C-pop superstar Jackson Wang is opening up like never before ahead of the release of his new album, MAGICMAN 2. Sitting down with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, the artist and creative force behind TEAM WANG dives into the emotional and mental journey that shaped his latest work — and what it means to go solo.
Talking about life as an independent artist, Jackson shared, “Also for majority of my solo career, obviously I grew with 88rising. It inspired me a lot, but at the same time, I was like a one-man team. I direct all my stuff. I write treatments for all my stuff I wrote. Basically the craziest thing is the preparation for everything, I just need to do everything. And there's pros and cons versus if you're in a system, you have everything taken care of. You just need to show up. You just need to execute and focus on delivering the best you can. But as a solo artist, independent artist, it's so much work. There's so much stuff that I would have to edit. Even my behind the scenes, I would have to post this and just make sure that it's a one man label.”
When asked about how he’s been feeling leading up to the creation of MAGICMAN 2, he revealed, “The only bright light that I saw in 10 years is being on stage, having my audience there. That was it. But what killed me internally was behind the scenes. I wasn't used to it. I didn't know how to deal with it, like the system, the reality of everything, the humanity of everything. So yeah, that's why I created this album. And also this album is very self-serving for me.”
Jackson also opened up about living with his parents and naming a song after them. “I live with them because, there's a song in my album that's named after them. And through that year, I was just thinking there are a lot of thoughts that I've never really thought about my parents. This song called 'Sophie Ricky', my mom's called Sophie, and my dad is Ricky. And that one year I started thinking, it's interesting that we're born, but we always tend to think our parents will take care of everything as a kid. Oh, they'll take care of everything. But we never actually thought about when they first had us, they had no idea.”
He describes the album as a reflection of life itself: “Just in general, the entire album is about just going through life. And there's so many emotions in life where the chapter one, let's say it's manic highs, going into losing control, going into realization and going into acceptance. And that applies to everything in life. That's just life in general. And every single song, there's a message to it according to the chapters. And that's how I feel about love. That's how I feel about this. This is what happened to me. This is my situation, my scenario, my experience. And at last, everything comes down to the last chapter. Acceptance is accepting everything.”
Zane Lowe called final track 'Made Me a Man' a “powerful, powerful song,” noting it feels like Jackson is making peace with past struggles. Jackson agreed, saying, “Yeah. The last song is ‘Made Me a Man’ and it's chapter four, acceptance, accepting it and moving on. And that's every situation in life. And something happened, you learn. First of all, you get very emotional about it. Then you realize a lot of things. And at the end, what has happened can't be undone. So you just accept it. You learn and you move on with it. And whatever the good and the bad made who you are today.”
Listen to the full interview anytime on demand with an Apple Music subscription here.
Like what you read? Show our writer some love!
-