SJ has nose dived into the world of dance music in 2017, transforming from his roots singer/songwriter to now creating dance hits one after the other. Seth Jones has always been involved in music, with a long history of writing his own back in Nashville. He has combined this extensive experience from his education in musicianship and songwriting to his love for the energy and cultural elements that dance music embodies. Now he is based in L.A. and caught the attention of the powerhouse duo, Tritonal, last year. They signed him onto their label Enhanced and threw down on a collaboration for their track, “Hung Up”, which has now received over 27 million plays on Spotify. His EDM persona has really been taking off and we’re excited to see what the future holds in store for the young artist.
There is another very special thing about this excelling producer. He is the co-founder of a charity organization called One Life. The non-profit is dually based in Nashville, Tennessee and Calcutta in India. Their ultimate goal is to create a place of opportunity out of the impoverished areas. So far, Jones and his team have created a “Dream Home”, a safe space for girls that have broken away from poverty, abuse, and lack of resources within the Khalpur slums. Right now they have 25 girls staying there where they are provided the means for living, long term care, and development for a fruitful life. They also have the opportunity to pursue education and vocational services as they flourish in their new home.
Right now they are currently accepting donations to help the house be fully complete and provide a sense of a real home. They are looking to add solar panels, a paved road, paint supplies, a playground, and roof repairs. There are a few options to donate ranging from donating $25 monthly as a dream builder or a one time donation of $300. You can also join three different teams: Vision team donates $1,000 for a brick at the dream home, Formation team donates $5,000 for a fruit tree, and the Legacy team donates $15,000 for a room. You can check out these options further here.
SJ let us in on how he made the transition to EDM, his latest single “Reflection” and the paired music video, and where his inspiration came from to create One Life.
RR: Where did the transition happen into EDM and what genres overall are you most drawn to/want to emulate in your music?
SJ: I started playing in bands and writing songs. When I lived in Nashville I worked in the studio and produced records but most everything I did was built around organic instruments and arrangements. I’ve always loved the energy and emotion of electronic music, even when I wasn’t heavily involved in it. As my career progressed I found myself writing and producing music that fell more in the genre. I was writing songs for other DJs and working with them in the studio. That coincided with a discovery and love for the live aspect of EDM. I love so many genres within EDM and I love the way a DJ can pivot stylistically. I want to have a career that’s constantly about redefinition and always looking for new ways to be creative. I get inspired by so much music. I love really big epic productions, almost orchestral and I also love house and deep house. I feel like these days most DJs start as bedroom producers, but I started as a Nashville songwriter. I still consider myself a songwriter first, so I’m always focused on the song.
RR: We want to say congratulations on getting signed to Tritonal’s label, Enhanced! How did meeting with Tritonal come about as well as working with them on your collab track “Hang Up”?
SJ: Thank you! Chad and Dave have been incredible champions of me. Chad has turned into a sort of musical brother. I played the track for their manager Joe Pepin, (who also manages me now) and he knew it would be a great record for the guys. They really took it to the next level. I was in Amsterdam shortly after that and Will Holland, who started the label, approached me and offered me a place to release more records. It’s been one of the few times in my career where a group of people really saw what I did and cast a vision beyond even what I had imagined. Having a team like that is incredibly rare and it can create some incredible things. I couldn’t be happier working with them.
RR: How was it working with Anna Pancaldi on your recent single release “Reflection”?
SJ: Anna is wonderful. I wrote the song with her and David Ryan Harris. Most people know David as the guitar player in John Mayer’s band. He’s an incredible songwriter as well. Musically they both do things very different than what I do, but we really dove into the depths of that song. It was incredibly personal to me. I began producing the track during the session but when they left, I completely started over. I scrapped everything but the vocal. I was so nervous to send them the first version because it was a completely different song than we had written in the session! Thankfully they loved it. Anna’s voice is absolutely amazing. From the first moment she comes in, it’s so impactful.
RR: How was it being in the music video and is Anna in it with you as well? Any fun moments on set you can share?
SJ: Anna wasn’t actually in the video. The model was a girl that my director, Chuck Willis, found. We talked a lot about the type of look we wanted and what we wanted to communicate. It was such an awesome experience. We shot a lot of it up near San Francisco in the Redwood forest. I had a bunch of scenes in the water, and it was so incredibly cold. There is one shot where I’m curled up naked in a stream. I almost passed out from the shock of the ice cold water. Haha. All in all it was totally worth it though.
