WALANG pinagsisisihan si James Reid sa naging desisyon niya na pansamantala munang magpahinga sa pag-arte para mag-focus sa pagiging singer at record producer.
Inamin ng binata na parang nakaramdam siya ng pagod at sawa factor matapos ang ilang taong sunud-sunod na paggawa ng mga teleserye at pelikula.
Aniya, maituturing mang isang malaking sugal, mas ginusto muna niyang maging hands-on sa itinayong sariling music label at sa kanyang singing career.
“It was purely because I wanted creative control. I didn’t know it was going to go this far. The first project I did was ‘Palm Dreams.’ It was my first time to write a whole album, completely original.
“We weren’t trying to make a number one album, a mainstream album. I was just making music that I like. And then it was funny because when I released it, a lot the tweets were saying, ‘You know I’m not a fan of James Reid but ‘Palm Dreams’ is lit,’” paliwanag ng ex-boyfriend ni Nadine Lustre nang unapir siya sa latest vlog ng Pinoy band na The Juans.
Pagpapatuloy pa niya, “One thing led to another. I brought Brett Jackson, he came onboard as my very first artist. From there, it just grew out. It started out as just friends making music together. Once you share that vision, everything else starts coming together.”
“What I did crave was artistic expression. I didn’t want people to recognize me for my name or the fame. It was for the things that I did or that I created myself,” dugtong pa ng singer-actor.
Mahal pa rin naman daw niya ang akting at malaki ang utang na loob niya sa industriya ng telebisyon at pelikula ngunit kailangan daw niya itong isantabi muna para sa iba pa niyang pangarap sa buhay.
“I love acting. But sometimes after doing teleserye after teleserye, it gets repetitive and I felt like kind of robotic.
“I craved something that came from me, that I can really express. I was just following instructions. It wasn’t feeding my soul. It was difficult for me to step away from all of that because I was in a very good place.
“But I stepped away from doing that and I chose something more difficult, which is something that I still had to grow in such as making music and production, writing songs,” pahayag pa ng binata.
Inamin naman niya na noong nagsimula siyang karirin ang pagiging musikero, hindi rin niya itong matatawag na “the best,” pero mas pinili niya ang, “more difficult path because it was feeding my soul, because I could express myself creatively.”
Paliwanag pa ni James, “One of the things I had to do was learn how to use what I have like my fame, everything that I’ve done in the past. We have such a great fan base, the JaDine fans.
“But how to just transition that over into music… I wasn’t starting from scratch. I was lucky enough that I already had the foundations so it wasn’t too hard.
“At the start, it was just me and my friends doing music. We do one show once a month and we think it’s great. But after a while and you look at the numbers, it’s like oh my God. We need to earn money. We can’t just be doing shows and spending money on this.
“The hard part was learning how to make it professional. That’s what we spend this year doing, growing up. It was really hard,” sabi pa ng binata na nananatiling positibo sa larangang pinagpapaguran niya ngayon.