{"id":614,"date":"2020-08-01T18:06:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-01T18:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elissagayle.ebersold.org\/blog\/?p=614"},"modified":"2021-01-12T19:18:44","modified_gmt":"2021-01-12T19:18:44","slug":"a-conversation-with-jessie-frye-sweeping-you-up-in-a-synthpop-romance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/elissagayle.ebersold.org\/blog\/2020\/08\/a-conversation-with-jessie-frye-sweeping-you-up-in-a-synthpop-romance\/","title":{"rendered":"A CONVERSATION WITH JESSIE FRYE, SWEEPING YOU UP IN A SYNTHPOP ROMANCE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

God, I love retrowave <\/em>(also known as synthwave<\/em>). There\u2019s something about the way it completely steals me away, making me nostalgic for an era I never lived in. Retrowave is based in the sounds of the 1980s, particularly the distinctive sounds of the movie soundtracks and video games. The music swirls with synthesizers and whimsical lyrics that long for lost loves, lost days, or the vibrancy of a sunset. If I were to describe retrowave as a scene, well, let me set it for you. It is South Beach at sunset; The neon lights from the art deco buildings are lighting up around you. The convertible top is down, and the rumble of ocean waves breaking and caressing the shore is in the distance. The smells of salt and sand and Cuban food is wafting into your nose, and the ocean breeze is tousling your hair in the dwindling heat of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that\u2019s me. Your experience and accompanying imagery may differ, especially since the world of synthwave and synthpop are changing with every artist who enters into the increasingly-popular scene, artists like Jessie Frye<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jessie Frye, photographed by Richard Gilbert<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Actually, no. Jessie did not merely\u00a0enter<\/em>\u00a0into synthpop. She came in like a hydrogen bomb and took command of the microphone, captivating listeners who hardly knew what hit them. Although not a new performer, this Dallas-based (yeah, sorry, not local!) synthpop queen only emerged onto the scene circa 2017 or so, and she is rightfully carving her own place. She is staking her claim not only by collaborating with some of the other core players, but by releasing her own enthralling hits. Recently signed to NewRetroWave Records (NRW), Jessie is making waves by achieving the highest iTunes charting debut on NRW Records (Debuted at #7 and Peaked at #5), and having the first album on NRW Records to chart for 7 days in iTunes USA Electronic Charts with her album\u00a0Kiss Me in The Rain\u00a0<\/em>(KMITR).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KMITR is the ebb and flow of a romance unfolding in real time, and it feels like you are swaddled tightly, warmly, deeply in a lucid dream. You are whisked away to the places where a new love is settled deep in your chest, where the edges of life are always shimmering and effervescent. KMITR is a place of whimsy, of those insistent butterflies tickling your insides\u2014where lust and romance become entwined. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow me as I chat with Jessie about her album, film photography, performing for Bernie Sanders, and everything in between.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo by Jaime Maldonado<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Elissa Ebersold: Bit of an ice breaker to start. What song do you hear and every time you wish you had written?<\/strong>
Jessie Frye: Sheesh\u2026That\u2019s a big one. I hate these questions, because if they\u2019re written in an interview and I get to write down my responses, I\u2019ll actually say that I won\u2019t answer that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

