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

Hi Jessa, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

The first song I learned as a child was Raffi’s “Evergreen, Everblue” in our 1st grade classroom. On that day, I fell in love with our planet and discovered that singing was a way I could express it. I was so proud to share the song with my parents and vividly remember us sitting on blankets outside during a family picnic in our backyard as I belted my little heart out. That joy found through song in nature stayed with me throughout my life, manifesting as a wilderness skills educator, stewardship conservation work, camp counselor and ecology-based theatre performer, and in the classroom as a science teacher at the Village Home learning center. My other passion, singing, took me around the world performing on cruise lines, touring in national theatre productions and playing in countless bands, including singing for Wayne Newton. Finally at one point, I desired a way to merge these passions with the reality of being a new mother and “Jessa Campbell & the Saplings” was born. I currently write upbeat, STEM, and ecology-based music that gets the whole family dancing! My latest album, “Forest Flow,” was written with the tastes of my 7-year-olds in mind, and brings a funky flair to the educational music sphere. I perform with several other projects, including LDW (Talking Heads tribute and original funk band), Eastern Sunz (award-winning hip-hop), and Palo-Mah (Mexican-American folk). “Forest Flow” is a collaboration with those projects, as well as with Grammy-nominated SaulPaul and Native hip-hop artist, 2 8 Tha Native. For me, “Forest Flow” allowed a coalescing of my bands, nature study, and family life, bringing all my passions together in one meaningful project.

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.

Jessa Campbell & the Saplings is a project I created for families that want to engage with quality music and educational material that explores nature! With a background performing with the national touring production of hit television show, “Dragon Tales Live,” I’m no stranger to child entertainment.  I began writing ecology-based music with my students in the “Wonders of Nature” class for 5-8 year olds through the local learning center, Village Home. With songs like “The Waltz of Trillium & Ant”, children engage with simple science concepts like seed dispersal through the living creatures in their neck of the woods! After the 10-week course, I realized that I had an album’s worth of material on my hands. Those songs became the backbone of my Parent’s Choice Awarded album, “Can You Feel It”. Since releasing the debut album, I’ve been honored to play for countless Libraries, Schools, music festivals (Pickathon, NW String Summit, Tree Fort) and organizations like Portland Children’s Museum and Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.

The new album “Forest Flow” is again rooted in ecology and explores topics like migration, food chains, tree canopies, homesteading, and more though several musical genres. “Monarch Mariposa (feat. Palo-Mah),” one of the bilingual songs on the album, follows the migrational pattern of the monarch butterfly. The monarch’s lifecycle is sung in English until the journey to the Oyamel fir tree forests in Michoacán shifts the lyrics to Spanish. “Rainbow Flow” features grammy-nominated musician SaulPaul, and is a funky new way to learn about how rainbows are formed!

Here’s the problem: Children today spend less time outdoors than any other generation, devoting only four to seven minutes to unstructured outdoor play per day while spending an average of seven and a half hours in front of electronic media. As a result, child obesity has reached unprecedented levels and continues to rise. Children are carrying this sedentary lifestyle and a disconnection with nature into adulthood which creates a troubling national trend for the future of conservation, our economy, and the health and wellness of our communities.

For many children:
1. Nature is unfamiliar
2. Nature is thought of as “boring”
3. Nature is inaccessible

Jessa Campbell & the Saplings bridges the gap between media and nature by using music to serve as an access point for many children who lack connection with the natural world:
1. We provide provide fun, educational songs that introduce children to the plants and animals in their own backyards and encourage children to engage with nature themselves.
2. We explore the exciting, strange, beautiful and even gross world of nature thorough topics like the relationship between Trillium flower seeds and ant poop! Who said Nature was boring?!
3. We partner with organizations like Families for Climate, an Oregon based non-profit that brings parents and youth together to take action for climate justice—in ways that are accessible, inclusive, informative and inspiring. “We are building collective “parent-power”, advocating for policies and solutions to address the climate crisis, and nurturing the next generation of climate activists & leaders.”

How did you build your audience on social media?

As a creative first, I’ve admittedly not been as savvy when it comes to building my audience outside of the region I regularly perform in. I recently discovered a music marketing mentoring program, Modern Musician, which has helped me reach an international audience though targeted facebook ads and lead acquisition. My email list has grown exponentially and I now have hundreds of dedicated fans in my private educational community. The initial investment for the program seemed like a lot at the time, but I’ve benefited greatly through using a software system that utilizes funnels to bring new fans into my community. I purposefully invested in the program while I was finishing recording the album so that I’d have a larger audience to release to when the time came!

I also highly recommend investing in a quality PR campaign. I’m reaching thousands though radio and satellite placements, podcast interviews and press write-ups that likely would not have been acquired on my own! When booking shows, these features have been incredibly helpful and have added credibility to the work I’m doing. Of course, posting these successes on social media helps my audience feel validated in their appreciation of the music!

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

GRANTS! I took the plunge and finally applied for a grant in my community. It took a lot of work to piece together, but has been helpful when communicating what I do. I didn’t get the first grant I applied for, but I now had an outline for future opportunities. As a result of this work, I received my first grant via the Holler Fund, which helps artists and creatives with PR and marketing after the album is complete. Those funds allowed me to hire a top of the line PR team, Waldmania PR, and has lead to even more open doors. In short, take the time to write and apply for as many grants as you can. Once the first one is under your belt, the rest get easier to apply for!    

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jessacampbellsaplings.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jessacampbellsaplings/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jessacampbellandthesaplings
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/campbelljessa?lang=en
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/jessacampbellthesaplings/?sub_confirmation=1

Image Credits
Tyler Martin Douglas Reynolds Sean Carr