Skydiving to the studio

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.

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.

And it was good! Best hangover cure ever

On my way to LA with Kerry. 

I didn't have many days together with my friend Kerry, but before continuing to LA I went to see his circus/ horse show which is by far one of the best shows I've ever seen. Check it out:

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.

Working with Jimmy Westerlund was an amazing experience I'll never forget. It's a long story behind the decision to re-produce my songs before releasing the album. If you want to know what led to that, check out the link to one of my earlier blog texts.

http://jessicawolffonline.blogspot.fi/2012/12/behind-scenes.html

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.

A day off at Universal studios

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.

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!!!!

Outside of the restaurant after the happy news

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.

Thunder storm and a broken tooth

Hi everyone,

First of all, merry christmas and happy New Year!
2 weeks before christmas I had been up and running 10-14 hours every day in order to get all kinds of music related things in order before going abroad for over a month.

I never went to sleep the 22nd since I had a flight early next morning. Instead I was up all night checking off the last things on my to-do list before I left.
Instead of going straight to Los Angeles to work on the album with Jimmy Westerlund, I went by Floirda instead to have a few days of holiday before rolling up the sleeves. I was very close to miss the flight.
My first flight was delayed by 45 min which left me less than 3 hours to go through passport control, get my bag and go to Gatwick Airport from Heathrow to repeat the whole thing. It was a lot of running that day. When I got out from the airport I was unsure whether the train or a taxi would be the fastest.

The answer came quickly when a random guy asked if I needed a ride somewhere. He almost started to sweat when I told him I needed to be at Gatwick airport 30 min later, and asked if he could drive like the main character from the movie "Taxi".

He sure did. It normally takes 45 min, but he made it in 30.
After all that running and sweating it it sure felt like christmas when the lady at the check-in desk told me they had upgraded me to Business class, because the plane was full.
I've never been in Business Class before and excited like a little kid I couldn't stop pushing all the small buttons while going up and down with the chair.

I slept like a rock and managed to trick the jet-lag. However, only one day later my sleeping rythm was about to get 3 times worse.
In the morning of the 24th I left with a small sailboat from St. Petersburg in Florida to Destin. The trip took 3 days.

I haven't sailed many times in my life, but it seems like I'm chased by storms. I had just managed to sleep for a few hours the first night when I got something thrown at me and heard "Jess, put on your life jacket, we're getting hit by a thunder storm". I took a look outside the waves had already got up to 4 m. It became a real challenge to keep the balance and many times I flew across the room which resulted in a new collection of bruises.





The storm continued the whole night and the next day with a wind between 20-25 m/s. Sleeping was almost impossible, so instead I spent a lot of time on deck and even caught a tuna. Except for being covered in blood and smelling like fish for the rest of the trip it was by far the best tuna I've ever had.  When we finally got to port the ground was moving under my feet. That night I slept like a baby.


















Destin turned out to be just as cold as Finland and it's been a bit of a struggle to keep warm. During the days the guys have been working on the boat and I've been preparing my up-coming trip to Midem (a big music business event in Cannes).

















My New Year turned out to be even crazier than the sailing. The first day of the new year I woke up with messed up knees and feet, a broken tooth, a big bump in the head, a blue nose and a number of scratches and bruises.

I hate violence more than anything but seeing someone I care about getting attacked by 2 big guys outside of the bar, simply made me snap. Before I knew it my adrenaline was 110%, I threw off my high heels and jumped on one of the guys and punched him in the face.
He quickly returned the "favor", hit me in the face and I fell head first to the ground. After that there's a big black out but apparently I got back up because I have a blurry memory of jumping one of the guys back holding my arm around his neck.
Somehow we managed to stop the fight, the guys left and for the weirdest reason our first reaction was to crack up in laughter. I'm really not sure why. It might have been the adrenaline or just the happiness of being ok.





 Next morning I felt like someone had dragged me behind a car and kept finding new bruises and scratches. Luckily most of my tooth is still whole and only a small piece missing. Even though I practice martial arts and stunts, I can't say I'm a fighter and as I said, I hate violence, but sometimes you can't avoid it.

