About

Don’t try this at home.

So, you’re stuck in Music City inches away from a lifelong dream, yet without enough money for a hotel and no close friend with a couch to crash on. The one person you (kind of sort of) know gives you the keys to the castle (i.e. a state-of-the-art free recording studio). It’s empty at night, and you’re supposed to be out of there before daybreak, but the couches are a bit too comfy…

What do you do?

If you’re JESSIKA, you crash overnight in a newly opened music publishing / record label office, call your mom long-distance to London from an empty conference room, and low-key write and record your entire debut record in the wee hours with only the hollow sounds of labyrinthine concrete to protest.

These are the extraordinary circumstances in which the UK-born and New York-based singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer made her first full-length album for BMG—yet it wouldn’t matter if the music wasn’t just as extraordinary.

On this complex, yet catchy body of work, she confronts mental health, OCD, lust and love straight-on against a lively soundtrack laced with pop and alternative, all punctuated by her powerhouse voice.

“It’s very personal,” she affirms. “I wrote this record 100%. Half of it is fun. Half of it is dark. There’s a lot of grit and truth behind these songs. I wanted to capture everything—the darkness, the light, and the vulnerability.”

JESSIKA initially landed in New York where she hustled tirelessly to land a publishing deal. Ready to write, she headed to Nashville. Given a key card to write in the studio of the BMG Nashville office studio, she quickly realized that card granted 24-hour access. She spent the ensuing two weeks secretly living in the studio and not only beginning, but completing what would become the album. An email circulated and she had to give back the key card “no questions asked,” but she wouldn’t just go quietly. She emailed Jon Loba [President BBR Music Group/BMG Nashville] and requested a meeting. He obliged.

“When Jon asked me where I lived, I said, ‘Well up until last week, here’,” she laughs. “He couldn’t believe I’d been in the office making the record. He listened to it, and he signed me straight away.”

With the songs written, she proceeded to record her debut between New York and the legendary Abbey Road Studios in London with co-producer Kyle Kelso [Kygo, Aloe Blacc, Galantis]. She initially teased the album with “Her” before sharing the single “Fuck Our Fears.” Her sassy delivery takes center stage over the upbeat soundscape. She culled inspiration from an evening at a cottage on the beach with her mother and brother.

“‘Fuck our Fears’ is a very personal song to me,” she notes. “It wrote itself within about six minutes. It’s about a wonderful night I had with my mom and brother. It was during the COVID pandemic, and we were in this little cottage on the beach in England. It was the night the space rockets were coming over. I got my mom and brother out and said, ‘Let’s go sit on a hill and watch them come over.’ For hours, we spoke about our fears and anxieties. My brother suffers from OCD—like I do—and we just opened up. It was a very healing night for all of us.”

On “Therapy,” she opens up about mental health as whistles wrap around airy guitar and her vocals levitate.

“I really needed someone to talk to at the time,” she recalls. “I was going through it, so I started therapy. The song is about that process of recognizing your mental health. Later on, I believed I fell in love with the therapist. I know it wasn’t true now. It was transference. I got a song from the experience, so that was good.”

Among other highlights, “World Ain’t Ready” hinges on sparse piano as longing echoes through her robust delivery. She goes on, “Some people think ‘World Ain’t Ready’ is about a relationship. For me, it's not. I wrote it about the relationship you can have with yourself. It's about transforming from a caterpillar into a butterfly and finding your better self. Maybe at the time, the world wasn't ready for that version of me. The music shows the transformation, especially. I spent a big part of my life feeling like I've been misunderstood. That's why this album is very important to me. It's my moment to be taken seriously for what I do. ‘World Ain’t Ready’ really does sum it all up.”

She leans into a moment of anxiety and converts it into the manically catchy “Broken.” She adds, “It’s all about survival. When you’re chasing your dreams, it’s not easy for many reasons. You need to get through every fucking day.”

Elsewhere, she stomps forward on the guitar-laden flurry of “Nine Inch Heels.”

“It’s female empowerment,” she says. “I was trying to get a deal for a while, and I felt like I was always doing my deals in my nine inch heels. I was feeling strong and fierce.”

She gained that strength over the years. Growing up in Birmingham, UK, she cut her teeth by belting out covers in smoky jazz bars at barely 15-years-old. School gave her an ultimatum though, “Music or class.” (You can imagine what she chose) Mom and dad supported her decision, and she wound up in London a year later. Marathon performances in “cigar clubs” admittedly left her “burnt out.” At this point, she jetted to the States and never looked back.

Now, JESSIKA’s journey is really just beginning.

“When you listen to me, I hope you feel sad and happy all at once,” she leaves off. “I’m bringing light to these dark stories, but they’re still honest. You can hide behind a picture but you can’t hide behind a song. I hope you relate and know this is my truth.”