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

Jillian, appreciate you joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I’ve been a professional musician now for about 7 years, very off and on. I’m always doing something with music whether it’s writing, practicing, recording, singing on my own time, working a concert, or sending out emails to get gigs. Music’s kind of just everywhere. Through traveling I’ve realized I find musicians easily and get along with a creative community. Without artists the world would be very boring for us humans. I go a little nuts when I’m in a community lacking in the creative type, sometimes just because I get a lot of weird looks and stick out like a sore thumb while feeling very misunderstood. I can’t escape music. I need weird people in my life. While weird and normal are both relative, the general agreement upon who a “normal” person is bores me. I need some kind of play with imagination while routine and I don’t exactly get along. I grew up singing in church and catholic school, doing plays and whatnot. I feel like I had a tendency to feel like I didn’t fit in with anyone around me for a really long time. I’m from Newark, Delaware, which is a cute small town. It isn’t a place I’d send someone off if they were trying to make it big or anything. It’s comfortable and cozy for me, but once I got out of college I was so ready to get on with some kind of adventure. I didn’t really know what I was expecting, but since then I’ve done a lot of wild moving around, living in cars, working on boats, hitch hiking in Patagonia, road tripping through Canada, and settling a bit between New Orleans, LA and Dillon, Colorado where I am now. It’s also cute and cozy, but the music scene is pretty rad and I can find an adventure when I want one. I’m right back where I made my first $20 from music sitting in with a local band. Before I came out here I was on a road trip with a friend from Bulgaria who I’d met in Alaska. We went through New Orleans, which I’d been to right after Katrina happened. I was about 15 then and the city was torn apart. 8 years later as a 23 year old I went again and man was it different… I’d never been in a culture of people like that. It was loud, fun, unapologetically musical. I loved it. The thing that really stuck out to me was the street music. People just played music on the sidewalk with a case open for tips. Busking. I wanted to do that. I wanted to play music when and where I wanted to. I wanted to practice out on the sidewalk with a tip jar and see what happened. I needed to get a guitar. I didn’t want any boss but myself. I was inspired. My friend had a flight out of Las Vegas, so I continued the trip out of New Orleans. I got a guitar in Los Angeles and ended up shooting over to Dillon, Colorado to visit a friend I’d met while living in Yellowstone. Then one night I was sitting at a bar in Copper Mountain eating mac’n’cheese while singing along to Beau Thomas doing House of the Rising Sun. At some point I went outside and someone started chatting me up, asking me what I wanted to do with my life. I told this person I wanted to be a singer and some guy behind me goes “You wanna sing with our band? I heard you singing inside while you were eating and we’re looking for a singer to sit in for a few shows.” So I said yes, got a few rehearsals in with the band before the show and learned 5 songs (3 I’d never heard before) in about a week to sing at Barkley Ballroom. The band was Frisco Funk Collective, and I still sit in with them to this day. Man I was so freakin nervous… I forget lyrics sometimes and that’s always been my weak point. I remember after the show one of my friends telling me I sounded awesome but that I needed to look up every once in a while. That’s still one of the bigger audiences I’ve ever played in front of. A bunch of my friends were all there right in the front row cheering me on, which I can’t tell if it made it easier or harder on my nerves. Either way, I did it. I started going to some open mics trying to meet musicians who would be down to play with me for the night so I could practice singing in front of people. Later in the winter Beau told me that if I learned guitar I could start booking my own shows and wouldn’t need to ask people to play songs. So, I started practicing. I hate on my guitar skills all the time. It’s probably not good for me to do that, but I just started playing so I could back up my voice. My fingers still hurt after shows sometimes and I don’t really do solos, but I can play hours of music and I can write my own stuff and make charts for people to follow along. I can work like this and I’m always going to be getting better. That’s an important thing to remember. I never want to plateau. When I think back on all of that I just remember how scared I was even to just tell someone that I wanted to be a musician because I felt like it would be shut down. I was really insecure about it because I didn’t know the steps to take to get up on a stage or to book a gig. I pretty much just did A LOT of open mics, got a guitar and a book of chords. During that winter I totaled my tiny Hyundai Accent in the snow and ended up buying a Ford E350 van. I took that van up to Alaska, did the same kind of thing practicing at open mics and sitting in with people, and then drove it all the way down to New Orleans. I lived in it for a bit of time down there while I started busking. I’d never lived in a city before and man, I’m not gonna lie I was terrified. I knew nobody except for a couple I’d met when I was on that road trip, and we were very different people. Also, if you’ve never done it, living in a van in the city is really different than living in a van in a more natural feeling environment. Either way I worked through loads of anxiety, got out busking, and landed my first gig at Lucky’s on St. Charles. That was the first $20 I made doing a show solo other than just playing on the street. I’d been playing guitar for about a year at that point. Every year I have more shows (and better paying ones). I also have a huge community in New Orleans who I miss often. We don’t really have second lines out here or wear costumes all day every day. Now I’m not so weird about wearing some crazy colorful clothes for no real reason though. A huge part of being any kind of artist is just embracing yourself as that artist and not letting people phase you. Staying true to yourself and holding the confidence are so important. If I don’t think I can hit a note I’m not going to hit the note, even though I probably could hit the note if I didn’t think so much. Make sense? So roll with it. I’ve been learning guitar, but you can also learn guitar then mess up in front of an audience and totally shut down, or embrace it and move on like nothing happened, and that’s the only way anyone in the audience is going to think that nothing happened. You didn’t mess up. You meant to do that. What’s next? Ya know? So, that’s my story about learning my craft. I’m still learning it. I’ll be learning it forever.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I feel like I didn’t really have a choice of whether or not I wanted to be a musician. I guess professionally, yes, but really when you’re an artist you have to have your expression for your mental and physical health. I feel something off in my body if I’m not singing that day. So I’m either going to do it just for my own fun or I’m going to find a career with it. I did get started singing in church when I was 4. I also went to catholic school and they always had us singing hymns and stuff. Then we would have one play a year for each grade. So, I didn’t have a choice in that aspect. I knew I liked singing but since I wasn’t singing stuff I really enjoyed I didn’t I like it as much as I do now. It’s different when you’re singing something that really resonates with you, something you’re really feeling and can’t keep inside unless you want to explode. I’d have a lot more mental breakdowns if I didn’t have this kind of expression, that’s for sure. Letting people express themselves artistically is a bit of a public service. That should be more normalized instead of telling them they’re weird because it’s uncomfortable for you. I’m definitely different in Colorado as far as my music taste is concerned. I get a lot of feedback that I’m not what people are used to hearing out here. I like doing deep dark creepy songs, if that makes sense. Example – I Put A Spell On You is my favorite song to sing. I like minor chords and 7 chords. I don’t really like bluegrass or jam bands that much. I also prefer to do original music most of the time as opposed to covers, but of course there are exceptions. So, out here in Dillon, Colorado I’m really not a typical show. I do a bit of a jazz/blues/folk combo. Right now it’s just me and a guitar while I’m solo, but I recently built a drum out of a vintage suitcase that I just have to practice with a bit more before bringing it out anywhere.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Pay them. Pay them more than you might think you should pay them. There are so many hours spent getting to and playing rehearsals and gigs, songwriting, practicing, and managing the business of the band. In New Orleans I really don’t make much money playing music. I’m forced to have side jobs and do other things to make money so that I can support my music. If someone is a professional musician and is being selective about their gigs then it makes sense to me that they won’t play your 6 year old’s birthday party for free. When people love their jobs it doesn’t mean they shouldn’t get paid for it. Everyone has a favorite song, or so it seems, and I feel that musicians are very often undervalued and exploited and given gigs “for the exposure” and that’s supposed to be enough. That favorite song took hours of composition, it took a creative mind that cannot be replicated, and it took a lot of money to record and put out so it could be heard on the radio for free and on Spotify for .007 cents/play or whatever it is. It took the patience to get everyone free on the same day at the same time and also paid out for their time recording. It took sound engineers hours of mixing, it took multiple takes, it took A LOT of energy and effort and determination. If we pay our musicians a living wage then the music you get from them will be 1000x better since they get to spend their time not stressing about money, when they’re going to eat next, or a place to live. They won’t need the side job and they will be able to actually focus on music and practice and be that much better. They’ll be able to afford space to practice, and they’ll be able to afford a car to get them to where they need to go. Gear is expensive. Guitars, microphones, and a good quality PA are expensive. In a society where mental health has proven not to be the priority, imagine that also without music, without that favorite song. If you have a musician you admire, buy their CD’s, their vinyls, their t-shirts, or just buy them dinner if they’re your friend. But please, please give musicians a monetary guarantee if you want them to take time out of their day.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

