Photo by Randee Armstrong.

Photo by Randee Armstrong.

Why did you choose to change your name when you’d already released one album as Jessica Jalbert?

The biggest reason is because of the stigma around the whole singer-songwriter genre—especially if you’re a girl. Automatically people assume that it’s folk. I’m a huge fan of folk music, and it’s really important to me, but Cosmic Troubles is not a folk album. I’ve spoken to promoters who say, “Yeah, I hear your name and I assume you’re folk,” and I just wanted to move away from that. In a sense, I’m just, like, trying to fake people out and [make them] think that it’s a band. And it is a band, it’s just my band. It also feels nice not to have my own name always attached to everything, because I want to have my own identity separate from my music.

That totally makes sense to me. Can you talk to me about the teeth on the album cover?

I know! They are so disgusting, and they are my own teeth. I didn’t have an upbringing where we could afford braces. My dad was self-employed so he didn’t have benefits or anything like that. My whole family has really crooked bottom teeth, but our top teeth are totally fine. People are always so surprised that those are my teeth, like “Oh, I never noticed that before!” I conscientiously keep my lower lip covering my teeth when I talk to people, but I also wanted to use that as an album cover because it’s so not flattering. It’s not my natural inclination to get dolled up or look nice or use my personal appearance as a means to get attention. That really makes me uncomfortable. I’m still doing it, I guess, with the teeth, because they are strikingly ugly, but it feels more humorous and I feel more comfortable having people be like, “Oh! Ugly teeth!” than having them potentially be like, “Oh, you look beautiful.”

It feels like you’re putting yourself out there in many ways with this album. Can you tell me about the first time you performed or shared a song with someone?

When I got out of high school, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with my life. I’d played in bands but I’d never really written a song before. I used to be a really shy person and I didn’t make friends very well in school because I was so shy. But I was also really lonely. So I learned to play guitar so that I could play in bands, because if people are in your band they have to socialize with you! I started a band with two people who ended up being lifetime best friends and I was really lucky to meet them.

After high school I moved to Ontario. I needed to move away from my parents to stretch my muscles a little bit and to see the world. But I was still really lonely and shy. I thought OK, I made friends with music before, maybe I can make friends with music now, but I couldn’t find any bands that needed me. So I started writing songs and playing at open mics.

My very first performance was on a college campus in Thunder Bay, Ontario. I’m sure I was awful. I was probably shaking the whole time, even though open mics are so low-key and the perfect place for a budding songwriter to try stuff out in a safe atmosphere. They had the worst guitar of all time; I wouldn’t even consider it an instrument now! The strings were a full inch off of the neck and [it was] so hard to push down and to play. But I needed somebody to be like, “Oh, that was good, I’m interested in this.” And it worked! I made friends that night.

Once you’d had that first stressful experience, the only way was up!

Exactly. Things can only get better. I really think that having the worst experiences—playing shows where nobody’s there, or having gear that’s total crap—those experiences make it infinitely easier when you start to get a little more comfortable. Now I don’t have to deal with that as much, but if I did have to go to a room where I was playing a show to two people, I’d be OK! It used to horrify me, but you put yourself through that stuff so that everything else gets easier.

So you’re in Edmonton in Alberta, Canada right now—is that where you grew up?

I grew up on farmland right outside Edmonton, so yeah, essentially.

What was it like? You said you were involved with the music scene in high school?

There wasn’t a French high school in the county I was living in, so I went to a school in the city. I took band as an elective and started playing in bands. I had to depend on my mom or dad to drive me to people’s houses, and they would basically wait around until we’d finished rehearsing because it would take too long to drive home and then back to come pick me up. I’m lucky that they were willing to do that! It’s kind of constricting to live outside of the city when you are trying to be involved with anything.

Before I started playing in bands, I just hung out with my siblings. We’d start fires and catch frogs and stuff like that. It was this idyllic playing in the woods childhood until we got into high school, and [started to think] that that stuff was uncool and wanted to be invited to go to the mall [instead]. But it means a lot to me to have peace and quiet. It’s still a part of me even though I live in the city and am a total city girl now.

Are the outdoors a part of your creative process?

Definitely. I think it’s inextricable for me. I don’t really equate the two, but in the same way that I’ll never escape the fact that I was raised religiously, I’ll also never be able to escape the fact that my safe place is in the trees. I was working for the Alberta government as a wilderness skills instructor for many years. It was possibly going to be my life to lead trips and teach environmental awareness. I’ll never escape that, and I don’t want to. It definitely informs my songwriting because I feel like writing when something inspires me, and a lot of what inspires me is being outside.

It’s getting to be that time of year when we can get outside, in the northern hemisphere at least! Do you have any summer plans?

We’re going to play a couple festivals and tour in Canada this June, and we’re booking a bigger tour right now in the U.S. for September. I’ll probably try to work on another album and there are a lot of little festivals around Edmonton that we’re involved in. It’ll be a busy summer of playing a lot with the band to get us to a place where we’re bring our A-game when we’re touring. Tour is a really awesome opportunity when you’re ready for it, but if you’re not [then] it’s a big waste of money. So we’ll spend a lot of time this summer jamming as much as we can.

I hope you get outside, too.

I’ll definitely do my best! ♦