Canadian country singer Jess Moskaluke was kind enough to take the time to chat with me in an interview that ended up being so interesting, I had to split it in two! Check out Part 1 here, and read on to find out more about Jess's thoughts on releasing an album during covid, what makes for a good song title, and her suggestions for the best in emerging country artists - enjoy!
Ciara's Country (CC): You mentioned that your album The Demos was released during this weird time of the covid pandemic - how was the creation, production, everything that normally comes with an album, different from anything you've released in the past?
Jess Moskaluke (JM): It was very different, but I kind of chose to embrace that. To be totally honest, we weren't going to do an album - the way the music industry has been going in the last few years, it seems as though releasing singles a few at a time has been the norm and the way that people best digest music, so I wanted to try that and see how it went. Then the pandemic hit, and I thought, my goodness, it's going to be very challenging to get into the studio frequently.
As such, we decided to release an album and called it The Demos, because they are essentially the demos that I had, the way that I had written them that day and jotted them down when we were in the studio really quickly. Then we added layers to them, prettied things up and polished them a little bit, so we decided to include the ‘before and after’ versions of the songs, so to speak. That album probably wouldn't have happened, at least not in that way, if it wasn't for the pandemic, and I love that it kind of gave fans a little bit of a peek behind the curtain into how I write songs.
CC: I'd say maybe one of the few positive things to have come out of the pandemic!
JM: That's how I'm choosing to look at it too.
CC: I totally agree with you that many artists are moving more towards just releasing single after single, and with The Demos, we've been blessed with four singles. If there was to be a fifth single, maybe a personal favorite of yours, what song would you choose to release next?
JM: Usually that's a really difficult thing, and it's funny, because when I asked other people this, nobody had the same answer. I think that’s a good problem to have, because it means they like a lot of the songs! Personally, I think that mine would be Nothing I Don’t Love About You. It just feels like it's such a personal song without being sappy or something like that. It's kind of a different sound for me that I really enjoyed exploring, so I think it would be something kind of fresh and cool.
CC: I do like that one! Nowadays when I'm scrolling through Spotify, I see the name ‘Jess Moskaluke’ and it’s an immediate ‘add to playlist’, but I think something that also really attracts me to songs is actually the song titles themselves. What in your opinion makes for a good song title?
JM: That's a really great question. For me, it's something that could potentially be unexpected. For something like Mapdot, I feel like that grabs people's attention because not everybody knows what it means. I think they're like ‘what the heck is this?’ and then it's the songs job to explain what that title means, or what that song is trying to say. To me, a good song title is something that just grabs the person's ear, and makes you think ‘what is that about?’ Or maybe it's something that you think you know, and then the song kind of twists it and makes it something else. Those are two things that I think make a good song title.
CC: Like when a title is not necessarily obvious at first glance, but when you listen to it, you're like ‘oh, yeah, I get it now’! I imagine music has been keeping you extremely busy with press and obviously releasing the whole album, but what do you like to get up to in your free time?
JM: I am so bad at answering this question! I don't have a lot of free time, and I'm one of those weird people that fills my free time with more work. The pandemic has given me not a lot of, but a little bit more, free time. In the summer, my husband and I love to go camping, or quadding in ATVs. We live really near a beautiful valley out here, and there's all kinds of beautiful trails. So I love spending time outside, or reading. I'm very boring! But I really do love my job, and I wouldn't be spending so much of my free time working if I didn't.
CC: That definitely doesn’t sound boring to me! In fact, I’m so glad you mentioned spending time outside because I think Canada is just one of the most beautiful places in the world so I would have been disappointed if you said you weren't enjoying the beautiful outdoors!
JM: Definitely!
CC: As well as Canada, we also mentioned your trip to Australia for C2C Australia – I find festivals like that such amazing places to find up and coming artists, but I also like to talk to artists about who they like too. Are there any underrated or emerging artists out there who you think deserve so much more recognition?
JM: Hmm, that's a good question. There's an artist here in Canada named Sacha who's starting to make waves - her big song over here is called Standards, and I think she’s releasing new music soon. That's a big one for me. Unfortunately, I haven't been introduced to many UK artists yet, but that will happen as soon as I get over there, which will happen really soon!
I've been introduced to quite a few different Australian artists though - Melanie Dyer is a really great Australian artist that I met in Nashville a while ago, I love Sinead Burgess too. The girls have been killing it lately which is really nice to see.
CC: Speaking of the girls killing it, that's where you made your first appearance on my show! You were one of my featured female artists, it’s great to hear what female artists you love to. I have one final question for you in today's interview - what is one question you've never been asked in an interview, but would love to be?
JM: Whoa, oh my gosh, I wish I knew that! I might have to think on that and get back to you so you can ask it next time.
CC: I look forward to meeting you in person someday soon so I can ask it! Jess, it’s been such a pleasure speaking with you today, thank you so much!
JM: Me too! Thank you so much Ciara. Thanks for the chat!
I'm sincerely looking forward to catching up with Jess again, and hope you enjoyed my interview with her! You can check out Jess's new album The Demos wherever you get your music, or tune in to Ciara's Country 5-8pm every Friday on www.ukcountryradio.com to hear it on air. Stay tuned on Twitter @CiarasCountry for more interviews coming soon - thanks for reading!
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