MEET JESS LOCKE

The voice behind our Pacific Girl campaign films, Jess Locke, wrote her song Universe about the desire to connect with the world and people… a fitting anecdote given our Pacific Girl collection drives such a focus on our connection with the oceans. The Melbourne based singer/songwriter talks to us about what gets her creativity flowing, the other musicians that are on her radar & the last book she read… 

Listen to Jess’s new album here.

  

We love your new song Universe so much that it’s the soundtrack to our Pacific Girl campaign… can you talk us through what it’s about? 

This song is about the desire we have to connect with the world and people and how sometimes it feels as though there is an invisible screen stopping us from truly living in reality. But it's also about how that kind of disconnected feeling, that loneliness, is just another part of reality, a part of being human. If we were to become completely immersed in someone or something else then we would cease to exist...

 

When you’re writing a new song you must be inspired by your environment.  Can you talk us through your ideal creative space?

Usually I write at home. It's not a conscious decision to write there, it's just usually the most convenient place. I just need somewhere quiet that I feel comfortable in. And it helps when there are already guitars and other things lying around. I kind of have a catalogue in my mind of all the houses I've lived in because I remember writing songs in them. Mostly bedrooms, but some living rooms and backyards as well. I can actually only think of one song I wrote last year in an Air bnb... that was a really nice quiet place in the bush. Being in nature is ideal.

You’re fresh from playing BigSound… which emerging artists are currently on your radar?

I saw some awesome people play at BigSound and I can't wait to see what they do next... Jess Ribeiro, Brightness, Stella Donnelly, Merk, Good Morning, Obscura Hail, Jade Imagine...

 

 

Let’s talk other forms of art… what’s the last book you read?

I think is was The Good People by Hannah Kent. I also ready her first book, Burial Rites. I loved them both.
 

Movie you saw?

The Lady Gaga Documentary.

You have a new album coming out under Pool House records… when can we expect to listen?

It comes out on October 20! On vinyl, CD, digital.... everywhere! Very exciting.

Talk us through the inspiration behind the album:

I didn't really plan for the album to be anything in particular in the beginning. It started more as a record of songs that I had built up over quite a broad timeframe. I think the oldest song is about  6  years old. But what kind of makes it an album and not just a random bunch of songs is that I have been working on them with my band in a very collaborative way over the past couple of years. So the older songs kind of became new again through that process and then the new songs were worked in together in the same way. Obviously the title of the album comes from the song, 'Universe', but I think i liked the name because it is all encompassing, not about anything specific, but little snap shots of here and there that come together as a whole.