Interview With Jessica Nelson, Music Enthusiast & Tastemaker

I had the opportunity to sit down with Jess Nelson who I consider a music taste-maker. Jessica, who is a New Jersey native but current Utah resident, hands out what tends to be the best mixtape compilation (2011’s had the foresight to put Fun http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv6dMFF_yts and Goyte http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UVNT4wvIGY before they really made a splash on the music scene in 2012) I have ever heard to many many people on a yearly basis — she makes one at the end of each year of the “best of’s” of the year.  She is also a repeat offender of making an introduction to the people around her to the best of the best in music via social media and has has everyone who knows her or knows of her on the edge of their seat waiting for a recommendation. This is the main reason I choose to interview her as my first “Everyday Music Taste-maker” She is always, looking, watching, and listening for new music, and people are always asking her for it.  She always has an awesome playlist playing in the background wherever she is, and she goes to more concerts than anyone I know. Jess is a mom, wife, police dispatcher, college student and still finds time to do things like a charity polar bear dip and run a marathon! And on top of that she ALWAYS finds time for one of her first loves, music,  in her life 😉

 

Amanda: Tell me about your love of music – where did it come from, when did you first get into diving into all types of music and being the big music lover that everyone knows you to be today?

Jess: I would say probably from the womb, I mean, I can’t remember a time in my life going back from my earliest memories that I wasn’t surrounded by music, I can remember being a kid and I couldn’t have been more than 5 or 6, my parents had this old record player that they kept on one of the window sills of their house and they put the vinyl records on and we would sit there and dance with each other in the hallways, and then having a couple of older siblings, one that is 9 years older than me, they were all listening to music growing up.  I kind of started out with the classics. With my parents listening to standard 60’s music because they were teenagers in the 60’s, and then moving on from there my older brother and sister listening to the new rock that came out, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and all of that type of music, also then being in ballet growing up, I was constantly listening to classical music and then as I got older I started exploring music on my own style and really getting into a lot of variety of genres and today I listen to everything, with a couple of exceptions, I don’t really listen to a whole lot of country, but I listen to I listen to country on occasion and I listen to pretty much everything.  You know, just growing up around it, constantly.

A: Awesome! From the womb huh? I like that.

J: From the womb, ha ha, yup from the womb.

A: Can you share with us the most amazing show you have ever gone to?

J: Probably my favorite concert memory still, has to be one of the times I went and saw Muse. I think I’ve seen them three times and they are at larger and larger venues each time, the first time was in this tiny little, tiny tiny little venue.  And it was amazing ‘cause even back then there this huge deal in the UK.  The last time I had saw them it was a much, much larger venue, it felt a lot less personal and so it wasn’t as entertaining, but the second time I saw them another time was on this other stage called The Saltair.  It’s this old, I don’t even know what it was originally used for, but they called it the Saltair Palace, and it’s kind of a medium sized venue, it’s not like stadium seating and everything like that pretty much just one open floor with everybody just standing, general admission, and I remember that they had the upper level of the building blocked off because they put on this insane light show.  And, at the time it was selling out audiences that Wembley, which you know 100,000 plus and there couldn’t have been more than a couple thousand people there, so it was a really intimate setting, but coupled with the, you know, world class, first rate, incredible light show, and performance, the likes of which I’ve never been able to see again in such a small venue.

J: It was incredible.  I’ve never thought about, you know, bands that are famous for their light shows and, I’d say they’re definitely one of them.  Last year I saw them it was really good too, but it was such a big venue, that it lost a lot of its romance I guess.  And then they’re coming again in August, but that’s one of those venues where you have to get seats and everything like that, so I kinda don’t even entertain going because I don’t want to ruin the magic of how I got to see them before.

A:  Oh wow…it was that good huh?

J:  It was that good.

(view the setlist for that show here.)

A:  Ok, so the next question, and if that concert answers this then we’ll just move on to the next one, but if that wasn’t your greatest all time music experience, like if there was something that wasn’t a concert that was even awesomer, not that awesomer’s a word, what is your greatest all time music experience period?  Or memory?  Outside of a concert?

