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The
answers lie in the real Adventures of Jodelle… which depicts an inner
world as real as New Jersey where Jodelle was born.
Surrounded by family who were supportive but not remotely
inclined to music, Jodelle’s passion for the piano and voice seemed to
come out of nowhere. Her
parents bought a used upright piano when she was in fourth grade.
It was at that time she began classical piano lessons and vocal
training. Strangely,
though, performances throughout elementary school, high school and
college only involved either singing or playing, not both
simultaneously. It would be
a few years until she realized that marrying the two instruments would
be the key to her identity. When
asked at which point she actually began writing music, Jodelle recalls
improvising at the piano for hours at a time. “Instead of practicing with sheet music, as I should have
done, I would improvise,” she says.
“By the time I was in high school I was composing instrumental
pieces, although I never structured them into songs. That
was more of an emotional release than to play something someone else had
written.” First,
however, she earned a degree in communications and audio engineering at
Ithaca College, reasoning that as a producer she could find a foothold
in the music industry. For
a while she followed this plan, at one point combining two internships,
at a record label and a recording studio, with a waitress gig. Eventually
she started playing solo coffeehouse and club gigs around New York where
she was able to try out her original material on eager audiences.
In
2002 Jodelle recorded her first solo EP, Find
Me If You Can. Right
after its release she started writing for The
Adventures of Jodelle. Inspiration
for its dark, deep tunes rose from somewhere she hadn’t yet tapped and
motivated her toward more ambitious plans for recording. By
early 2004 Jodelle had recruited Chris Badami to engineer and co-produce
(The Early November, the Dillinger Escape Plan, Hidden in Plain View,
Midtown) and Greg Calbi to master the record (John Lennon, Bob Dylan,
Aimee Mann, Ani DiFranco). Backed by players who know how to focus every cymbal crash and
cello sigh on her performance, Jodelle brought her vision to life with a
clarity that is rare even on the work of more experienced artists. A
sold-out performance at New York’s Cutting Room marked release of the
album. Radio pounced on it;
WUSB at Stony Brook University put it at number one on their airplay
list early in 2005, with college and internet stations around the
country giving her prominent exposure as well. Reviewers
voiced their enthusiasm: Alex Henderson of the All Music Guide gave The Adventures of Jodelle four out of five stars, and at
GoGirlsMusic, Mark Fisher writes “Jodelle's powerful and intimate
style is immediately captivating and her latest album is top notch from
the songwriting to the artwork. She
has raised the bar for indie musicians everywhere…” As
Jodelle rides this momentum the question remains: How does someone from
so “normal” a background produce music that shimmers beneath waves
of emotions and rises above that current on the strength of its own
eloquent courage? Our
answer: Talent – even
exceptional and uncommon talent comes from unexpected places. So it is
with Jodelle, whose adventures are only now about to begin. |
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