EE: I\u2019m off to a great start then!<\/strong>
JF: [LAUGHS] You\u2019re fine, I just can\u2019t get away from it now! [\u2026] I realize why I\u2019m struggling with this question so much. It\u2019s because I don\u2019t wish<\/em> I had written anyone else\u2019s song. However, I do feel deeply connected to certain songs. I feel like I could have written them in another life, or like they are a part of me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EE: I get it. You feel them so deep. They are a part of you, and integral to your being in some kind of way. Speaking of, when and how did you get started in music?<\/strong>
JF: My mom, when I was a toddler, she would put on these VHS tapes that she had made of different interviews and performances of The Cure. So my first vivid childhood memory is Robert Smith\u2019s face from \u201cThe Caterpillar\u201d video. The Cure became this obsession of mine as a child, where my mom said I would sit in front of the TV or listen to their music for hours and hours on end. I would be totally lost in The Cure. I would even hold talent shows with my neighbors and sing \u201cLet\u2019s Go To Bed\u201d and stuff like that. No one got it, because I don\u2019t really think anyone knew that music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My love of music really started with The Cure. They\u2019re still my favorite band in the entire world to this day. And then my mom showed me some of Madonna\u2019s tour footage, and Michael Jackson\u2019s tour footage from the Dangerous tour. These three figures became childhood staples. And Tori Amos was played in the house a lot. I got this mixture of obscure goth music with pop stars, and then add in Tori Amos who was this confessional songstress at the piano. Type O Negative and Nine Inch Nails came a little bit later. My mom was really cool. That\u2019s where the listening began. She heard that there was something there. She put me in voice lessons at eight years old. From eight to eleven, I was in and out of voice lessons. At eleven, I saw a performance of Tori Amos on VHS for the first time. Watching her play the piano was a wake up call. I knew I wanted to sing, but finally seeing a woman play an instrument like that made me realize that I needed to take up an instrument. So I started taking classical piano lessons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EE: And you\u2019ve been studying classical piano ever since?<\/strong>
JF: I studied it seriously from eleven until I was about eighteen. At sixteen I got a job at a local music store and started selling pianos and sheet music. It was then I started getting immersed in the world of meeting other musicians. I actually started teaching music privately at eighteen years old. Shortly after that, I started playing with friends. Jamming, and basically what any artist is doing at that age: cultivating their identity with music. I really seriously started writing my own songs around that time [\u2026] I got invited to SXSW to play. I didn\u2019t have a band at the time, so because of that invitation, I formed my band and started rehearsing. I booked a show in Dallas to have a rehearsal gig, and then we were off to South By. South By is the reason I started getting a band together to play shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo by Jaime Maldonado<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

EE: Are there any influences you listen to that would just come out of left field and surprise us?<\/strong>
JF: Type O Negative. I get more fans hooked onto them because they see [my tattoo] in a video. They\u2019re icons, but it\u2019s understandable that people don\u2019t know who they are. They\u2019re this goth metal band.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EE: So the polar opposite of your image.<\/strong>
JF: That\u2019s actually been a struggle for me. I love heavy music. I grew up listening to music like Pantera as well. I\u2019m a rock and roller at heart, especially if you see my live shows. There\u2019s a rock energy there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

EE: Did you have an existential crisis when you were putting together a band, and writing music, and trying to find a style that suited you?<\/strong>
JF: Yeah! How do you think I felt when everyone wanted me to start doing synthwave! [LAUGHS] I already had this struggle! These two other parts of me, and now we\u2019re bringing in a third?! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year, I really came to terms with the fact that I am a songwriter. I refuse to be put in a box, and I will grow. I want my fans to fall in love with Jessie Frye as an artist with her music, not because she\u2019s pop, or because she\u2019s synthwave. That\u2019s a genre, and that\u2019s okay. I know we need to put labels on stuff to make sense out of things, to an extent. I feel like that beauty and the impact of a song is more enduring than a genre. That\u2019s where my focus [on songwriting] is. I understand that synthwave is my direction, for sure, but I still don\u2019t consider myself that. I can\u2019t. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

