Your Fav Bubblegum Pop Princess, Precious
What happens when you mix pixie dust, island vibes, and Black Girl Magic? You get the super sweet and talented LA-based popstar, Precious! She started making original music at the beginning of her college career and has not looked back since. While listening to Precious, you are sure to feel a sense of nostalgia, positivity, and maybe even taste something “sweet like honey…”
Jordan Steele: What is your go-to hype song?
Precious: My go-to hype song… It probably changes throughout time, but my current go to is “Get Into It (Yuh)” by Doja Cat. I feel like that should be a lot of girls’ hype song right now. It changes though - last summer definitely would've been Megan [thee Stallion]. Megan has so many hype songs. But right now it’s definitely “Get Into It.”
JS: What are three words that describe you as an artist?
P: I would say creative, dreamy, and pink. I just love the vibe of pink; I think it’s like a feeling. And I hope that it’s something that people feel when they listen to my music because it’s like my goal. So definitely creative, dreamy, and pink. I like them!
JS: So pink is your favorite color?
P: Actually I have three favorite colors! My primary favorite color is red (points to her red hair) and my second favorite color is black. I used to wear nothing but black for years! It’s been recently that I’ve been growing into my artist persona and discovering myself as a pop artist and how I want to be as “pop” as I can be. That’s when pink started to come to me - pink was the vibe I wanted to go for. So it’s new that I have such a love for pink.
JS: I do see a lot of pink in your music videos - what does pink make you feel?
P: I just feels like the vibe I’m going for! With “Go Girl” I was so happy with how pink it was! I asked the dancers to wear whatever pink they had. I felt like the whole music video had to be pink, so I’m glad that the included scenes were full of pink.
Precious x Yung Baby Tate "Go Girl" (Official Music Video)
JS: So how did you get started in music?
P: It goes back pretty far. When I started, I was just doing covers and posted them to YouTube. I had a small gathering that would watch me each week. Then about three years ago is when I finally started making something original. I put out my first acoustic ep at the beginning of college and stopped doing covers. After the ep, I started putting my voice over cool instrumentals I found on Youtube and posted them to Soundcloud to find what I wanted to sound like.
JS: Was it difficult to switch from doing covers to making original music?
P: No, not really. Honestly I don’t find songwriting hard, it’s easy for me. It's just like poetry to me, I just started doing it. I was also in a band in college and seeing everyone so talented and musically gifted around me inspired me to start doing my own stuff.
JS: What is your creative process like?
P: I usually have the beat first - to me, the beat and instrumental is the most important part of the song. In the future, I want to try to produce my own stuff, but for now I don’t know how. So I’ll pick a beat and start humming over it, testing out different patterns to figure out what sounds catchy and “pop-y.” Based on the vibe I get from the song, whether it’s carefree or angsty, then i’ll come up with lyrics, which is the easiest part. I’ll have the melody, come up with the lyrics and then from there it’s pretty easy.
JS: How do you find people to collaborate with?
P: I’m signed to an independent label in LA, and they’re the ones who hookup those connections. On my recent stuff like “Hey Boy,” “Time,” and “Go Girl,” I worked with a really great multi-Grammy award winning producer named Needlz. He’s worked with artists like Bruno Mars, Cardi B, Drake… So the label really helped with the connections. Before that, I was finding beats online and having people send me music too. For “Sweet Like,” I was in that transition period before getting signed and it was the last song where someone sent me a beat. I;m still hoping to do both though - connect with people online and go through the label. I think everyone has good music to offer.
JS: What drives you to keep creating music?
P: What keeps me going is probably just the love and reassurance I get after each release, knowing that someone is listening and that it’s important to them. I feel like it’s easy for any creative to get in their head, to feel doubtful and stressed. But with my releases I’m always reassured and grateful that I have someone who listens to my music. The people who are looking to me to release stuff keeps me going.
JS: What kind of message do you want to tell in your music?
P: I just want any type of Black girl to be represented. That’s what I strive to do in my music. I feel like there should be as many Black girls as possible in every [genre]. There are all types of girls in the mainstream and I want that for Black girls too - to be able to be carefree and “bubble gum pop.” I would just like everyone to have a shot at the mainstream like the other people get.
JS: How do you measure success as an artist?
P: I think I would measure success by happiness and comfortability and feeling like you’ve done what you set out to do. I don’t measure it with any amount of money or sales, but however a a person would describe comfortability with themselves. I feel like the journey is important as well. So I strive for success, but the journey is just as important.
JS: You’re mainly pop right now - are there more genres you’d like to dabble in?
P: This is so funny because I always tell people in my head that I want to eventually be in a rock band. I love what WILLOW is doing. I’d probably do that when I'm comfortable. Honestly, I’ll probably explore every genre, but eventually I want to be in a rock band.
JS: Are there any projects you’ve been working on that you can tell us about?
P: Yeah, I’ve been working on an album for a minute now. It just needs finishing touches, but it should be coming out soon. The whole tracklist is laid out as far as I’m concerned. So hopefully my next release is my first pop album.
Follow Precious!
https://beacons.ai/preciousxmusic/
