JJ Wilde doesn’t "have time" for sexism in music.
The 26-year-old rocker has been making waves this year after releasing her debut EP ‘Wilde Eyes, Steady Hand’, and she has revealed that due to her determined nature she hasn’t been disrespected by anyone in the industry, so far.
In an exclusive interview with BANG Showbiz, she said: "I definitely know that it can be more difficult to be taken seriously as a woman in the industry. I have either been lucky or I just don’t pay attention to that bulls**t, because I haven’t had too many experiences with that. Mostly because, honestly, I just don’t have time with it.
"If somebody is trying to be condescending towards me, I don’t give a s**t! I won’t stand for it – and I think having that kind of attitude going into things … if someone’s gonna try and push that on me, I’ll ignore it. But no, I haven’t seen it!"
JJ has always been about the music above anything else, and finds sharing her material with the world an exciting and rewarding experience, even if the tracks on her debut collection – ‘Wired’, ‘The Rush’, ‘State of Mind’ and ‘Gave It All’ – come from a deeply personal place.
She explained: "I get a little weird with it – not the fact that I’m worried it’s going to go out into the world and become something different, more that I’m not ready for people to see me like that yet.
"But then it happens and I realise someone else is gonna hear it and it’s gonna help them. It’s separating my emotion from the song – it’s difficult, sometimes it’s like my diary being opened up!"
The writing and recording process can be very therapeutic for the musician, who admitted she even had reservations about some of the material on the EP because the lyrics are so personal to her.
She said: "I wasn’t convinced, but it took me a couple of times to be able to sing the lyrics fully without breaking down. Some of them are pretty honest!"
For JJ, music truly comes alive in a live environment, and that’s where she is able to feed off the connection with a crowd – no matter how many are in the audience.
She added: "It’s like an energy that I feed off of, it’s almost addicting. You could be having the worst day – or just no energy at all – but as soon as people show up and they’re in the crowd, then that stuff goes away.
"I don’t know, it’s something that you really feed off of. It is a thrill – even if it’s only a few people too.
"It doesn’t really matter, the number of people in the crowd – there could be a thousand, two thousand and that’s obviously a great thrill. But I get the same kind of thrill if there’s 10 people and they’re all watching and invested – that’s what gets me!"
JJ Wilde won’t stand for sexism in the music business
