We were lucky to catch up with Jennifer Daniels Neal recently and have shared our conversation below.
Jennifer Daniels, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
Until I was forty-five, I’d never written anything longer than a song. I’m not sure I knew I had permission to, which is bizarre since I’m such a champion of human creativity. I practically preach that we have an infinite well to draw upon as image-bearers of God the Creator. But anyway, I was twenty years into a career as a performing songwriter, and that became my identity—happily so.
One night I had a dream. It was this scene: a gorgeous summer day. An old, gothic cemetery with huge headstones gathered according to surnames. A handsome young man mourning over his brother.
When a young woman bikes into the scene, he inadvertently frightens her—which turns into this funny but also meaningful dialogue. And then as they part, a car careens off the road, nearly running them over as it crashes into a headstone. The driver dies and now the two find themselves left with an orphaned baby and the key to a mysterious lock.
As you can imagine, this dream couldn’t be wrangled into song length. It haunted me throughout the day until I found myself four chapters into what is now my debut novel, The Locke Box. But all the while I wrote and edited it, I was also writing songs, and so by the time we released the novel, we also released an album, Songs from the Locke Box.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My husband Jeff Neal and I write songs and play as an Americana duo under my name, Jennifer Daniels.
Now that we’re twenty-five years into it, there’s a wistful sentiment that often gets tossed our way. At its core is the admiration of fans who wish they’d leaned into their art instead of into a safe, money-making career.
When I graduated high school, my mom advised me to learn something other than music, something I could fall back on if music didn’t work out. I earned a master’s in counseling, and while I cherish the insight into the human heart that gave to me, I didn’t enjoy the business of counseling. I just wanted to write songs about whatever awesome stories people told me.
Nine music albums, a picture book, three novels, and two human beings later, I’m fifty years old and beyond grateful that I get to create full-time and foster creativity in others. It’s not always easy. We have to be scrappy and prayerful. But it is totally worth it.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
When I get this question, everybody thinks I’m going to say COVID. And, yes, it did wipe out our entire tour schedule, but honestly, we’re career artists. We’ve had to pray long enough to trust that God’s going to take care of us. And we’ve had to be scrappy tons of times before, willing to work hard and out of the box. So, COVID wasn’t as much of a pivot as motherhood.
Jeff and I had been on the road for ten years before we got pregnant, playing 200+ shows a year. We loved living in the car. We had a faithful road hound named Bob Marley—dog of a lifetime. We always wanted to have children…someday. But, oh the joy when we found out someday was right around the corner.
Twenty weeks later, we got back some hinky bloodwork and thought the baby we were baking up was very sick. We went to the high-risk doctors—praying again—willing to care for the nugget however long we’d get with him/her. But during the ultrasound, the technician said, “It looks like you have a healthy little boy, and—oh! He has a healthy little sister.”
Twins! Two healthy babies, one of each gender. I called my mom and she couldn’t quit saying, “Tell me the truth!” It was such a relief. But talk about slowing down the tour bus! “Pivot” does not even begin to describe what we had to do once they were born. We released an album four months after their debut, and it was clear that touring was going to have to change drastically. I’d show up to this one TV appearance with spit-up on my shirt. (Ew.)
My friends thought we were crazy. I had to pump breast milk in the tiny office of Eddie’s Attic one time, and then store my little bags of white gold in the band beer fridge. My creative energy went right into the babies. I remember looking at the faithful Bob Marley and thinking there was no way I could get up to feed him too.
One day, I said out loud to no one, “I am going to submit to motherhood.” It’s exactly what I needed. To stop pushing and working and doing everything else to keep the career afloat, and allow the season of young children to take precedence. I’m so glad I allowed myself that. I started teaching a parent/child music class close to home, and do you know that that has led to all kinds of other wonderful work! By the way, the kids are fifteen now, so we’ve made it this far!
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
I don’t think there is such a person as a non-creative. We all have problems to solve and we have to come at those problems repeatedly from different angles until we solve them. There’s a reason the term “creative problem solving” exists.
Artists may use a more abstract, intuitive, emotional set of tools, but we are all creative.
The trick is persistence and mental toughness in finding the solutions. Wrestle that muse to the ground! When I was younger, I’d often give up too early. I’d just throw out the idea because it sucked in its present form. But now I think of art as young children. You don’t throw them out! You grow them up.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/jenniferdanielsmusic
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/JennDanielsMusic/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JenniferDanielsMusic
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/JenniferDaniels
- Other: https://linktr.ee/jenniferdanielsmusic Sign up for the mailing list and receive my free novella, The Soubrette.