Meet Jax Anderson | Musical Artist & Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jax Anderson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jax, have there been any changes in how you think about work-life balance?
When I first started playing shows & directing music videos, I was in heavy hustle mode. I was told “It’s a numbers game” more times that I can count & I believed it as bible. Hustle culture tells you that you have to live it all the time & if you’re not, someone else is & that faceless human is getting your gold. While I do believe in hard work & disciple, I’ve found that hustle culture is complete & utter bullshit. It’s a fast way to burn out & bad art. In order to make good art you have to live & experience things. You have to build relationships & know yourself & love people & experiment & explore. Good art is conceptualized when you’re not making anything – it’s the antithesis of hustle culture. You can’t be still & be bored when you’re spending 12hrs in the studio or 16hrs a day on a video shoot or touring 300 days a year. It’s a different story if you feel like you can thrive in those conditions, but in reality, not many people, if any, can. For me the work life balance is a constant pendulum that rarely evens out. I think I’ll always be swaying somewhere between a workaholic with coffee breath & an anarchist with too much time on my hands. These days I try & hold some remnants of office hours & weekends & it helps a ton. You’re allowed to feel like a human. You’re allowed to, & for the sake of your art should, have breaks.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’m excited to be entering into this new phase of my career. I feel like I’ve grown up a lot in the last few years & have taken the hard lessons of long touring & not know what the f*** I’m doing into a phase that feels a little more free & understood. I’m allowing myself to experiment & explore & allow artistry to be fun. I feel a lot of hope for the future overall. I have my own project under my name (Jax Anderson), I director music videos for friends & otherwise, & I’ve started producing for other artists as well. I also host a monthly meetup for queer musicians called “Show & Tell”. I’ve been busy hahah. I want to be the go to music producer & director for queer & women artists. I want my project to resonate with queer people who need it. But overall my goal is to keep making art in a fun & hopeful way.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I still feel like I’m new to LA – I’m from Detroit originally. We’d probably go to Kumquat coffee then go for a hike.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There’s a lovely man by the name of Nate Dorough that I owe pretty much my entire career to. He was my first manager back in the day & he put me on some of my first shows. He saw what I wanted to do as an artist & always encouraged me to do it. He’s all about community & giving back & never gatekeeping any information he has. He’s a true fan of music & always gives people a chance. He’s a straight shooter in a kind way, which is a rare quality on the business side of music. He helped foster the community I have around my music & I’m forever grateful for his friendship.

Website: iamjaxanderson.com

Instagram: @jaxanderson

Twitter: @jaxanderson

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU0Rurg-gR0DtOOUA4-ZzIA