fun way that you
don't really realize what you're listening towhen there are heavy lyrics, so like
poppy music. I mean, someof my favorite songs of all time are
are really heavy lyrics with happy music, and until you I sect them,
you don't really understand that sometimes youwrite a song or an artist, an
artist will write a song and itreally is I got to get this out

(04:05):
of my system, and it reallyis just kind of lashing out of the
whole world about how I hate people. I just I just need to.
And they performed these songs at theirconcerts, thinking I just crept all over
our audience emotionally, just once again, and I'm getting away with it and
they're clap. Have you ever writtenone? And you're like, yeah,
this one I'm not going to release, and like I'm just gonna keep this
one under my pillow from me.Yes, you know, that's funny you

(04:28):
say that there was a song Iwas thinking about recently and I played for
some of the record labels that arein the hallway, and this is years
ago, and I was going throughsomething and I wrote this song just like
I was like, ah, Iwas really angry about a situation and I
was like, what do you guysthink? And they're like, well,
it's cool. I don't know ifyou'll want to have this released and like
or have to be thinking about thisin a year and I was like,

(04:48):
you know, you're right. Yeah, I'm like, you don't want to
create an enemy out of something thatyou know. At the end of the
day, it was for me andthat's what I have, and I'm like,
I'm happy I created it, butI don't feel like sometimes it's necessary
for to be out there. Maybenext album, huh right, next album?
Joe Jonas here has his music toyou know, as his therapy and
in his cathartic moments. What dowe have? I've got nothing. You've

(05:09):
got Gandhi has our artwork. Yes, that's great. What do you have?
I feel like when I'm pissed off, I put music on it and
just like dance to it. Butwhat do you Okay? So that's how
you get it out? I knowyou. This is why I'm fed up.
Man. I need something other thaneating, you know, and for
a walk with your dogs alone.That alone, probably ok About reading?

(05:30):
I like to read, horn drinking, it's all good. Otherwise of therapy,
little hooker hookers and blow it's okay. I'm all good. Now that's
the name of your hit song.I should show more gratitude for these things
anyway. So you've been out onthe road and continue to be on the
road with your brother pretty much aredoing shows on the weekends. But after

(05:53):
what we just did, it feelslike a walk in the park. To
be honest, we'd played the CalgaryStampede last weekend and wild, well,
didn't your debut work it out atthat show? I did, yeah,
Which is funny because on paper,you're like, this is gonna be sick.
You get to the stage and thestage is like pretty barren, so
you're like, all right, whichI found myself wanting to jump in the
audience. But luckily, the crowdis all drinking all day because it's a

(06:15):
Stampede, and they're all in cowboyhats and cowboy boots and they're having a
blast. So I was like,this is the perfect audience for a performance
like this, and it was.It's always a little nerve wrecking playing something
new, you know. I feellike there's that that moment where you're on
stage and you realize I really hopeyou get the idea. You're like,
this is great, I really wantto performance. You get up there and

(06:36):
they don't know this. They happento know a more lyrics and expected from
just like even TikTok. You know, you you sample some of the song
and there they learn it, whichis kind of crazy, but was a
rodeo. It's a technically a stampede, not a rodeo. I don't know
the difference, but the difference.There's like one hundred thousand people that show
up for this all most of Canadagoes and it's like a week long thing,

(06:57):
a lot of different performers. Wehad a lot of chicken wings and
beer. It was great. Sothe album Music for People who Believe in
Love is coming out when October nineteenth. Okay, right, And so going
back to something you said earlier aboutthe song that will never be released and
your guys said, hey, ina year from now, I've got a
couple of those. Yes. Okay. There's the whole point when someone writes

(07:18):
an album and produces an album that'sreally about your life where it was at
that moment in time, and whenit's all released and said and done,
you're a new person. Maybe you'vemoved on a really good point. This
one came about pretty fast, thoughit did come pretty fast. I mean,
I feel like it's interesting to saythat I feel like part of this
body of work I was listening backto. I played it short a friend

(07:40):
yesterday, the guy that we createdWhat a Man Got to Do, actually
the Brothers. I was doing asong with him yesterday and I played in
the whole album and he was like, Oh wow, it's really interesting because
I feel like the genre wise,it's kind of like all over the place,
but it's cohesive. And I waslike, that's perfect. This exactly
what I want. I feel likein the place of my life, I
wasn't sure like who I was.I was quite like on a journey.

