Profile
Inspired by sharing spirit
By Christine Laskowski (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-08 10:46
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Singer-songwriter Jess Meider is happy that her musical adventures are once more taking her in a new direction, Christine Laskowski reports
New York-born singer-songwriter and long-time Beijing resident, Jess Meider, has established a successful music career here over the last 12 years, performing everything from drum and bass and solo acoustic sets to jazz with her quartet.
Not one to remain in the same old groove, Meider is open about her continual need to regroup every now and then and take her music in different directions.
"I've been playing acoustically by myself since I got here in 1997, which is why I got the folk label," she said. "I think we treat people like static objects, but really we evolve and so our music evolves as well. I do lots of different things."
She has recently returned from playing several gigs in New York and said, "The level of musicianship is much higher there, but I'm still willing to trade ease for less quality musicians who are aiming to go outside the box more and more."
With her cute, curly bob and her yoga attire, Meider told METRO that her next move would be to produce an electronica album.
"I'm excited about the electronic stuff," she said exuberantly. "I had a band called Jungle Cat, a five-piece live drum and bass band, which we started in 2005 that was really fun. Then we took a break. Now I'm looking to return to that bit, to work with other electronica artists both local and from Europe and the US."
Meider has recorded four albums since she moved to Beijing: Candy (2000), Dao (March 2009), Songwriter (Oct 2008), and Divine (2009).
For those unfamiliar with Meider's music, her songs layer ethereal vocal harmonies over a variety of genres. How About a Movie, for instance, is a country waltz that tells the story of a first date, while others, such as the haunting The Moon Song sound like a Gregorian choir mixed with Enya.
Autobiographical lyrics are a staple of singer songwriters, and Meider is no exception, her repertoire is loaded with songs of love and heartbreak.
But it is also apparent after only a few minutes conversation that Meider is an extremely spiritual person, and this too is evident in her music.
Recognizing her talent, her parents enrolled her in piano lessons, but she didn't really consider music a career path, and when her gift for storytelling won her admission to the creative writing program at Carnegie Mellon University, a music career was definitely not on her mind.
However, that all changed after a trip to Boston to visit a friend who was studying at the Berklee College of Music, it fostered her decision to transfer and enroll in the prestigious college herself and study songwriting.
After graduating in 1995, Meider moved to New York City and there fell in love. When her boyfriend's work moved him to Beijing two years later, Meider followed.
"Coming to China was like the shakeup," she explained. "There's this assault on your senses. You have no choice but to open up or close down. Those that close down leave, and those that open up expand in ways they never imagined, and probably couldn't have elsewhere."
Explaining why she chose Beijing as the place to make music, Meider said, "I don't want to do it so I get attention but because there's joy, a connection. I don't feel that the music industry fosters this. Which is why I'm not interested in going on a three-month tour and losing my creative energy, my life force."
"I just want to share," she said. "Music isn't about playing for people, it's about sharing it. About joy. If it's not fun why do it?"
