Prima J

Being that you two are cousins, were you really close growing up?
Jessica: Yes, we were. It was like this actually we grew up in each other’s houses, I would live with her for awhile; she would live with me for awhile. Our families are just a really really close family; we would always be together so we definitely grew up close, very close.

How did you start singing together to become Prima J?
Janelle: Just growing up, me and my cousin, we started off as dancers actually. We decided to take it one step further and we were really interested in singing.
Jessica: We would do shows for our family basically, when we were younger. That’s how we started together. We would perform for our families during half time of the Dallas Cowboys games. We’d turn off the TV, and make our family watch us perform. We wanted to do it every year as we got older, and didn’t stop performing. So, we knew that was our calling and that’s what we wanted to do. That’s when we started dancing, and doing back up dancing for other artists. Finally we realized we could do that, we could do what they’re doing; we want to step into the spotlight. We worked hard, and that’s where we are now.

Right now you’re spending practically every moment together making Prima J a success. How do you keep from pushing each other’s buttons?
Janelle: Actually, we’ve lived together practically all our lives. We’d go back and forth living with each other or each other’s parents and stuff. We’re just like sisters, so we fight just like sisters. But, I guess as time went on, we turned eighteen, lived together for another year and then kind of gave each other space. I moved to Encino and she moved to North Hollywood, so that’s how we got our space. We do get on each other nerves sometimes because we’re like sisters.
Jessica: Yea, when we go home and we have a day off from Prima J, we go to our own houses and have space just to chill … have our own time and stuff. But, we definitely push each other’s buttons, just like any other sisters would.

Who were some of your musical influences growing up and how have they affected your music?
Janelle: Growing up me and my cousin we use to listen to like TLC, Aaliyah, Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson. I guess growing up we looked up to them, and it shows a little bit in our music because it’s like a little part of us. Then coming together, me and Jessica, we kind of made our own sound by listening to all of them and even different kinds of music. We don’t just like one certain kind of music, we love everything. We kind of like bringing everything together and making an urban pop sound.
Jessica: Right, and those people we listened to growing up they’re all really, really great performers; which held a big part in our performance as well. Like TLC and Janet Jackson they have great stage presence, we looked up to them, and knew that when we performed we wanted to put on a show just like them. So, that’s where we drew influence from for our shows.

Let’s talk about the album. Who did you work with? Do you have a favorite track?
Jessica: It’s crazy because every now and then people will ask us that and we’ll
have different favorites, but it definitely depends on the day and your mood. Because there’s a song on there for mood, every day, every way you’re feeling, every situation. It’s kind of good for whenever you’re feeling down, and there’s a song on there that will make you feel good; or if you just want to party, there’s a party song on there. We don’t really have a favorite, we have a few actually. But, for the album we worked with tons of big people … Rockfair, definitely was a major part of our album. He was the executive producer and basically just mentored us through this whole thing.
Janelle: We co-wrote our single right now “Mi Corazon” with Baby Bash and Stephanie Rydell. That’s someone we collaborated with because of writing.
Jessica: JR Rodem, Mad Scientist, Bo Dosher … just so many people we were so blessed to work with. I think we came out with a perfect sound for me and Janelle.

You’ve collaborated with artist like Colby O’Donis and Pitbull, who would you like to work with in the future?
Jessica: Wow, there is no end to the list of people that we want to work with, anybody and everybody actually. We’re ready to work with anybody because they all bring something new to the table and something new to the sound. So, we’re ready to work with anybody and see what comes of it.

We heard you aren’t very fluent in Spanish, but did a Spanish version of your album? Was that difficult for you?
Janelle: It was, especially for me … I had a really difficult time. But, we managed to get through everything. Actually we had the “novea”, “No One” [Alicia Keys] translation, and that one was pretty cool and easy. We tried translating the rest of our album and managed to get through it all in like two weeks. It was so hard because we’d go in one day to the studio, we’d learn the whole song in Spanish and then go in and record it in one day.
Jessica: Yeah, it was very tough. I think the fact that we are of Latin decent helped us a lot with the way we pronounced, it was easier for us. But, it was extremely hard to just learn and to bring that passion to what we were saying, because we didn’t know what we were saying … because it was in a different language. We had a book that told us what everything meant, how to pronounce everything and we just had to study like if we were in school. Just study it, go over it all day. We would be in the studio for hours and hours just studying and pronouncing the words, and then we’d go in there and just record it. We finished the entire Spanish album in about two weeks.

You did a cover of Alicia Key’s hit “No One”, which has gotten a great response and is on the album as well … how would you feel if someone wanted to cover a Prima J song?
Janelle: That would be so awesome!
Jessica: That would be amazing. You know everything that’s been happening to us since day one, is just like a dream to us. So, anything that happens is just so crazy. That would definitely be something that we were very proud of.
Janelle: Yeah, because we look up to Alicia and love all her music, and it inspired us to do that song in Spanish. So, if someone was inspired to do something like that for us we’d feel so blessed.

Do you know if Alicia has heard it?
Janelle: Yes, she has.
Jessica: We actually had to get her permission to do it. We didn’t talk to her personally, but we did talk to Kerry Keys, who co-wrote “No One” with her, and he came up to us and said how much he loved the song. So, that made us feel very good.

Your song “Mi Corazon” is blowing up all over MTV and radio. It’s actually turning out to be a bit of an anthem, what do you hope ladies take away from it … even the guys?
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Janelle: It’s for either or.
Jessica: It’s for everybody. Basically, its self explanatory … as it says in the song, like if you’re down … you know; everybody goes through hard times no matter what it is. But, everybody has to get through it, everyone’s been through
it and we can all get through it together. You just have to be strong and believe that it’s going to get better. If you look to the music … we’re just saying there are things out there that can help you and make you feel better, so just to stay strong. So, that’s what we want them to get out of it, we want them to be able to feel good about themselves.
Janelle: A positive message to everybody.

It does send a positive message; in fact we’ve heard Perez Hilton is a big fan of the song as well.
Janelle: I know! [Laughs] We heard we were on Perez Hilton and were like ‘oh my goodness’ and scared to go on the website and then when we did we were all happy.

Yeah, how did you manage that, Perez usually doesn’t like anyone but he loves you guys.
Jessica: Exactly. We were like ‘no, we don’t want to be on Perez’. But, then they said it was good and we’re like ‘okay yes we do’. [Laughs]

We love your fashion sense! It’s so funky … how would you guys describe your style?
Janelle: American Apparel. [Laughs]
Jessica: You know fun, sassy, a lot of personality; it’s bright, it’s colorful, it’s just … us. It’s just fun, it puts out there that we’re having fun. We’re loving what we do and we want that to show through our style.

You recently finished up a Six Flags tour with Danity Kane and now you’re currently on tour with Jesse McCartney and Jordin Sparks, how has it been going? Do you guys watch each other’s sets?
Janelle: When we first started off with Danity Kane it was like our first tour. So, we had to get used to being on the road and on tour, we watched their set and we just love them. We’re big fans of Danity Kane.
Jessica: Oh my God yes! It was so amazing to be on tour with them.
Janelle: Yes, it was really cool. Now, being on tour with Jordin and Jesse and a live band, it’s just so awesome.
Jessica: Live band, big arenas … it’s just totally different. They were both totally different tours, but it just got us very prepared for anything. We’re so excited for these tours and we’re learning so much from all of them because they’re all very talented and professional.