Joe Jonas Is ‘Chronically Online’ and Knows It — So He Chose to Debut His New Song at a No-Phones Event (Exclusive) (2025)

• Joe Jonas premiered his new single "Heart by Heart" at New York City's Bleecker Street Bar on April 24
• The singer tells PEOPLE about filming its music video and what fans can expect from his upcoming album Music for People Who Believe in Love
• Jonas is "excited that I finally get to share" the music he's been "holding onto for a year"
  

Joe Jonas is not someone who can really fly under the radar after nearly two decades in the spotlight, so he treasures the times when he can really connect with people and not get mobbed.

On Thursday, April 24, Jonas got to do just that as he partnered with Heineken to host an Off Socials event at New York City's Bleecker Street Bar, where he performed his new single "Heart by Heart" for the first time before its worldwide premiere at midnight to a group of fans and friends — who were instructed to keep the performance, as the event name implied, off social media.

Jonas, 35, spent the day at the bar, too, filming a music video for the single, his third off Music for People Who Believe in Love, out May 23. He tells PEOPLE that he is "excited that I finally get to share" the music he's been "holding onto for a year" — and he was particularly looking forward to performing to a phone-free crowd.

"It's been a while —actually, the last time I performed with no phones, I honestly couldn't tell you," he admits, tucked into a booth in the popular NYC bar during a quick break from the video shoot.

"I went to the Masters this year, and you can't bring your phone, so that was nice. And I think, once you're away from your phone foreven a few hours, you're panicked sometimes — at least I am. And then you get back, and you're like, 'Okay, I'm fine, the world is still revolving, everyone was fine.'"

As someone who's admittedly "chronically online," Jonas says, "I'm at fault of becoming somebody that's just in a death scroll... This is a nice reminder to just be present with your friends and family. You can shut your phone off for a few hours and hang out."

As for the promise of a phone-free crowd, he says, "I'm not mad at that either."

It ended up that the joke was on Jonas, though, as the crowd was just as screen-obsessed as he is and filmed his performance anyway.

Jonas' upcoming album is his second solo endeavor, a long overdue follow-up to 2011's Fastlife, and he says it's "wild" to think about how life has changed between then and now.

"[That's] a lot of life," he says. "It feels like a whole different... I can't really relate the two albums together. But it's exciting that this new journey has its own legs, so I'm grateful."

DNCE, the band he leads alongside JinJoo Lee, Jack Lawless and Cole Whittles, also formed in the interim, and he says it "definitely did feel like a solo project because I did a lot of the music on my own."

"They each have their own life," he reflects.

Music for People Who Believe in Love stands apart, perhaps mostly because Jonas didn't see it coming.

"The reason the solo [chapter] started was because the song I was writing, it's called 'Only Love,' and I wrote it with Alexander 23, Lush, Justin Tranter, and this guy Beau. We were writing for a camp for the [Jonas] Brothers."

"I just felt so drawn to this one song, and I asked the guys for approval. I was like, 'Hey, can I please take this one and maybe just explore where this could go for myself?'" he recalls. The song just "felt very personal" when he wrote it in March of last year.

Nick and Kevin gave their approval, and the rest of the project came together in "two some weeks," hence its originally planned October 2024 release date.

The 13-song album, out next month, though, is about 70% the same, but has some poignant new additions, so Joe is "glad" he waited to release it. "This song I'm playing tonight, but also it's releasing tonight, 'Heart by Heart,' we wouldn't have had if I didn't hold onto [the album]. So I'm glad I waited."