Jaden Hossler aka Jxdn finally released his highly anticipated debut album ‘Tell Me About Tomorrow’. The 20-year old who rose to fame on TikTok last year during the worldwide Covid-19 induced lockdown, when young people literally had nothing else to do but stare at their phones all day long. Hossler came a long way from being the typical “pretty boy” that sat in front of a camera for 15 seconds who gained a massive female audience (almost 10 million) for exactly that, to moving to Los Angeles into an all-boys content creator house (The Sway House) that reminded of an average American college fraternity, and setting foot into the music business later that year, which he was initially planning all along.
When he released his first single ‘Comatose’ independently, a song heavily influenced by punk-rock tunes that Jxdn listened to, to help him cope with heartbreak and moving on from a failed relationship, former Blink 182-drummer Travis Barker called him and had him signed as the very first artist to his brand new label DTA Records – a significant moment in Jxdn’s career that he put as the album’s INTRO.
Considering the fact Jxdn went through a lot of very public highs and lows that resulted in an ugly breakup, induced by toxicity and betrayal, with fellow TikTok-star Madison Lewis, the album focuses mainly on that. Furthermore Jxdn dedicates ‘Tell Me About Tomorrow’ to his best friend Cooper Noriega, who has been dealing with mental health issues for a long time – just like Jxdn himself – and just recently proudly revealed his 6 month sobriety.
Realising the toxicity of relationships, dealing with heartbreak and mental health issues is something that most young people have to come to terms with and this album certainly offers a lot of relatable material to listen to in the process of personal reflection and growth.
Produced and co-written by Travis Barker, with features from the likes of Machine Gun Kelly and Iann Dior and guest writers such as blackbear and Lauv, the album stays true to Jxdn’s original punk sound – based on heavy drums, loud guitar riffs and screaming vocals, that seems the most authentic to Jxdn and his growing brand.
Having Machine Gun Kelly as a second mentor also helped Jxdn to move against the masses and stay true to himself, no matter what his audience might say – just because most of his TikTok-following consists out of pre-teen girls doesn’t mean he has to make music that is fitting for a PG-audience nor their parents, and he’s making that very clear as he sings about drinking, smoking, drugs, sex and drops a casual “Fuck” inbetween the lines when he feels like it.
Reminding of a louder, more aggressive and darker version of Australian pop-punk boyband 5 Seconds of Summer, who peaked with their self-titled debut album in 2014, ‘Tell Me About Tomorrow’ has enough potential to catapult Jxdn into the mainstream music scene and to a level of fame that goes beyond TikTok and Snapchat news outlets that keep up with Influencer-drama. 2021 sure is the right time for a young rebellious man to come around and bring back emo-punk vibes that haven’t been around for a while, especially when teenagers have been stuck in their houses for over a year, and his “pretty boy” image that he desperately tries but cannot really get rid off might help him with that since there has been a lack of typical bad boy heartthrobs to grace teen-magazines as well – so we decided to believe Travis Barker, “This kid’s next, his name is Jaden”.
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Written by: Vicky Madzak
GEM Magazine 