It’s really difficult to be your creative self in an environment of people who are constantly shutting down your ideas because they are uncomfortable. It might be hard to understand the creative mind, but I think it’s important to know that a little bit of encouragement can go a long way. I’ve had to fight a lot to keep my mental health by expressing my personality. I got called “weird” A LOT and I still do and it still hits in a funny way that I don’t like. I look at it differently now though, because “weird” is relative and so is “normal”. We aren’t all supposed to be the same and we all have something different we can contribute to a community. So “weird” is a bit of a compliment because it’s unfamiliar and it’s unique. It’s not a “bad” thing. “Good” and “bad” are relative too. We’re all experiencing this world together through different lenses, with different personalities, and with different support systems. If someone is comfortable showing their true self to you and they are doing that in a “weird” and creative way, that’s a huge compliment because it takes courage to do that and you have given them the comfortable environment to do so. They are showing vulnerability, which is not an easy thing. If someone is trying to fit in and they aren’t, focus on their strengths and not their weaknesses, because not everybody has an easy time finding themselves in this world. There’s a lot of discouragement that can be thrown around for standing out. It’s just easier on everyone if we can accept people for who they are and give them a chance to thrive with their own unique personality instead of expecting everyone to be like you.

Contact Info:

• Website: the-jgoods-experience.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/the_j.goods_experience
• Facebook: facebook.com/the.jgoods.experience
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZBTttU0LwG9__Oi-WE6DTA

Image Credits
Dana Schlieman Zachary Kanzler