pop*eye...JJ Heller - When I’m With You (2010)

POP*EYE
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JJ Heller
When I’m With You (2010)

In the midst of her lifes most hectic chapter, JJ Heller likes to remind herself that being an independent musician who is intensely busy is a good thing. Since the spring of 2003, when she decided to make a living as a full-time musician, Heller has managed to keep herself quite active.

In that time, JJ developed a faithful fan-base, performed an average of 80 dates a year, and added three full-length records and a Christmas EP to her discography. In the fall of 2009, because of one persons decision, Heller found herself in the public eye, with a music career moving forward at a rate she never expected.

For her audition on the FOX TV show, So You Think You Can Dance?, contestant, Diana Drexler, chose JJs song, “Your Hands,” from Hellers 2008 full-length record Painted Red. One of the nearly 7 million viewers to witness Drexlers performance was Jon Hull, station manager of Houston-based FM station KSBJ.

Hull later decided to play “Your Hands” on the air for the KSBJ audience, and after the song rang out over the airwaves, the station was inundated with phone calls and e-mail from listeners describing how much “Your Hands” resonated with them.

Just two days after Hellers song was played on the air for the first time, the KSBJ staff decided to do something they hadnt done in nearly four years add an independent artists song to the stations regular rotation.

Before long, JJ’s music was spinning in the rotation of nearly 60 reporting Christian adult contemporary FM stations, including K-LOVE the largest Christian radio network in the US. In the span of a few short months, JJs music was no longer reaching several thousand, but several million listeners.

“Your Hands” made itself at home on Billboard Magazines Christian Songs chart for 24 weeks, and peaked at #13. For six weeks JJs album, Painted Red, landed a spot on Billboard Magazines Folk Albums chart and peaked at #12. In the following months, JJ saw her music placed on the ABC family show Make It Or Break It, and CWs One Tree Hill.

Im amazed to see the ways that God has used my music over the past year, Heller says. All this publicity wasnt something I was intentionally pursuing, so it makes it that much more obvious to me that its something the Lord wanted. Its been fun to watch Him work in my life and through my music.

Heller frequently juggles blogging, sewing projects, home decorating, songwriting, touring, and parenting her nearly two-year-old daughter, Lucy. None of this would be possible without my husband, Dave, JJ says. He works so hard to make sure were organized and staying faithful with the gifts God has given us. Dave manages JJs career, co-writes, and shares the stage with JJ as her guitarist and backup singer during live performances.

With a new single, “What Love Really Means,” hitting the radio airwaves on August 7, 2010, to support the October 2010 release of her next full-length record, “When Im With You,” Heller has even more to keep her busy in the future, and thats a good thing.

Track Listing:

01. Tell It Again
02. When I’m With You
03. What Love Really Means
04. Kingdom Come
05. Boat Song
06. Control
07. Love Can Make You New
08. Olivianna
09. No Fight Left
10. Until You Came Along

Check out JJ's first music video!

CLICK HERE TO VISIT JJ'S FACEBOOK PAGE

5/18/10 NEW FAN VIDEO TO JJ'S SONG "TRUE THINGS"
19 year-old Kirstine Christensen sent this link to us today. She and her five friends spent quite a lot of time putting this video together. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

*jj and dave heller

An Interview with
JJ Heller

by Travis and Laura Stewart

~JJ Heller, an independent artist who writes and performs with her husband Dave, experienced a dramatic increase in exposure this past year when their song “Your Hands” was used by dancer Diana Drexler on the TV show “So You Think You Can Dance?” and suddenly found their music at the top of the singer/songwriter charts on iTunes. Along with my daughter 12 year-old daughter Laura, I had the chance to interview JJ for our viaRenovo artist interview series.

Travis & Laura: Wow, a lot has happened to you in the last year. Your song “Your Hands” was featured on “So You Think You Can Dance” and suddenly you had national recognition and #10 slot of the Adult Contemporary Indicator radio chart as well as a top seller in the iTunes Singer/Songwriter category. With this in mind, we are going to pose a question to you that we as a family sometimes ask at the dinner table: High/Low. What has been the High from this type of exposure and what has been the Low?

