Good vibrations

Jess Turner '12 is an up-and-coming singer-songwriter who has some of her music on iTunes. Street chatted with Jess to hear what she has to say about songwriting, recording and the possibilities that the internet provides unsigned artists.

Q: How did you get into singing and songwriting?

A: I've played music for a long time, and when I was thirteen, I started messing around on the piano. My mom thought what I was playing sounded good, and she encouraged me to study composition. So I went to a summer program for classical composition at Northwestern and started writing classical music. Later, I got into writing more pop- and singer-songwriter-type music. I play the cello in my songs now and try to combine classical music with other genres.

Q: What is your songwriting process?

A: I get inspiration not only from my own experiences, but also from other people's. So when I see a friend going through something really interesting, I try to write a song about it. Musically, I try to combine a lot of genres - I listen to jazz, classical, hip-hop, everything.

Q: What made you decide to start recording?

A: By my senior year of high school, I'd written all of these songs, but there wasn't really anywhere to perform in my hometown, and I was looking for a way to have a permanent copy. So I found a local recording studio and started recording my songs. While performing is fun, recording is really cool because you get to perfect your song. I love the actual art of recording, finding musicians to play with and working with an engineer. I have this really good vibe going with my engineer - who is a drummer - where he'll put down some drum tracks and show me the cool synths he has, and we'll mess around with new instruments. When it's over, I've got an actual, polished, physical copy of what I've written.

Q: How has the internet helped you publicize your songs?

A: What's been most useful for me in terms of getting heard is Jango. It's like Pandora, but it focuses on new and unsigned artists. So I've been getting a ton of e-mails - from people all over the world - who heard my music on Jango and liked it. So while I think iTunes is useful, free sites like Jango are a great place for people to find new music.

Q: What's it like playing music on campus?

A: I'm always looking for people to play with, and what I think is really cool about Princeton is the large number of musicians who want to play. I can just send out an e-mail asking for a bassist, and I quickly find someone to play with.

Q: When can we expect some new music from you?

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

A: I've written a lot of stuff this year at school, but it's just a matter of finding a time to record it. There aren't any recording studios near Princeton. So while I'm always writing here, it's when I go home that I record. I spent a few days during break recording songs, so look out for those!

Check out Jess Turner's music online at jessturnermusic.com and on iTunes.

Interview conducted, condensed and edited by Guy Wood.