"I thought my record label were actually possibly trying to kill me off," laughs Welsh singer-songwriter Jem, over the phone from a Chicago hotel room, where she's enjoying a rare moment's peace during her second U.S. tour. Since releasing her debut album, Finally Woken, on Dave Matthews' ATO Records in March, Jem has been on a nonstop promotional blitz, doing tour dates, interviews, TV appearances and all manner of hoop-jumping to get people to listen to her music.
Even if her name doesn't sound familiar and you haven't heard Jem's hip-hop-inflected folktronica on the radio or MTV, chances are you've heard her music without realizing it.
In this ultra-integrated media era, getting your music on the radio is only a small part of the equation. Jem has had only minor success at radio, but her music has been featured prominently in TV shows like ABC's Desperate Housewives and Life As We Know It, commercials for Law & Order reruns on TNT, and the new movie, Closer, among other places. She even appeared in the flesh on Fox's The O.C., singing her version of Paul McCartney's "Maybe I'm Amazed." It's almost impossible to turn on the TV without hearing a track from Finally Woken.
"I don't think there's anything wrong with exposing it like that because I wrote it to be heard, really," Jem says of pimping her record to advertisers. "Although I wouldn't allow it or want it on a really cheesy food advert or something." Of course, given the ubiquity of her music, it's not out of the question that Kraft would come calling.
For Jem, the whole experience is the culmination of years of work that started behind the scenes, working as a DJ agent and helping start the small label Marine Parade. At age 25, Jem decided to put her own career first, devoting her time to writing and recording, landing a track she co-wrote with producer Guy Sigsworth on Madonna's American Life album, and eventually getting airplay for Finally Woken's title track on LA's influential KCRW radio station.
It's been a slow climb, in part because Jem, now 29, isn't your typical jailbait pop star, and in part because her sound isn't easily categorized. "It was definitely harder to get signed because it wasn't straight something," she says. "It wasn't genre-specific, and I think that's why it took a bit longer." That indefinable quality has led to some comparisons in the press that Jem doesn't feel are completely fair, most often to trip-hop/folk singer Dido. While both performers share a British heritage and straddle the lines between dance music and folk, Jem's songs are more beat-intensive and danceable, and she'd be happy not to hear the name of her alleged rival again. "But if all of her fans want to go and buy my album," she adds, "I'm not going to complain."
Chances are the Dido comparisons won't stop, even though Jem has worked hard to ally herself more with a hip-hop crowd. In Vegas, she'll be playing at this year's benefit for the Shade Tree Shelter, headlined by alternative hip-hop collective Jurassic 5, whose producer Cut Chemist recently did a remix of Jem's latest single, "They." It may seem like an odd gig to someone who's only heard the folkier sides of Jem's music, but many of her beats were crafted by hip-hop producer Ge-ology, who's worked with Mos Def and Talib Kweli, and she couldn't be more excited to play for an audience of hip-hop fans.
"I was happy that Jurassic 5 asked me, because I could totally tailor my set for an audience who really likes hip-hop, because the beats are really strong," she says. But don't expect to see Jem CDs in the hip-hop section of your music store anytime soon. "I would never call it that," she admits, "because I'd probably get majorly dissed."