Writers Block

Practiced a Kung-Fu kick called "Butterfly". I later realized it looked more like an attempt to stage dive in the park.

Hi there,

I've been trying to come up with a good interesting subject to write about for a week now. I've been at home in a heavy flu, which should be a good mode for blog writing. I thought the subject would just naturally pop up in my head sooner or later. Well it still hasn't, so I guess I'll have to write about writers-block.

It happens to me every once in a while, especially when I'm dealing with "office stuff" and tricky contracts. Business stuff and song writing simply don't go hand in hand.
Since I've released everything myself It basically makes me my own record label. Which also makes me responsible of everything else besides the actual singing. It's good and bad to be your own boss. You need more than a lot of discipline to make it work, which can be exhausting sometimes. But on the other hand you have all the control and can choose which direction you want to go. It was scary in the beginning since I'm so new (3 years) to the business side of music.
 I've made a lot of mistakes on the way but that's the way to learn, and I don't think I would learn the same things on a school bench.

You often hear people talking about artists as "products". It's really sad, but it's also the raw truth.
It felt like a slap in the face when my consultant told me 3 years ago that I better start seeing it that way and get used to the thought.

That's where it gets weird. I'm responsible of selling a product which happens to be myself. That's quite mind twisting sometimes. So, I've come to the conclusion that it's better to just "be", keep your feet on the ground and do what feels right and keep focused.
If I'll think too much about that stuff I will most likely get a writers block. ;)

Rock on!

Jessica Wolff

Hi everyone,

Sunday, two weeks ago I got a message from a guy asking if I wanted to do a promo gig the following Wednesday. The gig would be 4 hours away from Helsinki at a big rally event with a lot of people and they wanted me to be the main act.
I've never been asked to do a gig only 2,5 days before and I told the guy it might not be possible to get the band together with such a short notice.
After calling around it turned out that half of my band members were abroad. However, I was dealing with a very stubborn guy who insisted that I make it work.
If someone's working hard to give me a gig I don't want to be the one giving up.
The following Monday became one hectic day. I made about a million phone calls and by the end of the night I finally found a keyboard guy who was ready to learn the songs in one day. I also got a base player who ended up taking an 8h train ride from the north of Finland just to do the gig.

Unfortunately we didn't have any time to rehears. Normally this would have made me a bit nervous but somehow everything came so fast I couldn't afford, and didn't have time to stress about it.

After a 4 hour drive we arrived to the place and started to get ready for soundcheck. Their schedule was late and someone told me we would have to skip the whole soundcheck.
I thought it couldn't get worse: New guys, no rehearsal and no soundcheck, great.  Luckily one of the organizers realized it wasn't such a brilliant idea to let the band play without having any idea about the sound, so he managed to arranged some more time for us.

 It turned out that this guy who got me the gig had recommended me and some other bands to the arrangers. He had asked them to pick their top 3 but instead they had put my name 3 times. He tried to explain they need at least one back up but they insisted that I was the only option.
 No wonder why the guy had been so stubborn, at some point I even thought it was a bit weird that he tried so hard. Anyhow, I can't complain, it was a big compliment that made my day.

After the soundcheck I still didn't feel any sort of nervosity and it almost started to worry me. Of the times I've been nervous before a gig this should have been the worst.
 I thought maybe it would hit me like a rock in the stomach right before I go on stage like a couple of times before.
However,  stressing about not stressing is probably the most stupid reason to stress, so I decided to keep my calm vibe and if the nervosity hits, it hits.
Well, for some reason it never happened and it actually turned out to be one of my best gigs. At least I had a lot of fun on stage and think I was a bit all over the place. The keyboard guy and base player were both fantastic and the audience like it.
Sometimes it's good to just throw yourself out there without being prepared and just trust the situation.

After the gig we got a really good response and after a long night I got home at about 5 am in the morning.

The next gig will be the 8th of September in Tampere in Särkänniemi. I will have two gigs the same day. If you're around that area I hope to see you in the audience!

Rock on!

Jessica

Chilling on an island

Hi there,

I had a great day today. I've been spending almost a week atmy family's summer cottage based on an island two hours away from Helsinki inFinland.

 A couple of weeks agomy new single Dirty Kisses became the signature song for a new TV show called"Motorbikers World".

They also interviewed me for one episode in the show, aboutmy music and my biking interest. I had a very nice day of driving around on thebike. It will be on the Jim channel in Finland on Saturday the 21st of July.

Picked 2 l of wild berries that turned into a big pie

The same guys are also making a TV show that's all aboutboats. Since the sea and boating have been a big part of my life since I was a childthey thought it would fit well for an episode.

So today they came to the summer cottage to film me drivingaround in a boat the whole day. It was a lot of fun speeding up and down, makingcircles etc.

For me the boat has always been only for commuting back and forth to the mainland andI think it was the first time I got to "drive for fun". 

