Eric Nam

DANA JACOBS - SAN FRANCISCO, CA - JANUARY 2022

JC STEWART:

MORE THAN AN ARTIST

PHOTOS BY MARLOWE TEICHMAN | WORDS BY IVY SANDOVAL

Usually, for artists, songwriting and music is a part of them. Something they’ve always dreamed of. That was not entirely the case for JC Stewart. Up until the age of 15, he wasn’t fond of music. Growing up in a small town in Northern Ireland, his passion at the time was rugby. Although he and his family knew he could sing, it wasn’t until his mom encouraged him to attend a “Making Music Workshop” that he left the workshop and decided music was what he wanted to do.

“I came out [of the workshop] going, ‘I’m going to do this forever,’ ” Stewart said.

From then on, his goal was to become a songwriter.

The beginning of 2020 was a real turning point for him when his rendition of the iconic “Friends” theme song “I’ll Be There For You” went viral and gained Jennifer Aniston’s attention. A fun take on the classic comedy sitcom’s intro to make quarantine, and what was such an uncertain time, a bit more entertaining ended up being the breakthrough he had never imagined.

“I woke up one morning and my phone was going mad,” Stewart said. “And they’re like, ‘Look at Jennifer Aniston’s Instagram.’ ”

Before he knew it, he had become a viral hit.

“My phone nearly broke! And then all of a sudden the labels start going, ‘Good Morning America’ is like, ‘Hey, we’d love to have you on.’ ”

Now 25 years old, he’s proven to be the songwriter he aspired to be, and much more. Signed under Warner Records, he released his debut four-track EP, When The Light Hits The Room, in late 2020.

Singer-songwriters such as Labrinth, Julia Michaels, and Jack Antonoff, just to name a few, are who truly inspire him. To Stewart, being able to create in every aspect is what fuels him.

“Where you’re an artist, but you also get to go away for two years and write a soundtrack or you get to write music for a movie or for other artists,” he said.

Stewart doesn’t want to be put into a singular box. Creating a name for himself in both singing and songwriting is what he desires.

“That’s my dream. That’s my niche. There’s a lot of people, especially in L.A., that do that, and it’s super inspiring to be here for that,” he said. “Whereas in London, it’s a bit more like, ‘Are you an artist or are

Having worked with talents like Lewis Capaldi, Tom Odell, and even touring with acts like Lauv, The Vamps, and Anne-Marie, Stewart has undoubtedly established himself in the industry.

“I just like to take any opportunity at this point because it’s really fun,” he said. “I love seeing other cities. I love a weird experience”

His 2020, UK chart-making single “Break My Heart,” co-written with Niall Horan, gained him even more traction and earned him his first MTV Video Music Awards nomination. The collaboration for Stewart was a “weird” one because it was the first time he had ever written a song where the original idea wasn’t his, he said.

An idea originally from TMS, multi-Grammy and Brit Award-winning songwriters very close to Horan had the track ready so Stewart decided to tweak it a bit, going back and forth via email with his fellow Irish colleague.

Stewart is known for writing such emotional, contemporary music with somber lyricism. Coining himself as the “Professional Sad Boy,” he is trying to sonically become more. While his lyrics sometimes still remain melancholy, the change came from wanting a bit more from the live performance experience.

“It was quite a sad experience when I used to play live and I got a bit bored of it, to be honest,” Stewart said. “And then, I started playing festivals and just making all those sad songs have a lot more energy live.”

Playing festivals was a revelation for Stewart, especially the Reading and Leeds Festivals, which ended up changing his whole view on stage presence. 14,000 people were ready to experience what he and his band had been rehearsing for a week, but unfortunately, his then-drummer slept in. Forced to go out on stage with nothing but his acoustic guitar and drum pedal, he still managed to create a worthwhile performance.

What could have been a disaster, turned out to be one of the biggest revelations within his career.

“There were mosh pits to this thing!” he said. “Since then, I’ve only played that show and I don’t have a band anymore. It’s just me on my own. And, yeah, that was a big turning point for me, I think, in figuring out what I was doing.”

His latest single “Love Like That,” with a guitar-driven, bouncy framework for an honest apology, was a bit of a new sound for him. More upbeat than usual, Stewart calls it “cowboy pop.”

“It’s not about a romantic thing. I’m a bit addicted to working sometimes,” Stewart said. “I’m a very driven person so sometimes that gets in the way of everything else and most of all the people you love. It’s essentially an apology. It’s also something to remind me of like, come on, there’s bigger things in life sometimes.”

As for what’s next for JC Stewart, summer singles, more live shows, and of course, more songwriting. Anything more than that is anyone’s guess.

“Who knows what’s going to happen? I don’t like to plan that far in advance,” he said.

Passionate yet composed, whatever else comes Stewart’s way will be a project worth waiting for.