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

Jes, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

“These Mountains Sing” was a choral arrangement and music video of one of my songs with 25 other singer-songwriters from all over Vermont. I had a grant from The Vermont Arts Council and The National Endowment for the Arts. That work expanded my artistic reach. It was a more ambitious undertaking than I had ever done, involving more collaborators and more moving parts than I had managed previously. First, there was the musical arrangement for eight vocal parts plus a band. Then, there were communications and project management. Video conception, direction, and editing. More than any other project I have done, that piece let me imagine making something beyond my current abilities and then let me grow into the artist who could make it happen.

It was profoundly moving to put together all of those singers’ interpretations of the piece I made. Collaboration is hard work, but the result has so much more potency. “These Mountains Sing” has led to a whole new cycle of songs that I am working on for a small ensemble and an audience choir. It lit a fire in me to compose for singers in accessible ways.

“These Mountains Sing” also showed me how deeply I care about my creative community and inspired me to start a weekly newsletter to them called “A Wilder Wonder,” which started with those 25 singers and has grown to more than 1000 readers in the year I have been writing it. It’s been so heartening to see the response to my essays and illustrations that try to mix personal narrative with musical practice concepts and well-being for artists. It’s a whole new way to serve the music. I am enjoying it as a creative practice, as a teaching practice, and as a way to build community amongst other artists that is really lighting me up right now.

That’s the thing with grant-funded projects. It’s not just about the one-time project. It’s also the investment in the artist’s skills that gives back over and over with more impactful work over time. It feels good to be trusted with that kind of investment. It makes you want to live up to it.

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?

I am a singer-songwriter which means I do all sorts of things to keep the forge burning. I front a band called Beecharmer, and I sing in a swing group called Route Five Jive. I teach music lessons and workshops. I write a newsletter for creative people. I write commissioned songs for commercial and personal clients.

I’m also a printmaker, so I like to combine musical and visual work and try to keep a healthy balance.

I’ve always been an artist, and even when I am doing client work, I try not to lean too much into what I have done before. I try to always push my work to dig deeper.
I am deeply inspired by the natural world, and I try to always be cultivating my curiosity. I have always been trying to connect the day-to-day with the larger mythic stories that move in our cultural consciousness.

I’m not a minimalist, but I am inspired by work that can find the simplest way to express something. It’s one of the ideals I reach for.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I built a following on social media by telling real live people at real live shows to follow me there. Then, after building that following for 10 years, to more than 10,000 humans, the platforms stopped letting me have access to them. Posts that used to be seen by hundreds of people are seen by a handful. I actually feel very strongly that social media is more of a problem than a help for most artists. It’s distracting, it makes artists focus on short form vs long form work, and we have almost no control over who sees it or how it grows. If making short-form video is your actual art form, you’re set. Everyone else- I think it’s way more important to have an email list and a website. I’m kind of an email list evangelist at this point. I just want artists to spend their energy making things for the people who are already paying attention and not getting swept up in a constant obsession with expanding their reach. I write my newsletter on Substack, which is a platform that does have a social media element to it, but it’s still my list. If the platform stops prioritizing creative culture and starts selling ads or anything like that- I can leave with my list. I really want artists to focus their energy on ways to engage with their online communities that THEY have control over.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Ultimately, I am a listener. I use music and images to tell stories that I hope will remind people (including myself) that life is worth LOVING, and I get them by listening to music in my head, other people’s music, and the world around me. Music itself is healing and the strongest medicine I am licensed to dispense. I like to think of it like cooking with good ingredients. Music is already a kind of magic; I just need to get it across without getting in the way. Writing a song or hosting a workshop or making an illustration, I try to do more listening than anything else, and I try to just let the music come through the best I can and trust that it will do the real work. I know that sounds a little woo-woo, but I promise it’s not. It takes a lifetime of practice to be able to articulate the music you hear. I’ll never stop trying to be a better listener.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jesraymond.com
• Other: SUBSTACK: https://jesraymond.substack.com/

Image Credits

Jamie Van Buhler
Will Freihofer