Project Description

Interview with
JESSIE-MAY KITCHEN

(October 15th, 2020)

Interviewer – Nat Cartney

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Natalia – Today we’re talking to Jessie-May Kitchen who’s just released a new single Blue Skies from her EP called Zone Out. So, hi.
Jessie-May – Hey.

Natalia – Do you want to tell us a bit about the single. What’s it all about?
Jessie-May – The single is the first track on Zone Out. Zone Out is about using your imagination and being who you are. It’s about having time to do things like zone out and not be so serious. I think we’re told as we grow up, “You have to be more serious.” I was often told, “Get your head out of the clouds.”

Natalia – That’s one of the songs on it as well.
Jessie-May – Yes, exactly. Head in the Clouds because I was told that specifically. I wanted to make it positive instead of having it as an insult forever. A lot of the time we’re told intelligence is to be focused and logical, but there’s so many ways to be intelligent. We need to use imagination even when we grow up, and have innovative ideas and zone out. It isn’t a bad thing.
It can be good for you. Blue Skies is about consciously choosing to be happy, especially these days. There’s a lot of evil in the world and sometimes it can seem like it’s impossible, but always keep that optimistic approach. We all have our own insecurities. The music video plays on the idea the only person who can stop you achieving your goals is you. As long as you are your best self, things will work out how they’re meant to be.

Natalia – Yes. I love the music video. For people who haven’t seen it, it’s based around Scooby-Doo, and it’s you and your friends. Is that right?
Jessie-May – Yes. It’s us goofing off a lot in the video and having fun, which I think it was really important because we are 18, 19, 20 years old. And we’re all becoming adults and expected to have all this responsibility, but are really still kids on the inside. I think us having fun and being friends really came through in the video. I’m so lucky to have such good friends that will just dress up as someone from Scooby-Doo and help me build a video. They were all so dedicated and really made it special.

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Natalia – Oh, it’s such a classic.
Jessie-May – It’s so good. But also because my message of overcoming insecurities, I wanted to reach people and knew that in Scooby-Doo there is a character for everyone. Even though they’re cliché, you’ve got a whole variety of characters people can relate to.

Natalia – Yes, there’s something for everyone in it. How did you guys make it? What was the process of that?
Jessie-May – We filmed it at Red Hill Road in Wyong Creek. The first thing I had to do with my friends was get the van, the Mystery Machine. We hired it from this place in Sydney called Wicked Campus.

Natalia – You picked the van because it’s the Scooby-Doo van?
Jessie-May – Yes. I picked the Mystery Machine model. We took a bus and a train to pick it up, then drove it back along the highway to the Central Coast.

Natalia – Over the Harbor Bridge and through Sydney too?
Jessie-May – Yes. We did get some looks and we were loving it. We were like, “Yeah, we’re in the Mystery Machine!” It was like a road trip and I loved that because I love traveling. I haven’t been able to travel because of COVID. The next day we drove it along the road in different ways for the video. We filmed the choruses first and then chronologically filmed what we wanted for the story.

Natalia – Yes and in costume too.
Jessie-May – Yes. I got a lot of the costumes from eBay. It’s so funny. The day we decided to film, usually it’s a pretty quiet road. But we had all these motorbikes revving past, kicking up dust and rocks. Some of them noticed we were in costume and asked, “Hey, what are you doing?” I was like, “Filming a music video!”

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Natalia – They probably loved it. It’s fun to watch. I’ve seen a few of your other music videos and it sounds like you’re the one who comes up with these concepts. It’s very organic. You imagine something and then make it happen.
Jessie-May – I write all the music videos. I direct them, and come up with the storyboard and the theme. It is all my ideas, but I’m so lucky to have my friends and all the people that I’ve worked with. My editor is Ro from Rolling Media Productions and Robert C Morton did this video. Gravity Films filmed Star Child had and they’re so cool because they jumped on board. Sometimes I think my ideas are out there so wonder what they’re going to think, but they’re always so cool about making my ideas come to life. Without them, it would just be a story in my head.

Natalia – In Star Child you’ve got aliens, and I saw another one that was you and a mermaid on the beach. I’m excited to see what’s coming.
Jessie-May – Thank you. Yes, I did do my first few, Coffee Shop and Teen Love with the mermaid. I did those just on my phone and edited them myself. I was young, 16 or 17 so didn’t know anyone. I just did my best. By the time I did Teen Love, I thought I have really big ideas and might not know how to execute them completely myself. That’s when I started reaching out to cinematographers and my friends.

