INTRODUCING: JESSICA WILDE
Known for Pxssy Pwr a night of power-house performances and good times, Miss Jessica Wilde Singer, songwriter, rapper and producer has released her highly anticipated, soul touching, empowering and thought- provoking sophomore album ‘Teach Me How To Love’.
We spoke to Jessica, about her new album Teach me how to love, her sought-after nights PXSSY PWR and where she finds peace in a busy city like London!
INTERVIEW - Portia Brajkovic
Hey how are you?
I’m blesss thank you :)
what drew you to music?
JW: My mum is a jazz singer and actress, so I was immersed into the world of music and performance from a really young age. There was a lot of jazz influence for me at that time, my mum played Billie Holiday on stage and also span CD’s in our living room, of greats, such as Nina Simone and Dinah Washington. On the flip side I had my brother, a jungle MC blaring Dnb and jungle through my bedroom wall. I started writing songs from a young age melding soulful and jazzy toned vocals with rap and spoken word, inspired by the sounds I grew up with and also my area Brixton /Clapham, South London and stories I told through song, of what I saw and experienced.
WHAT INSPIRES YOU?
JW: Everything! Lol. Love, heartbreak, but not just in your typical relationship sense, although that deffo comes into it too, but I’ve also been a on a deep inner healing journey over the last few years which has massively inspired themes and sounds in my music. My debut project was about me going sober, moving through toxic relationships and addiction to more self love, empowerment and living in a whole new way, sober. My newer album ‘Teach Me How To Love’, delves into the more spiritual world I guess, its an exploration of love for self, others, god or whatever you may use that resonates, and it’s also about the hard lessons we have to learn, that I’ve learned and am still learning in order to attain deeper love.
WHY IS BEING AN INDEPENDENT ARTIST, IMPORTANT TO YOU ?
JW: I think like with anything, when it becomes corporate, it also becomes very much about outcomes.. numbers, money, what you can attain, rather than the excitement of the journey its self and the deeper meaning as to why you’re doing it. I went to LA, got signed, it was everything I thought I wanted at that time, but I soon realised it wasn’t truly what I wanted because I felt empty. My creativity numbed, I lost confidence in myself as a writer and innovative creator. I was working with seriously successful writers and producers, and don’t get me wrong I learnt a lot and I’m still very grateful for the experience but the songs were written for me and it was very much someone else’s vision of me rather than what I truly wanted. When I went independent and I was suddenly able to completely be myself, it was so freeing and empowering and my creativity reignited in ways I never even expected. Don’t get me wrong it’s not always easy being independent, you gotta be fully in it and committed but it’s so worth it. I found things just flowed more because people got it, they resonated and were drawn to what I was saying in my music, because it was real, authentic and honest and now I have an amazing team who support my independence and individuality and we are flying!
WHAT DOES YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS LOOK LIKE?
JW: Sometimes it’s me just in my bedroom getting super weird and creative with vocal and instrumental sounds. Other times I may be in with another producer and we write something from scratch together, or like with Tom Maine, we took my production and song ideas and then he helped me develop them further. I also love to collaborate. ‘Teach me How to love’ was a very collaborative album. It was important to me to have artists involved that I resonate with on a deep level, and that came to life cos the album ended up featuring my good friend Zoe Kypri, Josh Barry, Afronaut zu, Muti Musa and James Newman, who you might know from writing ‘Rudimental ‘Waiting all night’ to name a few. The whole creative process was so much fun and really Was a family affair.
What is the story behind your album ‘Teach Me How To Love’, what did you learn creating the project?
I learnt that I’m a pretty good producer! Ha. It’s the first project where I’ve had a big part to play not only in the writing but also the production. I co-produced the entire project with another incredible producer, Tom Maine. Now I’m committed to working on my production skills and bringing that into future projects too. As mentioned earlier, the themes of this album are an exploration of love for self, others and spirit. My last project was quite dark as I was moving through a lot of sh*t, shedding, shifting, alla that. I really wanted this album to be more uplifting and elevating in a different kind of way. More focused on the light rather than the darkness, although both are important, it was time for the light to come out of the darkness for me. The sounds were very much inspired by London hip hop, soul, jazz, indie but also the ceremonies, women’s circles and healing spaces I’d been in where we’d chant mantras, drum, which inspired my to layer up lots of luscious vocals and have strong percussive sounds right the way through. I love the deep power of the drum, especially djembe and congas and the power of when many voices come together, organically a strong essence of this came into the album. I see it as a meeting of two worlds, inner and outer, spiritual but with as south London grit.
WHAT WOULD WE FIND ON YOUR GO TO PLAYLIST?
Well, my playlist is PxSSY PWR, so you’d find a lot of very dope women on the rise, making BIG tunesss!!
Well, my playlist is PxSSY PWR, so you’d find a lot of very dope women on the rise, making BIG tunesss!!
Take a minute to write an introduction that is short, sweet, and to the point.
YOUR THE BRAINS BEHIND PXSSY PWR, TELL US ABOUT IT.. ?
JW: PxSSY PWR also birthed when I went independent. It wasn’t really intentional.. It was lockdown 2020, I’d attended a online workshop with ‘Women in CNTRL’ and learnt about the disparity between the support men get from the industry compared to the lack of support women get. This inspired me to start the ‘PxSSY PWR’ Spotify playlist, featuring all my fave upcoming female artists. I bought a pink wig online, and then my seriously pxssy powerful, don’t give no f*cks and comedic alter ego, ‘Ya gurl Charlene’ came into the world.. haha! I made videos as Charlene reacting to the songs on the playlist for socials. Lockdown was such a serious time I just wanted to do something playful and out the box. Anyway, Charlene caused a stir so I kept on with the vids, which then turned into a PxSSY PWR IGLive series, where I’d interview artists from the playlist as Charlene, they’d perform, so it was a whole hour show and hundreds of people locked in for the full thing. I then got approached to do a clothing line with ‘Fame Magazine’, once lockdown was over and we were out in the real world I got offered a residency at the iconic Hootananny Brixton and turned the PxSSY PWR IGLive series into an actual live show, it popped off. I had the likes of Etta Bond, Zoe Kypri, IYAMAH, Morgan Munroe and many more hit the stage. We’ve taken over festival stages including Noirganica at Secret Garden Party, have a radio show and a rapidly growing creative community. The ethos behind it really has become about community, connection, authenticity, the medicine of music and pxssy power of course!
HOW HAS LONDON SHAPED YOUR SOUND?
JW:London is a melting pot of culture, both my mixed heritage roots and the diversity of my surroundings growing up have had such a huge influence on my music. I’ve never been able to stay within one genre or box, but that’s whats made my sound unique and has pushed me to push boundaries, and I love that!
WHAT DO YOU DO FOR PEACE?
JW: Meditate, be in nature, sing, write, make music, work out, dance, take a salt bath, burn some incense, read a good book, solo travel somewhere hot with a beach! Turn my phone on aeroplane mode lol.
What’s next for you?
JW: After a super busy summer of festivals I’m ready to hibernate and be in writing mode. The next few months are really gonna be focused on that so I can bring something special through for 2025. I also have a PxSSY PWR Show coming in December back at our Hootananny home, gonna be a big xmas rave up, got a really exciting line up lined up, soon to be revealed. But yeh, really getting my head down to write, produce and collaborate, so I’m ready for some new drops in the new year. I’m really excited for the next wave of music thats coming through, it’s still very much in the early stages but the vibes are coming through! :)