We talk w/ King Jedet, who just released his new hit “Miami”

King Jedet is an unstoppable phenomenon. Singer, actor, writer; formerly activist and undeniably influential (though he does not consider himself as such). He comes from the internet, social networks and radio. He carries behind him a most diverse route, and still continues to work in different fields that only have one line in common: he likes them. That’s it.

There’s something magnetic about King Jedet. He doesn’t pretend to fit into any standard, nor does he seek to construct a concrete identity. Jedet tends to fulfill the natural spontaneity that arises from himself, to follow his principles and, in short, to do whatever he wants. There are no masks or cover-ups: that is where his authenticity resides. Because he is the antithesis of automarketing: he would burn his 2018 album, confesses that he is lazy with many events and defines himself as a vulnerable person.

Shortly after releasing his version of “Por qué te vas”, included in Cecilio G‘s latest album, he returns to load with his song “Miami”, with a videoclip by Santos Bacana – who directed “Un veneno” by C. Tangana. But it’s not the only thing that awaits us from Jedet, who always has something in his hands. “It’s my nature,” he confesses. “If I don’t do anything, I’ll die. We talked w/ him about music, image and social networks.

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H.- Why version the song “Por qué te vas”? Why that concrete?

Jedet (J) – I was in Los Angeles and I’m a big fan of Jeanette, of the music of the 60’s and 70’s, of all that aesthetics of the time. And I had that craving. I make music for an audience that consumes more pop, but I also have my personal tastes and I had the need to do something that I really liked one hundred percent. It’s a kind of homage. I wanted to record that song because it reminded me a lot of Ceci [Cecilio G], the time he was put in jail. I felt that sadness, I associated it with him. With that song I undressed, there’s only one guitar and my voice. And he didn’t know that I had thought of singing it, until one day I told him: “listen to this”. I was ashamed, because I had never sung without autotune or done anything like that. And when he listened to it, he told me that it freaked him out and asked me to give it to him for the album because conceptually it closed the album very well. So I gave it to him.

H. – It looks very good on the album, it’s a very nice duality.

J – A lot of people didn’t understand it, I thought he was going to sing it. They didn’t understand the concept. But an album is also art. It doesn’t have to have a literal meaning, for him it had its meaning: it started with “Intro” singing to his father and closed with this. Ceci used to say that he didn’t like goodbyes and just what I had done seemed like a nice way to finish his work. Ceci and I have a very special connection.

H.- Somehow that happens in the current panorama. It seems that the music scene is progressing in mixing different styles, personalities and genres.

J – Artists have different inspirations and influences. I put on a Jeanette song and then a Guns&Roses, Rocío Jurado or reggaeton song. We are in a moment of freedom, we do what we want. In Los Angeles I recorded two reggaeton songs, one with the guitar… It’s about doing what you want, because then it’s you who defend it if you have to sing it. But I’m still looking for that sound. It’s true that some things come to me more than others, but I have to find out. I’m not in a hurry. For me music is a hobby, I have time.

H.- Are you looking to transmit a message with your music?

J – No. I do what comes out in the moment. Now I have a song with Nina where we say “throw it in my mouth”, but then I write about lovelessness. What I’m looking for is for me to like it, and I still don’t like everything I’ve done. I like two things, in fact. I would set fire to the album I released in July 2018, I hate it; although at the same time I am very fond of it, because it helped me to train myself when it came to composing, to being in a studio, to writing, to seeing how it all works. The lyrics of that album can represent me, but not the sound or the voice. The version I made of “Por qué te vas” is much more representative of me. Now I’ve told my manager that I don’t want to sing on any show until I feel that I really like what I’m singing. That’s why I’m not singing, I’ve stopped all that. I’m under construction. But I already have an audience and they expect something. If it were up to me, I’d have a lot more patience.

” I would set fire to the album I released in July 2018, I hate it; although at the same time I am very fond of it, because it helped me to train myself when it came to composing, to being in a studio, to writing, to seeing how it all works.”

King Jedet

H.- We have to ask you the mythical question… What inspires you?

J – My life, which is a disaster. Or the lives of my friends. Or movies, books, even if it’s not my personal life. You listen to the song “Miami” and it seems like a love relationship, but in reality it speaks of moments that I lived in Miami the four days I was there. For example, there’s a part that says “sleeping between the plants”. It’s because a drunk friend slept in the garden, it’s not romantic at all.

H.- That is to say, sometimes, for example, you see a movie and put yourself in the shoes of other characters to write or compose.

J – Of course, I like that. I studied drama for four years. I’m an actor, now I have another very cool acting project, and another one for 2020. I like to put myself in other people’s shoes. In fact, in the videoclip of “Miami” it’s not me, it’s the story of a femme fatale, a tribute to Sara Montiel, Lana del Rey… it’s neither my usual aesthetics nor things that I would do. It’s a story. I get bored of being me, and I play. With music I do three things that I love: writing, singing and acting. Now I’m going to make the next videoclip because I also like directing, filling myself with mud.

H.- Singing, writing, acting… in general, you do a lot of things and very quickly. Aren’t you frustrated by that speed?

J – No, because it’s my nature. If I don’t, I’ll die.

H.- Don’t you feel frustrated either, mixing your private life with your professional life?

