PEOPLE OF THE WORLD UNITE, SIT DOWN
AND SHUT THE FUCK UP.
Ever since Mr. Jimmy Jam teased that the legendary Janet (Miss Jackson if ya nasty) had some “exciting news” for us back in April this year, we, the Rhythm Nation, have been (im)patiently waiting to hear more.
…And that just happened.
Studio monitor company Barefoot Sound just published an interview with producer/engineer Ian Cross about his engineering process and his experience with their technology, as well as what he’s working on at the moment, including…oh, just casually helping to produce a NEW JANET JACKSON RECORD.
The confirmation of Janet’s long-awaited LP is delivered in the article’s very first sentence, no less.
“Ian Cross is currently working exclusively with Janet Jackson on her forthcoming much anticipated album, her first since Discipline (2008). OH! Sure. Okay. Fine. Dead.
Just for some quick little background, Cross previously worked as an engineer on Damita Jo, 20 Y.O. and Discipline. (Importantly, he also helped to craft Jessica Simpson‘s A Public Affair.)
He says that his relationship with Janet developed into a friendship, leading up to this brand new full-time endeavor: “Janet [Jackson] and I had a little bit more of a special relationship because we became friends naturally. You meet a lot of people and you become friends with a couple of them, but sometimes there is one person you become really good friends with. No rhyme or reason, it’s just what’s meant to be. That’s what happened with Janet. She asked me to work on an album with her called Discipline in 2007 and, again, just do the same thing, produce the vocals. That led to her hiring me full-time to work with her. That’s where I’m at now.”
Of course, there’s lots of chatter about the quality of the Barefoot Sound system, as if the news of a NEW FUCKING JANET JACKSON ALBUM wasn’t actually the main topic at hand.
As it turns out, Janet is also a fan of the Barefoot Sound technology, as evidenced when he played her A NEW SONG CALLED “I GET SO LONELY.” (Unless he meant her own “I Get Lonely,” in which case…why was he playing it for her? Is she doing a 2014 remix or something? What’s even happening?)
“Janet and I were sitting in this very room together and I was about to play her the Barefoots for the first time. I started playing a song called ‘I Get So Lonely,’ and she stopped me and said, ‘Where is the low end coming from?’ I said, ‘The speaker, that’s what you’re listening to.’ She said, ‘Those speakers are the only thing we’re listening to right now?’ I said, “That’s just the speakers.’ She was instantly sold.”
He also revealed that the recording sessions have been happening here, there and everywhere: “We’ve been working in Qatar. We’ve been working in Paris, the Middle East, and now we feel like we can work anywhere. With the Barefoots and our little system that we have it’s a very powerful setup.”
AND THEN HE JUST STARTS SAYING ALL OF THESE THINGS.
“The new album is going to be great. It’s a process. There’s a lot in store, yet to come. I can’t go into too many details but I think Janet Jackson’s fans are going to be very excited about the new album, and I think people who don’t know her as fans are going to be excited about it, too. The new paradigm of music, the real people in music now, are blending technology and music together. It’s becoming more and more seamless. I find that the direction, not just of the music, but the concept of making albums is changing and developing so quickly and rapidly. We’re going to be doing things that are completely unexpected that nobody’s seen before. We apply that to the music in the album itself and that’s why we only want to work with the best of the best. We’re bringing in some of the best people on the planet to work on this record. We’ve got the best rig, the best speakers, and we’re doing a lot of new and interesting things.”
God help the basic bitches taking up space on Top 40 radio at the moment:
Miss Jackson is coming for the reckoning.
Read the full interview over at Barefoot Sound.