Sydney Jo Jackson bares her soul in her latest single, ‘Stone Cold.‘ The Bali-based, British artist reflects on a past marked by love, loss and the painful process of walking away from someone who couldn’t be saved. The track is raw, vulnerable and captures a moment of reckoning that had been building for years.
Written during a late-night spiral after a failed date, ‘Stone Cold’ channels all the unspoken grief and rage Sydney had been carrying since leaving an abusive marriage. What started as a messy, expletive-laced voice note turned into one of her most honest and impactful songs yet. ‘Stone Cold’ isn’t just about heartbreak, it’s about reclaiming power. “It’s been five years,” she says. “And this is the first time I’ve really unpacked what happened.”
Noctis Magazine spoke with Sydney, as she opens up about the night the song came to life, how she’s learning to stop censoring her art, and why choosing yourself is the most powerful thing you can do.
‘Stone Cold’ feels incredibly personal and vulnerable. Can you take us back to that night in Bali when the song first came to life?
I wrote ‘Stone Cold’ when I came back home from a failed date. I was actually intoxicated when I came up with a melody for the chorus. I came home and was wanting to listen to some chilled music before I went to bed and I started looking up instrumental beats and the producer that I love, Jonas Bauer, had a beat that I’ve heard previously, but I just felt like I was drawn to it this particular evening. I sat down and started humming some stuff into my phone as I normally do and then I called my mom and was like, “I think I’ve got this really dope melody. What do you think?” and bless her heart she was a bit confused because previously I was sending her drunk videos with close-ups of my mouth, so I’m not sure if she understood what was going on. She just told me to go to sleep and to get some rest lol. But I started thinking about this shit date and how I’m in my late 30s and still on the market and I started recalling moments of my life and decisions that I’ve made which brought me to the place I am in today.
One of those was my marriage and I think I just had these thoughts of what it had worked out and what if things were different. But the realization of that never being something that could or would’ve ever been hit me like a ton of bricks and inspired ‘Stone Cold.’ I was haunted again in the state of memorability where the drink had made me aware of thoughts I was suppressing subconsciously. And the only way that I could combat that in order to get some actual sleep was to write lyrics. Not everything that I wrote that night is what’s in the song now because a lot of it was swearing and filled with rage in its original format.
The song confronts your experience of domestic abuse and walking away from a marriage where you lost yourself. How did it feel to finally put those experiences into words and share them publicly?
It’s super hard because even though I’ve expressed this is what the song is about I’ve not really done much content or in depth explaining into what actually happened because I found it quite confrontational and as much as I’ve tried to pretend that there’s no repercussions from what happened to me. I think there’s a lot of trauma and I really hate that word because it’s something that everybody latches on these days but especially what I’ve been seeing from the recent Cassie and P. Diddy trial, it definitely has brought things more to the surface. There’s a specific moment where Cassie is being attacked by Diddy outside of an elevator. And it’s reminiscent of a situation that happened to me after my 30th birthday party. So trying to see these things again and understand that I’m still here makes me sometimes wonder how I survived it because I think I’ve blocked out certain things in my mind. When you’re in a state of fight or flight you have no choice, but to compartmentalize. I think from writing “Stone Cold” I’ve realized that I’m still in that state of fight, but maybe more internally than I thought.
It feels slightly embarrassing to parade your life on the internet, especially when you’re a woman who faces misogynistic comment sexism on a daily, and also having to survive in the music industry where it is dominated by men and you come into a room where these men know that you’re a victim of domestic abuse, which to make you be viewed as weak, it’s hard to know what to share in order to not sabotage myself.
There’s a powerful line between heartbreak and healing in ‘Stone Cold.’ When you listen back to the track now, what emotions rise up for you?
I actually wish that I’d written some of the lyrics that I wanted to say in ‘Stone Cold.’
There’s a line in it that says ‘you’d look me straight in my face and say that you love me, but you never stay’ and I wanted to put ‘you’d look me straight in my face, say that you’re sorry but you never change.’ And I didn’t put that because I didn’t want the song to feel like a woe is me moment. I’m still working out how to be 100 percent vulnerable with my songwriting. I like to tell my stories and I like to keep it truthful, but I also try to keep a level of preservation for my image. And reflecting up upon this song, I wish I just let go. So I’ve decided that when I perform it live, I’m gonna put the lyrics in that I wanted to put in from the beginning. I’m sometimes standing in my own way and I feel like I need to stop putting boundaries on my art.
What advice would you give to listeners who might be in a relationship where they feel like they’re losing themselves?
Leave. It doesn’t get any more real than that.
I can’t sit here and tell you this is the blueprint of how to change things but I know that if you don’t leave, they don’t get better. There’s no chance for it to get better.
You will always have you and you will always be what you need and if someone’s compromising that or if you’re allowing somebody to compromise that then that situation is of no value to you.
Leave.
You’ve worked with some incredible names — from performing with Jools Holland to collaborating with Grammy-winning producers. How have those experiences shaped your evolution as an artist?
I think that working with these people is definitely challenging me vocally along with mentally because they push me to think outside the box when writing and to perform in the studio vocally in ways that I didn’t think I could do. They’ve taught me a lot about my instrument and I am like a sponge when I’m around these people as they’ve come from nothing and made such phenomenal careers for themselves so I’ve been very fortunate to have these people being in my presence.
You’re Birmingham-born, Bali-based — two very different worlds. How does living in Bali influence your creativity and emotional headspace as a songwriter?
Bali has given me a freedom I never thought I’d have. I never felt clearer with regards to my musical journey then I have ever done since being here.
I spent a large number of my years in London, and also the states and I do continue to get inspiration from these places, but there’s something about Bali that I find gives me a new form of self belief. And I think there’s a magic energy here where if you lock into it, you can really manifest powerful things.
Birmingham is a place that I am very fond of for the people that I was able to grow up with. I’m from Handsworth, I grew up in a lot of Asian and black culture.
And I think this influences the style of music that I listen to which has a big effect on my songwriting and vocal melodies when I write.
What does ‘Stone Cold’ represent to you now, not just as a song, but as a chapter in your life?
It represents a moment of truth, and I don’t say that to sound naff. For me, it’s a song that I’m learning from like a reference journey about the lyrics. I also learned from the story of what happened in that record and it makes me aware of the fact that I’m still here, I’m still alive and there is still hope.
Although the song for me isn’t perfect, and I have some personal issues with it I feel like it’s such a powerful piece of art for me to put into the world at a time I feel like it’s needed.
What else does 2025 have in store for Sydney Jo Jackson?
I’m just making music. I don’t know what that will lead to, but I hope it reaches a lot of people in a way they can help them because that’s what I do it for and aside from that I’m just building my future to be happy inside and out.
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Words: Alexander Williams
Photography: Bryan Michael Ham