VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Jayden Bartels On Her New Song ‘Galaxy,’ Directing Music Videos

Jayden Bartels may be only 15 years old, but she appears to have all of the trappings of a future music star.

The actress, dancer and model is best known for appearing in the Disney Channel series Walk the Prank and Nickelodeon‘s Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn. Bartels has also appeared in Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, Lifetime’s Dance Moms and in children’s movies like To the Beat! However, she now seems to also be hoping to launch a music career and recently released a new single, “Galaxy.”

Bartels sat down with uInterview to discuss what “Galaxy” is all about and more.

“‘Galaxy’ is my latest song and it is a ballad,” she said. “It is about being trapped in a place and wanting to escape, so I use this metaphor [of] escaping to another galaxy.”

Bartels continued: “There’s this person with you in this place that you want to escape but you kind of don’t want to leave them there. So you’re like, ‘should I leave because I want to escape or should I stay because of this person?'”

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Bartels hasn’t limited herself to just singing, however: she also co-directed the music video for “Galaxy,” which she says was a “crazy” experience.

“It was super fun,” she revealed, smiling as she explained with utter excitement her idea for the story of the video. “The concept was really crazy. I was like, ‘We have to do a tiny house, it’s going to be glow-in-the-dark, it’s going to be all galaxy-themed’ and my manager was like, ‘Where in the world are we going to find a tiny house?’ So it took us forever to find it.”

“It was definitely a big project to work on but I’m so happy with how it came out,” she added.

Bartels also explained she became the song’s music director precisely because she had a very specific vision for the idea behind the project.

“I come up with the concepts for my music videos, so I would guide them because I have a very vivid and specific idea of what my music videos should be like,” she stated. “So for this last one, my manager said, ‘Just let her direct it, she’s already doing that. Just let her get credit.'”

What type of music exactly does Bartels make? She described it as “different.”

“I like to do a big variety of different types of music: ballads, pop, slower [songs], more aesthetic [songs],” she said. “My songs are very relatable. Like I try to make the lyrics so that everyone can find a different way to relate to them. I’d definitely say it’s very unique.”

Clearly, Bartels isn’t afraid to broaden her horizons and “go out of her comfort zone,” as she explained. She added that she also tries to infuse her music with many distinct types of emotions, from joy to sadness.

Like many young artists, Bartels looks up to other performs whom she hopes to emulate, like 16-year-old Los Angeles-based alternative pop/electro-pop singer Billie Eilish. 

“People say I sound like her, which is like the biggest compliment to me,” Bartels said excitedly. “I just love her style and I love how she almost created her own type of music.”

Bartels’ transition to singing was a long one. She initially started as a dancer at age 8, then began acting around two years later. Her music career was then born roughly a year-and-a-half ago.

The youngster revealed she took singing training classes and was not confident at first — something that seems hard to believe now — because she felt she did not have a good enough voice. However, after a year of training she released her first single “Can’t Help Me Now” in July.

In addition to all of this, Bartels has even higher aspirations: she hopes to someday release a full album and go on tour and also continue starring in television shows.

Bartels said she considers her work in music thus far “almost like a hobby,” although all signs point to it becoming much more than that.