The next stop would have been LA where I'm about to spend a couple of weeks with the producer Jimmy Westerlund to work on some songs.
Somehow the travel agency didn't realize that I'm supposed to fly from Destin to LA and not from St. Petersburg where I started my trip. I didn't realize until a couple of days ago that I had the wrong ticket. After some thinking I decided to sail to Alabama instead and continue from there.
Before rolling up the sleeves in the studio I'm gonna go Skydiving if the weather allows it. It has been on my "to-do before I die"- list for quite a while now.

So far it's been a great trip filled with new experiences and I'm sure there will be a lot more to come. I'll let you know all about it in a week or so.

Rock on!

Jessica Wolff

Behind the Scenes

Behind the scenes

One of the great guys in the audience
who rocked with me from the beginning
to the end.

Last week I promised that I would share some big news today, but before I get to the point I want to takethe opportunity to thank the absolutely amazing audience for last nights gig.

They rocked with me the whole gig through and gave me such a good vibe I almost jumped through the roof.

To the point. This is going to be one of the longer blog texts so make sure you sit comfortably.

About 2 months ago one of the best things ever happened. Mika Karhumaa contacted me and few weeks later he became my manager. Not only that, but before I even met him he had already got me a distribution deal with AXR Music. A manager like him doesn't grow on trees.

I wanted to share this, already a month ago but needed to get it confirmed on paper before writing about it.

So, last week I went to AXR:s office. Mika had told me many good things about Ilkka Vainio and the team at AXR, and ensured me I would be fine going there without him.

 He was more than right. The first thing that happened when I got through the door was a big hug from Ilkka Vainio. He is such a warm hearted and nice man! The whole team was very friendly and made me feel at home right away.

Three hugs later, I walked out with a big smile, a signed contract in my hand and a bunch of Christmas CD:s Ilkka gave me. I don't have the words to describe how thankful I am.

However, every price has a sacrifice. One of the first thing I was told after I started working with Mika, was that I would have to push the release date and not only that, but also remake a lot of things on my album. My first reaction was a big NO. 

No way I'm going to burn down the house I built for three years to build a new one! Besides, I want to stick to my promises and already pushing the release date once feels bad enough.

I had already met up with a close friend to Mika, Jimmy Westerlund, who is a great songwriter/producer just to "meet and greet". I gotta say, the vibe was great and I was amazed how it sounded, but still the thought of re-making a lot of things felt like a slap in the face.

After a lot of talking, thinking and even arguing I started to see how I was trying to say no to one ofthe best opportunities so far.

I need to go a few steps back in time in order to give you the full picture.

During the last three years I've been working in 4 studios with different producers. I started with 5 song together with Johan Bejerholm in Malmö, 2010. By that time I didn't plan to release a whole album myself and tried to find a record label. I was creating a package of a few songs, pictures, website, a music video etc. and tried to find a 50/50 deal with a record company. When it didn't happen soon enough I decided to release the album no matter what.

I loved working with Johan, but since it was my first studio I still felt I needed to step out and look around. It's a little bit like Silja Lines buffet, the first round you try a bit of everything, and by the second round you know exactly what you want more of.

With Eric Gast and Johnny Lee Michaels

Thanks to Jyrki 69 (who has helped me a lot on the way) , I was lucky to get connected with Johnny Lee Michaels. We decided to give it a shot and he produced one song for the album.

 The style was a bit different, way more rock than the 5 songs I did before. Nothing wrong with that though, Johnny rocks and knows what he is doing.

Around the same time I was in Stockholm for a song writing session with a couple producers and working with them felt good as well even if it was a bit more pop than with Johnny.

A retarded picture of me and the 2 Swedish producers
Joakim Övrenius and Patric Jonsson.

Now we're at 3 different studios with 4 producers.
 I loved working with all of them, but there was one big question ringing in my head. How the hell am I going to get all of them working together for the same goal?

Me and Eric Gast in Sonic Pump studios

I thank kitesurfing for the solution. 

As I was kitesurfing in the Caribbean I met a bartender who knew someone who knew Eric Gast. A wonderful human being and producer who has worked with many big stars in US and the founder of FM-worldcharities which is based on connecting music to charity.

It's something really close to my heart and a chance I didn't want to miss out on. Check out this interview with me and Eric if you want to know more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3QebJg6BFY

I took the risk and went to one of his charity events in New York with out knowing if he would even have the time for a meeting.

