Singer, songwriter, model and overall visual artist, Steph Jones, is probably one of the humblest and most grounded person in the business that you will ever meet. Upon answering the phone, we were greeted by his manager and then immediately transferred to him. Right off the bat he was cracking jokes and making the whole vibe of the interview less tense and more chilled.

We discussed everything from his background to his music to his highly criticized Halloween costume and everything else in between; including how he deals with all the rumors of… After spending about a half hour conversing with Jones it was clear that being in the business has not jaded him in anyway. Continue on to view the full interview…

C.S.: So let’s start off for those who may not know of you. Tell a little bit about yourself, Mr. Steph Jones.

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Steph Jones: A little bit about myself, it’s kinda hard to say a little bit but I do the best I can. I was born and raised in Texas; born in Third World, raised in Missouri City, Texas and my mother is a Jazz DJ. She was also a big fan of “Shut Up” in the house so I didn’t really realize I could sing until I got to college. I was doing modeling, music and was just somebody who was happy about life with a past and a story to tell.

C.S.: We recently saw your new comp card for FORD celebrity models. Has the switch to the celebrity division brought more opportunities your way?

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S.J.: Oh well I always had opportunities being at FORD just because I don’t look like anybody on the board. So it hasn’t been a drastic change, it just moves me from one side of the world to the other. So as my demand for the Steph Jones brand grows then we’ll start to see more opportunities come my way. ‘Cause then they’ll be like “Oh we want a Steph Jones in this GUESS ad or we want a Steph Jones in such and such ad” and that’s when we can start talkin’ the DOLLARS.

C.S. Your Lifetape (DOWNLOAD HERE) was released the some weeks ago. It’s obvious a lot of work went into it. So what was the inspiration behind the music and cover art?

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S.J.: A lot of things I do, most things I do in life is through inspiration and it takes a lot to inspire me and once I’m inspired, you know and you feel the effect of it. And as far as the cover art goes, I was sleeping and a vision woke me up from my sleep and I had to sketch it. I sketched it, I kept saying to myself, “The soul is being sucked out of Earth” and if it’s up to me and nobody is gonna take a stand then I’ll take the stand. So there it is, there’s my Chess piece right there, the Lifetape. I made the first move and now it’s time for the people to move they Chess pieces. We done playin’ Checkers now, it’s time for a more skilled game and so that’s where the artwork came from.
As far as the music, it’s just like life man, that’s why I call it the Lifetape. It’s just not a mixtape, it’s embedding the substance back into people’s lives so I call it the Lifetape.

C.S.: Your music has a signature quirky sound. How do you plan on evolving it for your future projects?

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S.J.: Well I just make the music that comes to me. It’s not like I try to make a quirky sound or I try to be like, “Hey this may not sound like me,” I just make the music so what ever comes up in the future that’s how it’s gonna sound. I don’t go out of my way to try to make certain type of sound, I just make what comes.

C.S.: Speaking about music, your song “Greedy Love” (LISTEN HERE) leaked and you did  not even know about it.

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S.J.: No, I had no idea. I actually thought you were in the studio with the producers because I haven’t sent that song to anyone and then when I listened to the beat I noticed that it’s not the one I had. Which means someone was working on the beat and that somebody put the song out. And notice how any song I put out never says the producer’s name and this one said “Greedy Love,” produced by Midi Mafia and it was all over, everywhere; it could be a coincidence. I’m gonna make the best of it but yea I was pissed off last night…

C.S.: Still on the subject, how do you feel about the new digital age of music?

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SJ: I mean if you can’t change with time then you’ll be stuck in the 70’s and 80’s. It’s not 1998, people don’t buy records because people don’t put out quality records. You just have to be able to utilize all the things that you have accessible to you. Because of the internet, the internet can help you and hurt you, but because of the internet you have so many different avenues that people don’t even look at… There are so many opportunities to be heard; you have web, you have mobile… You have so many different avenues that you can be heard and with me, that’s a good thing. With more people that hear my music, I have a chance of drawing them in to be the whole brand of Steph Jones. Since I’m a visual artist, it is cool to have Youtube and Ustream so people can actually see my personality and see that these songs really do come from me… If you have access to the best possible producers and the best possible writers and your album isn’t hot then you have issues… I always tell people, you can have the hottest music in the world but if you don’t have a natural connection it will just stop at a hot…

C.S.: You were signed to a major label before. Would you rather the freedom to make any kind of music as an independent artist or be signed to a label that would give you a boost of exposure?

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S.J.: I like being independent right now, I would definitely love to be signed to a major because they have a platform that I cannot reach being strictly independent. So the cool the thing that I’m doing now is creating a platform of my own. So that way I have this following that whenever I actually get signed to a major I will have the means, the funs and the backing to do what I’m doing on a larger sale. It’s not like I’ll be going to a label and I’ll be green and don’t have any music. When I go to a label they are gonna know from point A to point Z what I’ve already accomplished. It’s more gonna be like a collaborative effort rather than they’re taking me on and it’s gonna completely change my thing.

C.S.: If you were to create a collaboration album, who are some of the some of the artists you would consider for the project?

