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

Jesediah, appreciate you joining us 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 was so lucky to be given access to the arts at such a young age. My parents enrolled me in a youth piano class when I was about four. It was essentially Suzuki for piano, but that is where I learned the basics of what I do now. Eventually I switched to private lessons and was classically trained by the most amazing woman named Emily Bass. I probably could have sped up my learning process if I listened to her more. I was very dependent (and remain dependent) on my ear versus actually reading the notes, something my teacher always called me out for. Eventually I kind of tapped out of what I could accomplish considering classical music. It’s really hard to play Chopin by ear lol. Aside from piano lessons I also took multiple music theory classes in highschool and that helped me learn how to craft melodies and chord progressions which helps me nowadays with my production and songwiritng.

Jesediah, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Music has been part of my life since I can remember. Even before I started learning to play/produce/write I was listening to my dad play Whitney Houston when he cleaned the house. So music was all around me. Right now I teach a music production class at a school in Harlem NY, and that’s been a really fun gig but I’m lookin for a job that takes up a bit less time because sometimes I feel like I’m falling behind on my creative pursuits. One of the biggest things for me as a trans masc artist is creating community and bringing other queer people and specifically trans people into the fold. I really want to break through the stereotypes. I have opened for Tinashe, Played SOB’s lots of stuff that was really fun but I went to SXSW to play at a POC Queer showcase and that is easily one of the things I am most proud of in my life because I was able to bring my mission to a large stage.

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

Everything I do i do for my black queer siblings. Often we find ourselves silenced, pushed out and excluded from spaces that we have a right to be in. Hip Hop is often one of those spaces unfortunately. I want to make a point that self expression within this genre isn’t just for a select few who fit the stereotype of what a rapper should look like, act like, sound like etc. It’s 2024 and it’s time for people to catch up.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding thing about being an artist is when I get random IG’s or emails or whatever from people who randomly found my music and decided they wanted to tell me personally they liked it. I’m not a big artist so those little interactions with people mean a lot and let me know I’m on the right path.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jesediahmusic.com
• Instagram: @jezmakesmusic
• Twitter: @jezmakesmusic

Image Credits
Farah Idrees (the two pics where i am in the red and white shirt ) Bashir (The picture of me hugging/dapping up Wycleff Jean) Holly Grace (the picture of me holding the mic out to someone in the audience)