Touching on being reminded of someone you are no longer with but you still love, Spent, the latest release by the young Melbourne based artist Jess Ball shimmers with its funky, bass driven, groovy production and the organic and filled with percussion house beat accompanied by a tender vocal delivery. Read our discussion with Jess below!
Describe your sound in 3 words
I would say my sound is emotive, fun and fierce.
Tell us a few things about Spent. What is the story behind it?
I wrote Spent when I was going through a pretty tough breakup. I guess when you’re in the absence of someone you still love, you start to see them everywhere; their car driving past, their favourite coffee shop, people who look like them, smell like them etc. For me, these reminders made me realise how silly it was to be away from someone I still loved so much, and who was still having such a large impact on my life, despite not being in it anymore.
How do you truly know if you made the right decision?
I suppose you don’t really ever know, but whatever decision you make is kind of the right one if that makes any sense at all. For example, the breakup felt really wrong and I was super unhappy, but maybe the breakup is what I needed to realise how much happier I was when I was with this person. It made me realise that the problem didn’t lie in the relationship, but within myself. Sometimes you have to make the wrong decision to find the right one!
You started exploring your musical interests at a very early age. How has your sound progressed over the years? And what to expect in the future?
When I first started singing, it was just songs from the choir at my primary school. It wasn’t until high school that I started playing around with different genres with my singing teacher. We literally tried everything from rock, to jazz to indie, but something stuck with me and pop music. I like the way pop music hooks people in and leaves them singing the same tune for hours. Some might find that annoying but I see it as having an impact on people. Pop is also very versatile and allows you to put your own spin on it. I like experimenting with a bit of pop rock, indie pop you name it. In the future I hope to keep experimenting in the realm of pop music, to create new, fun sounds.
Favourite album of the past decade?
Melt Away – Jadu Heart
You have done plenty of collaborations and we are wondering if you have any memorable stories to share with us?
I have been really lucky to collaborate with some awesome artists including NERVO. Writing with them and doing Acrylic, was a fun experience and sort of took some weight off from the pandemic. I thought it was really cool that we could be on either side of the world and still make a colourful, vibrant music video together that was, for me at least, a distraction from the pretty bleak things that were going on at the time.
If Spent was in the end titles of a film, which film would that be?
Ultimately, Kill Bill as it is my favourite, but I think any action film would do the trick!
When was the last time you danced?
At Pitch Music and Arts listening to Jobs Jobse’s set.
Thank you!
Follow Jess Ball
Website/Facebook/Instagram
Follow our Spotify Playlist Dark Chocolate feat. Jess Ball
Secret Eclectic 