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Don't know if you already read that, well, I just found that on amazon. 
It's a short (short^^
') Biography about Jesse and he's describing Have it all :-)
It's a short (short^^
') Biography about Jesse and he's describing Have it all :-) It’s been two years since the release of Jesse McCartney’s Departure, an album that showcased an edgier pop/R&B sound, reflecting his growth as a singer and songwriter. The album’s first hit single, “Leavin',” (produced by Tricky and The Dream) was a blockbuster smash, becoming the #1 most played Top 40 single of the year. The song spent 6 weeks at #1 on the Top 40 Chart. Not bad for a record that was initially met with a moment of uncertainty.
“At first, people didn’t know what to make of it,” says the 23-year-old McCartney. “The common misconception is that I’m still 15 years old. I think people first heard those songs and thought ‘Isn’t he a kid? What’s going on?’ It was almost like they didn’t expect me to grow up or they weren’t ready for it. I think time moves a lot slower for the listener than it does for the artist. It took a second to adjust, but once I got the message across, the fans were rooting for me. And I’m grateful for that—they’ve been amazing and really loyal.”
New album Have It All completes the transformation that began with the previous album. McCartney’s blue-eyed soul leanings fall comfortably into a lineage that stretches from childhood hero Marvin Gaye to the contemporary urban sound exemplified by Sean Garrett, one of pop’s top producers and a key collaborator here. The album’s other producers—Ammo, Kevin Rudolf, Young Yonny, and Danjahandz—also speak to the credibility of McCartney’s rebirth and evolution.
You need only look to the title track for a line that could well be a sly mantra for the album and McCartney’s career in general: “We can do what grown folk do.”
There’s a kind of naïveté to some of the songs, he says, but not the naïveté of teen innocence but rather the sheer bafflement of someone who’s been through the romantic ringer and still doesn’t have the answers. “The message on this album is that even though I’ve learned a lot since my debut record, there’s still so much I don’t know—especially about women,” he laughs. “I find myself thinking that I could get married tomorrow and that it could all be good. And then I just think: I don’t have the slightest clue of how they work and how they operate. I know what it’s like to be in love, and I know what it feels like once it’s over. It’s a matter of harnessing it and really knowing what to do with all that emotion.”
“But this album wraps all of that up in 11 songs. There are a lot of just fun, easy-to-listen songs, and there are some that dig a lot deeper and really talk about what’s been going on in my world for the last year. For instance, there’s a record called ‘Club Hop’ and it’s about enjoying your life, popping some champagne and hanging out with friends. It’s one of those records where the track is so infectious that it evoked something that was sheer fun and didn’t need a lot of reflection. But then there are songs like ‘Mrs. Mistake,’ which is about the one who got away, and not knowing whether or not I could ever find that again.”
What McCartney is finding for the first time, really, is his true musical home.
“The new album is filled with a lot of dance/electro-type, fun records. I pushed the envelope a little bit more rhythmically and urban-wise, though there are still some songs that are reminiscent of the last album. People like Sean Garrett and Tyga from Young Money [who provides a guest rap on the playful ‘I Don’t Normally Do This’] are prolific writers in the urban world and helped me to take the sound and writing to new heights.”
It’s not just a matter of turning up the production; McCartney feels like he’s finally come into his own as a singer for the first time.
“I really feel like I’m in my prime vocally. The song ‘Undo’ is the first time I’ve ever recorded a song almost entirely in my falsetto voice, which I think right now is the strongest it’s ever been. I’ve been working really hard on strengthening that part of my voice, and I wanted to stretch my legs a little bit and see if I could pull off something that kind of has an old-school Marvin Gaye-type feel.”
But it’s definitely not just the sound and singing that have matured. “The biggest thing is that I really feel that for the first time, there are no boundaries,” McCartney says. “Content-wise, there’s no one telling me ‘You really shouldn’t sing about that.’ And I know my own boundaries, and what I want to say, and I’m happy I’m at a place where I can say it and not catch any **** for it. I didn’t want any limitations, lyrically or musically, for this album. I wanted to talk about what’s going on. I’m 23, and quite frankly, all these fans are growing up with me—and I don’t want to be talking about stuff that they’ve already been done with for two or three years. I want to make a record that’s accessible to my contemporaries.”