(08:01):
At one point, I was like, maybe I'll just go live in the
desert. Maybe I'll just I don'tknow. I went on a road trip
and I was just finding myself listeningto a lot of like country Western music,
and so there's a lot of differentkind of types of music that you're
gonna hear on the body of work. And I feel like it's important for
I guess listeners of any artists yougo like this is where they were at.
They might be now six months removed, two years removed from when they

(08:22):
release it, but you almost areable to put on your thinking cap and
put them into the hot seat oflike this is where I was emotionally personally,
it was confusing and I was tryingto figure out who I am and
kind of getting to know myself again. And here I am. So it's
it's exciting. And also I thinkprobably my favorite thing, and this is
more features on this project than Ithink any any Brothers or solo stuff we've

(08:46):
done. I think there's about sevenor eight features on this album, which
is wild. I reached out toa lot of friends and just said,
hey, like, I'm a fanand I would love to send you a
song if you're interested. So Ican't wait for people to see and hear
who's on this. Gonna hold thatinformation back until the release of the album.
I get intro every time you doan interview because I say something too
early. But I don't mind.I think I think it's exciting. I

(09:09):
mean, there's there's some that havebeen already kind of rumored because you how
easy it is. I was rumoredit was rumored. Let's see. I
just want to say the biggest artistsin the world so people get the album.
Beyonce h start that. I thinkthe there's a Brazilian artist Louisa Songs.

(09:30):
I'm a big fandom. Okay,you may or may not hear on
this album. Okay, that'd befunny if we don't. I could keep
just see. I could do thisall day. You can play this a
stupid game all day. We startsaying like comedians, magicians, Carot Talk
performs, Gordon ramsay, it's awesome. Is it hard to let go of
a song? Like once you recordit and it's done, and you do
the collab or you do whatever,and then you've listened back and you're like,

(09:50):
yeah, I think it's ready,it's ready for release. It's a
great question. We we say thisa lot. People have been like,
you've made this in like two weeks, and I was like, well,
I had the studio for two weeks, but probably similar to a film or
TV show, you edit until thelast second. Yeah, And I found
that I'm happy to kind of walkaway. I mean, I feel like

(10:11):
I don't want to overthink it too. I can like release it and feel
comfortable. Now. The producers mightsay something differently, but I feel like,
once it's ready, it's ready.So I know you said that it
is definitely therapy for you. Yeah, Is it therapy performing it a year
down the road or Is it morelike trauma lived again? That's a great

(10:31):
question as well. I had aconversation with an amazing artist recently. I
won't say names because I don't wantto put them on blest, but it's
a great story. They were mentioninga song that they kind of at some
point in their career, they feltit was difficult to perform. They're just
like, I don't feel attached tothe song anymore. I perform it every
night. It's everyone's favorite song,but I feel like I've grown as an
artist, which arguably most people do, and especially for me and my brothers.

(10:54):
We play songs that we wrote whenwe were like fifteen years old,
and we're saying things in the songthat we're like, oh, like we're
talking about We're talking about like thingsthat don't even really exist anymore, like
AOL chat. Like there's things onin jonahs of the songs that are just
you know, you age out of. And I think, what we what

(11:16):
we've grown, What I've grown tolearn from that experience. This artist,
one of their favorite artists, lookedat them and said, oh, this
song is not yours anymore. Youhave to you have to realize that that's
theirs, and they deserve the audiencedeserves to have it in their favorite fashion,
because a lot of times I've gottenup there and changed songs to sound
a little bit like with the timesof the sound that's out there. It

(11:41):
could be like updated, or I'lldo an electric electro version of the song.
And then you find you, likethe audience is sitting there and I've
gone to concerts where I'm like,just play the song. I want to
hear my song. And so ifyou're able to kind of remind yourself and
take yourself out of that, atleast from me, that helped a lot
playing some of these old Jonas songsthat I kind of rolled my eyes and
went like, all right, therewe go. Now I'm like, I
appreciate it so much more because Isee it's like, you know what,

(12:01):
that's their song, that's not mineanymore, and I've got to give that
song respect for them. Of course. Is a song is called work it
Out. It's out today. We'regoing to play it for you in just
a few seconds. How was Greece? Oh my god, is my first
time? That was amazing? Itis an incredible place. So much fish
Man now, although Aquaman doesn't eatfish. I that would not be right.

(12:28):
That would be right, And I'lleat enough fish to be coming up.
That's not I don't think I sawhim eating fish. There you go.
I loved it. It's so beautifuland so welcoming. We we stayed.
I stayed for like two weeks andI had the best time. There's
a big hotel opening out there andgreet people party so hard and it's so

(12:50):
fun. I know they're also gorgeousout there. There are very pretty people.
Yeah. I love like we werein Meekins several years ago. And
of course you wake up at noon, you go to the beach, you
get home and you eat, andyou get home, you take a disco
and app and then you go outfor dinner. At eleven or twelve.
I went to dinner. I waslike, I couldn't hear. I couldn't
hear anything. It was so loud. The music is so loud. It's
awesome. It was great. It'sliterally like, did you dance till the

(13:13):
sun came up? Of course Idid. Hair flip. It's nice,
but you needed to get away.We need these getaways. And even if
you can't go to Greece, youcan do a weekend up the road with
your friends at their cabin or somethingjust you gotta get away. Do you
find inspiration on a beach in greaseeating fish? Or is that your turn
off? You don't want to thinkabout writing a song or where you're going.

