Jesse McCartney is an actor and singer-songwriter who voice Robin/Nightwing on the hit animated show Young Justice. On top of his many appearances in television, McCartney has had a great career in the music world. In a new interview with the Kinda Nerdy Girls’ KJ, McCartney stopped by to talk about his video game voicing career, singing, and more!
KJ: Is Manhattan home? Or are you there to promote what we’re talking about, the fact that your next EP, All’s Well, is coming out on Friday?
JESSE: Yeah, yeah, no, I live in Los Angeles. I’m just in New York doing a little promo tour. And I was over at Elvis Duran this morning.
KJ: Well, how are you feeling as we’re days away from a project that I’m sure, as you always do, Jesse, put your heart into, which is your next EP, All’s Well.
JESSE: I’m so excited. I’ve been waiting for this project to come out for months. I worked on it for about a year and I can’t believe the day has finally come. I mean, we’re just a few short days away and I think it’s a really great project [that] speaks to where I’m at musically. Some of my best songwriting and I’m anxious for the fans to hear it. I think they’re really going to dig it.
KJ: Now, Jesse, you are coming to Indianapolis. I want to talk about this because, you know, I love dancing to your music in the kitchen, but I’m excited about dancing to your music at the Vogue on May 2nd. Can you give us a little bit of an insight into what we can expect on this tour?
JESSE: Yeah, it’s going to be so much fun. I’m very careful about putting and curating the set list myself and including all of the old songs and all the old hits that people know and love with a lot of the new stuff. So we’ll be playing the classics like Beautiful Soul and Leave In and How Do You Sleep and It’s Over, as well as the songs from this new EP. The band is incredible. Some of the best live musicians I think you can pay to watch, quite frankly. And it’s just a really fun show. So I’m excited for everyone to come out.
KJ: We love the Vogue. It’s such a cool place to play. Excited to see you there, Jesse. I’ve got a couple of questions from your fans, if you don’t mind. I thought it was interesting because you have such an amazing career from music to acting. And when I put it out there about what do you guys want me to talk to Jesse about? One of the big things that came up, Katie is a huge fan of Kingdom Hearts. And I had a couple of people mention your voice work with Young Justice. Can you talk a little bit about the voice acting part of your career and how much fun that must be for you?
JESSE: Yeah, it’s one of those hidden parts of my career a lot of people don’t know about, but it’s been great. Kingdom Hearts was obviously a big part of that. I’ve been recording those video games for, I don’t know, like 15 years now, and it seems to have a huge cult following. I get people that come to my concerts that aren’t even familiar with my music, that are just dressed to the nines in Kingdom Hearts attire, wielding a Keyblade, and are just excited to meet me for my work as Roxas, which is super fun and rewarding. But, you know, I love voiceovers. I grew up as a kid really loving Mel Blanc and loving the Cartoon Network and watching Alvin and the Chipmunks and all the great, you know, the Looney Tunes. And so I always wanted to do that. And I had an opportunity. One of the first things I did was Alvin and the Chipmunks. This is, you know, a multi-generational classic. And they asked me to play Theodore and it was just such a huge honor because it’s something I used to watch as a kid. And I jumped at the opportunity. So voiceovers are definitely a big part of my life and we squeeze them in between writing sessions when I’m writing music, writing albums.
KJ: I had another question. We always go to the pets on this show as well. And Julia said to ask you about, there was a video a couple of years ago that went viral of you singing Beautiful Soul to some rescue puppies. Can you talk about your love of dogs and work that you’ve done in supporting rescue?
JESSE: Well, yeah, my, that actually was a rescue charity that I think was put together by a guy named John Jay out of Arizona, John Jay and Rich, big radio guys. And they, he had me over to his, he had me over to his house and he had like, I don’t know how many puppies, but like, I don’t even know how many were in the video, but there was another 20 in the next room. And who doesn’t love a room full of puppies? It’s like, if that doesn’t make you happy, I don’t know what, what will, but I love dogs. I mean, I have a dog of my own that I sort of, uh, I sort of inherited when I met my wife. When I met Katie at the time, she had this little Yorkie poodle, and she was like three years old, and Katie had her in college. She’s now my dog, too, and I love her to death. It was a two-for-one special. I got a wife and a dog out of the deal, so it was great.
For the full interview, check it out at the KJ Today show and let the Kinda Nerdy Girls know GVN sent you!
A girl with too many fandoms to count.
