Inside the Audacy Sound Space at the Hard Rock Hotel New York, Jonah Marais recently joined us for a special performance and talk with Mike Adam, diving into his hit, "Slow Motion," and what's next for the rising Pop star.
LISTEN NOW: Audacy LIVE with Jonah Marais
Marais explains that the song, "Slow Motion," came about unexpectedly while working on another track. His producer, Ryan Lewis, came up with a melody that sparked the song’s creation. "Ryan, my producer walked out of the room and came back humming this melody," shares Jonah. "I was just like, 'that's so sick.' And so he sat down, pulled up the synth patch, and just started playing it. That was the moment where it was the sound of it was almost like a party, like I could hear it coming on in a house party or a club or something, and I didn't have a song like that like that could be the show ender, so we just chased that vibe."
"Then from a writing standpoint, it was like, I've been on the road since I was like 16, 17, you know, a lot of my life and I can count on my hand the amount of times that a girl came along and just stopped everything, and like slowed down time and everything. So I had this concept and so we worked off that."
After feeling "very insecure" about his writing in the band, Why Don't We, Jonah credits Ryan Lewis with creating "a safe space for for all the bad ideas."
"Maybe the 8th or 9th idea is really great, so it's just creating that space is so important for creativity and we've found it, found a good groove. It's fun."
Marais admits to finding himself in a tough spot at the end of Why Don't We, but he knew that quitting was never an option, pushing on through his music. "I would say 2023 was the hardest year of my life," Jonah reveals. "I just went through questioning everything. I think a lot of my validation, my identity was in the band and the success of the band. So when that built-in community bubble went away, I was like it was just like, 'who even am I without this?'"
"I was literally living in the studio on the mattress drinking a lot of alcohol, just kind of escaping," he shares. "I think I learned a lot from that and then getting sober was a massive step forward. I'm over a year sober now, so that feels great."
"The biggest moment for me in turning things around other than getting sober was talking about it and like being very open and vulnerable," Jonah continues. "It was hard but I did this post online and I said, 'these are some things that I'm scared to admit.' One was, I'm struggling with addiction. One was, I had a psychosis, like, mental breakdown, which was insane. It was crazy. And so like just being vulnerable and open, and it wasn't easy, but putting it out there and getting the response from fans of, 'dang, I've never heard someone say this or like open up like this,' was so special."
To hear much more from Jonah Marais and for an exclusive Audacy LIVE performance, check out the full video above.