We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jenna Jo. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jenna Jo below.

Jenna Jo, appreciate you joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I feel like I’ve always known deep down that I would end up in the creative field somehow. Growing up, I was exceptional at math, but my passion always lay in music and writing. As I continued to go through school, I felt like both sides of myself were constantly at war. Do I do what I know I’m good at—the safe pick—what everyone around me wanted for me, or do I do what I love—the risky pick that I was consistently discouraged from? The more I tried to pull away from my creative side, the more I found myself thinking and dreaming about it. At the end of the day, I just had to be extremely honest and real with myself about what I truly wanted in life. What was I going to regret not doing 20 years from now? I think it’s wrong to deny myself something I feel so naturally drawn to and something I love. After I made that final decision to move forward in the creative field, it felt like a puzzle piece had finally shifted into place, and I couldn’t imagine turning back now.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Hello, my name is Jenna Jo, and I tend to call myself a professional weirdo. You might know me from Tik Tok under the username Jennajoyo, where I talk about a variety of topics I love while bringing you along with my crazy everyday life. I started releasing original music in 2022 after successfully learning, recording, filming, editing, and posting a cover every single week for an entire year. I hope to bring up new topics I haven’t seen much of in the music industry. Growing up an orphan, constantly moving, getting placed in foster care, and learning how to mature before my biological parents did had its challenges. I know so many others face these same difficulties, but they’re not as talked about as romantic heartbreak. What about parental heartbreak? What about the heartbreak you feel when you’re forced to move and leave an entire life behind? I want to write the songs I wish I had growing up. Music has saved me over and over again, and I just want to return the favor.

There have been so many moments throughout my journey so far where I’ve genuinely been so proud of myself, but the first one that comes to mind is getting my debut single out! Welcome To The Weekend was the second song I had ever written, but I knew it needed to be my first release instantly. I was working with a newly graduated producer, who I won’t name here, and we had been chatting for months about the song and its release, only for him to reach out to me seven days before the song needed to be submitted to make its deadline to tell me that he could no longer help and he doesn’t have anything to deliver. Needless to say, as a first-time musician, that was devastating, so I did the only desperate thing I could think of: I posted a Tik Tok video asking for help. Thankfully, overnight I had around 5 producers in my comment section, where I found the only producer I’ve worked with since—Aleah Tucker. Somehow we pulled it off and got the song made and submitted in those 7 days to make its planned release date, which was, funnily enough, April 1st. During this process, though, I was dealing with some serious and very scary health issues. I actually ended up having an ambulatory EEG (which is an EEG done at home over a period of time) over the weekend when my first single came out. It’s great to reminisce on now, but I remember how stressful everything was at the moment, from my first producer dropping me to the crazy mystery health issues.

Since my first single release, I have released five additional singles, three of which are part of my debut album, ‘Evergreen Fields & Wisteria Skies, which came out at the end of 2022.

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

I had to unlearn this idea that there’s a certain way you have to make music. You need this structure, with these chords that go together and constantly compelling lyrics. Throughout my life, I’ve been known as a sorter, someone who likes to section things out; everything has a box to fit in—except music. As I continued to work with my producer, Aleah Tucker, she consistently encouraged me and gave me the confidence to get a little experimental at times. Now that my first big project is out, I find myself realizing there really isn’t a right or wrong way to make music. Music doesn’t need to hit as hard as Taylor Swift’s All Too Well every time. You can get lost in a fun beat or a silly idea like The Chainsmokers’ ‘#SELFIE’. I’ve tried my hardest to apply this knowledge, expand my horizons, and experiment more as I start writing for my next wave of music.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

The first person who tried to stop me from pursuing music was my biological mother. During my freshman year of high school, I knew a girl named Ruby. She was probably as cool as it got, and she befriended me after I had just transferred there. I thought it was so impressive how Ruby could play the ukulele so effortlessly, and she must have caught on because she encouraged me to get one and take it up myself. At the time, I was struggling to live with my biological mother for the first time since I was a toddler, and I knew getting an instrument was an instant no-go in that house. So I waited until it was around my birthday because I always got a little bit of birthday money, and I secretly purchased a ukulele from Amazon. It wasn’t anything crazy at all—just a $50 ukulele that came with a super flimsy case and chord book. I knew I couldn’t hide the delivery or the sound it would inevitably make from my room, so I just hoped she’d let me keep it since it had already been purchased. I remember the level of anxiety I felt when I saw the package come through the mail. Her reaction was as predictable as they come. At first, she was confused, thinking maybe the package was delivered to the wrong house, but then she saw my name on it and insisted I open it right away. I knew what it was as I was opening it because I had only ordered this one thing, and I still remember the disgusted look on her face as I pulled out the ukulele box. She instantly said, “So this is what you wasted your money on?” and then continued to tell me how much of a waste of time and money something like that is and that if I wanted to be a musician I was way too old to start. She let me keep the ukulele because the money was spent, but she did not encourage me. I was so excited to tell Ruby the next day, and she was equally as excited for me to get started. She gave me some tips and tricks I still remember to this day and recommended I just jump into a song I like rather than learning a few starter songs like Hot Crossed Buns. I went home and decided the first song I was going to learn was You and I by Ingrid Michaelson, which is more of an intermediate song in my opinion. It took me three entire days, but after I learned that song, I had an incredible foundation to jump from. I feared that after that first song, I might lose interest and maybe my biological mother was right—this was a waste of time—but that never happened. I just continued to jump from learning one song to the next until I felt pretty confident performing in front of others. I remember bringing my little $50 Amazon ukulele to school for a project for the first time and feeling as cool as when I first saw Ruby. Now I have a ukulele tattooed on my left forearm, and I own five currently. I can’t imagine my life without the ukulele, and I’m glad I persisted through my worst critic—my own mother.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jennajomusic/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@jennajo
• Other: Tik Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@jennajoyo