As he says, even the younger McCartney might have blanched—or at least blushed—at some of this material. He was just 14 when he recorded his first gold record, with the short-lived group Dream Team. Two years later, he was recording his solo debut, which went platinum, but with a sense of indirection and malleability that any teenager thrust into the spotlight would feel.
“When I was 16, I was so green and so naïve, and I just wanted to make an album. I was willing to sing anything and everything,” McCartney says. “And then when people started paying attention, I thought, let’s really zero in on what sound I want. Because that first album wasn’t really it. As much as that album was important to my career, in my opinion, it wasn’t the most flattering to what I’m capable of and definitely wasn’t the most flattering to my voice. There were certain songs that I don’t know that I’d record again. I did see myself moving in more of an R&B lane after that album. I wanted to sing the kind of songs that I grew up listening to. I wanted to be a little Michael Jackson, Prince, or Stevie. I loved them so much, and loved that genre of music and wanted to be a part of it.”
It wasn’t until he recorded his 3rd album Departure in 2008 that he allowed himself “to go against expectations and do what I wanted.” It represented a leap of faith, with no guarantee it would pay off after so much time away.
“It was a lot more pressure and people looking at me saying, ‘All right, this one’s on you!’ I don’t know what would have happened if it didn’t work. You have to be honest, trust yourself and go with your gut because the fans can spot a fake very quickly. I was determined to push myself vocally and stay in that booth as long as it took for each song. It was something that I decided I would do on my own, and it was a scary move.”
Having “Leavin’” go triple-platinum and become the No. 1 most-played Top 40 single of the year vindicated those instincts, and “it definitely took a little bit of the pressure off this time, knowing that I had already laid the groundwork. I knew this album would be less of a shock than the last album, because people were expecting some more of that rhythmic R&B stuff.”
After the release of 2009’s Departure: Recharged, which featured the top 10 hit “How Do You Sleep?” (featuring Ludacris), McCartney went to work with Garrett (Usher, Beyonce, Jay-Z), Young Yonny (Trey Songz), and Ammo (Ke$ha) on Have It All, ultimately writing about 40 songs before whittling it down to 11. Besides the three core producers, the renowned Danjahandz also stepped in for a crucial ballad, “The Writer.”
McCartney continues to do a lot of moonlighting. He’s increasingly gotten into writing songs for other artists, and one of those—“Bleeding Love,” a collaboration with One Republic’s Ryan Tedder—turned into the top song of 2008. After he and Tedder came up with it in a sudden burst of inspiration one afternoon, “it sat around in a file for like a year, until Ryan pitched it to Simon (Cowell), who wanted it for Leona Lewis. And it became one of the biggest songs of the decade. I can’t even tell you what that was like.”
And he continues to act, while admitting it’s a tough balance between that and the demands of being a full-time musician. “I love acting so much, and what I thought I would do actually when I was younger, when I started doing stuff professionally. I was theatrically trained, and I was on- and off-Broadway for fun, I was taking the money I was making from acting and putting it into demos, and that’s how I got signed. But I didn’t really expect to have a music career ahead of everything else.”
After his early work on shows that included three years on All My Children, Summerland, appearances on Law & Order and Greek, McCartney found an additional career doing voice work for animated films. For certain jobs, certainly, it’s the name recognition that brings animation casting agents to his door. “I mean, they want to be able to have names they can promote. But in many cases in the last couple of years, I’ve noticed, I’m getting hired just for my voice—which is cool, because I’ve been working on catalog of voices, and I grew up listening to and admiring Mel Blanc as a kid.” In early 2011, he’ll be back at work, talking veeeeery slowly as he again gives voice to Theodore for the 3D third edition of the massive Alvin and the Chipmunks franchise. He’s also keeping his toe—and face—in live action, of course, including a starring role in a not-so-kids-oriented indie film called Beware the Gonzo that recently premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Dabbling in every medium would seem to have McCartney living up to the acquisitive-sounding title of Have It All. But listening to the commitment of a year’s time and a lifetime’s passion that went into the new album, it’s clear that these songs would be “all” enough for a pop star who has no intention of leavin’.