Natalia – Cool. Let’s go back to the beginning of the story. You were super young when you became a Triple J Unearthed artist. It was 16, is that right?
Jessie-May – Yes. I was 16 turning 17. I made Coffee Shop as my first release single. Everything I did, I’d never been taught. I’d studied drama at school so that helped, but I didn’t have heaps of technical skills. It was really amazing how they picked up my song. I played open mics a lot with all my own stuff. And then Mark Cashin, who did the open mic up at Norah Head, let me play. He said, “Hey, I know someone who’d want to sign you because you’re young and write songs, and the industry needs writers.” Me being 16, was like, “Yes, oh my Gosh!”

Natalia – Yes, who’s going to say no?
Jessie-May – I was like, “Yeah, I would love that.” He introduced me to Marshall Cullen. He is my producer and the boss off Foghorn Records. He helped me make my first single and that went well. I did the next one at 17. Once I turned 18 he said, “Hey, we’ll sign you.” And then I was like, “Woo, I’m signed!” But also being so young, you kind of feel like you have imposter syndrome. You think, “Am I deserving of all this?”
I wanted to up my skills so I started doing more vocal lessons because I’d done a few as a 14-year-old. They really helped. I also went to TAFE. The year I got signed I did my Cert III in Music Performance before COVID. That really helped because I was around like-minded people and they helped me with my confidence as a performer. It was really good for me. So now I’ve just released my first EP and it’s really exciting.

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Natalia – How was it recording? You recorded this one at Damien Gerard Studios. How was that process for you?
Jessie-May – It was really good. I wanted to do it last year, but I got sick on the day of recording. It was such bad luck. I couldn’t sing to save my life. I tried, but couldn’t because I had some sort of throat infection.
We ended up recording Star Child because that was originally going to be the first track on the EP or a main track, but released it as a single because it was so late in the year. We thought releasing the EP would be overshadowed by Christmas songs. We started last year and finished recording the vocals and making it more indie pop with the backing instrumentals this year, and released it.

Natalia – Okay. Cool. Do you have any favourite lyrics in any of your songs? Something that’s really important to you?
Jessie-May – Yes. In Blue Skies, “Fate rewards the brave, those who aren’t afraid of trying.” I think that is so important because it is so scary to take that leap. It’s true what they say. The only way to do something is to take that big step out of your comfort zone. So that’s always been a really important thing for me. But also the lyrics in Calm in the Eye of the Storm, I have a bridge I wrote to myself in the song. I wrote that song when overcoming something really heavy in my life.
When you feel a lot of heavy emotions, it’s like no one else understands. It’s a message to not give up. “You think that nobody cares and they don’t understand while the world keeps storming around, but you have people who love you and people who want you. Don’t you dare turn back now.” It was to remind myself we all have a purpose.

Natalia – When I listen to your lyrics what comes through is this incredible warmth and realness. I’m kind of taken back to the freedom of growing up. To when you’re 18 and those next few years of figuring out who you are, and battling all the emotions. I really feel that in your music.
Jessie-May – Oh, thanks. Yes, I do write from the heart so it’s so cool that’s what you take away from it. I think writing from my own experiences and being so open is why people relate to it. We don’t feel the same things, but we’ve all been there. Being human is all about those shared experiences.

Natalia – Cool. Do you have a dream? If you could have anything you wanted going forward, what would you like for your music?
Jessie-May – I have always wanted to play at a charity event. To do something to help or give back. I’ve thought about giving the profits from some of my songs to something I’m really passionate about.

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Natalia – That’s really cool, that’s giving back. Do you have a venue that you would love to play at?
Jessie-May – Oh, I don’t know. I think playing somewhere iconic like the Opera House would be pretty sick.

Natalia – What’s it like hearing your songs on Triple J and other radio stations? You talk about feeling like maybe you don’t deserve it, but then it’s this huge thing hearing your stuff on the radio. What are the feelings that brings up?
Jessie-May – Happy feelings. It’s like, “Whoa, they want to listen to what I have to say.” It makes me feel understood too. People listening is like, “I hear what she’s saying and I want to support her.”

Natalia – Okay, cool. Anything else you want to talk about or any story you’d love to tell?
Jessie-May – Oh, let me think. I released Shooting Daisies on the album. It’s an anti-violence, anti-gun, a peaceful protest song. I wrote it before 2020 happened. I think it’s been relevant this year more than ever. We’ve had the Black Lives Matter protests and the World War III scare. We’ve had so many things. The lyrics are, “A general is not a general if we all walk away.”

Natalia – It’s nice your music is campaigning for things for change. Lovely to chat with you Jessie-May. I’m excited about your music video coming out and seeing more of them coming through. Thanks for being open and chatting about your process and everything.
Jessie-May – Thank you for having me.

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AMNPLIFY – DB