Most of my childhood summer I've always spent 2 monthsstraight on the island and most of the weekends also in the wintertime. 

It's where my roots are and the best place for a good inspiration kick or peace for the soul.  I once even brought half a studio with me togetherwith my friends to have a productive weekend of songwriting.

Unfortunately the last few years I haven't been able to behere as much as before since there's been a lot of work to do. But I still gota wonderful week left of rehearsing songs, chopping wood and swimmingbefore going back to the studio next week.

I still got three songs left to record and then it's justthe editing, mixing and mastering left. Getting there!

Rock on,

Jessica

Dirty Kisses

Hey there guys and girls!

My new single "Dirty Kisses" is finally here! Check out the link below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKInSXe1sBs&feature=g-all-lik

It's always both scary and excited at the same time to release a new song. After working on the song following it from the first created note, to the final version, you get immune and it gets hard to imagine what it sounds like to someone who never heard it before.
Of course the goal is always, at least for me to effect people in a good way with my music. The feeling is so awesome when someone gives you good response after you put your heart into something.
However I think it's important not only when it comes to music but anything you create in general, to be open to peoples different opinions and remember that what you create is, not you, just a small piece of your personality. Even a strong negative reaction is better than nothing at all, and unless it's full of pointless crap it might even help you to grow as an artist.

It reminds me of one of the first gigs I had in Helsinki a few years ago. It felt like it went really well and I thought it was the best gig so far, but when I got off the stage the first thing my Kung-Fu master said was "That was shit! I couldn't even hear your voice". Well, I can't say it cheered me up but I'm glad he was so honest because it taught me that I should get my own mixer in the future.
Anyhow, enough  about reactions and creations.

When I wrote the lyrics for this song, it was like putting my feelings down on paper and turn it into something productive.
The message I want to bring out is to appreciate what you have in the present moment because a moment later it turns into a memory. I could probably write a whole page about the story behind the lyrics, but I rather leave it open for the listener to interpret it the way they feel.

I'm really thankful that I had such a great team around me working on this song. So I wanna share big thanks to the Swedish producers Joakim Övrenius & Patric Jonsson and Eric Gast (additional production) for the great work! I also want to share my appreciation to however invented coffee, which without this song would have sounded different ;)


Rock on!

Jessica Wolff


Ps. If you want to buy the single online, here are some options.

http://digianttila.com/
http://kauppa.nrj.fi/
http://cmstore.fi/
http://download.mtv3.fi/

Finland Fest in Tokyo

Tokyo 24.5 - 29.5

Day 1

Finally in Japan! It's been a lot of Traveling the last week. I came home to Helsinki in the middle of the night a couple of days ago. Next day I had a band practice, a meeting and then off to Japan.
I was running around like speedy Gonzales trying to get everything packed, send the single to printing, feeding my boa snake etc. I probably forgot half of my stuff at home.
Now I'm on the bus on my way to the hotel together with my producer, some Heavy Metal dudes and some people from Music Export Finland.
I'm glad the event doesn't start until tomorrow. Otherwise the Japanese record labels would probably mistake me for a sleep walking zombie rather than a rock/pop artist.

My window view

Day 2
Fighting the jet lag

One heavy jet lag! Rise and shine. I'm so glad I bought a pair of big sunglasses a few weeks ago.
I woke up 3 am feeling weird, sick and tired but not able to sleep. After rolling around in the bed for four hours I called Eric who was awake too and we went out for a very early breakfast.
We found a bar that was closing at 8 am in the morning and there I had the strangest breakfast of my life. A clam soup with ham in it.
A few coffees later and to my big surprise I fell asleep like a baby when I got back to the hotel room.
I woke up a couple of hours before the Reception party organized by Musex.

A couple of wonderful Japanese girls I met
at the after party.

I met a lot of interesting people within the music industry, not only from Japan but also from Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland.
 Even though my body was longing for some more sleep we went to see some gigs followed by the Houko Music Night after party. The parties are usually what connects people the best.
We had a very interesting taxi experience on the way back. The taxi driver kept on babbling to me in Japanese. First I tried to explain that I didn't understand but after he kept on talking I just replied with "hai" which just made him babble even more.
I heard many Japanese use the word Hai and I think it means something like ok or yes.
Eric filmed the whole thing so I'll post it later.

One fancy bathroom.

