*One of five children in a fifth generation Mormon couple, Hoop was steeped in a musical environment created by her family. She began performing as a child and starred in her high school choir.
Hoop broke away from the strictures of Mormonism just as her parents were separating. During this time, her mother Janette turned the basement into a theatre, and brought in all sorts of eccentrics to rehearse and put on musical plays for the community.
Jesca started to rebel against the traditions of her family and the only life she had known. “My girlfriend and I started smoking pot, which was such an out there thing for me to do given my upbringing. I was singing with the Santa Rosa Chamber Choir at that time. The combination of singing in that style for hours a day and smoking thrashed my voice…until it was gone. I had to leave the choir, and it took me about a year to regain my vocal strength. I had to re-teach myself how to sing in the ways that worked for me… Cut a new pattern and stitch myself back together. It was a blessing. It is why I sing the way I do. Appropriately, at that time I started listening to Kate Bush, Tom Waits, Björk and Diamanda Galas.”
Hoop spent the next several years homesteading in Northern California, Wyoming and in the high mountains of Arizona, where she worked in a wilderness rehabilitation program for mixed up kids.
Later deciding to move back to California, Hoop formed a duo with a friend and started playing in Northern California clubs before going to work for the Waits family. The nature of this relationship and Hoop’s budding talent inspired the couple to become her mentors.*
I expect this will sink much like my threads on Sarah Fimm and The Romanovs but I always spread my musical discoveries far and wide and having discovered Jesca Hoop through Curiously Tasty, a music blog I read via livejournal, I feel compelled to share my love for Seed of Wonder.
Except to call it ecto, a term I learned from **Equipoise **but don’t really know the nuances of, I don’t really know how to describe the kind of music this song is but I was immediately enthralled and listened to it on autoloop for a good half hour or more before recommending it to practically everyone. Not only did I spam my friends list on last.fm, I linked friends on both email and instant messenger, and even made my mom listen to a couple minutes of it. It is an amazingly good song and I actually have it on autoloop again as I’m typing this. I love it that much.
Sorry, I missed this the first time. I love Jesca! I discovered her on MySpace a couple of years ago. She’s pretty wonderful. I adore her song “Havoc In Heaven” but they’re all great. “Enemy” is another favorite. What’s fantastic is that there are no filler songs on the album, they’re all good. Jesca is young, beautiful, hip and very talented. I’m thrilled by her budding success and wish her the best. We need more artists like Jesca.
I know the feeling. You have great taste in music.
There are all kinds of ecto music…ethereal, goth, folk, pop (pop like Jane Siberry’s pop, intelligent and interesting, not brain-dead Britney pop). Jesca’s definitely on the great pop end of ecto. Good stuff.
Thanks. Coming from someone who’s as passionate about music as you are, that means a lot. I know you’re familiar with Sarah Fimm from you replying to my posts about her in other threads but are you acquainted with The Romanovs / Morgan and the Hidden Hands? I implore you to give them a try, if not. They are enchanting and I am in love with Morgan Grace Kibby. I was floored to discover she’s only twenty-three considering her voice.
I haven’t yet bought her album but am probably going to ask for it, “…and the Moon was Hungry” by Morgan and the Hidden Hands, and a few others from cdbaby for Christmas. The songs I’ve managed to find online have all been wonderful, though. I can definitely see her becoming a favorite in my ever growing pantheon of musical goddesses. I have a Thing for the female voice. Men are great and all but there’s something about music sung by women that just does it for me.
You sent me a link to a website with ecto playlists once and I remember you being disappointed that only one or two songs really reached out and grabbed me but, if you wouldn’t mind, could you give me some more recommendations for ecto music in general? If it helps any, some other favorite artists besides the ones already listed that fit in with the general feel of ecto as I understand it are Tegan and Sara, Regina Spektor, Charlotte Martin, Pretty Balanced, Vienna Teng, Mirah, Lacuna Coil, Butterfly Boucher, Amanda Ghost, Krezip, Jem, and Holly McNarland.