J:  We celebrate, I’m not sure that everyone does, but there’s thing called “Record Store Day”,  and I can’t remember exactly when it is, but it’s somewhere in the early spring and  I…well ok, starting over…I love Brandi Carlile…love, love, love Brandi Carlile, (click the first link on her name to get her music and the second to go to her website) and she was coming to do a concert in Salt Lake to The Depot, but tickets sold out so quickly that I couldn’t get tickets to go see her.  And then I found out that she was going to be performing at this place called ‘Gray Whale’ for Record Store Day, so I hurried down there only to find out that I guess earlier that morning she had gotten a phone call from Elton John who said, “Hey come on down to Vegas and record some music with me!”,  so she went to Vegas and did that instead, and you know sent apologies to everybody.  So the next day she came back to Salt Lake, and I went into this tiny, little record store in Salt Lake City, you know, it’s where the music lovers go, and you can find pretty much anything and everything there, it’s this tiny little store, and outside of Gray Whale is a lawn that can’t be more than 20 feet deep, and so she came back the next day and parked herself and her, the rest of her band, on the front lawn of Gray Whale and sat and sang for about an hour to just this small group of us that had came back the next day.  Her voice is enough to make you cry when you hear it, it’s something like angels singing.  So to be that close with just her and the twins, and this one guy playing the cello, you know, parked out in front of this record store on a sunny day in Salt Lake City, you know, just you and maybe thirty people there, was so amazing.  I’ve never…that’s the most amazing, like outside of a concert, that’s the most amazing music experience I’ve ever had.

A:  Wow.

J:  And that’s definitely on YouTube.

A: Oh really?

J:  Definitely, yeah.

A:  Oh awesome!

J:  Yeah…and she had just gotten to be really well known because of her association with Greys Anatomy, so…it was…she comes back to Salt Lake every year now.  I’ve probably seen her about five or six times and I’m going again to see her next month, but it will never be that setting again, under best circumstances.  It was just sunny that day, and I had to keep stopping myself from crying just listening to her because her voice is so powerful.

A: Wow.

J:  That was awesome.

A:  Yeah that’s really cool!  So, we wanted to know what you love right now.  What’s your favorite music right now?  It doesn’t have to be any one thing, but what are you really into?  What’s the best stuff that people should look out for right now?

J:  Um, I have been in such a funk on new music lately, I spent the entire day with Simon and Garfunkel on my Pandora station.   I’ve only got 2 episodes of Jools saved up on my DVR that I need to watch, ‘cause I haven’t heard anything really new and spectacular recently which is kind of sad, you know I’ve kind of reverted back to the staples.  Like I’ve been listening to Simon and Garfunkel, and the Beatles, and Billy Joel all day, so I don’t know I might have to get back to you on that one

(and she did get back to us, with these)

 

A:  Alrighty.  Actually Jools..that leads into the next question.  What do you think are some of the best ways or places to find new music?  Where do you find yours?

J:  Ooh..that’s really…I find new music so many different ways.  Jools is probably the biggest one because every week he brings in, you know, it’s a show it’s an hour long, it’s on one of the off-beat tv channels that most people probably don’t get, but you should get just to watch Jools.  He’s this old school boogie-woogie guy and he’s been in the industry for a million years and knows everybody and everything that there is to know about music, and every week he just has this show where he brings in it’s usually five or six artists in every show and there’s always one like big, big headliner.  Pretty much you name it, if you type it into YouTube, and then do the “&” sign Jools Holland, you’re going to come up with them performing on Jools Holland.  I don’t think I’ve ever searched for an artist on YouTube that hasn’t been on Jools Holland.  Um, everyone.  But then, in addition to that, the big names he always has, you know, three or four other bands that a lot of times you’ve never heard of, and it’s music from all over the world, and it’s every different genre, and you even get to hear one or two songs by each band, but the cool thing about this show is that there really all in this one big room, and they just take turns watching each other play music.  And kind of, like you know, knocking arms with each other,  and so you’ll be sitting there watching it, you know the one band play, and then it’ll go to another part of the room and you’ll watch the members of this other band just kind of singing along and dancing along to the music.  There’s not a lot of commentary, there’s no thing in the middle, it’s just band to band to band to band to band.  It’s just an hour-solid of the most incredible music you’ve ever seen.  I find so many new artists that way.  Besides from that, basically television.  I can think of a lot of times when I’ve been watching Greys Anatomy that they..that I just heard something you know and just thought to myself, “I cannot live without that song…I have to get it right now”.  And then, Glee is the same way.  You know, they’ve evolved up new and upcoming music.  Even just flipping by.  In a preview, you know you’ll watch shows, and you’ll check them out quickly for some song, and you just, you know…I like putting on my Pandora station, and different stations and leave it on shuffle and hear different artists pop up that I haven’t heard or that I had forgotten about.   The opening bands at some of my favorite artists, because you know there’s a chance if you like the headliner, you’re probably going to like the opening band.  There’s just, yeah, all different ways.

