Acclaimed singer-songwriter Jesse Lynn Madera returned with her eagerly awaited second album, "Speed of Sound," in March, following the success of her debut, "Fortunes," in 2020. Teaming up with producers Dan Navarro (in his production debut), and Grammy winners Jim Scott and Ryan Hadlock, Madera delivers an 11-song collection that is an artful, eclectic, and emotionally charged journey. Born in West Virginia and raised in Houston, her musical journey started early, influenced by self-taught musician grandparents. Madera developed her rich interior world through cross-country moves during her childhood, leading to early songwriting. "Speed of Sound" showcases her growth as a storyteller and vocalist, delving even deeper into her ability to convey a range of emotions which Jesse gave us more of the background behind the project, when we recently spent some time chatting with her over Zoom.
Thanks for taking the time to chat, you’re in LA so I guess it’s still morning over there but Los Angeles hasn’t always been home as you have moved around a fair bit so it almost seems like the aren’t many places in the States that you haven’t lived at some point. “Ha-ha, yeah I was born in West Virginia then when I was about four years old we moved to San Francisco and then Santa Monica, Michigan, Texas and it kept on going from there.”
Before you settled in LA, I know that you had lived in New York for a quite long time too. “Yes, I went to college up there. I loved New York, I was there for almost ten years and it was hard to get me out of there but I fell in love, then the next thing you know here I am in LA, I wasn’t sure about being here for the first year but all of a sudden it grew on me.”
You said that it grew on you and that you are married plus also have children there, but what else is it about southern California specifically makes it feel like home now? “I’ve found a really good group of people and for the first time in my life, I’m close to my neighbours. We get along and everybody knows each other, it’s funny because I haven’t had that kind of community since I was really little and living in West Virginia. It’s interesting because West Virginia and California couldn’t be more different ideologically but what they don’t really know about each other is that they kind of have that in common how everybody can meet up at the picnic table and talk about the day.” Then on a completely different place, you’re spending your morning talking to me, so I guess that our little island across the pond is somewhere you would like to spend some time so is the prospect of coming to play some shows over here something that you are really interested in wanting to try and explore? “Oh absolutely. I’ve only been there fun and wandering around on vacation but I would love to get over there and actually play some shows. I mean I’m really itching to get over to Europe in general.”
Let’s talk about “Speed of Sound”. The album came out last month and it was four years after your first record, the first record came out just as the world was changing due to Covid but we’re all well and truly sick of talking about that now. Was this sophomore record pretty much your story since you put out “Fortunes” and all songs post that first album? “Yes and no. There are some songs on “Speed of Sound” that I’ve had for a long time and I was just waiting to figure out where they were going to go, then there are also some new songs. I pretty much always have a big treasure trove of songs or song ideas and I piece songs together when I want to put an album together so, I probably have two albums ahead planned already.” You worked with three different producers on “Speed of Sound” how do find recording music for the same project where you work with different people that may have different ways of working with a view to fitting together a cohesive project? “Well, that was sort of the task. The first producer that I worked with on this was Ryan Hadlock who is up in Washington at a studio called Bear Creek. I really loved what we did there, but my time there was short, I went up there twice, I came back with what we did and I really liked it but I felt there were some songs that I needed to save for a later date but I wanted to get back to work. The next thing I know, I paired up and I say paired but it was almost like an arranged marriage in a way, luckily it was an arranged marriage that worked out. My manager got me working with Dan Navarro, who I had never met and didn’t know a whole lot about but then we were on the phone and she goes, he’s got this birthday party thing going and you need to go to meet him. Then she says by the way, he wrote that Pat Benatar song “We Belong” and I just got goosebumps because that was my first favourite song on the planet. When my manager asked if he would be interested in producing, he said yes I would but I would love to do it with my friend Jim Scott. I had known Jim a little bit, I had been out to his studio but I hadn’t spent a whole lot of time with him. Once we got out there, I realised by some sort of miracle that I was in the perfect place to take those songs that I had done at Bear Creek and integrate them in some sort of cohesive way with people who were going to draw out what I thought was my best performance. Coming back to your question, we had to do a little bit of additional production on some of those songs to make them fit, we had to massage them a little bit and add some elements to make it all make sense. What Ryan Hadlock did, stood on it’s own and it was wonderful but once it did get in the mix with these other songs something had to happen to make them sound like they were coming from the same person and I’m already all over the place ha-ha.”
As well as the production side of the record, Dan (Navarro) features on “Last Call” so where did that idea fall within the process. You sort of said that got an introduction, went to a party and he said yes to producing the record with his friend, but how did the song itself get written and did you write it with the intention of being a duet for the record that he would feature on “Well, we knew that we were writing a duet and it was only natural because he is such a brilliant songwriter, it would have been a real oversight of me not to ask him to do something on this album. I write all my songs, except for “ Unchained” which was written by Jude Johnstone but it would have been kind of dumb of me not to collaborate with him. It was a moment in time that if I had missed that, I would have regretted it because like I said, he wrote my first favourite song. I didn’t know that he was going to say yes because he is very busy but I figured that I might as well just ask and he said yes right away. Because he is so busy and he is always touring, we ended up doing it in a long distance sort of way where he sent me a voice memo of a guitar part and then I wrote lyrics over the top of it. We met up one time here in LA on a break of his and finished the song. “Last Call” was pretty easy to write, it was one of those that kind of came tumbling out I think for him and for me.”
Just looking at “Speed of Sound” as the album title, the song is track eight on the project but why did you feel this was the fitting focal point for the album and for it to be the title track? “I liked the name of it, it was one of those things that just felt right. All the songs are really about how we communicate and “Speed of Sound” can have many different meanings. It has the scientific meaning and it can take on an emotional meaning as well.”
The other thing that I really like with the record is the artwork with you as a mermaid. I’m guessing that you or someone that you know is pretty handy with some paintbrushes or pencils to create that. Where did the idea come from or are you just really into wanting to be a mermaid? “Ha-ha, what was Jesse thinking? Well, I was in a sort of deep state of relaxation ha-ha and it kind of came to me, a space mermaid! I sent a text message to my friend Katie Crawford who lives in North Carolina and she is fabulous, I mean she gets hired by television shows or if they are going to do a portrait of a first lady or something, they’ll hire her, I mean she’s just incredible. I text her and said katie, I’m thinking a space mermaid and she goes OK! I sent her a picture of me kind of doing that pose, it wasn’t a nude ok ha-ha. She took it and sent me something back, then I would say how about we do this and it kind of went back and forth a few times but the next thing you know, here I am with a strategically placed moon in there ha-ha.”
Thank you so much for your time this morning, just to finish up, you mentioned that like a lot of artists, that when you put music out that you actually a couple of steps ahead and already working towards what is next so what is the rest of 2024 looking like in terms of tour and further release planning? “Yeah, I’m already thinking about getting back in the studio. It probably won’t happen before this year is out but I think by the beginning of 2025, I’ll be back in there but as far as this year goes, I’ve got some shows and possibly some festivals, with a lot of dates planned for the fall and who knows, maybe I will get out to see you guys at some point over the summer. I hope so.”
‘Speed of Sound’ Track Listing: 1. Austin 2. Last Call (Feat. Dan Navarro) 3. Ten Miles Down 4. Sweet Pretender 5. Waving 6. Unchained 7. What We've Become 8. Speed of Sound 9. That House 10. No Place to Shine 11. To the Light (Feat. John Fitzpatrick) The new album “Speed of Sound” from Jesse Lynn Madera is out now and is available HERE. You can find out more about Jesse by checking out her WEBSITE or socially on INSTAGRAM & FACEBOOK.