As a Hotel Cafe alum and with the 2008 release of new album Firesight, Jessie Baylin is going to be huge. With her first visit to Lawrence, Kansas, Baylin took some (and by some, I mean a lot) of her time there to speak with Joshua about her album, Hotel Cafe and even astrology. Check the interview here:
Jessie Baylin: So this is Lawrence, Kansas.
Joshua Hammond, Popwreckoning: Have you never been here before?
JB: I’ve never been here.
PW: This is the greatest, hidden music scene that you will ever find.
JB: Really?
PW: Yeah, a lot of people are from here and nobody realizes it.
JB: Wow.
PW: Mates of States is from here. The Get Up Kids were from here. The Anniversary is from here.
JB: That’s incredible. I went into, is it Richard’s Guitar Shop?
PW: I love Richard’s.
JB: It’s great and every one’s so sweet in there. I was cleaning out the van and looking for a trash can and I walked in there with a handful of trash and was like, “Hey, do you have a trash can?” So I brought them all my trash.
PW: Could you take a moment for our readers and tell them what you’re new album title Firesight actually means?
JB: Firesight means, exactly where I grew up. As a young girl, my parents owned a small bar and restaurant and there was a Jazz bar section to it. That’s where I grew up and where all my sensibilities come from. It is where I learned about different characters and what it is like to be in a strange adult world. It was just a very precious moment in my life. I felt like it was the beginning of how I began, so I thought it would be fitting for the title.
PW: I was reading a little about the cafe today, like stuff you said, and you can tell that it was one of your favorite places as a kid.
JB: Oh, yeah, defiantly. It actually wasn’t spelled the same way though, it was actually f-i-r-e-s-i-t-e, but I felt like I needed to change it a little bit, to make it my own thing. I mean, I’m a fire sign.
PW: Yeah, which one?
JB: Aries. 4-4-84.
PW: Our signs play nice together. That’s rare, Capricorns really don’t like anyone.
JB: (giggles)
PW: How has the response to the new album been?
JB: It’s been great. It’s definitely been like a discovery record, which is what I wanted it to start for me. And I think that’s how most of my favorite artists I’ve found out about. Because you have that like, finder’s fee, you know what I mean? You know, like it’s yours for a minute. I feel really good about it. It’s definitely a grower and people are still buying it, which is great, you know six months after it coming out. I’m really happy about it.
PW: With the finder’s fee thing, I actually thought that when you said that totally related to that. I think one of the most, it’s a slippery slope, but one of the most heartbreaking things is finding a band that is like yours when you’re getting to see them in venues with like 30 or 40 people watching them with you and you just adore them. And then two or three tours later it’s 600 and you can’t get near them anymore.
JB: Yeah, yeah. Like you can’t go get a drink with them at the little bar next door.
PW: Yes. But you’re still happy for them but…
JB: It’s bittersweet.
PW: Yeah. We’ve had that with Motion City Soundtrack and it went that way with Brand New, too. Where we were friends with Brand New when there was like 15 to 20 people in the venue…
JB: Wow.
PW: …and now, big giant clubs.
JB: Wow.
PW: It’s rough.
JB: (giggles)
PW: But we’re happy for them.
JB: Yeah.
PW: It’s what they need to do. And I got way off topic, which is what I do.
JB: (giggles) Me too, I have ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), so I’m right there with you.
PW: Me too! It’s so bad. I mean, I transcribe these later and I’m like “what the hell am I talking about?” How do you think that discovering the greats like Nina and Billie Holiday at such a young age shaped you musically and how do you think that that made you into the musician that you are today?
JB: Well, I just think that their spirits came through to me, and I think to anyone that listens to those records, so powerful. Just, you know, they were so strong just coming through your speakers, you know. You got a huge idea of who they were and what they were about and the story they were telling. And the fact that they could just stand there and sing the lyric and just be these forces of nature, just blew my mind. I wanted to be that.
Once I saw Barbara Streisand and Judy Garland, and the way they like literally like put their entire bodies into their performances, it just fascinates me. And then discovering rock and roll and seeing Stevie Nicks and Chrissie Hynde. These women are just willing to be exactly who they are and make no excuses for it and just be a force. And that’s what I want to be, that’s why I’m supposed to do this and that’s kind of my purpose.
PW: I could definitely see that. Do you find, I mean I find and I just want to know if you agree with this, that there seems to be a movement of that coming back? Like today, for example, when I was reviewing Hotel Cafe, I compared
Thao Nguyen to
Chrissie Hynde…
JB: Wow.
PW:… because her own “I’m going to stand on stage and I’m going to be bad ass. And there’s nothing you can do about it.”
