BY DENISE J. MALLABO

With music as his passion, nothing’s going to stop the talented, multi-hyphenate JAMES REID in seeing to it that everyone will listen to his brand of sound.

James Reid immediately lights up when asked about music. You can see the excitement in his eyes as he shares fresh, exciting things with his label, the new tunes that he’s working on and the people that he’s been working with.  

With music as his passion, nothing’s going to stop the talented, multi-hyphenate JAMES REID in seeing to it that everyone will listen to his brand of sound.  

“Right before this interview I just signed a new artist. We had a contract signing earlier,” James shares. Sporting a striped brown long sleeve shirt, the 29-year-old Filipino – Australian got his hands full as founder and chairman of his record label Careless Music, among other things.

James became a household name in the Philippines when he won the reality show Pinoy Big Brother: Teen Clash 2010. A talent scout saw him walking down the street and next thing he knows; he was already auditioning for the reality show on ABS-CBN. “I was like, ‘No, there's no way I can do TV.’ They were just daring me, ‘Do it, just do it.’ So, my dad agreed for me, it wasn't exactly my choice. I did not expect to win the show and what would happen afterwards, which was the performing and going into acting. I just tripped into it; fell into the deep end and I just can't learn how to swim,” explains James. But for someone who seems to have a trying time with acting, he did really well.  

His movie debut, Diary ng Panget, was a box office hit that was then followed by more successful movies and TV series. But only when James started working on his music that he found a purpose for his success.

He released two EPs prior to releasing his first studio album, Palm Dreams, in 2017 where he was the executive producer and creative director. “I released Palm Dreams, that came out in 2017 and that was all original songs written by me. I didn't expect it to do so well but I think that really changed everyone's perception of me from what I was doing before; to see me as an artist. That's kind of what I struggled with being famous with no reason. I rose to fame too quickly and not even knowing why. There wasn't any particular skill that I mastered or that I really enjoyed. I later discovered that it was music. I was already so famous but I couldn't understand what for, so I was trying to find that thing that's like ‘this is my craft, that I'm really dedicated to, that I'd really work on and work hard at.’ Music was that for me,” he shares.

Hey, James. How are you? What were you doing before this interview?

 Right before this interview I just signed a new artist. We had a contract signing

earlier. I can't say who it is because we haven't announced it yet. (NOTE: Just recently, Careless Music signed Filipina actresses Liza Soberano and Issa Pressman and were both introduced during their trade launch.) 

As the chairman of Careless Music, how would you describe the talents under your label?    

I couldn't really figure that out. Some of the artists are very experienced singers, technically amazing singers, and some of them also aren't. Some of them are able to produce their own songs and others can't. But I think at the end of the day, for me there was something in them when I met them that I was like, "I'm rooting for you and I don't know why." There was just something about them that they had this quality that was magnetic or...I can't really explain it. But it's never based of like, well, usually it's a given that yes, you can sing, write songs, or you can perform, but there's just this invaluable quality about them that just stuck out to me and I was like, "I want to work with you." 

Music-wise, what are you most excited about in the coming months? 

I'm excited on a lot of project that we're working on in Careless. We're signing a lot of artists for this year, I can't really say who just yet but we're working on another group project; another Careless mixtape, which is supposed to drop this year. A lot of tours and live shows.

Do you remember the first album that you bought, that you religiously played and influenced you to do music?

Yeah, it was, DAFT PUNK discovery, which is more electronic French House- that was also the first poster I had in my house as a kid. I really love that electronic sound, and those robotic voices and just that kind of funky feel. But singing wise, I remember, I didn’t buy the album, my brother did, and I kept singing to it over and over again, was Mario’s [sings] “You should let me love you…” Yeah, I listen to that album over and over again. So that kind of started that R&B.

What’s your least favourite thing about Showbiz in the Philippines?

There’s so many things to not like about showbiz. I’m having a hard time picking one.

Okay, give me two.

Definitely the privacy thing. That’s a huge one. Especially coming from Australia. I wasn’t used to how closely knit a lot of communities are in the Philippines. I just wasn’t so used to it. But yeah, the lack of Privacy was definitely one that I had to get used to. I would just stop telling people about my personal life. And then the other one is…a lot of the noise- the random stories that people make- and with the rise of social media it just got worse and worse. The disinformation, the fake news.  

Watch the entire interview with James as he updates us with his music career globally, his take on his acting career, and Hello 2.0 Legends Only!