Jessy Bell Smith is a Guelph-based musician with one of the most remarkable singing voices I’ve ever heard. She’s been playing her own songs live for a long time, was a member of a band called Beautiful Senseless, and is currently in the Skydiggers. She recently released her highly-anticipated debut album, The Town and will be playing Kazoo! Fest in Guelph between April 9 and 13. Here, beyond some friendly bickering and badgering, Jessy and I discuss my reputation as a totalitarian bandmate (sometimes we play together), artists in Guelph who need an encouraging push, the long-gestating history of Jessy’s first album, happenstance and J.J. Ipsen and Andy Magoffin, fate, confidence and productivity, a Gary the cat interruption, musical eras and nostalgia, Watergate comes up somehow, Kate Bush and Tom Waits and singing in a musical family, burnt rice, deliberation and re-recording The Town, her role in the Skydiggers, how you are not going to die, turning anxiety into antagonistic anger to conquer an annoying audience, the song “Douglas St.” and more.
Related links: choosemymusic.org/jessy-bell-smith/ kazookazoo.ca vishkhanna.com
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