Three years ago, Jessica Martindale quit her day job to pursue her passion: music. Since then, she’s been making strides to bring her unique voice and soft style to the masses.
On her debut album, Warrior, Martindale offers a collection of enchanting songs that grasp at humanity and all the beauty the world has to offer.
Stream the album and read a brief Q&A with this brilliant singer/songwriter below.
Where does your musical talent/influence come from?
You know how they say, you are what you eat? I “eat” a lot of podcasts on people’s life stories and on the deep life questions. I “eat” books about relationships and independence. I imagine books like Brene Brown’s Daring Greatly and Pete Holmes’ podcast “You Made It Weird” are probably more of the impetus behind this album than any musician or musical body of work.
No one else in my family is a musician, but I’ve been trying to convince my siblings to be in a family band with me since I was a wee-one. I have hope I’ll crack them by the time they are in their 60s. We could be the band people hire for their retirement parties. It’d be awesome.
Have you always been a musician? What led you to where you are now?
I have always wanted to be a musician, but I honestly was so consumed by fear it took me a long time to gain the courage to really do it. I still struggle with that fear. It likes to pop up when I’m doing things like…releasing my first full length album, but I also know that for some reason, this music bug won’t let go. My last job was working in HR at a global company in Nashville. I actually loved the job, the people, the things I got to think about, but I knew I wasn’t done with music. I quit my more typical career three years ago and have never looked back or wondered if it was the right decision.
What song(s) on the album mean the most to you?
What a hard question! I feel so connected to them each! But, I’d say the song that means the most to me on the album is called “I Am.” However, I rarely sing it at my shows because it makes me just emotional enough that I get nervous I won’t make it all the way through. On the Enneagram, I am a “2,” which is the Helper. The healthy version of that type of personality type is awesome. The unhealthy version can be super consumed with others’ thoughts/needs/dreams fears they can hardly tell you their own. I lived a majority of my life as a super unhealthy 2. This song is my emancipation song from this way of life. I feel free when I sing it and even when I listen to it. And, it came to me the week before I went into the studio. I had written about 50 songs for this album, narrowed it down to 15 and asked my producer, Sam Ashworth, to help find the final 10 worth recording. He listened and said, “You still have something you aren’t saying. I challenge you to pay attention and write the song and say the thing that makes you most nervous.” So, I did. And “I Am” came.
Is there anything you hope listeners take away from the album?
My hope is that people listen to this album and are reminded what they are made of. Reminded they have a warrior inside who can do awesome, brave, beautiful things. I hope songs like “Walk the World” and “It’s Your Love” are played when people want to feel that deep down happy-grateful for the people in their life. I hope this album makes people think about love and relationships more intentionally, thoughtfully and in a healthy way. …that’s it. That’s all I want. Is that too much to ask? 🙂
From what I can tell, this will be your 3rd release. How does ‘Warrior’ stand out from your previous releases?
I released Soon, We’ll Dance (EP) in 2013 and then a single cover of “Seven Nation Army” in 2014, but this is my first full length album! Ahhh! I’m so pumped. This album is my voice. The voice I’ve been hunting for. This album is meaty and real. I know it is not super mainstream. And I am okay with that. There is so much poured into these songs and the recording of them. I have a feeling this collection of tunes will mean something to me for a long, long time. I hope it does for the listener as well.
