Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jess Wojo. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Jess, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
I don’t know that there was one defining moment where I decided I wanted to pursue music professionally. I’ve wanted to be a performing musician for as long as I can remember. When I was around four years old my Dad was taking me to rehearsals for Jesus Christ Superstar at the Lancaster Opera House. Both he and my Mom were singers and instrumentalists for our Church’s worship team. I started taking piano lessons and auditioning for musicals when I was around eight and kept doing music all throughout high school. I think I wrote my first song when I was in middle school, more like a diary entry than anything I intended to show anyone. At a certain point in high school I realized I would rather be a singer/songwriter than on Broadway and so I started writing more seriously. All of this to say, my continued decision to pursue music professionally is more about the way music consistently makes me feel than any one defining moment. Watching, listening to, and most of all performing music is when I feel most connected and alive and it’s always been that way.
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 artist name is Jess Wojo and I’m a singer/songwriter in Nashville, TN. Truthfully I’m still figuring out my exact genre and artist identity, but I seem to rest somewhere in the realms of indie pop, singer/songwriter, and folk. As I talked about before, I’ve grown up in and around music and loved it from a very young age. I studied Music Business in college as well and currently work for ASCAP, but my goal is to be a full time musician. I currently have three songs out and am in the final stages of production on my fourth. I think I’m most proud of the emotional vulnerability in my music. My songs have all come from real experiences which I try to be completely honest about so that anyone listening to them might be able to experience the same emotions while listening as I experienced while writing and creating. I’m also proud of the fact that all of the songs I’ve released so far have been co-written and/or co-composed by super talented friends in the Nashville music community. Being able to work with your friends to create something cool is such a gift I don’t ever take for granted.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
There are so many free ways to support musicians. Tell your friends about them, share their music on your social media and follow them, subscribe to their mailing lists, pre-save their music, put their music on your playlists. The greatest challenge facing musicians today, I think, is figuring out how to reach people who would enjoy your music if only you could figure out how to get it to their ears! So anything you can do to help them cut through the noise will make a big difference. If you have money to spare- go see shows and pay the cover and/or tip, buy merch, fund crowd sourcing campaigns for new releases. Again, anything and everything you can do to help smaller artists keep making music by reaching new listeners.
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
Yes- Amber Horsburgh is an amazing resource. She is a Music Marketing Coach and founder of the Deep Cuts program. Also Ari Herstand. He recently released a book called “How to Make it in the New Music Business” and has a great podcast where he interviews music industry professionals. I also met Jay Gilbert at a music conference here in Nashville recently. He co-hosts the “Music Biz Weekly” and “Your Morning Coffee” podcasts and is a super nice guy. I’m using a lot of what I’ve learned from them to develop a marketing plan for my next release.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jesswojo.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theofficialjesswojo/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theofficialjesswojo
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/jess_wojo
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw1yt2H-qJDSyfcqqlr5fcQ
- Other: Linktree: https://linktr.ee/theofficialjesswojo Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6h33iYLU42TI47lOFN7juU?si=pN4-930_SrSa3ncr04eC4A Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/artists/B09N6XS6WH/jess-wojo Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/jess-wojo/1599004155?uo=4&app=music&ls=1 Ti Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theofficialjesswojo
Image Credits
Ricky Pineda