Review: J4 Releases New Single "Changes"
Singer-songwriter J4’s biggest goal when writing music is to create a story through attention grabbing lyrics, and he delivers this seamlessly with his new single “Changes.” Following life from birth to the beyond, the multi-instrumentalist shows all the changes of life in a beautiful and heart touching way.
The song begins with a father looking after and reflecting upon his life with his child, and as the song builds up, the perspective switches to life through her eyes as she finishes her journey. J4 demonstrates his musical knowledge through “Changes,” with his soft guitar paving the way for his phenomenal vocal riffs. Not only does he provide an uplifting outlook on life, but he also provides positive insight into the transitionary period of death. In “Changes,” death isn’t something to fear, and death isn’t the end, but rather is a gateway towards something new.
“Changes” isn’t a love song in the common sense, it’s almost an ode to life, a love song for the everyday, a lesson about living life to its fullest potential and caring for others while you do. As humans, we all lead different lives, but at our core we share experiences, and through an outsider perspective J4 can appeal to this in all of us. It’s a universal look at growing up, getting old, and moving on. Through creating a character and allowing the listener to get so attached to them in such a short period of time, J4 has created nothing short of a masterpiece with “Changes.”
J4’s inspiration for “Changes” comes from a fascinating backstory. Beginning with the innocence and curiosity of the music industry, J4 was first put on stage as a child for a reopening ceremony of a local NY fire station. After moving to Nashville years later, J4 trained professionally under the direction of vocal master Brett Manning (Carrie Underwood, Luke Combs, Haley Williams), then later attended Belmont University College of Music and Performing Arts to work under masters Henry Smiley (Russel Dickerson, Kassi Ashton) and Sandra Dudley (Melinda Doolittle, Josh Turner), quickly making a name for himself around the Nashville songwriting community.
J4 was quickly put on stages around Nashville’s famous “Broadway”, going straight from classes to four hour sets at Tootsies, Rippy’s, and The Tin Roof. As invigorated and excited J4 was to have finally made it into the Broadway scene, the late nights and bar scene soon became too much, pushing J4 into a deep and dark hole. With concerns about not wanting to pass up the opportunities and possibilities of being seen by industry professionals in this infamous bar scene, J4 also found himself struggling morally as he was simply not treated right.
During this upsetting time for J4, it was up to him to decide if he could continue on this path of disruption-- sending him on his way to find his faith. J4 decided to put God first, letting him steer through the ethical choices that have to be made in this tough industry. J4 soon found that putting faith first meant good change was second.
After switching his directional path, things started to look up. In 2015 J4 began opening for headlining artists such as Josh Turner, Gordon Mote and Lee Greenwood. That same year, J4 sang background vocals for the alternative pop-rock band Cage the Elephant at the Ryman Auditorium. He made his debut radio performance in 2018 at WSM National Radio on a tribute for country music legend George Strait and reached number one on the Nashville Reverbnation Songwriter and Pop charts in 2018 and 2019. In addition, he received his first major label song cut on pop artist Kechi’s (America’s Got Talent) debut album in 2020.
As he incorporates the theme of change and trusting faith in his own life, “Changes” is J4’s way to spread that message to anyone and everyone who may need it.
Follow J4 here: