We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jacquelyn Owens a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jacquelyn, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I began singing as a preteen with my youth choir. Singing is all about having opportunities to become better and better in addition to practicing. At a very early age I would record myself singing and listen back with the goal to be come better. Since then I’ve had hundreds of opportunities to sing live and I improve every time.

I began writing seriously right after college. My craft was developed as I started participating in writing sessions where I learned the process. After being introduced to writing sessions, I began writing on my own almost daily. Through this repetition, I’ve developed my craft. Believe me, the early songs were a little rough! But as with most things, the longer you keep at something skills are developed.

I could have sped up my learning process by becoming more technically proficient in my instruments. However playing by ear does have its unique advantages and has worked out well for me.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Singing has been a passion of mine from a very young age. I began singing in church at seven years old and through my teenage years. Once I got to college, I began taking singing and songwriting seriously.

I am now a worship leader at my church as well as an independent artist. I strive to make music that simultaneously inspires and sounds great. I do this by blending messages of my faith with modern/popular sounds.

I am most proud of being an “independent” artist. There’s a lot I’ve had to figure out on my own but I am finding my stride, my sound, and my audience and I couldn’t be happier.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson I had to unlearn was that my music and voice was only a good fit for “one particular audience”. Early on in my career, I had producers and other executives trying to box me into a particular genre. That was not a good feeling because I find myself creating music that crosses so many different genres. For years, I allowed others to put limits on me. However, in the last several years, I’ve found so much freedom and simply creating music that I love. I am not bound to any genre or style. My belief is that I’ve feel it as I’m creating it others will feel that sincerity in my music.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is seeing how something I created impacts others. There have been so many times when listeners have shared with me how much my music has touched them, helped them through hard times, or uplifted them. That is a huge honor and something I take seriously and take into consideration when I am creating music.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jacquelynowens.com
• Instagram: @jacquelynowens_
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@jacquelynowensmusic?feature=shared