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hey what's up taiwan i'm pj borton and
i'm chatting with joey chow right here
on icrt fm 100.
hello i'm joey you know and oh my gosh
today we have
quite the character coming to the show
today um he is r b soul extraordinaire
and as a solo musician has won four
grammy awards of course he's also a
member of maroon 5 one of my favorite
bands since 2012. today we have pj
martin what's up hey how you doing good
to be with you man um very well are you
currently on the west coast or on the
east coast or back home in new orleans
i'm home in new orleans actually yeah so
right in the middle of all those coasts
yeah i gotta say pj i've been a fan for
a long time i've been a fan since you
you know recreated the sound of maroon 5
but when you came out with your
rendition of the bee gees how deep is
your love like yeah the time right there
thank you man thank you yeah
much love so you obviously grew up with
soul music right soul is in your blood
um you started learning how to do music
in church is that right yeah that's
right yeah gospel music was the first
thing that i was around um which i think
soul music is just gospel music talking
about you know a love for a person or a
love for life yeah uh but that's where i
got my foundation there was so much good
music
um in in in my home and in my church
growing up that it just made me want to
continue to grow in music and uh but
that's where it all started does that
mean you learned to play the organ or
singing uh with a choir when you were
young yeah for sure yeah i learned how
to play the organ in church
and uh you know i started out singing in
the choir so that was the beginning
beginning and it just just all grew from
there yeah i i hear that uh was it your
mom or dad is a pastor actually both of
them they're both pastors yeah yeah both
pastors my dad is also an and a musician
and singer yeah and uh yeah so it was
all around me when i was a kid so you're
the son of a preacher man and preacher
woman that's right that's right exactly
and by the way mentioning that song i
think that song is a perfect starting
point for our next part of the
conversation because i remember that
song was originally written with aretha
franklin in mind right uh queen of soul
also from the south she's from tennessee
yeah and uh eventually that song uh
became a huge song for someone who's
from london you know from a middle class
family so in comparison right look
almost like royalty and i would say
that's kind of your personal story too
because you're from new orleans
uh but when you started working with
maroon 5 you flew all the way to la to
meet up with a bunch of ally boys was
there a lot of cultural shock when that
first happened um yeah i think a lot of
it was also just the culture of maroon
5. these guys have been a band since
since high school you know since like
the the seventh grade or something like
that um so it was a culture shock coming
into their world uh but what i realized
quickly was that we had way more in
common than we had different and um you
know it's been 12 years now we're like
family now uh but it's uh yeah it
quickly i quickly merged into it um but
initially it was like wow they're so
used to this world and the way that they
move i'm not used to it yet but i
quickly like fell into it did you bring
gumbo to their dinner table i did not
bring gumbo they had i think they had
some gumbo when they came to new orleans
oh they did uh when we had we had to
perform for something uh and i think
some of them had some tasty gumbo so
yeah and i hope they liked it yeah yeah
they better
like so you've been a very successful
solo musician on your own right but do
you feel like being a part of maroon 5
you know obviously you brought your kind
of new orleans soul and gospel music to
their studios did they also bring
something to you that helped you morph
your sound yeah i think was i think was
really cool about
having both of those and them being
separate but equal for me is that
um i don't really have to merge them in
that way i mean i think you know i i
like that i'm the keyboard player and
live i'm the background singer and i get
to bring my touch to what already exists
yeah so i'm not really changing what
exists you know that the maroon thing
lives on its own and then with my thing
um i get to be exactly who i want to be
um i think the
the the biggest impact that maroon has
had on my solo career is that it's
allowed me to be totally free and create
freely because there's no pressure to
sell records i mean
you know a very successful band it's
like i can make music without worry and
i think it allowed me to make some of
the best music i've been able to make
because making without pressure is just
the best way to create yeah but i think
that says a lot about um you as a
musician like that you are so eclectic
and versatile that you know you can go
into a completely or almost completely
different genre and just shine yeah so
now you know several albums later a few
grammys later and your own record label
later you have a new body of work it's
called watch the sun yes huge
collaborations on this one why is it
called watch the sun first of all um i i
wrote it when we were going through a
pretty dark time in the world uh we were
all shut down really and um but i really
started to take note from nature i got a
song called be like water with stevie
wonder yeah um and watch watch the sun
was still in that in that same mindset
of man i know it seems dark but when
when the when the world is at its
darkest that just means that the sun is
coming up pretty soon um so if you just
watch the sun whatever you're going
through in life whether it be your
relationship something in your own
personal life if you watch the sun you
can make it to the next day so that was
the that was the theme uh and to that
