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

Alright, Jill thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with 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?

Ok so for one thing I went to music school. But that’s a boring answer because it’s not really necessary in the grand scheme of things, especially in this day and age. I think the most invaluable aspect of this experience, for me, was the opportunity to grow and evolve within a community of other musicians. There’s a lot of online courses, many free ones even, that can fill in the techincal aspects of a formal music education–basic music theory, musicianship, performance, production etc. I think with a much more crude music theory and vocal performance education I would still be approximately where I’m at today with my own music making/writing as I’m mostly autodidactic when it comes to writing and production. Also at the risk of sounding braggy I innately have a really good ear for pitch and melody and I think that helps a lot. The real benefit to the music school thing (and a benefit which I’d leaned into more rather than taking for granted at the time) is the structured environment that forces you to make and perform music with other musicians. You could feasibly get the same benefit from simply seeking out a local music community that interests you and inserting yourself in it through sheer extroversion, engaging/collaborating with people who stimulate and challenge you creatively (something that I as an introvert really struggle with and wish I’d prioritized more at an earlier age). Collaboration has been the most valuable tool for me to learn new technical skills and improve my workflow as well as to discover new artistic approaches.

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

I’ve been writing and performing music since a very young age–through the years it’s evolved from a shower-bound outlet of teenage angst into basically my entire reason for being and a major consumer of my time and energy. I started writing little indie/alt songs in high school on guitar or piano (piano I learned from a mean Russian lady named Marina, Guitar I taught myself. I bounced around voice coaches for awhile before working with Don Lawrence who completely changed my life with not only his technique but incredible mentorship and kindness). I picked up Ableton while I was in college, where at the time it was not included in my introductory classes alongside other DAWs. It took me a couple years to start producing anything half-decent but eventually I started feeling more confident creating a sonic experience around my writing that matched its melancholy, dreamlike quality. I met Eben D’Amico in 2020 right before the Covid-19 pandemic begun and we made a bunch of stuff together. This body of work really marked an evolution in my music wherein it opened my imagination beyond the minimalist lo-fi constraints of my initial solo production. I’ve connected with a lot of new fans in the last few years since then, with songs landing on major playlists like Spotify’s Fresh Finds and receiving critical acclaim. I always see my music as something that exists in this sometimes-awkward but wholly unique liminal space between familiar and experimental, trendy and timeless, upbeat and solemn. I’ve been told it’s really good music for that grey area time between late night and early morning.

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

I wish I could surgically remove the part of my brain that is scared of annoying people, scared I’ll look foolish or be laughed at. I really have to actively silence the voices in my head that echo sentiments along the lines of: you suck, you should give up, you should get a real job, etc. I wish I could stop agreeing with them. I don’t need to be liked but for some reason I have a very deep-seeded need to be respected and I have to actively work to let go of that. I guess that’s probably most people’s main philosophical struggle in any field, worrying that everyone around them is thinking what they’re trying not to think about themselves. I think we should all double-text more and worry about being “cringe” less, whether it’s in a professional context or otherwise. We’re all insecure and as such we’re all inevitably gonna be haters to each other so I try to just do my thing and not get too hung up on it.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

This is the hardest thing for me of all and something that weighs on me constantly. To be honest I don’t even feel very qualified to speak on it because I don’t really think of my efforts as having been very successful thus far, but I can speak to what has worked and not worked for me and what I try to prioritize for myself: for one thing, the answer constantly changes and that’s important to keep in mind. A couple years ago I would’ve said to really try to post consistently on instagram. Now I think Instagram is honestly kind of dead and that your best bet is going to be to use it to keep up with existing fans and drive them, along with new ones, to your tiktok and perhaps a newsletter/mailing list. I don’t know what the next big thing will be but there will always be a next big thing. The next thing I’d say is to try to avoid simply looking for trends to follow and instead look for opportunities to think of social media as a tool for building community. I know influencers who have hundreds of thousands of social media followers who can’t convert those followers to streams or lasting fans because they’ve cast such a wide net. I think it’s more important and sustainable to connect more personally with a smaller subsection of people. People buy tickets to your shows and tell their friends about you. Followers don’t even get shown your content anymore by the algorithm. I wish labels etc would stop using follower count as a metric for determining proof-of-concept.

Contact Info:

• Website: jillblutt.com
• Instagram: @whoisjillblutt
• Facebook: facebook.com/jillblutt
• Twitter: @whoisjillblutt
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m72bR1r2ZZU
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/album/0BQitsopHaTutAGRCHCX1U?si=MSRt_tyrRh65i0cv75TPPw

Image Credits
Lissyelle Laricchia, Tiff Rex, Lord Scorpio