Photography by Angel Ceballos
"Clear the way, I'm coming through, no matter what you say. I've got work to be doing, if you're not here to help, go find some other life to ruin." Thus begins Hoop's latest album, Memories Are Now, moving from scorched earth to more hospitable soil and back into the burn of the ground. Hoop asks only big questions with her music, with a world at war with itself, while slowly sorting through a bevy of handed down beliefs. In The Coming, Jesca sings, "I wake up to the most spirit-rattling scare. As I'm losing my religion, layer by layer 'Cause it's triggering all of the tripwires. And the traps and the snares. It's that old device called fear." Maybe not the belief so much as what we do with the belief, take what you need, leave the rest, but let everyone in, perhaps more into the heart than any actual place. Musically, the album strives to strip away the layers, leaving only the necessities of the creation so that “It's still covered in embryonic fluid," as Hoop says. Ever since the release of 2007's Kismet, the world has gained a songwriter who pounds the earth with her fists for songs that rise up to meet her in the air. Like centuries old cathedral bells ringing out when you least expect them, Hoop's music sends shivers up your spine, not because it's invasive but because it's inviting. Hungry for answers and ever travelling the path towards where they may or may not lie. Memories Are Now finds its strength anchored from within. “I've lived enough life, I've earned my stripes. That's my knife in the ground, this is mine." Jesca brings into the world an album whose stakes are high, and if we're up to the task perhaps we might join in on the journey, endlessly asking questions that we may never find the answers to but nevertheless pound the earth for. AHC: What has this journey in music, so far, been like for you, the highs and the lows, and what life lessons do you feel you've picked up along the way? Jesca: I was told at the very start of my musical career, by someone I trust, to expect what I want to come to me. Just expect it. I set out with those words resounding. I did not, over time, find them to be sound advice. They set me up for a fair dose of " WTF'S" when the opposite of what I wanted.... happened. Very early on I hit some considerable road blocks. Though I had a fortunate introduction into the music industry, what I found beyond the door was less generous. I really had to hold my own and keep my nose to the grind stone, reinforce my bootstraps and rely on loyal comrades to keep going. I have managed to maintain a working career in music for 10 years, producing, manufacturing and releasing records independently and it has not been easy. This year I felt greater ease and reward in my work and I have enjoyed that very much. Music has carried me all over the world. It will continue to do so if I continue to work and for that I am very grateful. I am glad it is has not come easy because it means that i have earned my success's. "My daddy didn't buy em for me" kind of thing. It is important to remain humble and earnest in the work as we navigate through the industry. To create music for a living is a great privilege. There is nothing owed to any of us and a sense of entitlement is not a good look on anyone. Nobody needs rock n roll brats hanging about. AHC: What first drew you to music and what was your early musical environment like growing up? Were there pivotal songs for you then that just floored you the moment you heard them? Jesca: My mother and father raised us as a musical family. With 5 children you have your own choir see. I learned to harmonize at a very early age. I know my parents got a lot of joy out of teaching us and seeing our abilities blossom so early on. It was a lot of fun. I recall eventually hearing Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush and that changed the game for me, along with Four Track Demos by PJ Harvey. I had been listening to the likes of Joni Mitchell and Paul Simon all my childhood, which is a credit to my father, and from them I gained my sense of "song". Kate and PJ were mind expanding discoveries that came later and these two artists had the most impact on opening my horizons for songwriting and the voice as an instrument and channel for self expression. AHC: Do you remember the first song that you ever wrote or played? Or that first moment when you picked up a pen and realized that you could create whole worlds just by putting it to paper? Jesca: I never used to write down my songs. I would muse them up on long walks to and from school and I would commit them to memory as I romped along. Songwriting was a way to pass the time. My first song was about my two best friends Julie and Kendra. It was very sweet, whimsical and long and I'm sure an editor could have made 3 songs out of the one. That was a time of great curiosity and discovery for me as I was just realizing that I had these abilities and spent all of my free time in my imagination, traversing the realm of song. AHC: Which musicians have you learned the most from? Or writers, artists, filmmakers, mentors/teachers etc? Jesca: I would say, Kate Bush, Paul Simon Joni Mitchell and Nina Simone. They are masters in my eyes. I want to keep storytelling and the craft of songwriting alive. I aim to ever grow in my ability to connect emotionally with the listener through a musical story. AHC: What do you think makes for a good song, as you're writing and composing, is there a sudden moment when you know you've found the right mix, that perfect angle of light, so to speak? Jesca: I know I have a worthy idea if the melody and poetry start to evoke a certain feeling. If i expand the musical narrative to drive the feeling, the feeling will soon form images and those images will form a story. That story will transport us, all guided by sound. AHC: Do you consider music to be a type of healing art, the perfect vehicle through which to translate a feeling, a state of rupture/rapture, hope lost and regained? Does the writing and creating of the song save you in the kinds of ways that it saves us, the listener? Jesca: Music is a healing art. It may not always be used that way, but it is regardless. I often times write in a sort of explicit style and I do that as a sort of service to the listener. I feel the more we communicate the more we connect. The more we connect we realize we are not, in ANYTHING we may go through, alone. AHC: What are your fondest musical memories? In your house? In your neighborhood or town? On-tour, on-the-road? Jesca: Straight out of high school, no longer living at home, free as a bird, taking LSD up at the lake house and having 3 day jam sessions with my friends was pretty awesome... I gotta say. Pure unadulterated drug addled fun !! Other than that, more recently I sincerely enjoyed writing, recording and performing with Sam Beam aka Iron and Wine. We made a record called Love Letter For Fire. It was so fun to share the writing and to sing duets. My favorite thing to do is sing harmonies and with Sam, I was doing what I feel I do best. AHC: When you set out to write a song, how much does 'where the world is' in its current moment, culturally, politically, otherwise, influence the kinds of stories you set out to tell? Jesca: It depends on whats going on in the world. I am obsessed with religion and war and you will find threads of these themes drawing regularly through my tapestries. I am also confounded by oppression, this utterly fucked system we find ourselves in which functions only if oppression is at work. This is has been fueling my writing lately... . AHC: Do you regret that our current trend is often to digest/purchase music in pieces, rather than being consumed as a thematic whole? Is the ordering of songs, linear wise, and told as a sequenced story, a large part of how you put together your musical work? Jesca: Without the complete work, there is no Story. Without the Story, there is no Legend. Sit at her foot. Listen in awe, fill up to the brim and in return, leave your heroine offerings. AHC: Do you have any words of advice for other musicians and singer-songwriters out there who are just starting out and trying to find their voice and their way in this world? What are the kinds of things that you tell yourself when you begin to have doubts or are struggling with the creative process? Jesca: Doubt is a valuable ingredient in any worthwhile endeavour. It causes you to examine yourself and bring yourself to task. Doubt is something to kneel before, take into account and respectfully move past. Do not fear doubt for "every doubt is just a trigger proving strength". AHC: Could you talk about your new album, Memories are Now? What went into putting together and creating this new cycle of songs? What is the muse, the center of this album for you? Jesca: Communication is at the heart, as it often is with my songs. In each song, I am addressing a certain person or persons or entity for that matter and I'm basically telling them what's up. They are confrontational, all of them. I didn't realize I was doing that as I was writing them and I didn't realize they share confrontation in common. It was not my intention to write a bunch of protest songs, but I'm quite pleased in the end. The world could use a good protest song, or a 1001 right now. Visit www.jescahoop.com/ Comments are closed.
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August 2024
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