Jeffrey James is appropriately earning plenty of buzz for his new single, “Like Love.” Born of a heartache, the song has turned one of the saddest times in his life into a stunning piece of music, making him grateful for the painful experience.
“She has apologized since then, and this was a few years ago,” Jeffrey told Everything Nash. “It kind of caught me off guard. She was out of the country, actually on a mission trip and decided that she was not into us anymore. It’s one of the things I can laugh about now, because I’m in a great relationship right now. So to me, now it’s just a funny story.”
Jeffrey co-wrote “Like Love” with Natalia Malo and Luke Sego, turning the song’s original version into both an acoustic track as well as a dance remix, with Future Trips, as well.
“My heart and soul is, if you could show me any version of a song, I’m always going to go with the stripped-down piano version, ’cause I just love that,” Jeffrey said. “And so I wanted to release that, but I do love the idea of this being a dance track, because as much as people just want to be in their emotion, sometimes they want to dance when they’re feeling down, and so that’s why we did that.
“And honestly I would love to release a couple more remixes,” he added. “We’re looking at some other DJs to kind of put their own fingerprint on it. ”
Plenty of people fell in love with Jeffrey, and his music, after he appeared on Songland. Although he didn’t win, the Indiana native still took a lot away from the experience, including the chance to work with OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder, who produced his song, “We Can Be Heroes,” which he originally performed on the show.
“It was really great for me,” Jeffrey boasted. “I really thought the producers, the executive producer behind the scenes, and everyone who worked behind the scenes were really great. The show is about songwriting and not a reality show or whatever. I don’t know what that show groups itself in, ’cause it’s not really a talent show, which was wonderful. For anyone who hasn’t seen it, I explain it as like Shark Tank for songwriters. I don’t think I invented that that; I think I’ve heard someone else say it too, but it’s as much on camera as behind the scenes. They really want it to be about the songwriting and the process of songwriting.
“When I got to work with Tedder in the studio, the cameras were there,” he continued. “So then afterwards, they did interviews with us and they were like, ‘Oh, what did you mean when you were talking about this verse and chorus and the phrasing here. What did that mean?’ I was like, ‘Oh, this is great. These guys actually care what we’re doing. I was sad to lose, but I was very happy about the experience overall.”
For now, Jeffrey is going to keep churning out new music, although he won’t rule out an album in the future.
“It’s probably going to be a bunch of singles,” he revealed. “I have a few in the works that are done, and we’re just figuring out when we want to release them. But there’s been talk of combining them in the long run to a whole album, which would be cool. I haven’t done an album before. It’s all been EPs.
“I think everyone’s attention spans are shorter these days when it comes to music, even in the best way, where we can all curate our own playlist and our own mixed tastes,” he remarked. “So it just makes more sense to keep releasing singles. That way, honestly, you can put out more music, and let the song really get highlighted that way rather than just a deep cut on an album.”
All of Jeffrey’s music is available via his website.