EE: What motivates you to make music regardless of the genre you\u2019re presenting it in?<\/strong>
JF: That\u2019s an interesting question. It\u2019s a little hocus-pocus-y. I don\u2019t feel like it\u2019s a choice. It\u2019s my personal feeling about my musical journey and my identity. I never decided to sing. I never decided that I wanted to pursue music. It\u2019s always been a part of my blood. I feel compelled to create. I\u2019ve been journaling since I was eleven, and I still journal to this day. I feel like that\u2019s what I was put on this earth to do. It doesn\u2019t make me special or anything, it just means I know what I\u2019m here to do while I\u2019m here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EE: I completely understand. You don\u2019t know why it is, it just is. So let\u2019s take a step back again. How would you describe your sound?<\/strong>
JF: My album Kiss Me In The Rain<\/em>\u2014I really don\u2019t describe it, actually. I hate trying to make sense of it myself [\u2026] I would say KMITR, sonically and emotionally, is a combination of a little bit of darkness, a little bit of vulnerability. A little bit of brightness in all the right moments. Hopefully a cohesive theme of romanticism and seeing with an open heart. I\u2019m such an energy person on an intention front. My main goal with this album and with my producer Matt Aslanian was crafting an experience so that if you listen to it from start to finish, you are impacted by very specific emotions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo by Jaime Maldonado<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

EE: Listening to it as a whole, as the sum of its parts, is a tool that you use to get these specific emotions. What other tools did you utilize to get that specific sound?<\/strong>
JF: What Matt and I wanted to do, outside of the emotions we were honing in on and expressing, we wanted to do something diverse. If I am a diverse songwriter, let\u2019s make a diverse synthwave record. Let\u2019s try to do a little nod to every subgenre on this record. In a more basic sense, you\u2019ve got some early Madonna sounds on \u201cAngel\u201d and \u201cWild in My Arms.\u201d You\u2019ve got the darkwave sound on \u201cNo Sleep,\u201d and the vaporwave sound on \u201cEighteen.\u201d I work with  different artists like the ones that are featured. I said that we should put our own spin on this, so that hopefully instead of hitting the nail on the head in a comfort zone, we hit the nail on the head in a trailblazing sense. We want people to say, \u201cOh my God, this is this. And this is that. And it\u2019s that too! What is this? I\u2019ve never heard someone do this before.\u201d That was part of our hope\u2014to expand, and push that limit on that box, and send listeners to a new world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EE: To me, it\u2019s interesting you say that. I feel, especially earlier in their careers, artists don\u2019t try to jump out of their comfort zones and try new things. They stick to what they know, and what they believe is going to be successful. That extreme experimentation and playfulness is not something I\u2019ve encountered a ton in conversing with artists.<\/strong>
JF: I can understand that. For me it\u2019s a flip situation. I struggled between rock and pop for a long time. My first demo was a more Tori Amos folk record with a little bit of country on it. I\u2019ve grown, but the core theme or the common denominator has always been me as the songwriter. I write a lot, so I don\u2019t ever put a judgement on myself when I\u2019m writing. I don\u2019t tell myself that something has to sound a certain way when I sit at my guitar. It just comes out. I was conflicted for so long about which way to go for my audience. At one point I just said, \u201cFuck it,\u201d and just did me. For years I built up a career, touring, and releasing, and just doing my thing. I tried to create something that fans can latch on to, but maybe they can just fall in love with what I\u2019m doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s an interesting situation of how I got into the retrowave genre. My song \u201cFaded Memory\u201d came out in 2018, which was after I\u2019ve been doing music for ten years. I was ten years into it, and now I\u2019m finally being told what to do by a large audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EE: How\u2019d that make you feel?<\/strong>
JF: It was a shock in a good way. I had no idea what \u201cFaded Memory\u201d was going to do. It was almost a relief that, maybe in a beautiful way, my fans found a way to connect with me in a way I wasn\u2019t aware I could do. It was super awesome and weird. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

EE: So you were sort of thrust, or at least encouraged, into this retrowave genre. What is your favorite part of being in this genre or this aesthetic?<\/strong>
JF: I\u2019m so focused on serving the song and what the songs mean to me on a creative level. I\u2019m hyper focused on that. In a more life sense, the best part has been the friends I\u2019ve made.

Just the story of how \u201cFaded Memory\u201d came to be and where that took me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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