Joe Jonas released his second solo album, Music for People Who Believe in Love, on Friday, May 23 — his first solo project since 2011’s Fastlife — and he tells PEOPLE he’s been eager to release the album since he recorded it last year
“Last year at some point, I called my manager, I was like, ‘Can I just leak the album? Or put it out?'” he recalls. “I’m glad I waited.”
The 14-track album is “very personal,” Jonas, 35, says
Joe Jonas’ Music for People Who Believe in Love is finally out, but it took a while to get here.
The 35-year-old started writing for the album, his second solo project and a long-awaited follow-up to 2011’s Fastlife, mostly by accident.
“We were writing for a camp for the [Jonas] Brothers. I just felt so drawn to this one song, and I asked the guys for approval,” he tells PEOPLE. “I was like, ‘Hey, can I please take this one and maybe just explore where this could go for myself?’ It felt very personal.”
This was March of last year, and he recalls Nick’s reaction to his request well. “Nick’s words were like, ‘I mean, I get it. I’m jealous, but I get it.’ He’s like, ‘I didn’t write on it, so I can’t really say no.'”
After that, Joe and a team of writers, including Justin Trainor, Alexander 23 and Lush, “just carried on and made the album in two-some weeks.”
Republic Records
Joe Jonas’ new solo album, ‘Music for People Who Believe in Love’
Given how fast the album that culminated in Music for People Who Believe in Love came together, fans might wonder why it’s been more than a year that Joe has been “sitting on” the project, which he originally announced would drop in October.
“I was eager to get it out for a while there. I think last year at some point, I called my manager, I was like, ‘Can I just leak the album or put it out?’ I was like, ‘I’m tired of waiting.'”
He was “convinced not to,” but now he’s glad he waited, especially since his most recent single, “Heart by Heart,” he “wouldn’t have had [on the album] if I didn’t hold onto it. So I’m glad I waited.”
The same can be said for a few other songs on the 14-track album, as he says he kept around 70% of the project from the writing camp last March, but “there was some fine-tuning.”
“There were some features that I was able to reach out to. There’s seven or eight features on the album, which is kind of wild.”
Though he’s happy he waited to drop it, he’s maintained that same desire to release the project for the last year. “I’m just eager,” he says. “It’s very personal to me, and I’m excited that I finally get to share it … after holding onto it for a year.”
Gleeson Paulino
Joe Jonas
The album is, musically, “a little bit all over the map genre-wise,” he says. “And that was kind of intentional.”
“I went on a road trip last year from L.A. to Houston and got an RV and drove. I listened to everything from country western that I grew up listening to, to alternative rock stuff that I loved listening to when I moved to New York. The sound kind of married that, and I followed this journey with these songwriters and producers that — we just went there.”
During the recording process, he had “multiple rooms going at once,” with Alexander 23 in one room that was “more synth-based and upbeat and guitar-driven,” and then he was “doing stuff that was 12-string guitars and country” in another room.
“I had these two different sounds that I felt like still blended well together. We didn’t play each other the music, so I would go room to room and write.”
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“I feel like what it says, emotionally, I think it speaks to gratitude and healing,” he shares. “It speaks to the idea that I have birds’ eye view looked at my life, and I’m so happy for the people in my life and the friends I have and family and that I get to do this for twenty-some years.”
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