We were lucky to catch up with Tess Johnson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Tess, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I started playing classical piano when I was 8 and fell in love with music pretty quickly. I also loved to write poetry and short stories, and when I was 14 I wrote my first song. I was a shy and anxious teenager, so it was much to my family’s surprise when I booked myself a gig at a local rock venue in Des Moines at 15. My older brother had been performing in bands for years, and told the family to all show up to support me because it was going to be a train wreck. On the way to the venue, I was crammed in with my keyboard in the back of my mom’s car, nervous as hell, asking God to show me if this was the right path for me. I remember so clearly the second I sat down at that piano on stage, I was completely calm and I knew I’d found what I wanted to do with my life. It has been on the forefront of my mind ever since that day.

Tess, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

After years of performing and writing in Des Moines, I moved to Nashville when I was 21 to follow my dreams of being a singer/songwriter full time. I think one of the most amazing things about music is its ability to make people feel seen where they’re at, which is why I’ve tried to be as vulnerable as I can in my songwriting. I think sometimes it’s hard being a creative in such a competitive industry; there’s a lot of self-doubt and comparison and the constant looming thought of “what if I’m not good enough?” I’m proud of myself for taking the risk to move here, and even more proud that I’ve been strong enough not to give up. I’ve felt strongly since that first show at 15 that this is what I’m made to do, and I can’t give up until I know I’ve given it everything I have to give. I hope people can feel that in the music that I’m writing now—it’s a labor of love and I can’t wait to share it.

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

When I moved to Nashville and started going to music school, I learned a lot about how to write a hit song, how to market yourself, how to network with industry people…so many new things that I hadn’t even thought about. It was a completely different mindset than I had when I was just writing songs in my parents’ living room just because I loved to do it. After a few years of living in nashville, armed with my new knowledge of the music industry, it began to feel more like a competition to me. People I knew would get signed to labels and I’d resent them and be upset that it wasn’t me. When I sat down to write new songs, I’d think “is this going to sell? Is the hook good enough? Could I hear this on the radio?” Music became less fun and more about “making it” to the point that I was depressed and felt so creatively boxed in that I couldn’t even create anymore. I took a break from music for a few years after that and at first I felt so lost and useless, a girl without a purpose. What I learned in those few years though is that I have more to give people than just music—working on being kinder and more confident and a harder worker was so valuable to me. I just recently started writing again and I’m doing it now for the same reason I did in my parents’ living room—because I love it. I decided that if I’m going to create, it must be out of passion and not out of where it’ll get me. That’s the only way to create honest, meaningful art.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The older I get, the more I realize that life is all about people. Connecting with them, sharing in their heartache and their joy, being a shoulder to lean on, making people around you feel safe and loved—these are the things that matter. There’s that famous quote from Ram Dass: “we’re all just walking each other home.” It begs the question, how will people feel on their walk home with you? I think the biggest reward of creating art is being able to be completely vulnerable and have people connect with it and feel seen, because at the end of the day we’re all just trying to figure it out together. Music can be just another vessel for me to be able to love people well and connect with them and I think that’s a huge blessing.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamtessaj/

Image Credits
All photos by Josh Kranich (@joshkranich)