Jeia, the multi-hyphenate musician, producer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, performer, and DJ, puts lie to the old “jack of all trades” cliché. If she’s not a master of all, she’s pretty damn close. And she has the resumé to prove it: recent credits and collaborations include 2025 Grammy-nominated Coco Jones; Bryson Tiller; Keke Palmer; and Beenie Man. A quick peek here provides the sonic evidence.
Select the image to access the video of the Coco Jones song “Passport,” co-written by Jeia
Jeia (pronounced JAY-uh) is mainly in producer/songwriter mode these days, travelling regularly between Toronto and Los Angeles, between which she divides much of her work. She has a huge, and still growing, catalogue of beats that she can send to any artist that requests them, and after each time one of them finds a home, a whole new swath of requests come in. She can then team up with the artist, producer, and songwriters (in any combination) and collaborate with them to complete a track. If the track isn’t selected for release, it goes into her catalogue for the next artist to consider. That’s how she got a co-write on Bryson Tiller’s “ÆON L U S T,” and a producer credit on “Waterfalls,” both on his self-titled debut album.
She got the job with Keke Palmer after receiving an e-mail from her friend and mentor, Grammy-nominated Tayla Parx, who wrote, “Hey, I’m going to be in a session with Kiki Palmer, send me a pack of beats.” Jeia quickly reacted by saving a selection of her beats into a folder. “A lot of my work is just receiving a text and, like, ‘Hey, I’m going to be in a session with so-and-so, and send a beat tonight.’” she says. “So, I’m just going to be making folders. I make folders on my phone. I make folders in the airport. I make folders in the grocery store. You know what I mean? I just make a folder and get it to them. Whether or not they listen to it is out of my control. But I need to act on it.”
A successful DJ in her native Indonesia, Jeia Rouge decided to leave her homeland to gain broader experience and find more like-minded artists. She tried out London, England first, in 2012, where the DJ-friendly culture seemed inviting. There, she felt drawn to the electronic scene as well, but her visa expired, so she had to return home. By 2016, she’d saved enough to support herself for the next year, and considered moving to the States, but that coincided with the first Trump administration. “I saw that the political climate is, like…,” she says, then she pauses before completing the thought with, “OK, this is not going to happen.”
On the SOCAN Kenekt Song Camp: “It was the most life-changing thing I’ve ever experienced”
Turns out we have Justin Bieber to thank for her turning to Canada next. “This time was when Justin Bieber was starting to really pop,” she explains. “Justin Bieber’s always been a thing throughout the 2010s. But this is around the time he becomes a mature R&B artist. So, I’m like, ‘Wow! Justin Bieber? Come on. Amazing.’ And then The Weeknd started to pop off, Drake started to pop up. And then Daniel Caesar [was] popping off. And I’m like, ‘What’s in the water in Toronto?’”
Our interview takes place in December of 2025, about two months after Jeia returned to Toronto from SOCAN’s Kenekt Song Camp on Pender Island, in BC. “It was the most life-changing thing I’ve ever experienced,” she says. She hadn’t met any of the other artists invited before heading off to the camp. “Their profiles were sent to me, and I was just spending my time reading and listening to their music. I’m like, ‘Oh my God, where are these talented people coming from?’
“I’m telling you, you cannot replicate that experience,” she continues enthusiastically. “You wake up together. You share a meal together. You make music for the entire day. It’s all the stuff: Food, lodging, the money. You know what I mean? It’s like all of the things that we need to do alongside with our music in real life, we don’t have to deal with. You know, Raquel [Villagante, SOCAN Associate Director, Creative Executives] and Houtan [Hodania, Creative Executive, East Coast] were taking turns making breakfast for us, which is kind of insane to me. So, at the end of the camp, we [were calling] them Mom and Dad. And (audio engineer) David Giddings was part of team, too. For six days! I love the music I came away with.”