Jessie & The Toy Boys: The Future of Pop in Plastic
BY HANNIBAL ALEXANDER
It seems that every few months industry insiders predict an up and coming artist will become ‘The Future of Pop Music,’ and they are usually wrong. Simply because the idea of predicting the future is nearly impossible! Just ask Jessie Malakouti – the driving force behind the highly buzzed about Dance/Pop outfit Jessie and the Toy Boys. When asked where she would be in twenty years she joked “maybe creating dance routines in a space station,” because the future is just that unpredictable. One can make sound assumptions based on history and looking at successful artists of the past, Jessie looks like she’s on the fast track to join them. She has the drive, experience, vision and most importantly talent which are essential qualities to have as a new artist. Her unique use of her back up dancers – The Toy Boys which are male mannequins, is certain to catch the attention of the masses.
At such a young age of 22, it’s rare that you see an artist so accomplished at this early stage in their career. Recently her music has been featured on MTV’s “The Hills” and promotions for the CW Network. In addition to her music being featured, she’s toured with popular British girl group The Saturdays, and worked with producers Xenomania; which resulted in her spending studio time and doing background vocals for eighties legends The Pet Shop Boys. She’s currently preparing her debut solo album which she’s hoping to have out by this summer and at the moment has a single on iTunes titled “Push It” which is gaining a huge buzz. Things are definitely looking up for Jessie, which makes perfect sense because she has been working towards this nearly her whole life.
It all started with a role in “Peter Pan” back in grade school. “In 3rd grade I did my first play as Wendy, it was the first time a lead role was given to a 3rd grader. And I just knew I was good at entertaining and that just started the bug,” tells Jessie. Throughout the rest of her academic life she continued in several creative outlets like Drama, Glee Club, Choir “just anything to be creative and entertain”. Jessie was book smart as well, graduating high school early at age sixteen with a four point zero grade point average. “I had college offers, but I had no interest in college I just wanted to start my career. The day I got my driver’s license I went to Hollywood. It was just always the goal,” reminisces Jessie.
After her move she quickly became part of the group Shut Up Stella – a Hip Hop & Rock group who worked the Los Angeles club circuits before they were signed to Epic Records and began working on their album from 2006 to 2008. Ultimately the group got dropped from the label, which Jessie admits was “very depressing” but was apparently for the best and at a perfect time. ”After writing for two years, by the time we were dropped I had evolved past the group, I didn’t feel I was creatively there anymore. I wanted to do Dance music and there was no Janet Jackson, there was no Madonna and I wanted to try to fill that void.” At that time the United States record labels weren’t really into her dance music and she got suggestions to travel across the pond to the United Kingdom. She admits this international move was a pivotal point in her career, “It really opened up my eyes and I just immersed myself in the club scene.” She claims the club experience in the UK was so drastically different than the US. “The UK and a lot of other European countries embrace dance music more. The US is just so behind in terms of Electronica and Dance music, they are just now getting into Dubstep and I did some Dubstep tracks two years ago!” She adds that the UK club scene was “more of an artistic experience, you really get inspired.”
Her experiences in the UK and beyond led her to The Toy Boys – her back up mannequins who she jokes “gave up being human for me.” This unique concept came about from her missing the feeling of being in a group. “I love being in bands and being part of a unit, but I’m a creative control freak and if everyone is not on my page it just doesn’t work for me.” She’s not only the driving force behind her music, but also her image which is where The Toy Boys came in, “I’m really involved in my own visuals, I run art direction and put together my press photos. The Toy Boys add a really interesting aesthetic visually,” she adds “The Toy Boys are plastic and fantastic and are great because they don’t talk back.” She hopes to use more high-tech imagining techniques to help The Toy Boys figuratively come alive on her stage shows “I have a lot of ideas for when I get a bigger budget!”
Until then she’s currently in the midst of a US club tour. She says, “My favorite part is playing live. I love playing clubs because my music is inspired by club culture, so playing clubs is great because that’s where my music will live.” And she’s ecstatic to see the crowd reactions to her sound “my biggest thrill is watching people discover my music.”
Her debut album is in the final stages, but she admits she’s constantly working on new music “I can’t stop writing, it’s impossible, I write about 100 songs a year and I’m always thinking of different things.” “The music will stand out because nobody sounds like us,” explains Jessie. She’s not worried about any possible comparisons to other Dance/Pop acts. “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t pay attention to (Lady GaGa and Katy Perry) but I’m not inspired by them. I draw inspiration from artists from the 80’s. I love Dale Boxio, Missing Persons, early Madonna, and Lene Lovich” and comparisons, which tend to come with every success, wouldn’t bother her “it’s all love” she adds.
For now she’s gaining a pretty massive fan base “I can’t tell you how happy I am with the feedback from fans. I have fans in so many different places, even the most random places like Pakistan, Brazil and Portugal. The internet is an amazing tool to connect with my fans. It wouldn’t have been this way 20 years ago.” And even though she’s had most of her success, and her artistic breakthrough abroad, success stateside remains a big deal to her. “The U.S. matters so much to me because it’s my home,” she says. Her five-year goals for the future of her music is to tour the world a few times and then she wants to try to transition into film and win an Academy Award, leaving her Toy Boys to fend for themselves.
But for now, Jessie and The Toy Boys will be making waves in the industry and they won’t be hard to miss. Her main goal is to “stay true to who I really am, I love to constantly pose questions and get people thinking.” She thanks all the current fans “for their support” and is excited to watch her fan base grow in the future. Keep tabs on Jessie and The Toy Boys by checking out her web site and follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
is going to happen that the screen…
gets stuck and left you in the problem. a special advantage of gps navigation tom tom and their software to communicate with computers tom tom home. use a very simplified and at any time your gps pet can gain a new…