MUSIC
Interview: Stephanie Jeannot Share Insights About Her Musical Journey
Stephanie Jeannot joins us again to discuss her new single ‘Haitian’, her inspirations, and what we can expect from her in the future! Make sure to check out our interview below:
Welcome – Thanks for sharing your music with us! How has 2020 been for you?
2020 is an experience. It started off with me thinking that it was going to be one of the greatest years because of how it came in. But once the truth settled in about how the rest of 2020 was going to be, my entire view of it changed.
I lost many people to this awful disease including my drummer, Richie Johnson, who I adored. That was my boy and he is so missed. I also lost a friend, Linda Bekham who was an amazing promoter for jazz events who helped me to put on a really nice live jazz birthday event last year. Both of the aforementioned died days apart and the more the days progressed towards the end of March, the more people I was losing.
I decided to use my emotions productively when my Instagram friend, John Mueller from Chicago, IL and I started doing Zoom songwriting sessions which lead to the idea of putting together a musical project and giving ourselves a deadline to finish it.
Every night after that, I wrote a song or two with piano, drums, lyrics, lead and background vocals. I would send them to John as a rough draft and ask him to add him bass lines. There were a few songs where he also created the musical melody and I added piano, lyrics and vocals. Between the end of April and May, I composed over 25 songs of which, 13 is featured on the album we released on October 10, 2020 entitled, “The Stephanie Jeannot & The John Mueller Project”
Thank you so much. I feel like with nine months, the project was like giving birth. We conceived and gave birth to what we had been doing the entire year. I have a lot of favorites on this album for a few reasons.
One of my favorites on the album is “Intoxicated By Your Love” because I was coming from church one Sunday afternoon during the quarantine and while I was driving, the song lyrics started to come to me so much that I had to tell Serie to open up my Voice Memo so I could record my thoughts. “Intoxicated By Your Love” is some of the ideas I would put down in reimagining Aretha Franklin’s tune “Respect.” I also love it because was able to not only play all the piano parts but also come up with a really cool piano solo and also chart the notes I was playing. I also love it because John Mueller was right there with me, riding tight to the waves of sound that was present in the tune. We make a good team and I love that. I originally wanted to name it 95 Proof thinking back to a time when I was a lush and drank 95% alcohol with my friends at the dorms and we all got sick off that 190-proof bottle of Grain alcohol. I have been sober for 7 years now but the experience of having been someone who used to love to indulge so much that I had a trophy case of empty bottles, gave me the words to be able to write this song and created the vibe that it needed.
Another of my favorites is “Haitian” because I am able to more express myself in Haitian Kreyol which I have been trying to do forever. I laugh because I used a translation book to create the hook which is 95% in Kreyol. But to get the point across of what I was trying to do which to meld my Americanism with my Haitian, and I did it; both musically and lyrically.
I love the song “Brooklyn” because it was my first time being able to be free with my poetry and actually spit it out without stumbling. I started writing poetry before I started writing songs. This song was kind of cool because John writes this funky bass line, drum groove and guitar riff and sent it my way. At first, it was going to be a song entitled “I write in Brooklyn.” But when I heard John’s bassline, I realized that it was meant to be an anthem of some sort and changed the entire lyrical content already drafted to … “Ain’t no other place like, ‘Brooklyn,’” and that in itself brought the beauty and culture of the unique borough of Brooklyn to life. But what give is even more of that lovability is Bruffdacrowdpleaser adding his wit and character to it. This is the first song that I ever wrote a piano solo for.
I love “You are the One” because it is the first jazz song I ever wrote and I love “Rise Up” because though it has political context in its lyrics, it is the first ballad that I have ever written and I love “Moving Forward” because it was a song written to celebrate my nephew and my students graduating and running towards the next chapters of their lives.
How would you describe your music to a first-time listener?
My music is something to take your time to listen to because there is a story in every song that every person could relate to. The first two tracks are relative to people who work a 9-5 for a living. There are a few songs that amplify the idea of agape love, equality in justice and unity for the world. I wrote my first jazz piece and ballad ever. My music is familiar yet different. There is a song on there for everybody.
What is your creative process when creating new music?
My writing process varies. Sometimes I am sitting somewhere, and a song comes to me that demands me to write it. Other times, I am practicing my piano playing and I play a series of chords that inspires a song, which forces me to open my Sonar Cakewalk DAW to start layering my ideas down.
With this particular album, John and I came up with a few prompted titles for future songs to be written and many of the songs were written around the title idea. I was doing a lot of reading at that time and if I saw an interesting phrase that fit the topic, I wrote it down for future use. I was also entering a few 2000 words or more prompted short story writing contests, which helped me a lot with the art of telling stories in musical format.
Once I come up with an idea, I write the song until the entire draft is completed which includes music, lyrics, lead and background vocals. I was up until about 3AM every night from the end of April through mid-May, just writing and coming up with song ideas.
“Haitian” is beautiful! Tells us what you love about your culture.
Thank you. I love the language a lot. I think it is really nice and I love having something such as a foreign language that differentiates me from the bunch. I love Haitian music because it is jazzy and funky all at the same time and the dances that people do to it because the movements to the Kompas sounds are so graceful and beautiful. I love the food because there ain’t no cuisine like Haitian cuisine.
I have been to Haiti and so I appreciate the atmosphere and the people. The waterfalls, the mountains, the Greenland; all worth seeing.
What would you say has been the single most influential factor in your success?
My most influential factor in my life is not allowing anyone, anything or any circumstances to take away the joy I have for being a musician who writes songs and performs music. I realize at the end of the day that I could let life break me and make me not want to participate in the very thing that brings me joy, or I could just work with what I have, where I am and put forward what was in me meant to take flight.
Plus when you have people like your parents, good friends and John who was such a motivating factor in this entire songwriting/album writing experience, helped to push me to just give my all and not allow anything to stop me.
Thank you for speaking with us! Is there anything else you would like to add?
Thank you for providing the platform for me to just share my story. I totally appreciate this experience.