7 DEADLY QUESTIONS with Jillian Ann
1. Critics sometimes describe your music as somber. However, songs
like “Little Space,� “Fragile�
and “Neverland� are hopeful and optimistic.
How would best describe the mood of your music?
My music is human and, as a human, I have a full range of emotions -- happy, sad,
hopeful, depressed. Needless to say, the mood changes as I change, so that
is why the music is that way. I dont listen to critics much. Brian Sirgutz once
warned me not to get too caught in the game because some people will love what
I do and others will hate it and if I let them influence me, I can lose myself.
2. My favorite song of yours is “The Divine.�
Could you tell me your inspiration behind the dramatic piano line?
Well, it is about heaven and being inspired by an inner feeling and connecting
with something beyond me, something so beautiful and amazing and powerful that
nothing else matters. Some days I wonder if I will starve or if I am moving
forward or a million other things, but in realty the reason I do music is because
it is my calling. It is what my soul tells me to do and the divine is about that
and it is about how I have the divine so what can I fear here?
3. What part of making music comes easiest: writing
lyrics, arranging beats, playing the piano or singing?
It's all the same. The more I do it, the easier it gets. It's all learning
and growing and the process.
4. Is it harder to play all the music by yourself or to teach other musicians
how to perform your songs?
I have never had to teach anyone. When I work with others, I hope they can
get it and keep up and vice versa. The reason I do it all myself is because it
is often faster to get the vision out and then I bring in others to perfect it,
add to it, expand it, etc.
5. Was “Neverland� difficult to put
together?
Emotionally it was a battle. I knew that people would pull up my pas- and that
is the reason I put it all on my website, because at least then if people want
to know the story behind it, they will get it. I knew the press would find my
flaws as well as my good points and I knew they would connect it all together.
I also know it's only going to continue and in many ways facing that was a big
deal. Not because I am ashamed, but because people are sheep and when one calls
me this or that, they listen and then they join in. Emotionally to be open
can cause people to love or hate you. To be direct and honest about my life means
some will hate me without cause just because. Writing music from your soul is
hard because you feel really naked. It's easy to sing a song and to play along,
and it's easy to do what people tell you too. I couldn't do the easy thing.
I had to do it the hard way, so with Neverland, it was me alone with ideas, and
a big support group that said I could and believed in me. But no one told
me what to do. It was all from within, and pulling it out was also a process
of facing myself and and that is hard as well sometimes.
6. When you create a song, which comes first, the music or lyrics?
It changes.
7. You've written and recorded hundreds of demos. Was it hard
to pick only 13 songs for "Neverland?"
Because I write a track or two most days for months just working on sounds and
ideas and working on growing and then once I feel I have grown, I do an album.
And then I do it again. At some point I will think of releasing others.
Right now I really care more about writing and growing and creating than anything.