Coco Jones is fearless on debut album 'Why Not More?'

NEW YORK (AP) — What music would you create if there weren't any outside influences or self-imposed creative restraints? That's what singer-actor Coco Jones contemplated.

“What would I do if I didn’t have any fear of comparing myself to ‘ICU’ and my EP? Or if I thought there was some formula that people wanted from me?” Jones wondered. “That was kind of the mood: just be fearless.”

The R&B star attempted to answer herself on her debut album — “Why Not More?," — releasing Friday. It follows her 2022 breakout EP “What I Didn’t Tell You.”

"I'm just proud of every version of myself that I've been, and who I'll become after this album," said Jones, who took home her first Grammy earlier this year with "ICU" winning best R&B performance. "And really proud of putting together a project that I feel confident in."

The 14-track album from the “Bel-Air” actor traverses through a spectrum of R&B sonics and vibes, from introspective to seductive, Pop&B to Trap&B. Writing on every song, Jones secured production from StarGate, London on Da Track and Jasper Harris and features from Future and YG Marley.

One of the faces of the new generation of R&B, she doesn’t shy away from the pressure that can come with attempting to replicate the success of a song like “ICU.”

“There was a pressure to outdo myself. But I also have to remind myself that I wasn’t trying to win anything … I was just doing me,” explained Jones, who said for the first time, she was patient with herself during studio sessions for her debut, not focused on leaving with a completed song each time. “I was just doing what felt right. I was being honest, I was just being vulnerable.”

"Why Not More?" highlights Jones' vast range of melodic styles. Four singles have been released including "Here We Go (Uh Oh)," which earned Jones her first No. 1 on Billboard's Adult R&B Airplay chart, and "Taste," which contains an interpolation of Britney Spears' hit song "Toxic" and is currently at No. 15.

In the ballad “Other Side of Love,” Jones finds herself at a crossroads in a relationship, singing “I don’t know why I can’t get your love outta my mind / It’s like I try but you come back around every time.”

“It’s probably the oldest song on the album … It was always a song that I knew was on the back burner whenever I was ready, I had something right there ready for them. But it was kind of just not time yet,” said the 27-year-old Tennessee native. “I might drop a song like ‘Taste,’ but I’m always gonna have a song like ‘Other Side of Love’ because I can’t deny that version of myself either.”

Empowerment is also a theme, rejecting codependence and embracing self-love on “By Myself.”

“The song that defines me the most is ‘By Myself.’ I wrote that one literally because I was going through a situation verbatim, and I was like I don’t wanna feel like anybody else is so crucial for me to be the best version of me — I can’t live like that,” she said. “All of the answers can’t come from anyone else … I’m so big on the inner work and therapy and growing emotionally.”

Jones, who stars as Hilary Banks on the drama series “Bel-Air,” is prepping for the fourth and final season which hasn’t started production. She’ll balance filming with her upcoming tour, launching May 6 in Philadelphia.

A self-described overachiever, the former Disney Channel actor says there are many goals she wants to reach, but she's traveling in the right direction.

“My childhood dreams, I still have yet to fully achieve them all. I definitely see them materializing, but the way I thought of myself as a kid was huge, like larger than life,” said Jones, who first signed a record deal at 14. “I have a lot of ways to go to really be what childhood Coco saw for me. And I hope I do, because I was shooting for the galaxy.”

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Follow Associated Press entertainment journalist Gary Gerard Hamilton at @GaryGHamilton on all his social media platforms.