 I got very lucky. After a good conversation he listened to all of the songs from the different studios and decided to come to Finland and help me get the album together.  I have to say, that guy is one of the most warm hearted people ever. 

Me , Eric and my snake Squishy

He came with me to all the studios and worked with the producers in order to connect the songs to each other.This is not an easy task, because the more chefs in the kitchen the messier the soup. Even if it was complicated at times I'm happy I made the choice to work with so many people on the same album. It taught me a lot. But I'm not going to make it a habit.

The problem was never that people wouldn't get along, but because they have their own artistic way of doing things, and there's a fine line between giving someone freedom and giving too many directions of how to work.

This was also a reason why the album release got dragged out, trying to fit all these schedules and opinions together, and after all the hard work with all these wonderful people it felt like a slap in the face that I would have to re-do some things on the album.

 But then I realized that during these three years, and thank to all the wonderful people I've been working with, I have grown a lot more than I would have, only sticking with one person.
 What I did three years ago, is different from who I am today. I have more to give from allI've learned. And I realized that after working so hard, it would be wrong towards the audience and myself to release the album if it wasn't up to date with who I am to day.

After a couple of days of thinking it became more and more clear that this is what I want to do. Having a strong team behind me now, that wants to build up a proper strategy and giving me the chance to make things better than before, I would be a fool not to go for it.

Therefore I'm going to Los Angeles in the beginning of January to spend three weeks with Jimmy Westerlund to make some new songs and work on the old material and make sure it's the best I can give.

The album will be released in April 2013. There is still one big surprise that I can't reveal before it's confirmed, that is also one of the biggest reasons for the new release date.

Stay with me and I will share the good news in the next blog text.

Big hugs to all the supportive fans and friends.

- Jessica Wolff

One big Pesodent smile

Hi everyone,

The winter has come, my snake just shaded skin and my music scene just turned upside down.
Don't get me wrong it's definitely not a bad thing.
I wanted to update my blog much earlier but first I wanted to be sure about some things before sharing.

About a month ago when I was meditating it became very clear to me how much I need a manger. I known it for a long time but now it really came up to the surface.
The further I get with my music the harder it is for me to keep track of the business part: promotion, planning releases, layouts, marketing, website, getting deals, organize gigs etc, not let alone the most important of all, being an artist.

I thought about what kind of a manager would be good for me. Someone who knows the business well, who's outgoing, energetic, see me for who I am and dedicated.
A few weeks later I got a phone call from a manager being interested.
First I didn't want to get my hopes up, but a week later we had a meeting and before I knew it he became my manager.

It's the best thing that has happened in a long time.

Three years ago I jumped out of acting school to focus full time on music. I decided to give myself at least 6 years, before I would "allow" myself to consider doing it as a hobby if it nothing happens (hopefully I can go on for many more years).

I set up my own company in order to control as much as possible, especially in the beginning since the music business was so new to me.
I started applying to fonds, finding investors, found a team of a promoter, booking agent, business consultant etc.
I got the band together, the websites running, recorded songs and wrote new ones, went to stage coaching, took promo pictures, and eventually made music videos, singles etc. The list goes on.
So far it's been an amazing trip, that's been developing me as a person/artist but also teaching me a lot of valuable things about the music business.

The only problem that caused me stress many times the further I went, was that I started to feel I needed 10 more hands, twice as many hours a day and 5 more personalities in order to get everything done the right way.
People around me had very different opinions on what to do and how to act, and the only thing I could do was to follow my intuition and use my common sense.
I was constantly thinking: What is the next step? What can I do tomorrow to get closer to my goal, and what is the to-do list for 1 months, a half year and a year from now?

As soon as the management deal was confirmed, it felt like a big rock lifted from my chest. The Pepsodent smile is still wide on my face.

There will still be as much work as before, but this time I can focus more on the music and feel relaxed knowing that I have a smart guy behind me who knows how things work and who can help me to focus on the right things. It feels like the best Christmas gift of all times!

A lot of awesome things have already started to happen that I would love to write about, but I still have some things to work on before sharing. All I can say is that feel very happy and thankful.

Life rocks rights now!!!

Cheers,
Jessica

Ps. Check out my blog the end of next week

What A Coincidence

Hi everyone,

About a week ago I got a very interesting phone call from a great songwriter/producer called Jimmy Westerlund. He had heard about me through a friend who suggested that we work together.

