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themastermindagency · 4 years ago

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A Quarantine Q&A with Jesse Parent

On April 14th, 2020, about a month into Ontario’s coronavirus lockdowns, Waterloo singer-songwriter Jesse Parent released his most recent project, Learning to Live Apart. Right now, this heartfelt and reflective single is something anybody can relate to on some level, and feeling isolated from loved ones is an experience much of the world is going through. The song was released with a moving music video to go alongside it, featuring a compilation of footage and Parent singing.

When asked about the process and how this song came about, Jesse revealed how he wrote and recorded the song himself: “[It] came out of pure inspiration really. I was .. I think halfway through my second week of self quarantine after travelling ..This was right at the beginning of all this, and I was just feeling you know, isolated and sad, and lonely and I missed my family; My father was fighting cancer at the time. And so .. that song kept me up late one night and I wrote it .. I thought it might be important for me to get it out there and connect with people .. Within a week I had learned how to record in my basement, [I] recorded it .. did a video for it, all in my basement”. Turning an uncertain and lonely experience into something that can make people feel more connected is admirable, and Jesse has really captured what makes music, and storytelling through music such an incredible thing. Not only is the song and music video itself incredible, but they were made within a week! Parent recalled that he started writing it on a Tuesday, and by that Sunday it was complete, which is an impressive feat while trying to navigate self-recording at home for the first time: “That’s the first time I’d ever recorded myself and mixed, like I usually hire people for that. And I also played all the instruments except for the keyboards and the synth. For the first time in my life I played the drums [and] bass, [in addition to] guitar and vocals,” he said.

Learning to Live Apart was certainly different from previous recording experiences, and Parent described it as “Nerve wracking, I wasn’t sure if it sounded good.” Although we are learning to live apart, he did rely on friends and bandmates throughout the process, “I’m very lucky to have my buddy Steve Wood who plays in my band. He’s got a great ear and I used him as a, ‘Hey man this doesn’t suck does it?’ Sort of soundboard and he was great that way, and helped me with the keys part like I said .. but yeah it was really fun .. it probably took longer than it should have to record one song cause I was figuring it out as I went but it was a really rewarding process” he added. The song has certainly been well received, with the music video reaching 1,500 views on his YouTube channel, and the single itself accumulating over 13,000 streams on Spotify as of June 17, 2020.

“Nerve wracking, I wasn’t sure if it sounded good”

- Jesse Parent on performing and mixing instruments and music

Life before COVID-19 for Jesse Parent involved regular weekly performances. In April of 2018, he began a weekly songwriter series, “Storytellers”, every Thursday night at Lana’s Lounge in Waterloo, Ontario. Unfortunately all live events stopped in the middle of March, with the last Storytellers before COVID-19 occurring on March 11th. However, he is hoping to resume the event when restrictions on gatherings are lifted, “Back before COVID it was my favourite night of the week. Every Thursday I’d invite a different songwriter special guest, and I’d play some songs, they’d play some songs, we’d play some songs together. It’s a very intimate venue, if there was 20 people in there it feels packed .. so it’s also a really cool personal experience for both the audience and the performers. And I really hope that I can get back to it when this is all over,” Storytellers Thursdays sound like a night to remember, and we hope Jesse can get back to it sooner than later.

Performers have had to find new ways to engage with audiences, since Ontario allows gatherings of no more than 5 people, and all venues are closed. Every Tuesday night you can catch Jesse Parent doing a weekly livestream on his Facebook page at 8pm, which he began doing on March 24th, shortly after venues shut down. He spoke to the differences of performing virtually versus live as well: “I wouldn’t say it’s bad or worse but I still get a good audience to play for every week, and people that are really interested so it’s good.” Parent has been looking to the brightside, finding the humour and speaking of the positives that this pause has brought on. However like most people are experiencing, it gets lonely. In regards to his plans after quarantine, he says that spending time with family is #1; “most of [quarantine] hasn’t been too tricky, other than that … Yeah I just miss my loved ones, my family and friends.”

Plans for new music aren’t just stopping at Learning to Live Apart, and the global pandemic has actually changed Parent’s plans for the better. Back in March, his fourth album was in the early planning stages, and he says that Learning to Live Apart really gave a jump start to the process: “The fact that I figured out how to record a song has inspired me well, maybe I should do a whole album. So I’m just kinda playing around in my home studio and making noises and putting them together.” This experience has been different from creating his past albums, but he speaks of it positively, “When I go to use a studio I gotta pay by the hour, or the session, or whatever, and it’s really freeing to have access to a studio where I can just, tinker. So this’ll be my first self-recorded, self-produced album. If I can get my act together and not waste too much more time, I think I can actually have this out before the end of the year,” Parent is giving fans lots to look forward to in 2020. He also has a vinyl collection full of fan favourites in the works, titled “for a moment” that was available for pre-order in May, and is set to be released sometime this summer.

Jesse Parent is a name to keep an eye out for, with immense talent, and a great personality to boot. We can’t wait to see what’s next for him. Keep an eye out for his upcoming album and vinyl collection; in the meantime Learning to Live Apart is available now on all digital streaming platforms, as well as the music video on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIkO7jXgQQI

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