J – I know they listen to my music because of that. You have to be aware of where you come from, and I come from the Internet. Not because I’m a singer, but because I’ve been youtuber, I’ve been an activist, I’ve been on the radio and I’ve been an influencer. That’s why the people who follow me listen to my music. I’m not Montserrat Caballé or Beyoncé, I know what my limitations are. They listen to me because there is a previous connection with me. Anyway, I don’t share everything.

H.- I mean, do they [your followers] think they know you, but don’t they?

J – They know what I want them to know. With time I’ve been cutting more. It’s a double-edged sword. And now I notice that people approach me with much more respect than before.

“Instagram is very dangerous and there are people who take it as reality.”

King Jedet

H.- Let’s change the topic. They ask you a lot about your aesthetic touches, but we would like to go a little further. How important is beauty and aesthetics to you?

J – For me, one day I decided to make my retouches public. First, because people see it; and second, because I have a responsibility. I don’t consider myself an example to follow, but I don’t want anyone to see me and say “I love that nose” when it’s operated on. My face is made of chisel and I like to normalize that. Also in my case the retouches come from another need, from a need to feminize me. I have a very clear image of what I want and I have retouched myself to look like that. Every day I feel better with who I am. Now, for example, I’m taking testosterone blockers because I have dysphoria of my body hair. For me it’s not beauty, it’s identity: I don’t want to be Kim Kardashian, I want to be me. Since I’ve changed, my life hasn’t been any easier, I’ve given up a lot of things. But I look at myself and say, “this person is me”. But I’m not 100 percent me yet.

H.- What is left to do?

J – A couple of retouches. I still can’t say it, and maybe I don’t share it. But it’s already in my head, and when I’ll do, I’ll feel completely. And no, they’re not tits, which everybody asks me.

H.- What about fashion? How important is it for you?

J – Fashion, or rather clothing, is the way in which you express yourself and mark your identity. I have no idea about fashion, but I know what I like and what I don’t like. Maybe I work in a session and I’m freaked out and I don’t even know who it’s from.

H.- Any fetish designers?

J – I’m very lucky because I like many designers from Spain to whom I have access. ManéMané, María Ke Fisherman, Pepa Salazar, Palomo … are the ones I usually dress with assiduity.

H.- In Spain, they are doing so cool things. Some years ago, it was Agatha Ruiz de la Prada, Pedro del Hierro and little more.

J – We are at the height of everything. Music, cinema, fashion. And we’re being part of it. When we’re forty we’re going to say: “we’ve been part of this”. And there’s also a lot of multidisciplinarity.

H.- Give us a diagnosis of the influencing panorama: what repels you from that world and what you think is positive.

J – Instagram is very dangerous and there are people who take it as reality. And I mean very young people. We see influencers with a perfect life, perfect clothes, perfect face, all day traveling… but that’s all lies. They’re not showing their reality, when they’re sad, when they have a pimple. I’ve always made it clear that this is me, that I retouch in the photos, I show myself without makeup, anyway. When you have such high numbers of followers you have a responsibility. I have coincided with people with many followers and I have seen that they have a toxic relationship with their partner, but then in social media it seems that they are the couple of the millennium. Or that they are not what they look like in the photos. Or that they don’t get into anything that splashes on them, because they can lose a contract with a brand. There are places that I can’t go to because I have publicly denounced a person who seemed to me to be abusing his power.

H.- And when it comes to posting something, do you feel that you have a responsibility?

J – No, and sometimes that has led me to a lot of trouble. Recently I put a text opening my heart because my followers knew that I was sadder, more absent. And I spoke of my problems, not explicitly, but I did say that I had mental health problems. I shared it with my followers so they would understand my behavior. And all of a sudden it was in the press. Nobody had interviewed me, and from a small text of Instagram they did a whole article. Sometimes I don’t realize that. There are also times that I am educated by them, that I put something that is not right and they point it out to me. In those cases I realize it and I erase it.

“Kidd Keo, for example. He does his career on the basis of being a sexist shit and selling his values shit. […] I prefer to use my voice for other things. That’s the way I am.”

King Jedet

H.- Tell us a little about what you have in your hands and about your future projects.

J – I just released “Miami”, with a videoclip that I love because it looks like a movie. I also have the concert with Fangoria in April, a small acting project that makes me very excited, and at the end of this year I’ll publish my new book, which is already the third.

H.- Is your new book going to be in the same line as the rest?

J – Yes, as far as it’s personal, it’s by opening myself. But in the first one, for example, I talked about my first lack of love, with poems… I think that book is what I feel proudest of my whole career, of everything I’ve done. The new book is also going to be very sincere, but more like something biographical. And maybe here I will have the courage to tell things I haven’t told yet. I don’t know, maybe I’ll back off later… my mother says I talk too much, that I open up a lot and then I get hit everywhere. And she’s right.

H.- But you also sell that: sincerity, naturalness…

J – That’s what I’m born with. There are people in their songs who talk about how rich they are, that they have four bitches and all that. Okay, if that fills you up, fine. Kidd Keo, for example. He does his career on the basis of being a sexist shit and selling his values shit. And he has a very young audience… That makes me sick. I prefer to use my voice for other things. That’s the way I am.