| Jess Klein Interview Boston-based Singer/songwriter Jess Klein played her fourth show at Miss Porter�s School on February 23. The following are excerpts from an interview with her before the show, originally published in the school newspaper, Salmagundy. She�s an amazing musician and was very kind and a little bit shy. What are some non-musical influences in your songwriting? Right now I�m reading this Japanese author called Moriki Marikami. I spent some time in Japan this past summer. All his characters are sort of removed from their lives, and they�re looking in on them(selves), they have a sense of humor but they�re in a lot of pain. He�s been a big influence on me lately. I�ve been studying yoga. You feel so physically connected to your body, but you confront emotional things through it as well. Singing is a very physical process for me, feeling the air moving through my lungs and stuff like that, and it�s very emotional but in this really physical or tangible way. I�ve gotten that through yoga, too. What do you remember about high school? I think that I was pretty shy, but I was self confident (at the same time). I was quiet, but it wasn�t because I didn�t think I was good enough. I was looking ahead and thinking that at some point I wouldn�t be feeling so awkward. I actually really liked high school. I think that I was sort of a late bloomer in a lot of ways, so I think that a lot of the things many people deal with in high school, like hating school and rebellion, didn�t really hit me until a little later. In high school I was still happy to go along with the flow. So you had a rebellion phase. Yeah, a little. As you grow older and you�re more aware of yourself and in control of yourself so you can really know what you want to rebel against. What was the inspiration for the song �The Wading Pool�? I was in this time in my life when I was just starting to come into my own in a lot of ways. It�s sort of a bittersweet song. I was in Jamaica at the time, and it was about this boy that I had kind of fallen in love with. It was sort of the first time that I was thinking about people being responsible for their own actions and so I left him. It�s a love song from an only slightly jaded point of view. There was a big jump in style from to Wishes Well Disguised to Draw Them Near. How do you see your style continuing to evolve? If I�m going to rock, I really want to rock. I don�t want to have some pretension that it�s not a rock song. I�ve been working on my voice and my musicality and my playing and I�m really excited to just tear it up. But at the same time I wouldn�t ever want to not be able to do a quieter song. Your tour this summer must have been such a whirlwind. What stands out in your mind from those five months? It was a real eye-opener in terms of what it means to commit to a career as a musician. Happily, it made me appreciate actual music more, because there are so many things that happen when you�re travelling that you can�t control, so at the end of the day the fact that you get to go onstage and perform for people and connect with people is really powerful. |