We recently connected with Tess Mon Pere and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Tess thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I’m going to be honest- I don’t think there was every a day in my life where I did not know what I wanted to do. Ever since I can remember I’ve always loved singing. From a young age, I would spend hours and hours watching performance videos of my favorite artists such as Shania Twain, Adele, Carrie Underwood, and Selena Gomez. I’ve always known that I wanted to perform original music and sing in front of huge audiences just like them. I grew up singing at venues all over my local are and would often get emotional over the thought of not being able to do that one day. No matter what, I’ve always been determined to pursue my passion and continue to move people through music.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a pop country singer, originally from the Central Valley in California. For years growing up I was persistent about posting covers and performing at different events all over the valley. When I was about 16 years old, a talent agent saw a video of me singing “You Are The Reason” by Calum Scott on my mom’s Facebook. He sent my mom a message and told her about an online singing competition called Musicash and encouraged her to get me involved. I placed as a finalist after competing against thousands of artists of all ages all over the world and soon signed a record deal with West Avenue Records. I was signed with them for about three years and made the move down to LA. Now I’m an independent artist and am shifting my career from pop to pop/country/rock. I’ve had a few independent releases and look forward to working on more and collaborating with other talents in Nashville, Tennessee.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

One interesting obstacle I faced was finding my sound. I was trained in classical music for the majority of my life before getting signed. While I sang country music in my free time, most of my serious training went into classical and choral vocals which focuses more on sounding perfect and correct. In the beginning I would get frustrated in the studio because I would get told to make my vowels less “correct” or to add stylistic choices to my voice that were previously discouraged. Now, however, I feel as though I’ve been able to take the best from both styles and combine them into a unique, emotional, full sound.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding part about making music is being able to articulate people’s experiences through a song and making people feel seen and heard. For example, the other day a woman sent me a message saying she listened to my song “Next Life’ and was brought to tears by the fact that my lyrics accurately described what she was going through. She said that she had felt discouraged and alone by her experience before, but listening to my song made her realize that her experiences are not in isolation.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tess-monpere.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tessmonpere/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tessmonpere/
• Twitter: https://x.com/tessmonpere
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@tessmonpere

Image Credits

Tyler Disney
Nate Moss
Jay Rivera