Warrenton native Steph Jones has been writing music for over a decade, with over a hundred credits across multiple genres. She co-wrote Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso,” which has garnered over a billion streams on Spotify and was named MTV’s Video Music Awards Song of the Year. 

“I definitely knew it was going to be a really fun song, but I had no idea that it would be anywhere near this,” said Steph. 

Steph has collaborated with Carpenter, among other artists for years, but she grew up singing in churches here in Warrenton. 

Her father, Stephen Jones, is also a musician and plays monthly shows at the Social House in Warrenton. He said while he always supported her interest in music, Steph’s success and talent are her own, and all he did was provide her the opportunities to pursue those interests. 

He expressed his sincere pride at the success she has seen, and said that while she is talented, it is the product of her work ethic and her commitment to her craft. 

“I can’t stress enough how hard she’s worked,” said Stephen. “Some of it’s luck but the majority of it is all work, and she’s worked really hard to get where she’s been, … and she just keeps getting better and better.”

Her work with Carpenter has developed some of the biggest hits of her career with songs like “Nonsense” which she co-wrote along with Carpenter and Julian Bunetta, who also has a writing credit on “Espresso.”

“She (Carpenter) has a very clear vision of her identity and what she wants to say, and her voice is incredible,” said Jones. “You couldn’t really ask for more of an artist.”

Jones began her music career in worship music after attending bible school in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She worked as a worship leader at several churches in St. Louis, Austin and Nashville. 

It was that work that first drew her attention to songwriting where she directed long, open prayer sessions at a church in St. Louis. Attendees were allowed to come up to the front to submit prayers and Jones would improvise music during the services. 

“I actually had to sing a chorus that summed up what they just prayed so that we could sing it all together,” said Steph. “And that’s where I first started writing songs.”

It was during this time that she actually recorded a contemporary Christian EP based on those live, improvised performances. While that record is no longer available it was the beginning of her songwriting career. 

She found her first break while working as a barista for a Starbucks in Nashville when she landed a publishing deal with Disney Records and moved to Los Angeles where she started working with artists like Carpenter. 

Songwriting allowed her to expand her horizons and work into other genres and she has since worked with a variety of artists including Selena Gomez, Panic! At the Disco, Kelsea Ballerini and even K-Pop group BLACKPINK. 

“It felt more fulfilling to me to be able to do a country song, a pop song, whatever, like any genre in a week and to not have to stick to one sound,” said Jones. 

She did say writing songs for other artists is a very different process, and the day to day changes can be extreme. She said she tries to focus on writing the best song she can for the artist she is working with that day. 

“I really like figuring out what makes an artist special and trying to really highlight that through the songs we write together,” said Jones. 

That was the goal when she was writing “Espresso” with Carpenter and Bunetta. The songwriting session actually took place in Paris and she said one of the more unique lines of the song almost missed the final cut. 

The second verse of the song begins with a line that seems unrelated to the rest of the song “I’m working late, ‘cause I’m a singer,” but that snippet would be played over and over in Tiktok and Instagram videos that would help fuel the song’s success. 

“When that line happened, I think we thought we would maybe go back and change that because it was just so random. It felt random, but looking back, it’s really fun to see how much that line in particular has really resonated with people,” said Jones. 

She continued saying she thought it might be the truest line of the song, it was late at night when they were finishing the song and she was glad it shined through. 

While Carpenter is out on tour, Steph’s work continues and she is currently in Nashville working on a number of new projects. 

She said she’s working on new music with some other longtime collaborators like Bunetta and singer Teddy Swims along with artists that she has less history with like Renee Rapp and Thomas Rhett. 

She was also especially excited about working with a newer artist in Nashville named Carter Faith. 

For now she continues to work with artists across a variety of genres producing the best music she can and helping artists find their voices.