Biography
Innocence and despair collide when Jenni Potts’s singing and playing draws her audience members into a state of reflection and steadily shifts the feel of the room to peaceful yet heartbreaking atmosphere. Her world-weary lyrics betray her youthful stage presence while her polished acoustic talent reflects the seemingly supernatural talent Jenni has for winging it. The Bellingham native proves her singer/songwriter dexterity on “Take This And Go,” her new full-length release on Clickpop Records. Fans will appreciate influences from Cat Power, Explosions in the Sky, and Thom Yorke. But the real inspiration for her genius pulls from personal affliction.
“I used to let my feelings and painful experiences I had define who I was.” says Potts. Many of Jenni’s lyrics are taken directly from suffering she has experienced, every thing from impulsive suicide attempts to un-reciprocated inter-personal obsessions. Her song “The Fourth” relates the date of her first attempted pill over-dose, April 4th, also the due date of her miscarried baby. “I was living inside my head” she says, “I’ve had my fair share of unhealthy and destructive habits, stemming from intense emotions.” Jenni views her songs as “mostly sad but with a peaceful element, people can relate to them without feeling hopeless.”
Jenni began playing music around six years of age, first on piano and then adding the ‘cello at age ten. When she was thirteen, she picked up her father’s acoustic guitar and began to veer from her public school training as a symphony ‘cellist. By eighteen, she’d created a demo of ambient vocal and guitar improvisations. It was this demo that Daniel Anderson (of Idiot Pilot) forwarded to Dave Richards and Paul Turpin at Clickpop Records. Following this, Jenni played her first solo performance at which she presented seven new songs especially for the debut. These songs emerged as the first in a string of mature compositions by the fledgling songbird. They also impressed the label, and she was signed to Clickpop the summer of 2006.
Over the next year, Jenni recorded well over twenty songs at Bayside Recording in Bellingham with producer Paul Turpin. Together, most these songs are now released on the album “Take This And Go” along with its companion release “The Fourth EP”. In addition to her singing, Jenni plays acoustic guitar, electric guitar and grand piano on the record. Many of the songs were written in the studio while working on the album. Real strings, drums, bass, pedal steel, and even timpani were added to many of the tracks. The lush symphonic production adds a sense of epic continuity. Some of the finished versions carry the emotional impact of a Nick Drake recording. Yet with the addition of Jenni’s ethereal vocals, a hopefulness is still felt. The experience is uplifting, often in spite of the intense lyrical content.
“I hope people will be able to identify with the emotion in my music. I feel like a lot of people live inside their heads until they cannot hear anything besides their own thoughts. Most of us just need to be present and view our emotions as valid but not necessarily a reflection of truth” she relates. “Sadness can be a beautiful productive thing if viewed and used a certain way. That’s what I’ve tried to do with the music I make.”
In the fall of 2008 Jenni toured with Forgive Durden, performing a role their "rock opera" all across the USA. Following this tour - touring for "Take This And Go" will resume, as well as working on CD#2.
Instrumentation
Jenni Potts- acoustic guitar and vocals
shows with band - listed as "Jenni Potts and the Twitterpated":
Michael Harris - bass and vocals
Paul Turpin - vibraphone, piano, keys, percussion
Matt Rushin - drums
Dylan Rieck - 'cello (not at all shows)
Discography
"Take This And Go" album released 2008
(digital release 4-4-08 cd release 07-11-08)
"The Fourth EP"- orig released July 2007
Links
| http://www.jennipotts.com |