Jesse McCartney’s ‘beautiful soul’ shines bright in new album ‘All’s Well’
Following the release of his latest album, The Panther spoke with singer-songwriter-actor Jesse McCartney (right) to learn more about his writing process and where he’s at in his career of over 20 years. Photo courtesy of Jon Premosch
Despite the popstar status he’s maintained since his teen years, Jesse McCartney is content if you only know him from a video game.
During a roundtable with three student news outlets on April 10, McCartney spoke about a group of his die-hards who are exclusively fans of his work on “Kingdom Hearts,” a series of video games in which he voices two major characters, Ventus and Roxas. McCartney joked about the fact that they don’t even listen to his music but are still huge supporters of his career.
“They don’t even stay for the show,” McCartney said. “They just come to say ‘hi’ and meet me, take a picture and then they leave. (They’re like) ‘No offense, we don’t really listen to your music,’ and I was like ‘That’s fine!’ It’s wild meeting people from all walks of life that are fans of different things that I’ve done.”
McCartney is a man of many talents… and voices. The multi-hyphenate has been part of multiple films and television shows — both animated and live-action — and done voice work for video games as well. He got his start in theater and later went on to join the boy band Dream Street. He’s also well known for his later guest appearances on the Disney Channel shows “Hannah Montana” and “The Suite Life of Zack & Cody.” He also voiced Theodore, one of everyone’s favorite chipmunks, in the “Alvin and the Chipmunks” films.
Even with this very long resume, the main throughline of McCartney’s career has always been his music.
This April, he released a new album titled “All’s Well”. This groovy addition to his discography matches the soulfulness and fun audiences have come to expect from the artist while also managing to be a bit more mature and raw than his previous works. It’s sonically different, but at its core, it’s pure McCartney, aka a blend of pop and blue-eyed soul.
McCartney thinks the increase in maturity is due to the nature of growing up and learning more about the world.
“When you get older, you know more things, you become aware of your surroundings even more and you have a better understanding of relationships and how they work,” McCartney said. “The evolution of your writing just comes naturally, I think.”
Like people all over the world, McCartney was deeply affected by the pandemic. It bled into his writing, causing “All’s Well” to tackle heavier concepts like starting a family and dealing with anxiety and depression. His song “The Well” was actually inspired by an “anxiety-ridden” dream McCartney had. The singer wanted to keep things cheeky and playful at the same time, making the album a cathartic listening experience. It was also cathartic for McCartney to make.
“During COVID, I was going through this sort of dark time, as a lot of us were, being cooped up in the house and going through anxiety. It just felt like these songs all happened around the same time, and so I just decided to put them together and produce them in a way that musically sounded similar.”
His favorite part of the album has undoubtedly been the ability to play his songs with a band made up of such talented individuals. Being a very musical person, McCartney is constantly inspired by different experiences and even melodies, and he frequently jots down ideas in his notes app and records voice memos to come back to later.
In 2010, the “How Do You Sleep” singer made the decision to become an independent artist, meaning that McCartney is his own label. He spoke about how appreciative he was of his time with Hollywood Records and all they helped him to achieve, but ultimately, he felt he had his own vision to pursue. McCartney knows it’s certainly not an easy thing to do, but he encourages up-and-coming artists to go a similar route if they have passion and a good team behind them.
“It was scary to have to do this on my own, and the workload was way, way bigger. But, at that point, it was like I didn’t need their checkbooks anymore. I realized it’s not going to cost a fortune to do what I need to do and still make great music. And so, once I figured that out, I was just liberated… You have all the access, and you don’t have to spend a lot of money to reach your fans immediately with social media.”
The singer-songwriter has been in the music business for a long time and has managed to stay relevant since he first hit the scene. He still worries sometimes about whether people will continue listening to his music when he takes breaks, but he is always pleasantly surprised by the amount of people who consistently look forward to his new releases.
“It’s so rare in this genre of music, especially, to have this kind of longevity. To be able to play shows this long over so many years is pretty rare in pop music,” McCartney said. “So I’m just grateful. I’m super grateful, and I’m excited to see them again this run. It’ll be the first tour in a couple years.”
And fans are clearly just as excited to reunite with McCartney, seeing as his upcoming tour has already sold out at three different venues despite the album only just being released. He plans to play “so many different songs from every album” — so yes, you can expect “Beautiful Soul” and “Leavin.”
McCartney has come a long way since his boy band and Disney days but still stays faithful to his sound and who he is. He believes that “All’s Well” has something for everyone who listens.
“I do think that there are songs for everybody on this small little project of five songs,” McCartney said. “It’s not age-specific… It’s kind of one of the good things about getting older: you can have a wider range of things to talk about that people will relate to. You’ve got more paint on the pallet. And that’s just nice to have those tools.”
“All’s Well” is out now and can be found on Spotify, Apple Music and anywhere you stream music. The tour started April 12 and ends in May, with McCartney performing at the House of Blues in Anaheim May 14 and at The Wiltern in Los Angeles May 16.
“I do think that there are songs for everybody on this small little project of five songs. It’s not age-specific… It’s kind of one of the good things about getting older: you can have a wider range of things to talk about that people will relate to. You’ve got more paint on the pallet. And that’s just nice to have those tools.”
Photo courtesy of Jesse McCartney