Toronto-based Afro-Fusion and Afrobeats singer Juic3boy recently released two new singles “Sticky Situation” and “Keep the Faith” after his previous single “Outside (Soft Life)“, which gathered 22K streams on Spotify off multiple major editorial playlists including “Mood Ring”, “R&B Right Now and “Crxss Currents“.
We sat down with Juic3boy to talk about his musical journey and stories behind two releases, and went deeper as we dove into the topics of love and hope.
Ayse: Tell me a bit about your trajectory. How did you find yourself as an artist?
Juic3boy: Music came at a very crucial time in my life. I finished high school, and I was really trying to figure out my purpose. I had a couple of friends that were doing music. Never really thought anything crazy about it, just a couple of friends doing stuff that they thought was fun. One day, they actually invited me to a studio. They had this song that they were working on for over a year, and they were like ; “yo, Juice, try something on it“. So I did, I didn’t think too much of it. But after I recorded with them, they were like “you are really good at this“. Then they put out the song and build some traction within the city. We got our 15 seconds of fame.
Then I started to really gravitate more to making music. I couldn’t really express my feelings as much verbally with others, but I felt that music was my outlet. Upon a few years doing it, after I graduated from university, I started to figure this was my hidden talent from a long time that I just discovered. A lot of people were encouraging me to do it. There were obviously challenges along the way, but I felt like this was my God given talent. So, I’d say that I’ve been taking music more seriously since 2019. That is when I really found my sound and my direction, I want to go with music.
Ayse: I see, everything kind of aligned naturally for you. What’s the importance music plays in your life?
Juic3boy: I feel like music is my reason, my purpose, and not only just in a performing stance, but if I’m dealing with certain situations in my life, music has allowed me to figure out the answers to the situations and allowed me to inspire other people make a certain impact in their life. So I’m grateful to God that music came in my life because I really feel that the times when nobody was there for me music always stayed.
Ayse: Moving more into your musical style; who are your inspirations and what things are you influenced by?
Juic3boy: I will start with back home. I’m inspired by a lot of African artists. I’m a descendant from West Africa, Ghana. That’s where my family is from. I was born in Canada, but I really hold strong to my Ghanaian roots. So artists like Ofori Amponsah, Daddy Lumba, those are older artists, but now, there’s Sarkodie, there’s Black Sherif, there’s Stonebwoy. Those are a lot of my inspirations from back home.
But in the Afrobeat sense Burna Boy, Davido, Wizkid. Honestly, everyone! You have the music icons like Michael Jackson, Usher, so everyone inspires me a tiny bit, and I take influence from each of them and try to make the best out of myself.
Ayse: What topics do you usually gravitate towards? Is it always about feelings and emotions?
Juic3boy: I really love the genre that I do, because it gives me the flexibility to talk about whatever I want to talk about. I can talk about love, I can talk about my experiences, I could talk about politics, I could talk about my conversations with God.
Ayse: Let’s move more towards the present, about your double release. How have people’s reactions been?
Juic3boy: I call this a sequel, because the songs literally were experiences that happened one after the other with two different girls. I’m gonna get a little bit personal. I had different experiences with them, some bad, some sticky.
In “Sticky Situation“, I talked about a long distance relationship. She was from London and obviously, me being from Toronto, it’s hard to hold that together and genuinely have a relationship with someone that lives so far. So things didn’t pan out the way that I wanted it to. But at the same time, I do feel like she came into my life for a reason. And she also helped me a lot as well because I started talking to her around the time that I just moved to Toronto. So I take a lot of good from that.
And then right after, “Keep the Faith“ kind of intertwines with the first situation because “Sticky Situation“ didn’t completely end before “Keep the Faith“ started. “Keep the Faith“ was with another girl that was from here, and she had everything that I wanted in a woman. And for some unforeseen circumstances; some doubt and some incompatibility came from her stance, everything kind of crashed. So I talked about my experience with her in that song, and essentially saying “this could have worked, but you didn’t keep the faith for us to keep going strong together“. So I wanted to put those two songs together to really paint a long story.
Juic3boy also states that his objective for listeners around the world is to trace the
connection between his pain and emotions but also the commitment that he shared to save relationships between these two women that he loved.
Ayse: Does it feel weird being very open about your personal life with audiences?
Juic3boy: No, honestly, it feels normal. Obviously, it’s personal. So I wouldn’t just go out there saying the person’s whole business, but it’s a part of my experience too and I want my fans to also know that I can be vulnerable as well. I also go through experiences that you guys go through. I also go through times where I feel down, where I feel like my heart was shattered. And I feel like the best way to express that is through music. It is very normal to me.
I’m not just singing it just so I can make cash off someone that I was having that experience with. So I’m very intentional with what I talk about in my songs and I just want people to have that sort of expectation; it’s something real and it’s something that they could feel.
Ayse: That sort of relatability is important.
Juic3boy: 100%. Yeah.
Ayse: That takes me to one of the things in the press release that caught my attention when you said “I want young men to understand that you must still be a man of purpose in life even if you lose the woman of your dreams“. Can you speak on that a little bit?
Juic3boy: Wow. So I honestly forgot I wrote that, yeah, that’s 100% how I feel because sometimes it’s very tough as a man to express our feelings. Because we have one side that says, “just toughen up and forget about it, move on“. Then we have the other side that says “why aren’t men telling us how they feel, being expressive, why they are so nonchalant, and not expressing any emotions“.
There are times where we feel like we meet someone that is ultimately perfect for us and they can do no wrong. But I want people to face that reality that sometimes things don’t work, but what are you going to do just stop life? You got to move on and keep going forward. I know I’m a man of purpose so I’m not gonna let one experience stop me from going forward and I’ll just use that to fuel my fire, because I really feel like I’m headed somewhere.
Not all that glitters is gold. And you can sit in your sad times, but don’t sit in it forever.
Ayse: So what is next for you? Any projects besides your latest single “Come My Way”?
Juic3boy: Yeah. I am working on a live project. I’m working on some new music as always, I have some features on the way as well. The next single coming up. I worked with a big time producer from Ghana called Samsney. He worked with a lot of big artists in Africa like Victony, Blacko, Bella Shmurda…There are a lot of exciting things coming and I’m just trying to stay focused and continue making great music for everyone.
Ayse: What is your ideal scenario? Where do you want to be in terms of your music?
Juic3boy: I’m someone that does not have an end goal, I want to keep on improving, I want to keep on doing things that surpass what I did yesterday. I want to keep on surprising myself, making that impact. My goal coming to Toronto was to really create a stamp for myself and my genre in the city. And I have high hopes and believe that I can take it from here and bring it on to the global stage as a Canadian, Afro-Fusion, and Afrobeats artist. I really want to put my hands in everything that I can and to be the best artist that I can be for myself. Being inspired by so many people back home doing it, I just want to be another one of them. That’s making noise around the world in a good way. I just want to be great. I’ll do it.
Ayse: Music is the main reason you moved to Toronto, right?
Juic3boy: I moved here for music. That’s the main reason I left my family, I left my friends, I left my whole city to come here to pursue music, build a network, build connections, and make my name around the city and you know, after Toronto who knows where else God will take me…
We thank Juic3boy for his time and sharing his story with Sidedoor.
Listen to “Sticky Situation” and “Keep the Faith” here: https://open.spotify.com/album/75fGwnKaKvYqp6EwFNRkPF?si=VENsjh_tRI6BmOc51YfLtg
Follow Juic3boy on different platforms:
Instagram: @iamjuic3boy
Youtube: Juic3Boy – YouTube
Spotify: Juic3Boy | Spotify
Apple Music: Juic3Boy on Apple Music