theme there's a song that i want to talk
about later which is one of my favorites
uh called little too heavy but yeah
we'll talk about stevie wonder and nas
first because you mentioned them first
yeah it's a huge collaboration that you
got they never work together right it's
because of you no it's the first time
they've worked together um yeah i mean i
i i asked nas to be on it first but i
happened to be working with stevie and
stevie recorded it with me first and
then i sent it back to nas and
found out that he had always wanted to
work with stevie
and uh so it was like a dream come true
for everybody
on the record you know and um i'm just
so proud of the way it came out what
it's saying like being able to say a
message in a cool way like that it's
just like it's a dream dream record for
me yeah there you go uh stevie wonder
nas there's only one of the big name
drops in this album uh you have jojo you
know for the younger generations you got
jojo she's got the amazing voice for
that track right there and also you have
el debarge right from the bar yeah it's
a very eclectic collaborations that
you've got it's like
who did you just how did you decide who
to grab for each song it really was the
song you know the song determined who
would be there and uh i guess because
the songs were eclectic it made the the
features eclectic because all the songs
were calling for different things and uh
yeah yeah i just was so happy you know
it i love when a plan comes together
when you hear a voice and you actually
able to get that voice on there it's
like that's the ultimate for a
songwriter and a producer so it's like
it was it's like oh this whole album is
a dream come true for me yeah and that
song with el debarge it comes after in
the album it comes after the one i was
talking about one of my favorites a
little too heavy yeah i love the way you
put the album together because a little
too heavy is singing about you know the
darkness of the night right how
what we went through in the last couple
of years is a bit too heavy and then el
debarge kind of lifts it up a little bit
after that's right
so obviously you spend a lot of time you
know um with
selecting songs and putting them in the
right order yeah that's that's really
important to me
um i like to take people on a journey i
like i don't like the journey to stop
you know i don't i don't like to put a
lot of space so a lot of times i i
connect these songs and it takes me time
to make sure they're in the right keys
and uh they're flowing in the the right
way and everything and like like you
said even thematically going from a
little too heavy and lifting you up with
on my way and then giving you ending you
on the positive message with with the
better benediction after that you know
all of that stuff is thought out and um
and you know even if people don't know
it initially it plays out in some kind
of way in your body and your soul when
you're listening to it you could
definitely feel it yeah now you are
turning 41 or already 41 this year 41
yeah turn 41 mark march 29th there you
go okay so the people that you grab for
your collaboration they're from one or
two generations above you right
so you've got you got that like you know
old soul as we call it here in asia um
so i want to know your perspective on um
a conceptual album because this album
has a concept
but we are living in the age of singles
games so how do you feel like musicians
like you who enjoy that concept of music
work into a day and age where you know
it's all about hits and games yeah i
love that you guys also say oh so that's
we say we say that in the south too um
um yeah man we say also too but um you
know i think it's really about making
what what moves you i think that's
ultimately what it what it should be for
any artist um is to be making things
that move you so if that's a single
or if that's a body of work that you
want to tell a whole story you know i
think they're they're people who work in
television you know and do 30-minute
episodes and they're people who work in
movies and do three-hour movies i think
it's just a matter of what moves you you
know and so i don't get into what you
know what people are supposed to do i do
think that i'm old enough to remember
those albums you know and i'm young
enough to remember you know where we are
now with with these singles and stuff
and you know i just i i play along with
all of that stuff uh but ultimately i
knew when i came to this i i wanted to
do a body of work that's what it was
going to move me i needed that much time
to tell the story that i wanted to tell
so what is uh the one song that you
really want people to listen to or
you're
most proud of from this album
oh wow
hey i'm sorry i have to make you choose
one of your favorite movies you know i'm
most proud of i mean okay if i'm gonna
go message and most proud of i would
have to say be like water with steve
stevie wonder and nas because i mean
that gives you a message and it's like
the dream collaboration with two legends
on it so i i would have to just lead you
there first but yeah i got i got many
favorites but i gotta say i mean as we
were just saying you know down south you
guys uh use the same phrase as we do
here in asia uh the phrase be like water
was also you know one that was uttered
by bruce lee a lot you know oh
absolutely formless beat the container
that you're poured into and uh yeah for
the rest of you guys you know if you
want uh some words of wisdom listen to
that one with nas and stevie wonder
that's right i'm guessing there's going
to be more grammys in 2023 for you so
you better clear out that shelf make
some space yeah we shall see
yeah we shall see thank you man album
watch the sun and everyone go listen to
it today we had pj morton joining us
right here thank you thank you
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