A:  Awesome.  Well that was a pretty good selection for people to find…pretty good array of places for people to go look for new music. Awesome!

J:  Yeah.  The Starbucks app, every week they send me a link to a new download off of the Starbucks app on of my iPhone.  You don’t have to buy it, you click on the button and it automatically downloads it off iTunes for you and saves it on your phone.  I love that feature of it.  You used to have to go to their store and get the little card and then type the code into iTunes, now it’s got the StarBucks app and you just click on it, and it just downloads the pick of week for you.

A:  Oh, wow.

J:  I have a new song on my phone once a week

A:  Is it a free download?

J:  Yeah, totally free download.

A: Oh, awesome!

J:  It’s really, really cool.  But yeah, even, you know the mix cd’s that I make, most of that music is all from either listening to Jools Holland, or watching shows like Greys Anatomy, and I’m working on my 2013 CD already.

A:  Wow, already?

J:  Already.

A:  Oh boy…I’m excited!  Maybe we’ll get it early.  We gotta wait for Christmas time?  (laughs)

J: (laughs)

A:  In your opinion, what qualities make great music?  Like, what makes a great song, a great album, a great artist?  What do you look for?  What excites you about music?

J:  When I first read that question and you sent it to me, and I tried really hard to think about what the answer is, and in all honestly, I don’t know that there is an answer to that.  I don’t feel it’s intangible.  It’s this aspect that you can’t quite put your finger on.  It can have amazing lyrics and crappy music and you can beautiful music and terrible lyrics and it can still be incredible.  You can have a band that’s, you know, ten people or you can have a deal with two, and it can all be incredible.  I don’t know how to answer that.  It’s more just something that you just know.

A:  I think you did answer that.

J:  -Ok.

A:  That was an answer, and I think that was a pretty detailed answer.  That was pretty good.  Ok, so music video.  What’s your favorite one and why?

J:  Ah! (laughs) Uh that’s so hard!  I missed that question…I would’ve bee thinking about it.   I don’t know, can we come back to it?

A:  We have one more.

J: –Ok.

A:  So, when you put your mix tapes together and share music with other people…I see comments on your posts on your Facebook of music all the time…and it seems like people really respect your opinion of music and wait for your mix tapes and wait for your suggestions, you are their source for new music.  What do you think about and look for when selecting a song or artist to share with someone?  How do you know what someone will like?

J:  You know, I don’t.  But, what I know is that every single one of those songs that goes onto one of those CDs, for me, it symbolizes a person or a place or an event. And some of them are really happy memories, and some of them are really sad, and tragic memories, and I don’t think that the songs ever mean the same thing to the different people that those CDs go out to, but I think they’re the type of songs that can mean anything to anybody, and it’s more about not really about the songs so much as it’s about the memories associated with them, and so it’s hope that when I send out these CDs and they’re listening to them, you know, they’re able to make their own memories  to go along with them.

A:  Ok.  That’s pretty awesome.  That works! And then, if you have the music video?  That was the last question.  That’s the end of the interview… (laughs)

J:  …I’ll have to go through my Facebook page and see what ones I’ve put on there, recently…or not even recently but…actually here’s one.  Actually, ok, here’s one that I absolutely love!  I can’t tell you the place…it came at a bad time, but it’s not, it’s pretty close.  “The Middle” by Jimmy Eat World, it’s not only an incredible song and really top of the lyrics and really uplifting, but the music video goes perfectly along with it and kind of shows a lot about peer pressure and I remember listening to it, growing up early in my 20’s, I took a lot from it, so…we’ll use that one for now, unless I come up with an even better one, in which case I’ll glady, glady share it with you.

Jimmy Eat World’s “The Middle” can be found on their album, Bleed American.

A:  Ok awesome!  Well that was it, and thank you for taking the time to do this. 

J:  You’re welcome!

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