An Interview With Up and Coming Singer JESSIE HYDE On Her Debut EP ‘Unsupervised’ and More!

Released on June 2nd, “Unsupervised” is the debut EP from the new artist, Jessie Hyde.

Hyde’s career is punctuated by gigs in tech, wellness and entrepreneurship (she founded The Glucose Goddess), modeling and now music. After a string of monogamous relationships and bad breakups, she fell into music. She calls herself an “accidental musician”, but in all seriousness, she’s a gifted and self-taught songwriter, vocalist, lyricist and producer. The music is earnest and inspired by Sia, Regina Spektor, Lily Allen and more.

Connect with Jessie Hyde Here: Facebook

Learn more about Jessie Hyde in the following All Access interview:

Thank you for your time. So given these unusual Covid-19 times, what does a typical day look like for you? How have you adjusted to these times?

This is going to sound privileged as hell, because it is, but I’ve just been working from home and using all the feelings that are coming up – from anxiety to boredom – to make art. I think the universe conspired to give me space so I could make music….

What has been the hardest/most challenging part about being quarantined? Is your city starting to open up more now?

The most challenging part was feeling concerned for my family in Europe, but really far away. I was in San Francisco for the better part of Covid. Just recently I was able to go back home to France, where things have opened up significantly.

How have you been able to use social media during these unprecedented times? Are you finding that you use it even more to stay connected to fans and other musicians? 

Pretty much as soon as I write a new song I like posting it and its process on instagram. It’s really important to me to be able to share the process – it’s so awesome to communicate the energy I feel to my fans. 

So I’ve been trying to use social media consciously.. It’s too easy to get sucked in and spend 3 hours on instagram. Then I feel terrible. But it’s so addictive. So I try to walk the line between using it for connecting with fans and turning it into a source of stress. I mean, that stuff really takes you out of the present moment in a flash.

What has it been like having to reschedule so many of your spring, summer and most likely fall shows? What shows in 2021 are you are already excited for? 

Well, I was really excited to do an album tour this summer, but that got canned. Yet it’s helped me take time to think through who I want to work with, and what kind of experience I want to create for people who come see me. It’s sort of a purgatory in which I can think about the craziest, weirdest ideas without the pressure of making them happen right away. 

Since we are all desperately missing live music, can you recall a favorite show of yours from the past? What do you think ultimately makes for a great show for you?

Respect for the audience and presence are what matter to me. I loved seeing Childish Gambino in SF last year. He was rehearsed to the t and was improvising within that structure. First mastery, then improv.  So a great show for me means respect for the audience in the form of utmost preparation, and connection with what’s happening right now to create something authentic and unique. 

Let’s talk about your brand new EP, “Unsupervised,” that was just released. What was it like creating this collection? Did anything surprise you about the overall process? Any unexpected challenges? 

Unsupervised was my very first EP – it was very strange to create because I had no idea what I was doing. The challenges were in figuring out what technical things I absolutely needed to do to put an EP out, and where I could be free. 

Challenges were mostly in my head. I kept wondering if what I was making was good enough — and I kept feeling like I needed other people in the music industry to give me their stamp of approval. When I liberated myself from this belief was when the title of the EP came to me. I did it all myself, because I was proud of the achievement of just putting something out. 

You know, it’s stressful and difficult to bear your soul and be judged. But I decided – fuck it – most people never release an album so I don’t care about their opinion. 

Can you pick out a few of your favorite songs on this EP? How did they get written and come to be part of this collection? What was the inspiration for them?

My favorite song, I think, is Hole Instead. I love the beginning lyric – “I’m a house of bones / A brain inside my head / but all I want is just a hole instead” It’s so real in terms of where I am at in my personal work. 

Then the next most favorite song is Petite Fille – the lyrics are from a letter I wrote to myself a few months ago that I had forgotten about. When I found the letter, to total disbelief, I saw it and was like – wow – I have to turn this into a song. So I found a few really simple chords – DM and G, and put the lyrics onto it, and it was done. I love its simplicity.

I understand that you just learned to write songs and play the piano a little more then 6 months ago so I am curious how it all happened? What caused you to start at all? Have you ever thought about being a musician before?

I did not think I would be a musician. I just grew up loving to sing songs, but that was it. I was probably better at memorizing song lyrics than most of my friends – but my talent stopped there. 

A couple of years ago I learned how to play chords on the guitar to accompany myself as I was singing songs I loved. 

In September I broke up with my boyfriend, and for the first time in 10 years was single. Big thing for me. I was going through intense emotions, and not having a partner to process them with, I had to turn to music. The night everything happened I was feeling really heartbroken, and I went to the piano (that I had just started learning a couple weeks ago) to try to find a Norah Jones song to sing and cry to, but nothing felt exactly right. 

So in that moment I realized that maybe I should write my own song. I started with lyrics scribbled on a piece of paper and then found chords that went with it. Honestly I didn’t think anything of it – I thought it was a silly thing to do. But I did it (the song is really not that great)- and caught the bug right there and then. Since then, every time I have a feeling, I write lyrics to what I’m experiencing and then find chords, and make a song out of it. 

How do you think future music is going to be influenced by this incredible and absolutely necessary Black Lives Matter movement that the US and even the world is going through now? Is it inspiring you and your music today at all?

To me this movement comes down to white people realizing what is going on in the world they live in. Realizing and facing their privilege and all the things that they have enjoyed because of institutionalized racism. So hopefully not just music will be influenced, but every part of society.

But man, it’s been all over the place. I am so shocked at white people using this movement to take selfies or feel spiritually superior and post about it on social media. I actually wrote a song about this issue – it’s called “Woke”. I think I’ll release it soon.

If you could get into the studio with any artist today and collaborate on a new song, who would it be and why? 

Joe Janiak and Elof Loelv, because they made Tove Styrke’s 2018 album and I adore it. HIT ME UP GUYS.

What would your dream music video look like right now? 

I want someone to render in 3d the shape of tree branches moving in sync to a beat of a song. 

Would you like to share anything else about yourself or your music with our readers? 

The emotions you feel in your body are real and have things to tell you. If you feel something, give it space, turn it into a poem, a song, a drawing, a dance, whatever… There is so much art to make when we let our emotions get expressed.