Last month, singer/songwriter Jesca Hoop released her debut album, Kismet, which illustrated the emergence of an exceptionally talented and imaginative musician.
Currently on tour with Matt Pond PA, she performs with a three-piece band before audiences upward of 500.
“The show is a must-see,” she says, and, based on the quality of her music as well as her artistic fortitude, I’m inclined to take Ms. Hoop at her word. In the following conversation, she speaks about the lineage of musical influence, her curious approach to songwriting, and what Stewart Copeland taught her about the creative process.
Are you writing on the road or are you just concentrating on the tour right now?
I haven’t done any writing yet, but I think I will. I would like to, but just finding a place to do that has been an issue. There isn’t a lot of privacy, anywhere. (Laughs)
How different is the dynamic in performing the songs than it was from recording them?
Very different. The show is still reminiscent of the record, [but] it’s not a carbon copy.
When you started with the album, did you have a particular sound that you wanted to project overall?
The main criteria were to maintain a true dynamic of small and intimate and then more fantastical. So in order to create more of the fantastic, we tripped the songs to make them a little more rhythm-based. And then [we] indulged in sound effects and things like that. We wanted it to be really playful…I wanted it to be really fun and a cross between traditional and modern. Some of the songs are traditional songwriting and then some of them are more modern in their approach, just in the base of the song.
Even the songs that have the effects and more of the enhanced production can be broken down to an acoustic song. You still have the basis of a song there.
Yeah, although they stem back to different influences and eras and genres. So we needed to come from an original standpoint with old influences.
In particular, on the track, “Out the Back Door,” was there a singular influence on that or was it where you just used a rhythm-based approach, as far as the lyric? Because even the words have a rhythm when you read them.
Probably early '20s Jazz, or '30s and '40s maybe, and Hip/Hop. I love that combination. Actually, I wrote it years ago, and then the movie, Idlewild, came out and it kind of reinforced my concept in that arena. I’ve heard that old Jazz [mixed with] Hip/Hop before, but that’s probably where I wanted to head with it. Some of these songs are quite old. And I’ll hear people refer them to other people or compare them to other people when I had never heard these people at the time when [writing them].
Article comments
1 - Nat le Gros Monstre
Great Interview. I learned many things I did not know.
Cheers
Nat le Gros Monstre.
2 - Connie Phillips
Donald - great interview! I enjoyed reading it very much!