Day 3
Sprayed in the face

A jet lag + after party is not the best combination if you wanna feel like a piece of sunshine next morning. I certainly didn't. I guess one reason is because I woke up around 3am. I rolled around in the bed for a couple of hours and when I was finally falling asleep again the toilet suddenly started to make a very loud wheezing noise.
Half asleep I got up to try to do something about it. Next to the toilet seat were a lot of random buttons (in Japanese). I took a shot and pressed one of them, which certainly didn't help.
 What happens is that a plastic stick comes out of the toilet and sprays water right in my face. Good morning Jessica!! I feeling like an idiot but the whole situation was so random I couldn't do anything but laugh. It reminded me of Mr. Bean.
I thought I was done with the whole getting sprayed in the face thing, but believe it or not an hour later the same kind of thing happened but in public.
I went to have breakfast with Eric and with the meal they served me mayonnaise in two small weird plastic boxes attached to each other.
There was an image showing "break it in half". So I did, but the wrong way around so instead of getting it on my meal I got a wonderful mayonnaise mustache. I should have gotten paid for entertaining the restaurant guests. Not only was I the only blonde person but I was also wearing my Onepiece.
They probably thought I was from a different planet. Another good morning laugh.

Other than these two random situations the day went pretty smoothly. I went to see a beautiful Japanese garden in Tokyo before going to the "Metal Attack" show later in the evening. It was a four hour dose of Heavy Metal by both Finnish and Japanese bands. The audience went crazy!
After the show I went to a sushi restaurant with a guy from King Records. It was a great meeting and the sushi was probably the best I ever had. Tomorrow we're meeting again at an music business event.

For some reason some people call Eric
"egg". I'm not sure where the inside joke comes from
but he also has a blog with that name
 http://fmeggblog.blogspot.com/
Long story short, he felt very at home when he found
these eggman signs.

A beautiful park in Tokyo

The audience went crazy

It wouldn't take it's eye off me

Day 4
 Meet the Labels

I met a lot of very interesting people today. I had random meetings for 6 hours. It was quite intense. I came to this place where they have tables for each company and the whole day through people from different labels came to visit and if they were interested they would come to your table for a meeting.
I met a lot of distributors, promoters, labels etc. Looking good!
It also turned out that Chip, the base player from Enuff Znuff who is a good friend with my Eric had suggested that we contact his friend Ryo at King Records. Eric thought it would be good to talk with the guy I met at Midem first since he is also working for King Records and we were meeting up with him anyways. It turned out that it was the same person, I just didn't know his nickname was Ryo. What a small world.
We had a good laugh about it called Chip during our meeting. Except for us waking him up he was very happy to talk with his old friends.
After the meetings we went to an amazing restaurant with Eric friend who happened to be in Tokyo. He has been working as a camera man for Eric when they were filming a documentary about how music can help people get through rough times. For instance they went into the war zone in Burma and lived with the soldiers in the jungle and interviewed them and recorded some of their music.
There were some other people joining us at the restaurant as well and I met a very successful artist from Korea. We exchanged our music and talked about working together in the future.
I got back after 1 am in the morning and had the option to go to sleep or have a beer with the guys from the band called "Swallow the Sun". I chose to go for a beer.

I had a really good time and the guys were great. We got back to the hotel around 3 am and I realized it's no point to go to sleep since I would have to wake up 3 hours later to catch the flight. I took an ice cold shower and drank a lot of coffee and water in order to stay awake.
The weirdest thing is that at some point between 2-4 am there was an earthquake (5,2 on the richter scale) and I didn't notice a thing. I still don't know how it's possible, according to people the whole building was shaking.

After a long trip I finally got back to Finland. That night I slept like a baby.

It looks so much cooler in Japanese

Having some Sake with some guys from "Swallow the Sun"
The bar tender put this weird pearl hat on my head.

Went to a seminar and learn a lot about
the Japanese music market.

Living in the studio

Hi there!
I had an absolutely wonderful trip in Nice. It was very needed for re-charging my batteries. I went there together with three of my girl friends I've known since I was a kid. I also realized it was the first time since I was studying theatre three years ago, that I spent so much time together with a bunch of girls.
Most of my friends and people I work with are men, but the few girl friends I have are really close. Part from the shopping I had a great time.
When I got back I had a lot of work to do. My laptop mouse stopped working while I was in Nice so there was a bunch of stuff I couldn't get done. I could really feel reality biting when I came home.
 I had 24 hours to get everything set before picking up my producer from the airport the day after I got back. Back to business!
We started with a meeting the morning after he arrived and to my big surprise he gave me FM OnePiece. (FM is the charity he created).

Me and Eric Gast going to band practice

Within a minute after I took a picture of it at band practice, Thomas Adams (the guy who came up with the OnePiece concept) contacted Eric and told him he was in Helsinki for a day.
What a weird coincidence.
 Every time Eric has been around we've always randomly met the OnePiece guy. The first time at the launch party in Helsinki. The second time at party in Stockholm and now in Helsinki again.
After the band practice still wearing my Onepiece we went to say hi to Thomas late in the evening and didn't get to bed until late in the night.

 

My new FM OnePiece.

  We had a very early flight to the studio in Stockholm. I had only slept 2 hours but didn't mind since I wasn't supposed to do any vocals. We just had to go through the last adjustments for the up-coming single before mastering it.