JB: Definitely.
PW: And again, I think it stems partially from the Hotel Cafe thing, I think that they had empowered women to be up there on stage and be powerful again.
Meiko is that way as well, she’s there to be strong. I think there’s a movement of that coming back and I think it’s going to get bigger and bigger. I’m really excited about it because I quite prefer female music to male music. Male music is too ego driven.
JB: For sure.
PW: You grew up in a very blue collar music scene. What do you mostly see as the primary differences between the New Jersey music scene and the Los Angeles music scene?
JB: Um, well I mean “the New Jersey scene,” if you can even say there’s a scene there. I mean I went to school in New York City from like 14 on and I think was like exposed to that and I mean everybody passes through Manhattan. LA is just a bit more mysterious in a way, if that makes any sense. It was more alluring to me to do this out in LA. I was just overall, more inspired by my surroundings.
You know, I loved having everything at my fingertips. I was eighteen years old, had a car and a full tank of gas and was like, “Where should I go? Should I drive to the desert? Should I go to the mountains? Valley?” Whatever, you know, I could go anywhere and I did. And I just brought a journal with me and a guitar and you know, that was enough.
PW: With you it’s more inspiration.
JB: Yeah, yeah, and it just felt more wide open for me. Like I just had more options.
PW: Yeah that completely makes sense. When I was there, I did very much like LA. I wasn’t sold on the people.
JB: Yeah, it takes time. It took me a long time to make friends out there but once I did, like I just had this incredible, foundation of people surrounding me that were like awesome.
PW: I had a feeling that that’s how it is. That once you’re in, you’re in.
JB: Exactly. Yeah and it takes a minute.
PW: Yeah, I can definitely see that. We talked about this before, but we’re going to talk about it again: you’re a Hotel Cafe alum, how have those kids helped to advance your career and how do you think that the Hotel Cafe has helped music, in general?
JB: Well, putting us all on tour together, the first time I did the tour I just was like, “OK. I have to step it up a bit.” You know what I mean? And we all did, just because there was so much good stuff being put out there. You know, one song after another and it was just really intimidating in a good way. I didn’t feel scared I was just like, this is your moment. You know these people love you and accept you and it was just a really good nurturing environment to do your own thing. And what I do, I think, is really different from anybody else that’s there.
I feel like
Cary Brothers really championed me,
Joshua Radin,
Rachael,
Ingrid is one of my best friends. You know, it’s just a really good group of people that,
Greg Laswell is another good friend.
PW: Greg was so funny when we saw him.
JB: Yeah, he’s hilarious. I don’t know it just feels like a really safe place to be and now we’re all different directions, which is incredible but the fact that I wasn’t on this last tour was really weird. You know seeing the press releases and posters and not being on it was kind of sad and bittersweet. But you know at some point, I think we have to kind of move on a little bit and not always go back. It’ll always be where I come from but this particular tour I just had this opportunity and it’s two months long of consistent touring, so.
PW: It was definitely strange to see the Hotel Cafe come through this year and not have the normal cast of regulars come that’s on it every time. With the exception of Ingrid. We didn’t get Ingrid, which was okay. I love Ingrid but she comes through here a lot so I was thrilled to sub Rachael for Ingrid. But yeah, with the exception of that, it was pretty much a new cast.
JB: Yeah. I don’t know a lot of the girls on the tour.
PW: I was very impressed with who we got.
PW: Oh my god, yes.
JB: I love her.
PW: I had never experienced her.
JB: She’s amazing.
JB: Oh yeah, she’s incredible. She and I bonded so much on the last tour. We ended up both being in Denver and were staying in the exact same hotel and we hung out all night and then had breakfast together. I’m going to be in London for four weeks and she’s going to be there for a little bit of it so we’re going to be hanging out and maybe write some songs together.
PW: They were so super laid back, too.
JB: I’m obsessed with her. I love her.
PW: We’ve been listening to her a lot since then. It’s been between her and
JayMay.
JB: Yeah I heard
JayMay’s great and she told me about some British soul singer girl?
JB: Yes, she said she’s awesome.
PW: She’s very talented. She was probably my least favorite of everybody, but not because she’s not talented but because everybody else was ecstatic.
JB: Was she on the same show?
PW: She was. It was her, Kate,
JayMay, Thao, Rachael and
Meiko. So it was them. It was just an incredible line-up.
JB: That’s great.
PW: And that’s it for me! What do we have like 8 minutes to get to the venue?
JB: Yeah, come on. You can come in with us.
Jessie Baylin: website | myspace | Firesight review
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