Music became serious for Michigan artist, Second J in 2016. He even took piano lessons that year while in his junior year of high school. Around 2019, the idea of actually recording music came his way.

I remember being at school and thinking “I have a lot to say, but I don’t really know how to express it. Maybe if I do music it’ll come off in a way people feel it”. And from that day I set my heart on recording.

After a few years in music, Second J has released a new album, The Journal (Reflection).

What made you go into the direction that you did with your album? Like the concept.

I used to journal all the time, I would write about everything I was feeling because I didn’t wanna talk about it. I stopped writing around the middle of 2019, during quarantine I found that journal and began reading it. I remember thinking “man I was really going through it”. And it made me reflect on all the stuff I was feeling and going through so I decided I’ll make songs out of these!

I loved your project. It might be kind of obvious that it’s titled The Journal Reflection because it might be your thoughts from your journal moved over to music. Is that what the title mean? Can you elaborate on that?

Yes, exactly. It’s my thoughts from the journal I wrote in, moved to music. Music is a way to move different people, and music is a way to talk about things that are really personal in a different, relaxing way. Just talking about it, may be a lot of pressure for some people. It was for me. But music made it easier and relaxing to talk about all those deep thoughts and feelings I had. Taking my thoughts from my journal and turning them into a song took the pressure off of me in a sense.

What do you hope people take away from this album after listening to it?

That we all go through things. Different people have different values on their experiences. To me losing a friend could be as traumatic as the death of a parent. My experiences were personal and helped shaped me. I really want people to understand me better and possibly let someone know that they’re not alone out there in how they feel.

Be sure to check out the latest from Second J below.