JJ: The high: receiving such a huge amount of feedback from new listeners telling me how God has used “Your Hands” to speak to them and encourage them as they go through tough times. The low: this is kind-of weird, but here goes. Before, we could show up at a venue or a church and I could help set up our CD table and hang out wherever I wanted, and casually chat with whoever happened to pass by. Now, more and more people are recognizing me, so I need to stay behind the scenes a little more before concerts if I want to have time to focus and rest. It is so odd to be recognized by people I’ve never met!

Laura: Your song, “Your Hands” is featured on K-LOVE (a national Christian radio station). Is it ever weird to hear your song on the radio?

JJ: Yes, but it’s so fun! It’s very surreal.

Travis & Laura: Not only have you experienced big career changes in the past year but you moved to Phoenix and travelled nearly, full-time with a one year old. How has this affected the way you and Dave write songs (not to mention when)?

JJ: Oh man! We do so little songwriting these days. If we’re not on the road, we’re working on our new home. We’re almost done with all of our major house projects, so I’m hoping to have a lot more time to write in the near future. We finally finished one a few days ago, and we’re really excited about it. I can’t wait for you guys to hear it!

Travis: You just moved back from Nashville. How did living there affect your artistry?

JJ: It was wonderful to be able to set up songwriting sessions with artists who we love (Andrew Osenga, Matthew Perryman Jones, Katie Herzig, etc.). We could also go out and hear amazing music basically any night of the week. Nashville is literally a treasure trove of talent (how’s that for alliteration?).

Laura: Who were you writing the song “You Would Love Me Too” about?

JJ: That is actually one of the only songs that isn’t specifically about someone. It’s just a sassy little love song that was fun to write.

Travis & Laura: “True Things” is written for the True Campaign which is a non-profit committed to challenging the cultural ideas of beauty. Can you tell us more about how you wrote this song?

JJ: My husband, Dave, and I wrote this song along with Andrew Osenga. We were all just sitting around our living room, brainstorming about identity. We talked about the ways that we mistakenly define ourselves by the things that we own or the way that we look. If we have a relationship with Christ, we know that we are loved and we have value because we are God’s creation. It’s a truth that we know, but it it’s still hard to believe sometimes. We hope that this song is a good reminder .

Listen to “True Things” here:

Download “True Things” for free from the True Campaign by right-clicking here.

Travis & Laura: One of our favorite songs is “Fly Away” which has the lyrics, “I wanna fly away, far beyond my cage where I hear freedom singin’”. What does freedom mean to you? When you find yourself “trapped” in old thoughts, behaviors and patterns how do you find your way into that freedom?

JJ: Freedom happens when hope hope and truth replace fear. I can get so wrapped up in all the bad things that could possibly happen, that I lose sight of my reason for living. God wants me (and us!) to enjoy the gifts and people he’s given us, and to trust that He’s going to take care of them better than we can. Focusing on the truth is the ticket to REALLY living.

Laura: What inspired the artwork on your album cover for “The Pretty and the Plain”?

JJ: The cover is all about freedom (do you sense a theme?). We love the imagery of the plain birds and the pretty ones flying toward the open sky.

Travis: Other than “Your Hands” which song gets the most reaction from audiences?

JJ: Definitely our song “Love Me.” It touches on different scenarios of people looking for love and being let down. True love is only found in Christ!

Listen to “Love Me” here:

Travis: OK, random question: We sometimes get your songs stuck in our heads. Do you ever get your own songs stuck in your head?

JJ: It mostly happens when we’re trying to work on a song, and that new melody gets stuck in my head. If I catch myself singing or humming a song we’ve already recorded, I try to stop before anyone notices. It just seems kind-of embarrassing to sing my own song.

Laura: Will your next album have any songs about Lucy?

JJ: Most definitely. We have a few, actually, and they’re some of my favorite on the album. We sing them to her all the time.

Travis & Laura: OK, we are going to give you 6 words. Write the first thoughts that come to mind:
1. Parenthood: hard
2. Diana Drexler: thanks!
3. Lucy: sweetheart
4. Your Hands: blessing
5. Nashville: growth
6. iTunes: income (I hope that’s not too weird… it’s what came to mind!)

Thank you JJ!

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“One of the freshest,
brings me to tears!”



the portastylistic