Hundreds and hundreds of broken pieces of lyrics and many scrambled recordings of partial songs lie in Johnson’s phone ready to be turned into published music. This musician wastes no time recording her musical ideas.

J’Mel Johnson is a 6th grade English teacher at Oak Park who produces songs with her husband Tommy Johnson.

“We don’t have a lot of songs that are out right now but we write constantly,” explained J’Mel Johnson.

Johnson recalls that singing has always played a major role in her life due to her family’s involvement with the church.

“Everyone in my family sings. That’s just what we do. As a child, I grew up in church…Everybody sings in the church whether you are good at it or not,” Johnson said.

Her parents encouraged her to practice and perform with her sisters. Thus began her passion for singing and music.

“My parents pushed my sisters and I into creating a group because a lot of the time me and my sisters would be in the house playing and singing. My parents noticed the gift that me and my sisters had to sing and harmonize. They got us together to practice singing so it became something I began doing. I remember being 5 and singing alto while my sister was a soprano and the other one was tenor. We learned a bunch of different songs and people would ask us to sing,” Johnson added.

Johnson is grateful to her students and family members for their encouragement and support, as well as an unsung hero who assisted in teaching her voice discipline.

“My dad’s godsister was a powerhouse. She taught us voice discipline like how to discipline your voice and how to make it do what you want it to do. How to change your pitch, how to change your tone, how to breathe and how to not sing through your nostrils. She gave us training when we were young. To me she was like one of my heroes because she could do anything with her voice,” Johnson remarked.

The duo primarily performs gospel and R&B music and the message behind their music is to seek genuine love.

“So with my music, my husband and I sing together and our genre is basically R&B love songs. We feel like a lot of songs that people hear now are not necessarily based on true love. We feel that has to be the center of any relationship. You can’t build a relationship on how somebody looks. It’s about how they treat you. Relationships go both ways. It’s about giving and taking. It should be centered around real love,” Johnson explained.

The Oak Park teacher is concerned about the message behind the new trendy songs that children are listening to, and to counteract the negative messages, she hopes that their songs will radiate positivity.

“A lot of the songs kids are hearing now…some of that substance is missing. We want to sing songs where you’re showing your admiration for one another. Our songs show a story like how to get through difficult times and how you can have challenges in relationships and still work through them,” Johnson said.

The couple currently writes their own songs and receives help from their nephew for the production.

“Currently my husband and I write all of our own songs together and our nephew does our production for us. We do have a song that has been out for a couple of years now called “I Feel Good”, and Mary J. Blige is featured on it. I am a songwriter for the song,” Johnson added.

The goal of their music is to support others in building positive relationships.

“For now we want to keep making good music. If it becomes something huge..great..but if it doesn’t we’re fine with that too. We just want to touch people’s hearts and souls and help people build and rebuild their relationships,” Johnson explained.

While Johnson is proud of all of her performances, she remembers the love fest in Philadelphia as her favorite.

“I am proud of all of my performances. We did a love fest a few years ago. We have not done a lot of performances recently because of COVID. Everything slowed down. Prior to that, we were traveling locally such as in New York, New Jersey, and Philly. I enjoyed the love fest we did in Philly because it just had great energy. Everyone was there to spread love and all the songs were very uplifting,” Johnson said.

Life and experience are the most important factors for Johnson to inspire new music and encourage creativity.

“I think it’s just life and experiences. You just write about your experiences. I always enjoyed writing poems. When I was younger I wrote many poems. Eventually, my poems became songs. I think it’s already in you. Inspiration comes from seeing other things; it just lights your fire, which is already in you. For me, I feel like songwriting was already in me. When I was writing poems I didn’t know I would be a songwriter,” Johnson added.

Her favorite song from the ones that have been released is WTF, which stands for Willing To Fight.

Here is the link to their website.

TOMMYJAY Music 

“Willing To Fight is one of my favorites because it’s authentic in the sense that it helps people recognize what real relationships are,” Johnson said.

The younger members of her family are also becoming involved with music. Her nephew is a well-known musician.

“My nephew, Pink Sweats, is a huge singer, he travels and tours. He is definitely a family person. His mom is a gospel singer so she is pursuing more of a gospel music career. My nephew is more into pop,” Johnson added.

Johnson and her husband used to be in an R&B group with Sony records which helped them guide their nephew when he began his own music career. Their eldest son is currently attempting to launch his own musical career.

“Singing came naturally to our children, who sing now. My son is currently working on his own music. He’s 19 and he plays several instruments and now he’s in a studio recording. He is getting his stuff together before he puts it out,” Johnson explained.

Trying to manage her schedule as a published author and musician can be difficult at times. She recently released her first published book called “Quotes and Jokes: A Mental Detox for Tweens and Teens.” The book is centered on self-love and encourages young readers to develop a love of laughter.

Here is the link for her book: Books for Tweens and Teens

“It gets crazy. I am the author of a book now. I wrote my own book and released it last year. It’s in several school districts now. I also have children. My one son graduated but my other son is in high school. He’s an athlete so he has many games. I am also a teacher. I have almost 80 students. I teach reading and writing so I am constantly grading essays. Then I tutor English once a week. I enjoy that because I love giving back. We were selling merch but we slowed down with that. It became too much to manage. It’s a daily task trying to balance my own life,” Johnson remarked.

Her special talent is recognized at the school. She is frequently asked to sing the national anthem or assist with the chorus at events.

“Our music teacher that retired would do chorus and have concerts. She would always ask me to be a part of it. She would say ‘can you sing solo with the kids’ or ‘can you come to sing the national anthem’. A few times I went to sing the black national anthem at the high school,” Johnson added.

Johnson wants her students to know that, while she loves to teach she also has other activities and passions that she enjoys pursuing outside of school.

“I always tell my students at the beginning of the school year that I am a person. Because I knew when I was little I thought all teachers fit this one mold. When you’re a teacher you can’t have a life. You can’t sing. You can’t go out. So I let them know that this is just one of the things I do,” Johnson said.