Jason Gould Returns with New Album After Past Worries of Being ‘Compared’ to Mom Barbra Streisand (Exclusive)

Music is practically in singer Jason Gould’s DNA — his mother is the legendary Barbra Streisand — but he has long been in his own rhythm.

“I play music for my own pleasure because I have a need to create and express myself,” Gould tells PEOPLE. “The pressure, there’s really no pressure for me. I mean, I strive for excellence, but there’s no such thing as perfection. I’m at peace with it now.”

This is the mindset that the musician (57) had in mind while recording his third EP, holy days, it comes out on friday.

“I’m quite proud of it, so I’m just glad it’s going out into the world,” he says. “I usually get a little anxious before something goes out, because it’s like your baby. I guess there’s that natural fear of being judged. But you know what? I’m really not that insecure about what I’m creating anymore.”

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Jason Gould on the set of ‘Hello Dolly!’ with mother Barbra Streisand in 1969.

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Gould — the only son of Streisand, 81, and her first husband, actor Elliott Gould, 85 — has come a long way from the reserved kid he once was.

“I was a bit of a repressed kid; a lot of us shy people go into art to express ourselves,” he says. “As a kid, I was always the kid who would sit at the keyboard and come up with little melodies, but I never knew how to develop them into a real song. I had bits and pieces of melodies. And I never even tried to write lyrics, maybe until a little over 10 years ago, but it’s always been a part of me.”

After all, “my mother recorded music while I was in her belly,” he adds. “The vibration of music is so powerful.”

It wasn’t until Gould was 15 that his mother heard him through the bedroom door and knew he could sing.

“It was a part of me that I was afraid to explore because my mother was an icon in that world,” he recalls. “It was like, ‘I don’t want to be compared to her,’ so I suppressed that part of me for a long time.”

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Jason Gould and Barbra Streisand perform on stage in London in 2013.

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The first time he played his song “How Deep Is the Ocean?” for his mother, “I think she was in shock,” he recalls. “She said, ‘I want to sing this with you.'”

They continued to do so at the 2012 Hollywood Bowl.

“I didn’t know if I was going to pass out,” he says. “I’ve never sung in front of anybody, so going out in front of a stadium of 18,000 people was like, ‘How am I going to do that?'”

The concert turned out to be a hit — and Gould is fondly remembered.

“It was a very personal moment with her,” he says. “It just happened in front of 18,000 people. It was really about serving her and the music. And it wasn’t about me. I just showed up.”

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Jason Gould performs in 2013.

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Although the positive reception was “wonderful”, he adds, “It didn’t excite me or hit me. I’ve heard people say, ‘Oh. I feel most alive when I’m on stage.’ I’m not that guy. I was never comfortable in the spotlight, so I always hung in the shadows. And yet, I have to create and express myself.” “Run” was the first song Gould wrote for his new EP, with his collaborator Allan Rich (writer of Whitney Houston’s 1993 hit “Run to You”). “Once my creative the juices flow, I tend to create more,” he says.

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In February, Gould released the music video for his track “World Gone Crazy” from the EP.

“My mom hasn’t actually heard most of my new record, but I know she saw the video for ‘World Gone Crazy’ and I know she loved it,” he says. “I’m not really someone who likes to share, too much. I don’t really seek the approval of others. I want to please myself.”

With the EP, Gould hopes to pass on some of the peace he found within himself to others.

“I think a lot of my music is soothing in a way,” he says. “A lot of my own growth and recovery is in the lyrics as well. I hope to bring some peace.”

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Source: HIS Education