Hey everyone,
I started writing this text already 3 times. There is so much to tell and I've been trying to figure out how to avoid turning it into a book. To continue where I left off, here's what happened after I got punched in the face last New Years.
Before going to the studio in LA I stopped by San Diego for a few days to catch up with Kerry, an old friend of mine I hadn't seen for 6 years.
This friendship is one of the most random and amazing ones I have with a crazy story behind it that is worth sharing, so I decided to write separately about it at the end of this blog text.
We started our reunion by celebrating together with some of Kerrys circus friends and I didn't get to bed until 5 in the morning. 2 hours later he wakes me up and the next thing I know we're jumping out of a plane.
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| Time to wake up! |
Skydiving has been on my bucket list for years now, and it felt so cool to actually do it. We went up 3000 meter and the fall lasted for about a minute before the instructor released the parachute. I always thought it would be the adrenaline rush of all time but it turned out to be much more relaxing and "dreamy" than I could ever imagine.
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| And it was good! Best hangover cure ever |
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| On my way to LA with Kerry. |
After sleeping in a rocking boat, on random couches and floors, it felt like a dream to sleep in a hotel bed when I got to LA. I spent about 80% of my time at the Hollywood Boulevard, if not in the studio then at the hotel or somewhere in between. I was surprised how open minded and weird the place was.
LA is like a big jungle. One day you chill with the monkeys and the next day with the elephants. It's quite a mix of different cultures and there's plenty of room to be yourself.
http://jessicawolffonline.blogspot.fi/2012/12/behind-scenes.html
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| Ready to role up the sleeves. |
It was a big step for me to burn down the house I had built for so long, to build a new one. It's a risky move but I had to follow my intuition.
The first day was the biggest challenge. It felt weird singing to new backgrounds and I got such a block I even forgot the lyrics. The process of letting go from something old and completely renew yourself can be quite scary and confusing.
Instead of just throwing myself into it as I normally do, I got stuck in a cloud of over analyzing and wondering if I really had made the right decision. If I would have kept those thoughts inside, the result would have been completely different. So I spoke out everything on my mind which resulted in me and Jimmy bumping heads like two little kids. Verbal punches in the face followed by a hand shake.
It never happened before but I'm glad it did. There's a saying: "You need to test the strength to know it's potential".
If you don't let your thoughts out, the only thing that will happened is that they're constantly in the back of your head which is a perfect way to kill the creativity.
Next day we knew 10 times more about each other and from there it only went upwards. It didn't take long before we were rocking in the studio and I was surprised that I didn't have to do more than a few takes on each song before we had it.
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| A day off at Universal studios |
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| Jebran Jouni, one of the coolest people in LA who became a close friend. Besides his amazing personality he is one kick ass designer who made clothes for many big stars. Check out his work and you'll know what I mean: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Skkin-USA/117755524965601?fref=ts |
After one month of traveling it was finally time to go home, but before that, I went to France to go to the music fair Midem.
It was four days of running from one meeting to another and going to all these gigs and parties. I've never struggled so much with a jet-lag before and must have consumed half of the coffee storage in France.
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| View from the Nordic Pavilion at Midem |
The biggest reason why I went there was because of a guy from the Japanese record label "King Records" whom I connected with the year before. He got interested in my music and to make sure he didn't forget about me, I went to "Finland Fest" in Tokyo last May, thanks to the support of Music Finland.
I almost choked on my sashimi when he told me he wanted to release my album in Japan.
For a half year the deal has been under progress and a few months ago it was decided that the album release would be the 10th of April in Japan 2 weeks before the release in Finland the 24th. I still couldn't break the news before I was completely sure and I've been dying of anticipation not to know.
At Midem I finally met him again for dinner and we had a meeting that resulted in a bottle of Champagne. He told me that it's now official in Japan, the promotion has already started and we could break the news in Finland. I had to hold on to the chair not to fly through the roof! Three years ago I wrote "release your album in Japan" on my goal list. It's been hanging on my wall ever since and now it's actually happening! Yiiiiiihaaaaa!!!!
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| Outside of the restaurant after the happy news |
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| Signing photos for the Japanese label |
Rock on!
- Jessica Wolff
Ps. Wanna hear the story about the most random friendship? Check out the text below.
How I met Kerry
When I was 13 years old, I joined my dad on one of his business trips to Orlando in Florida.
Kerry was working for Universal studios as a joggler back then and had jumped over the fence to use the swimming pool at the hotel.
It all started with him wondering what language I was speaking with my friend. We talked for about an hour and the next day I left. We didn't have much contact except for emails every once in a while during the years.
6 years later I felt restless and decided it was time for an adventure. I wanted to go far away and for some reason I picked USA. Since I was on my own I decided to go and visit some people I knew. Kerry was one of them. My family and friends were quite upset with me. All they saw was a 19 year old girl visiting a 6 year older guy she only met for one hour, who could be a rapist, psycho or whatever.
However, I had a strong feeling he was just as cool as the first time I met him and trusted my intuition once again.
After spending a week in Virginia I took a flight to Florida where Kerry would pick me up. It wasn't until I sat on the plane that I started to freak out. What if my intuition is wrong? What if my family and friends are right? What if he really is some sort of psycho? How can I really know?
With these thoughts in the back of my head I got off the plane and found Kerry at the baggage claim. I felt very alert on everything that went on around me.
Once we got into the car I asked him if we're going to his place. " No, actually I'm homeless" was the answer. Great.. 1-0 to the family.
It didn't exactly make me feel calm but I decided to keep my head up. After driving for a while Kerry suddenly stopped the car. I looked around and realized we were in the middle of nowhere next to a closed petrol station. Why would anyone randomly stop there?
The alarm clocks in my head turned on and before I even had the time to think of a possible escape route, a half naked man with make up on bumped against my window yelling at me to let him in.
Before I had time to react, Kerry opened my door from the inside and the guy jumped over me to the back seat. " Go go! A crazy ex-boyfiend is chasing me with a chair"!
My thoughts were spinning like a roller coaster. Instead of freaking out I decided to take it easy and try to figure out what the hell was going on.
It turned out that Michael, the half naked with make up on, was a close friend to Kerry, and had promised that we could crash there for the night. The reason why Kerry was homeless is because the job he does. He's a stunt man, joggler, horseback trick rider, musician and acrobat and always travels from one show to another.
Michael however, was playing the Aladdin character in a musical, that's why he was wearing make up. Straight after the musical he had promised to go to his friends place to do a strip show at a birthday party. Suddenly an angry ex-boyfriend had turned up and started chasing him with a chair so he didn't have time to put his t-shirt back on and decided to run instead of fight.
He had asked Kerry to pick him up at the petrol station which explain why we randomly stopped. Kerry was so busy talking about other things so he forgot to explain to me what the plan was.
I had a good laugh when the pieces of puzzle came together and decided that once I get a strong intuition about something I'm gonna stick to it.
Instead of staying in Florida we did a lot of random things. We went up to Wisconsin where we stayed at a horse farm and almost every night we found a new place to stay.
Some people you just know that you can trust from the first time you meet them. If you call them in 20 years it will still be the same. Those friendships are rare but once you find them you better keep them.
