With 25 days left and 36% of the total goal already in on her Pledgemusic campaign, Jessica Lynne is bound for glory and her Tennessee recording dreams are just around the corner.

When I first moved to Seattle, Jessica Lynne was the very first person I played a show with. It was at a venue called The Pussy Room and everything about it was like a vagina, so i’ll never forget it. The venue sold a few months later and the booker, Kubby Casual, moved to booking a couple of other local venues. He also plays drums for the fabulous Jessica Lynne in her kick ass band Jessica Lynne and the Cousins.

From that little gig back in 2012 to now, Jessica has grown into an empire. She plays as a full time musician and has a huge tour lined up for the end of Summer, as well as keeping busy with this new recording that she’s crowdfunding for.

I asked her a few questions about the fundraiser and here’s what she had to say.

Fleur: I have always really loved your songs and songwriting and I’m excited to hear a new release from you, so I was really excited to see your campaign. What can you tell me about your upcoming album Catch me if you can, in terms of the songs and sound?
Jessica: The songs are probably the strongest I have ever written. I have had one of my songwriting heroes, Gary Burr help me with my songwriting and it is already making me a better songwriter. Catch Me If You Can is a lyric from what I hope will be the first single off the album. The song is called Drive It Like A Race Car and is basically about not judging a book by it’s cover.

Fleur: You’re recording in Nashville! Who are you recording with and how did it all come about? When is it all taking place?
Jessica: I chose Larry Beaird Music Group because I really like the way Larry works, he is an amazing acoustic guitarist (so now I won’t have to play, thank god! LOL). He is well respected in the community and has access to all the big “dogs” aka players in Nashville. Larry himself has 3 grammy’s and he runs a very smooth operation. I appreciate his professionalism. I also connected well with the engineer – which is very important to me. The plan is right now to go immediately after the crowdfunding has ended.

Fleur: How much money do you need to make the project work? I couldn’t see a figure on Pledgemusic. Just a percentage counter.
Jessica: This is the way Pledgemusic likes to do it. I don’t have a problem sharing my goal at all. I am looking to raise $8,000 to cover the cost of recording, mastering and duplication of a 5 song EP. BUT, if we reach our goal and go over – we can add more songs and potentially turn it into a full length album.

Fleur: OK, Pledgemusic. I haven’t used it before personally. Why did you choose it and what are the advantages of the platform over the likes of Indiegogo and Kickstarter (Or others)?
Jessica: Pledgemusic is a little different from the other platforms. They work more as an exclusive pre-order swag based campaign. You get a dedicated account rep and they really help you tweak your campaign to the fullest. They have a good network and actually help promote it. This is something I think the other platforms lack. They are also 100% music, so the people browsing in there are music lovers, there to support music. Finally they have the feature of letting you donate to charity.

Fleur: Yes. I love that! I haven’t seen any other platforms offer the charity donations! I read on the site that 10% of any money raised after your goal is reached will go to Women for Women International. What can you tell me about them and what they do?
Jessica: Women for Women International are all about women and equality. They fight for women’s education in countries where they can’t get that easily. I personally like supporting them because it took me a while to find my voice and become an empowered woman and my goal is to inspire other women to do the same. On that note I am also speaking and performing at the Washington Future Business Leaders of America Conference in Spokane on April 22nd where I look forward to inspiring the female leaders of the future.

Fleur: Are there any disadvantages of using Pledgemmusic over other platforms?
Jessica: Well, the contact person can create a bit of a bottleneck – but I’d say just prepare accordingly and don’t be in a hurry to launch.

Fleur: You have more perks than I’ve ever seen anyone offer before. There is really something for everyone. What are your top three favorite perks?
Jessica: I wanted to put a lot of things in there… maybe I overdid it, but I really wanted to have fun with it! My three fav’s…. hm. Personally I love the idea of taking a cardboard cutout of the pledger on tour with us. (Giving credit where credit is due, I actually picked that up from another campaign, and thought it was ingenious!) I love the idea of having the pledger play on a song on the album, I am pretty sure we have some awesome cowbell players out there. And third favorite is probably the “write you a song” because I believe some people have great song ideas but don’t have the skills to put them together. I think that could be a pretty awesome one to fulfill!

Fleur: Anything else you want to say?
Jessica: Yes, I will be following up the release with a 17 state 2016 “Catch Me If You Can” TOUR so look out for a date near you!

Check out Jessica’s campaign and help her get to Tennessee faster!!

Also find her on Facebook.

Fleur Z. Wood

Lovewood Music & Entertainment,
Songwriter/ Performer/ Guitar & Voice Tutor

www.thewlovers.com

My music on Bandcamp – listen here: fleurjack.bandcamp.com