“I Should Quit”: JESSIA follows her gut turning her life around

Interview Beatrice Panero / pane.nero

Photography William Arcand / williamarcandd

From Vancouver, Canada, singer and songwriter Jessia is one of this year’s most inspiring breakout artists. With millions of streams and countless views, her success “I’m Not Pretty” reached an incredible success within 72 hours thanks to the power of social media. Adding her imprint to an unpredictable world, Jessia challenges to inspire an entire generation with her utopian ambitions. Here’s a story of never giving up.

Your latest song, “I’m not pretty”, was born from a video in your car and your reached out a great success (congrats!). What about the following 72 hours, what happened?

Elijah Woods made a beat to it and posted it on TikTok and then we connected and we wrote the rest of the song in two days. Then releases the finished song to the public 3 days later! It was a wild few days but I am so thankful for it haha

In one day you reached 1 million views and you rapidly cemented your status as a rising global talent. How do you feel about turning your life around in such a short time?

I still need to pinch myself. It’s gone from 0-100 and it’s been non stop since Jan 1st haha. I love the busyness of it. I am a workaholic and I feel weird now when I have a day off. I don’t know what to do with myself so I usually try and write a song or respond to fans!

With the song’s message you inspired many people. How do you feel being the spokesperson for an entire generation?

Wow that’s a huge question. I feel honoured that people want to listen to me haha I can't even comprehend the amount of love and support people have shown towards this song. I feel like “I’m not Pretty” is not even my song anymore, everyone has put their own stories and feeling into it that its become this thing that we share and I think that's super powerful.

What else would you like to do to influence your generation?

I would love to use my platform to help save our environment. It’s crazy the amount of tiny changes we could do in our day to day lives that would reduce our impact on the planet. I don’t want to preach but it is becoming an extremely serious matter. Let’s do our best to keep our home happy!

You wanted to start 2021 giving you a year to realize yourself, and you made it in not even a month! What advice can you give to young people struggling to fulfil themselves?

I am definitely still figuring myself out haha but a lot of goals were achieved in a month which is still unbelievable to me. My advice is to stop saying that you are going to do something and actually just do it. If you wait for something, that gives you time to overthink it and doubt yourself. If you think it’s cool then it’s probably cool. JUST GO FOR IT!!!

Starting a career on a popular social media like TikTok at the beginning could be frustrating. Why did you choose TikTok and how did you overcome the fear of exposing yourself?

I am still trying to crack TikTok haha I think it’s a really cool app cause it’s like a first chance to go viral everytime you post. I was definitely frustrated when I first got it as all my videos were getting 100 views and I felt like nobody cared but then I just kept posting to no one and then one video took off!

Writing’s your passion. How did it start and how did you get into songwriting?

Yes I treat my songwriting like therapy so I really don’t know what I would do without songwriting. I wrote my first song at 11 and never stopped after that haha

How would you define your musical style?

Indie pop? Its got some edginess to it as I am not holding back with any of my new songs. I also want it to feel like you are having a conversation over tea with me when you listen to my music.

You seem to have a great relationship with your producer Elijah Woods. What's it like working with him?

A DREAM! He’s the best person to be around and there is no pressure or intimidation. We are both very real with each other and I love that! . We are just two friends that like making music together!

What else should we expect from Jessia in 2021?

An EP?? Music videos!! Festival shows!! Follow me on socials to keep up to date cause this summer is going to be INSANE!!!