Early breakfast at the airport

Straight from the airport I went to see my singing coach before joining the rest in the studio. I got very surprised when they told me that I should re-sing the chorus for another song I thought I was already done with.
When I go to the studio to do vocals I prefer to be prepared, warm up, sleep well, having my mind set etc. My body and voice were completely shut for the traveling and lack of sleep, but shit happens. 

I had to try at least, which turned out to be a good decision. After many takes I managed to find the energy and feeling I needed to nail the chorus.

Outside of the studio with my producers and an awesome
background vocalist.

Eric Gast & Patric Jonsson

                                                      

The next day we got few hours before taking the train to Malmö 4 hours away from Stockholm. Some of my old songs were recorded more than two years ago and in the need of an update in order to fit in with the rest of the songs on the album.

Johan Bejerholm in Worldstudios

 It was really nice coming back to World Studios and see my old producer Johan Bejerholm. He is one funny guy that always makes me laugh.

I thought re-sining some vocals for the old songs would be an easy task since I sang them hundreds of times. It actually turned out to be the opposite.

 Being brainwashed and deaf to your own songs it's hard to find a new spark and feeling in it.

When I'm performing with it's different though, then I can always get the emotions and energy from the audience and the adrenaline kick of being on the stage.

However, nothing is impossible. There's always a way even how stuck you feel with a song. It's just a matter of being stubborn and find the right way to approach it. Sometimes I need to move around a lot, do some boxing, try to go into a character or just have a very clear picture of what and who I'm singing it to.

The chorus that I had to re-sing in Stockholm is a good example. I felt stuck because I didn't have the energy but than I imagine that someone had just stabbed me with a knife and going into that feeling gave me the right vibe for the song. It might sound weird but these kind of "acting tools" effect both the voice and emotions a lot.  If one image doesn't work I just move on to the next one until I find the what feels right. At least it works for me.

Rock on!

Jessica Wolff

Creative artist & busy business woman

Hi there,
Let me introduce my "new boyfriend" on the picture above. I brought it home a couple of days ago and I think I'm in love. I realize that riding a motorbike is something that makes me feel completely satisfied and happy. It's a strange combination between relaxation and adrenaline, where it's only me the road and my thoughts. The most random things tend to pop up in my head when I drive almost like meditation. It's also great singing when driving. You don't annoy the neighbors and you can hear your voice really well with the helmet, almost like being in the studio.

Honda CB1000R

Besides letting the child in me loose on the bike I've been working like a "red-bull ant" the last few weeks switching roles between the busy business woman and the creative artist.
 It's not always a piece of cake to combine the two of them.
 Sometimes what would be good for the business is not what's in your heart but at the same time you need money to make music in order to follow your heart. Confusing, right?
 I realized the best way for me is to keep an open minded approach and extend my boundaries but be careful not to cross any limits or do things I can't stand behind. It's not always a dance on roses but than again challenges is what makes you grow, and definitely worth it.

As I mentioned in my last text  have a single release coming up in June and there's a lot to be done. The song still needs to be mixed and mastered and the cover need to be done.
 Last week my consultant pointed out that in order to get it done in time I would have to do the photo shoot before the end of this week. After my heart almost dropped down to my stomach because of the sudden time pressure I gathered my thoughts and started to make some phone calls.
Organizing a photo shoot usually takes a lot of time and planning ahead unless you just want to take a random picture and happen to have a friend who can quickly make the graphic design. Well that wasn't my case.
Last week I spent a lot of time trying to figure out my option of photographers, make-up artists, the style, concept etc.
 After spending three days on the phone I finally got a good team gathered for a meeting yesterday (one day before the photo session) to go through the concept ideas I sent them two days earlier.
I was really lucky with how the schedules connected and got Ville Juurikkala to take the photos. He is an absolutely amazing photographer.
So today I've been running around like Speedy Gonzales, starting the morning with a great meeting with my booking agents, promoters etc, going to Kung-Fu, getting the hair done, picking up the outfit and rest of the stuff i needed, then make-up, and finally going to the studio.

It was really easy to work with Ville and I think the result is going to be just what I'm looking for. The stylist Jenni Ahtiainen and make-up artist Tea Turunen were also there and did a great job. Everyone seemed to be on the same page with the concept.
What a great day. Now it's time to relax. I just finished packing my bags and tomorrow I'm off for a weeks vacation to re-load my batteries before my producer Eric Gast comes to Finland to work with me.
I'm more or less gonna live in different studios between the 14.5-8.6th. I realized that I haven't marked a single day for relaxation in that period of time, so that loaded battery is gonna be needed.
Here are some pics for you guys!

Rock on!

Jessica

Straight from Kung-Fu to
Cime Beauty House 

The make-up is done, ready to go

A little piece from the photo shoot