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Jessica Andrews Finds Herself...and Love Micheal Zitz April 3,2003 Jessica Andrews says her new album, "Now," set to be released April 15, represents "a whole new me." There's no doubt that the 19-year-old Andrews is a very different person than she was at 14 when she recorded her major-label debut, "Heart Shaped World." Or at 16 when she cut "Who I Am," which scored a major hit with the title song. For one thing, she's virtually unrecognizable. She's become less voluptuous, very trim and taut. It's the kind of thing that makes feminists scream bloody murder about skewing young girls' body images. After all, there was nothing wrong with Andrews' appearance before. She just looked healthy. But she insists it didn't happen by design, that no label execs or management types were pressuring her to change her body to sell records. "I think I just grew up," Andrews said in a phone interview. "And as you get older, maybe you have some baby fat you lose." She also moved out on her own and away from Mama's home cooking. "I never was a bad eater, but I did change my eating habits and I exercised more," Andrews said. "It's my effort to be happy," she said. "I'm not trying to make an effort to look better or skinnier in a video. I want to look and feel good the old-fashioned way, through eating right and exercising." She thinks "Now" is more mature and diverse because she's more mature and diverse. "It's been two years since my last album and I've had a lot of changes," Andrews said. "I moved out on my own last year, I met someone. I just kind of grew up and I have a new perspective on life." The "someone" she met is Marcel Chagnon, a new Mercury Records country singer-songwriter. They've been dating just over a year. "He's an amazing person to have in my life," she said. "We write together. It's really cool. We get along so well. It's really nice. He stepped into my life right where my parents left off. I was a little apprehensive about being on my own. We met the same month I moved out, and we were very, very close right away." Andrews said that as she's grown up, she's grown as an artist. There's a been a big evolution from her debut album to this one, she said. Andrews first began taking her voice seriously after winning a talent competition in her hometown of Huntingdon, Tenn., while in the fourth grade. She soon gained the attention of veteran Nashville producer Byron Gallimore, who began working with her in the studio and helped get her signed to DreamWorks Records' Nashville division. She released her first single, "I Will Be There for You," on the "Prince of Egypt" soundtrack in late 1998. Her first album, "Heart Shaped World," was released in 1999 when Andrews was only 15 years old. "There's definitely a lot of difference," she said. "I feel like I was a baby back then. I still think it was a pretty cool album, pretty good work for a 14-year-old. I feel very proud of all my albums." She said there are big differences between age 16, when she did "Who I Am," and 19. "You're figuring out what you want to do with your life," she said. "You're making a whole new life of your own." Her material has generally been soaring and uplifting in the past, and there is some of that on "Now." But "I think the music I've recorded on this album makes you feel a lot of different things," Andrews said. Some are light-hearted love songs, like "Sunshine and Love," but there are edgier songs like the first single, the assertive "There's More to Me Than You." "I didn't want to have a whole album of songs about being in love," she said. "There's More to Me Than You" was written by Andrews with Chagnon and James T. Slater and was recorded at the last moment, causing Andrews to believe the song "was meant to be." After 18 months of work, at the very end of this album, "I still felt we were missing the last piece of he puzzle," Andrews said. "We did it at the last minute and it was fate. It ended up being the first single off the album." Still, the title song, "Now," is her favorite, because it reminds her of her relationship with Chagnon. "I just love that song," she said. "It's so ethereal sounding. I got lost in that melody that defines where I am in my life--I've met someone after waiting a long time for that person." |
