JOUR
by Alex Teitz
Jour came to our attention with the song “American Nightmare.”
JOUR is Jourdan Myers from the Twin Cities. “American Nightmare” is the beginning of new material from her upcoming album Chiaroscuro. Myers has a background is banking and finance.
She also had a history of visual arts. FEMMUSIC was honored to speak to this emerging presence in the arts and we look forward to more music. On July 20 she releases “Black Hole.”
FEMMUSIC: What was the biggest challenge making Chiaroscuro?
J: I think the most challenging part was following through with a goal I had for myself, which was to write music that was both artistic yet accessible. The music I’m inclined to write can fall on a spectrum from avant garde to Top 40 pop, and I worked really hard to find something that could pull my obscure artistic tendencies more toward the center, while not compromising my integrity as a writer by creating cheap insincere pop to get streams. I used a number of people as sounding boards in this process to help me stay focused on my goals. The producer of my record, Matt Patrick, was a great resource and he helped me simplify my ideas so that they could be more easily digested by my audience.
FEMMUSIC: How has your visual art influenced your music and vice-versa?
J: In a sense, one builds upon the other. When I envisioned my record, the first thing that came to mind was “space.” Not like outer space, but the distance between things. It was a sort of vague notion but it highly informed the production on the album. As I completed the songs, I then used the space in the music to inform the creative visual output associated with it. This turned into quite an obsession with the Bauhaus movement, simplicity and space used in art, and form found in geometric shapes and the human body. As I worked with these elements in photography and design, I then was captivated with the tension found in the contrast of light and dark. I felt that this was very present in an aural sense in my music, and so I began to build and grow a visual aesthetic rooted in heavy contrast. I imagine my future music will grow out of these current obsessions to morph into a new aesthetic. I anticipate that one will continue to influence the other in a cyclical way forever.
FEMMUSIC: I understand you have a background in banking & finance. How did you move from that to pursuing music?
J: The tension of hating my job really forced me to write music because I needed to release my angst in some form. Eventually, as dramatic as it sounds, the collapse of my very soul was imminent and I quit my job in finance, took a few months to recover from the burnout, and then entered the music scene in my hometown with a fiery ambition to make music and never return to my former way of life.
FEMMUSIC: Tell me more about The Good Arts Collective (I’ve visited the website). How did you become involved with them?
J: I co-founded the Good Arts Collective with another member, Benjamin Kelly, in 2015. We were both looking for space to work on our various forms of art, and an old church in downtown Minneapolis opened its doors to us to use their abandoned youth room in whatever way we wanted. We refinished the room as we added more and more member artists and now it is a vibrant space used for rehearsals, meetings, photo shoots, performances, recording, and any number of other ways our members can think to use it. We also have a recording studio in a separate room called SideTown Studios. I did not record this album there, although many of our members use the space as artists and producers to record their work.
FEMMUSIC: Can you describe your songwriting technique?
J: I think it’s all over the map. Sometimes the chords come first on piano, sometimes I pluck at a guitar mindlessly and hear a melody that inspires me. Sometimes I write down a thought or something I overheard and sit on it for months before extrapolating on it to make more verses. Usually, however, I write many songs, and then I cut and paste parts of them and mix and match them to make each song better. One time I wrote a whole song and stole only one line from it to include it in my newest single “Black Hole”. The line was “Why not let the grave keep her dead? You dig me up instead.” The rest of that song was never used or recorded. Certainly not a waste, though – I needed to write that whole song so I could complete “Black Hole”!
FEMMUSIC: What song (not your own) has had the biggest influence on you and why?
J: Undoubtedly the song “Anti-Pioneer” by Feist. Someone showed me this song from her record Metals in 2013 and it changed the way I wrote. It made me hear music as a three-dimensional space, with depth and width and height. It showed me how you can pour emotion and feeling into that space like water from a pitcher and fill it all the way up. It taught me how to use my voice like a paintbrush to create a painting, more than just communicate words. Every time I hear that song it is a spiritual experience.
FEMMUSIC: As a woman in the music industry have you been discriminated against?
J: I can’t say that I’ve been particularly discriminated against, but I have had a number of uncomfortable encounters with men. Once I was sitting in for a band playing keys and when I went back stage the lead singer asked me if I could hear myself play alright. When I answered, he told me I was cute and he walked up to me and kissed me on the mouth in front of everyone. It was both unexpected and upsetting, because it made me wonder if I was sitting in for my own merits or because he thought I was “cute”. Another time I was hired to perform for a well-paying concert series out of town and when I thanked him for confirming my performance, the man told me it helped that he had a thing for redheads. Later, after I performed and I asked for my check, he said he didn’t have it with him and I could meet him for breakfast in the morning to get paid. I flatly refused and left town and gave him my mailing address. It took him over a month to send me the money and I had to remind him a number of times to send it. He never asked me back.
FEMMUSIC: What one thing would you like to change about the music industry?
J: I think the music industry is as ripe as ever for people to be successful in their own unique way because there is endless access to fans through social media and music streaming, and surely there is a tribe for everyone just waiting out there to be found. While there is still a lot that could be changed about the industry, I think I would change something particular about myself and the way I work within this “New Music Business” (to borrow a term from my friend Ari Herstand’s book). I would love to have a stroke of brilliance that enables me to find and reach my specific audience more effectively, because I know they are out there. The tools exist, but I am still learning how to use them effectively.
