How JP Saxe Brought Color Into ‘A Grey Area’ With New Acoustic Album and Headlining Tour

There's more to life than a spectrum of black and white. JP Saxe would know.

On his latest album, A Grey Area, the "When You Think of Me" singer explores the monochrome to unveil a kaleidoscope of vibrant hues. It's everything you'd find under the surface. Seeing JP in grayscale, you'd think he would have everything. He has a Grammy nomination, a Billboard chart-topper and a platinum record. But the LP shows his emotions are complex, feeling grief, nostalgia and bittersweet hope.

JP dropped an acoustic rendition of his sophomore effort on Feb. 9 to further expand the color wheel with new arrangements and features, and he's currently embarking on an international headlining tour to invite fans to view the world in a new light, too.

Ahead of JP's first show in Edmonton, Canada, he sat down with Sweety High to discuss his new prismatic era, his tour with John Mayer and what to expect in 2024. Continue reading to learn what he dished.

Sweety High: You sat with the songs from this album for almost four months. Since creating its acoustic version, has your relationship with the music shifted? What inspired the new release?

JP Saxe: Honestly, I don't feel like songs take on a new life until I perform them in a concert venue with people singing along. That begins in, like, three days. That's when they will start to shift.

Right now, they are very connected to their introverted roots. I like sitting down on an instrument and playing a song. This music was either made with some friends or by myself. The acoustic project is like the tracks at their most organic or untouched.

 

SH: With the different arrangements, do any songs feel brand new?

JS: There's a bunch of jazzy chords happening on "All My S*** Is in My Car," which is fun. "Someone Else's Home" has become even more grueling and insufferable. What else? Now, "Everything Ends" is just me. That's a different feeling. I would say these songs aren't a different color but a different shade.

 

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SH: You collaborated with producers, songwriters and more who have contributed to some of the most iconic records of all time. How does it feel to be in the same room as those people?

JS: It's not being in the same room as them that's intimidating. That's pretty chill. It's texting them. [Laughs.] When I'm physically with people, everyone feels like a human very fast. Even if someone has a whole celebrity aura or a huge impact on your life. It's like, they're just a person.

When you're texting and see the name of someone who has influenced your personal or professional creative life, you start overthinking every word. Reshaping punctuation. You get stressed and don't respond at all.

 

SH: It's dehumanizing, for sure.

JS: Right? When you're texting, it almost feels like you're interacting with a persona. Not that any of this is real. This is fully in my own head.

 

SH: Well, thinking back to the height of the pandemic, you had a big moment with "If the World Was Ending." Was it weird to do everything remotely and almost removed from humanity? How was your transition returning to in-person collaboration?

JS: It was almost like an embodied disassociation. It was a fully conceptual experience. Even when things weren't going right in the world, they were going right online, which could be a lie. Someone on the internet could be messing with you. If they were a sophisticated techie, they could create a digital world where you thought a song you made had a billion streams, but it didn't actually happen. It was very The Truman Show.

But you can't fake a bunch of people in a room, singing a song together. That feels like something.

 

SH: Speaking of, you recently wrapped your supporting shows for John Mayer. How was that? What did you learn that you'll take with you into your upcoming tour?

JS: That man performed entirely by himself in arenas of 15,000 people. You would think in a venue that large, it wouldn't feel intimate. Yet, he cracked the code. So, above all, I learned what it means to create an intimate experience through the way you speak to an audience, regardless of how many people attend.

I wanted it to feel like someone texting me at 2 a.m. and said, "Yo, I'm going through it. Can I come over, and we'll drink boba and talk about our feelings?" And I'm like, "Door's open." Then homie shows up, and we sit on the couch and talk about our emotions. That's what the show will be, but with a bunch of art on stage that took us four months to make.

John was also extraordinarily generous with my whole team and me. He taught me what it really means to show up for your people. His team has each other's backs. There was a lot of respect and love between everyone he works with. I want my team to grow into that entity.

 

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SH: Ah, you're about to channel that energy with your openers, too.

JS: Oh, yeah. Justin Nozuka and Nicole Zignago. Justin has been a friend since I was 14. And Nicole, I've known her for a few years now. She's a part of my Latin squad.

Justin is a bit older than I am. When I was getting started, he was popping off. I was listening to his albums and watching his career, thinking that's what I want to do. I wanted to be like Justin when I grew up. Now, this makes it real.

 

SH: What else can fans expect from this tour?

JS: It's completely different. We spent more than six months building this show. Every element of the stage and performance was done with intention. Yet, we still left room for spontaneity.

I've never been more proud of anything I've gotten to make with my friends. It's been a fam effort, and I can't wait to see it come to life.

We have a monochromatic dress code. There are six or seven colors on the album cover that represent the unraveling of the gray area. All the beautiful subtleties within it. I want the crowd to be a part of the stage design.

It feels like a more innovative version of fan projects where people print out signs and hold them as a message to the artist. But this is me giving back to the fans.

And we'll still play a few of those old tracks, too! I'm going to take requests.

 

SH: What else are you looking forward to in 2024?

JS: I have absolutely no idea. But I hope whatever I could come up with, whatever happens is better.

 

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