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

Alright, Jess thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I always say that being a musician/artist for me was a childhood dream I never stopped pursuing. I feel like some of the most common things kids say they want to be when they grow up are firefighters, astronauts, movie stars, rockstars, etc. I always knew what mine was and just never gave it up.

Jess, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m an American-Italian singer/songwriter and artist based out of LA (originally from Connecticut). I started writing songs as a very young kid, which has been my means of creative expression since I can remember. As I got older, I became dedicated to the craft in a more intentional way and at 16 began teaching myself piano to accompany my lyrics and melodies. Two years later I moved out to attend a boutique music college in Los Angeles and have been here ever since.

It took me a while to really find my sound and figure out exactly how I wanted my messages and image portrayed. I am someone who every much focuses on lyrics and enjoy kitschy, introspective yet cleverly relatable lines. I try to find a satisfying balance between poetry and realism within my writing. It’s not always easily achievable but the feeling of finally reaching a point where the lyrics are being brought into the world exactly the way I intended them to be in my mind is unmatched.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

A lesson I had to unlearn (and am still trying to do so) is insecurity. It has very much stunted me in most aspects of my life, but specifically when it comes to my project. For a while I was too scared to release music or perform live, and I wasted years hiding my art away in my bedroom. When I finally started gigging and releasing, I was like.. god, what have I been missing. It was an amazingly harsh reality check.

The older I get the more I realize life is just way too short for that. We can die at any moment so as long as what we want to do isn’t harmful towards ourselves or others and makes us happy, we have to choose to do it whenever we can.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

I think the most important part of a community for artists is being supportive and attentive to the art and to the artists. Whether that means clicking the link in their bio, showing up to their shows, or being a part of their project in a way that will help elevate it, is such an essential element to success.

Making sure someone is being heard and appreciated is truly a gift for both parties involved.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jesscasinelli.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jesscasinelli/
• Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5QvjVWRkPZNRNvynQMAGMO?si=TgDW5qZzRli8JAzG2dqVBA LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/jesscasinelli

Image Credits
Photos by Maddi Cashell