(13:35):
I agree with what you said.How it can be anywhere. I
mean, it can be down tothe Jersey Shore if that's for you.
I honestly for me, as likesomebody that needs that loves to perform,
loves to create, I have tolike go and find inspiration as well.
I feel like it's so important.And so the next album is about fish.
The next albums off fish. Yeah, no boy, these are important

(13:56):
things. Yeah, knocking with yousaid something earlier out looking out of the
crowd. Was it called Canada Stampede? It's called Calgary Stampede? Okay,
most of Canada was there and lookingat the crowd and thinking maybe I should
CrowdSurf. Do you crowdsurfs? Terrifying? I've attempted it. Well, that's
the time. I think our audiencewas a little young to when I was
thinking about it them, I waslike, I know, this is the

(14:18):
smartest idea, but DNC days Yeah, there was plenty of jumping in the
audience and getting wild, and nowit's kind of fun to I feel like
there was a time when we wereperforming, like during I guess COVID days,
and it felt like like, allright, you can't really there was
a reason you couldn't get in theaudience. Now I'm like, screw that.
I want to be out there.I want to be as close as

(14:39):
I can. And so it's alwaysquite funny. I can always see my
security look at me and he's likehe's like readyly about to like like go
for a run. He's like,are we doing it? Are we doing
it? But if there's an opportunity, I mean, I feel like it's
always so fun to get closer tothe audience as best as possible them on
me. So your backstage about togo out there announcing you your first song.

(15:01):
If it's the Brothers versus Dnce versusSolo, are those three different show
jonases that are about to jump outon that stage or or there you know
what I'm saying. Yeah, Iunderstand what you're saying. I do feel
like there's maybe not persona is notthe right word, but energy. Yeah,
different energies I mean yeah, likeI think with DNC, it's like

(15:24):
we we lay it all out there, and it's like, it's always so
funny. Every time we look ata setlist, it'll be like cake by
the Ocean and then like this reallysoft, beautiful song, and I'm like,
I am so out of breath,Sombo. Usually I'm like like right
after after out of breath. Butto your point, yeah, I feel
like there is different energies, andespecially with this new album that I'm releasing,

(15:46):
like there's a lot of emotion attachedto this, so it will be
a bit not somber. It's fun, there's a lot of Even the first
single it's it's it's an energetic tune, but there are there's a lot of
heart to it. So I dohave to put on a different thinking cap
or it's like putting on a character. And I enjoyed that. I mean,
grew up doing theater and I understandwhat it's like to go to concerts

(16:07):
and you want to feel not onlyentertained, but like, how can you
look at a body of work andsay, Okay, we want to present
this in the best way possible.So it's been a lot of fun ideas
about how to bring this to lifeand you know, take it on a
road. Maybe it would be fun. There we have it. We got
to play the song. Of course, give me the album release date again,
October nineteenth. That's music for peoplewho believe in love. But today

(16:27):
July nineteenth, Friday, July nineteenth, Yes, we make it easy for
me. I'm so badhood dates thatthey just say nineteenth to everything and I'm
good. Oh they're other saying thatthe date's wrong. See you said it.
Wait October eighteenth, boy, thankgod you're here. Wow late,
there's still plenty of time changing itbefore the tiller eighteen October eighteenth. But

(16:53):
today, Friday, July nineteenth,we gave you the first cut. Of
course, work it out crazy.Are you already writing your new album?
It's it's pretty much done. No, yeah, we got like thirteen songs.
I no, no, no,not this new album, the next
album follow up? Yeah, yeah, the one after that. Yes,
actually yes, really I'm working onmore. And then I was in this

(17:14):
writing for a brother's album yesterday.So just like keep it going. I
feel like at this place, thispoint in our career with the guy,
it's so supportive and I'm so likeI was on the phone with Nick yesterday.
It was really funny. He's like, Hey, I heard the podcast.
Are you talking about that. I'mlike, oh, yeah, were
you upset about what I said?He's like, no, no, no,
no, I thought it was great. So I think it's so different
as adults were looking out for eachother, but also like we want to

(17:37):
support. Like he's he's working onstuff constantly. I'm working on stuff.
Nick Heavin is two, and it'sit's nice to just keep the train moving.
I mean, there's there's some reallyexciting stuff we're doing for the brothers
and this project for solo stuff.I just I don't think it's at this
place in the music industry. Youjust keep going. You don't have to
like slow down or take big breaks. So if you're inspired going the studio,
as they say, don't start runningbecause it'll catch up to you.

(18:00):
Keep going nice. That's scary,but I like it. It is frightening.
We'll leave on that note. We'llleave a let down our note.
Thanks Elvis, Joe Jonas, thisis work it out. Thanks for coming
in, Joe. You get someone'smotive be griddled. Leis