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S.J.: A collaboration album? Chris Martin from Coldplay, I’ll definitely like to work with Kanye, I’ll like to work with Common and Adam Levine. There’s a group in Europe called Keane, I’d love to work with them. Andre 3000, Amy Winehouse, when she gets it together.

C.S.: You seem like a down-to-earth guy. How do you deal with superficiality of LA & Hollywood?

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S.J.: LA and Hollywood is what you make it. Those who complain about LA & Hollywood, “Oh it’s fake and all this stuff,” that’s because they surround themselves around the environment they hate the most. Me, on the other hand, that’s like confetti to me or extra curricular activities, I go there and do what I gotta do and talk to my people. What I love about LA is if I wanted to I could go snowboarding on Big Bear Mountain, drive an hour and half away to Venice beach and go body surfing. I love the nature, I love the fact that I can go hiking, I love the weather, I can’t stand the cold weather. You want to see me in a bad mood, see me in cold weather… That’s how I deal with it, LA is what you make it.

C.S:. How do you manage with the endless rumors that you are in a relationship with a certain “Battlefield” songstress?

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S.J.: Well it’s like you say, it’s rumors. I’ve heard that I was dead before, “Oh I thought you died,” rumors are rumors. Somebody told me, “Oh I heard you and Alicia Keys were together.” I was like umm WHO, I never heard that; that was maybe 2 years ago. So it’s like so many things, they’re just rumors. I just continue to go… Words, like what people say or when people hate or if people say rumors, none of that stuff really phases me. I gat like mad water repellent on and all that water, the rain, is just bouncing off of my clothes.

C.S.: You’re pretty active on Twitter. Have you had any crazy experiences with the thousands of people that follow you?

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S.J.: You know what, I create a certain type of environment for my Ustream and my chatroom and Twitter… Like how can I put it, if you go to Sexy Spec’s Twitter, from Pretty Ricky, you’ll notice it’s a different type of vibe and different type of people that are followin’ him. There’s lots of nasty words being thrown around but that’s the vibe that he puts out. The vibe that I put out, there are a lot of people that are following me and a lot of them are pretty much on that same vibe. So I haven’t dealt with any craziness on Twitter. There’s people probably talkin’ smack and then I just delete them.

C.S.: When time permits, what do you do in your free time?

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S.J.: What do I don’t I do; paintball, snowboard, I hike, I pop bubble wrap, I love people watching at Starbucks, I paint. There are so many things that I do. I live my life; I’m young but I have an old soul to save time. I have a young spirit and an old soul. So I’m literally like a little kid… I pick flowers, I look at the flowers and I look at the sun. I close my eyes then open my eyes back up again. I see different things floating around and I take joy out of that. I love when it rains and I love when the sun comes out, can’t stand the cold weather but when I’m bundled up I’m fine. I’m me, I’m my own ordinary, that’s where the uniqueness comes out. I encourage people; a lot of people do the same the same thing… Just go for it, try to progress and inspire people at the same time.

C.S. Switching gears, how did you deal with the negative feedback with your Halloween costume?

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SJ: Negative feedback for me, any type of feedback, anytime someone says Steph Jones, they’re saying my name… I don’t take it as negative feedback. If I went dressed as a boy or if I went dressed as a porcupine people will still have something negative to say. The way I see it is, Jesus is said to be perfect; people hate on him every single day, 24 hours, 365 days a year. So no matter what I do, be it good or bad, people are still gonna hate. So when I wore “the chick with a bad weave” outfit, I already knew people were gonna hate. I posted those pictures, it wasn’t like people went digging through my computer and was like oh my God, shocking new discovery! I posted those pictures. I said I want to be on every single blog and I want people to be like, that dude is crazy and that’s exactly what happened. I went, GAMEOVER… What I set out to do was be on every blog and it has crossed over onto the Pop culture blogs, I WIN.

C.S. Tell us a little about GUMBO and where do you plan on taking it.

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SJ: GUMBO is just something that is manifesting across the United States. It was an idea that I wanted to do since I always workout. I didn’t want to charge anybody. I just wanted to create a positive community. It’s all about building a community. It’s more mentally stimulating than physical even though I kick y’alls butts up a mountain or up the trail or somethin’. GUMBO stands for Get Up and Move your Butt Operation and that’s just what it is. I started it in LA and I’ve had up to 78 people at one time hiking on a mountain at 8 o’clock in the morning. It’s gone to Houston, it’s gone to New York and now tomorrow morning at 10am (Friday, November 13) we’re starting our first GUMBO in ATL.

C.S.: Well this bring us to the end of our interview but before you go can you reveal any upcoming projects that you have?

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SJ: Yes, I just recently shot a feature film called “Seel,” directed Brett Leonard. He directed “The Lawnmower Man” and “Virtuosity” with Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington. The lead is Marie Digby, she’s an artist who’s signed to Hollywood Records and it’s basically like a musical/movie that incorporates her album throughout the movie. I play her love interest, so there’s like kissing scenes, break-up scenes, shirtless scenes. I’m also a DJ/Producer and since her fan base is online, like in the millions. They’re going to service it to online networks and it will be in 30 segments. The first segment will drop at the end of November.