RR: We want to thank you for giving support to these girls in Khalpur and working to help them have a brighter future. So we checked out your Facebook Live stream of how the non-profit, One Life, began and where it all started with you joining in (which readers can check out here). What inspired you to get involved in the first place? What drove you to contact these partners in India?
SJ: I’ve always cared so much about injustice and poverty. When a friend invited me to go over there seven years ago, I was so moved by the people I met and what I saw. It’s difficult for people in the West to understand how different life is like in places like that. I live in LA. I’m around celebrities and wealth and so much insanity. Very few people have as interesting a life as I do. I travel the world. It’s a lot of fun, but the truth is that life is about so much more than those things. Being involved in a place like India helps put it into perspective. I’ve watched girls grow up in these slums. I’ve seen their struggles. Slavery, forced prostitution, abuse, extreme poverty. It gives me a deep, deep appreciation for the life that I have, one that I did nothing to earn or deserve. It also shows me how connected we all are. How I belong to them and they belong to me. When you see all of humanity without division, when you realize we’re all connected, how could you not help? How could you not join those people? Especially when I have so much I can offer them. Love is too powerful a force. Through that process, what most people find is that they also have so much to offer you as well. Many people who do the type of work that I’m involved in want to change the world. They think their work will do that. The truth is we can’t really change the world like that. But when we start the journey, when we get involved, when we make sacrifices and give… we change ourselves. When people change… then the world changes. That order is important.
RR: Was this type of project always something you had in mind that you wanted to do and were you always interested in working on this type of mission in just India alone or other parts of the world as well?
SJ: I was actually never interested in India or even starting a non-profit. It just happened to be the thing that was in front of me. Calcutta was my opportunity. Our work happens in the same place that Mother Teresa did her work. She said, “Stay where you are. Find your own Calcutta. Find the sick, the suffering, and the lonely right there where you are — in your own homes and in your own families, in your workplaces and in your schools. You can find Calcutta all over the world, if you have the eyes to see.” My Calcutta just happened to actually be Calcutta. But it doesn’t have to be. It can be Africa, or Asia, or Europe, or America. It can be your city, your neighborhood, or your street.
RR: So your long term goal is to create a supportive and sustainable system between the Dream Home organization and local businesses and entrepreneurs so that they will no longer depend on money from outside of it to keep it running. Do you think you will move to new areas within India and start this process again or maybe other parts of the world as well?
SJ: We certainly have a vision for that. But we also want to be as effective as possible in what we’re already doing. The young girls who we have at our home come from very difficult circumstances. Through no fault of their own they’ve been made to endure things that most of us have never and will never have to endure. That means that their rehabilitation takes work. A lot of it. First we want to make sure we can give them all the resource they need for life change. When we feel that goal is achieved and is sustainable for the future, then we’ll look at replicating that model and serving more children. It’s a model that could move across India and the world.
RR: Can you go into a little more detail about the new donation option people can be a part of you announced on the Facebook Live update?
SJ: Absolutely. Our Dream Home is currently operational with 25 girls. We have just a little bit more construction to do and when it’s completed, we’ll have the capacity for 85 children there. We’re trying to raise the remaining amount of money to finish that construction. There are different ways people can donate and contribute. People can make a one-time gift or a recurring gift. We’re also about to roll out an option for people to crowd fundraise in their circles. Our networks are powerful things. One Life exists because I have been able to activate my network around the cause. We can all do that on our own level.
RR: Any other thoughts or things you want readers to know about One Life?
SJ: Our vision is to turn places of poverty into places of possibility. I have the life I have because I had opportunity. I worked hard, but so does everyone. In a place like India, it doesn’t matter how hard you work. Your future is dictated by your lack of resource and opportunity. We want to change that in these young girls lives by giving them the resources to build the types of lives that they dream of. I had that opporutnity, I want them to have it as well.
RR: And anything about future music coming up?
SJ: So much! Haha! I have so much music we’re getting ready to release. I’m so excited about it. I’m heading out on the road next month to join Tritonal, Seven Lions, and Kill the Noise on some of their Horizons dates. I’m so pumped about that. Hopefully you’ll be seeing all of the new music soon!
We thank SJ for taking the time to tell us about his music and the amazing work he is doing. You can listen to “Reflection” on Soundcloud and Spotify now and connect with his non-profit below.
Connect with SJ:
https://www.facebook.com/hereisSj
https://twitter.com/hereissj
https://soundcloud.com/hereissj
http://www.sethjon.es
Connect with One Life International:
https://www.facebook.com/OneLifeIntl
https://www.instagram.com/onelifeintl
https://www.onelifeintl.org
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