We quickly met up for a coffee and right away got along really well. We decided to write a song together and a few days later he knocked on my door, ready to start a songwriting session I won't forget in the first place.
We had a great laugh about the fact are we're not only sharing the same initials JW but we're also born on the same day. Not let alone the fact that guy he had written the song idea with, happened to be my keyboard player Jani Hölli. Quite a coincidence.

First we were both quite sleepy. Him after driving for 5 hours and me having a heavy flu, but after a quick meal and some coffee we were fit for writing.

We didn't have a studio to go to, but my parents weren't at home so we set up a small studio in their living room.
I was so surprised how easy everything was.  It didn't take long before we got the text and melody for the first verse.
 I usually rehearse a lot before I go to the studio and sing at least 50 takes to get the best possible result. Sometimes it requires a few takes before I get into it, but not this time.

I'm not sure if it was the chilled atmosphere or the good mood, but I didn't have to sing more than a couple of times every line, before we were pleased with the result.
We kept on working until 5 am when we could barely keep our eyes open anymore.
It was one great experience and I was surprised how well the sound turned out coming from a quickly home made studio.

Rock on!

Sometimes a chilled atmosphere with great conversations and a little
bit of white wine is all you need.

Jessica

Broken Wings

HI there,

I just finished the music video shootings for the up-coming single "Broken Wings". It took us 4 days in total.
The first day was everything from awesome to a nightmare. We started 8 am with make-up and I didn't get home until 5 in the morning. I thought it was going to be challenge to film with small kids but with some Angry Birds candy it went smoothly. The kids were very patient and so sweet.

The little "fan club"

I was also met by a small "fan club"of school kids, when we got to the second shooting location. Except for pulling my hair and jumping up and down in front of the camera, they were very cute 

and helpful.

The "nightmare part" started at around 7pm on a random playground in the middle of nowhere. Not only was it raining but it was very cold outside and the power kept on going off. 

I almost started to regret I had decided that my character shouldn't wear any shoes or jacket. After an hour I started shaking so badly I couldn't keep my body still or control my breathing. 

On top of that we had fire effects that were supposed to go off on a certain time in the song. It took a while to prepare them before each take and I knew I couldn't afford to mess it up because I was freezing.

It's gonna be interesting to see how it turned out. If you can't fight it you gotta turn it into your advantage, so I did my best to use the coldness as a tool to get the emotion needed for the chorus. 

After this day the rest of the days felt like a piece of cake. We were also very lucky, since two actors jumped out right before the shootings and both times we managed to find new ones half a day before the next shootings. So big thanks to Josefin Silen & Irina Tundra. You girls rocked!

 I also had the honor to get the wrestler/singer, "Starbuck", to play one of the main characters in the video. He did an absolutely amazing job.
Big thanks!

-Jessica

Starbuck & my freezing self

Brain cell damaging activity

Cold to the bone after spending some wonderful time in the water at the photo shoot

Hi there,

I think I must have lost half of my brain cells, spending 4 hours on the train, staring at myself on the laptop screen trying to pick out 10 out of 2245 promo pictures for the album. Maybe not the best way to get that energy boost before a gig. 

The internet connection was really bad and it took ages for the pictures to show.  However, with a good mood, patience and a lot of coffee I managed to go through about 700 pictures.

 The deadline for the up coming single and music video (Broken Wings), is coming up very quickly and there is a lot to do. It feels exciting, stressful, awesome and a tiny bit scary.

I have about two weeks time to master the single, pick out one picture for the single cover, find a grafic designer, register the song, get the needed codes and texts for the layout and finally send them to printing.

When it comes to the music video the story hit me as I was recording the song.  After a bunch of meetings later with the director we had the script in our hands. The song is about the pressure of the society and it's effect on people. It's something I wanted to write about for a long time and it has woken up a lot of thoughts and feelings on the way.

It's always exciting following the journey from the beginning of an idea to the final result. It also gives you a better chance to express yourself on a deeper level.

 That's also the little scary part, to take something so personal and expose it in public. I guess it would be like standing naked on the stage. It doesn't get more honest than that. People like or they don't, but usually they react.

Rock on!

Jessica