// FOCUS FEATURE: Jillian Ann//
Enrapturing fans across the world for years, Jillian Ann exhibits her unique ability to capture imaginations through a multimedia approach. With a background in singing, DJ’ing, modeling, acting and serving as an all-around muse to dozens of fellow artists, she has built an outstanding reputation within the music community.
Frequently featured around the festival circuit, Jillian Ann provides an unmatched creative process that allows her to explore the deepest depths of her emotions; and she has no fear of baring it for all to see.
Here she discusses how she got to a place where she could share such intimate thoughts with an audience, the benefits of working in multiple artistic fields, and the story behind her new collaboration with MSD “Quiet Riot”.
KZ: What I see as the most admirable trait of your work is the raw fearlessness of your music’s lyrical content. How did you get to a place where you felt comfortable sharing such intimate and provocative thoughts with so large of an audience?
JA: It was always what I wanted to do, in my earlier musical years I faced some challenges because my lyrics/artistic expression were too controversial and I had more than a few situations where labels or producers asked me to tone it down, write, act, behave more “safely”, explaining if I offended people I may not sell as many records. So I decided I would fund my own work until I reached a point or place where people wanted to be a part of what I was creating and/or saying. For me, if I am going to take up space in your head because you’re choosing to listen to me I want to say something, I may not be right, but it comes from my heart and it’s the best I know how to do. I grew up in a world where the truth was hidden out of fear, but by hiding the truth the wounds never were able to heal; I feel many people have to face difficult times, be it war, death, abuse, rape, addictions, loss and so on, and if they feel they can’t even talk about it, much less share what they are going through, how are they ever going to move through it. I see the beauty in this world but also see things which have cost the lives of people I loved in ways that have taken me years to learn how to work with; part of my ability to work with it was to realize that through music or art and sharing real experiences, feelings, thoughts, emotions even if they are deep or intense allowed me to bring light to situations which without light can never be alchemized. If talking about spirituality, sexuality, politics, and current events makes me too controversial then so be it. I have no interest in spending my time, heart, energy and money to say nothing, to believe in nothing, to support nothing. I am blessed to have found a world and a crew who support me, controversial or not. But for me I have no other choice; I don’t try to write songs, they come to me and I just have to get them out somehow, they write themselves, I just receive them and share them to the best of my ability. I am always trying to become a better instrument, through my spiritual, creative, emotional, and physical development so I can do the music justice.
KZ: As a multimedia artist, you’re able to explore a number of means of expression. What do you see as the benefits as well as the disadvantages of your various art forms?
JA: I love to learn and grow and so I feel by fusing multiple art forms it allows me to learn about each one of them from each other. The disadvantage is sometimes I have a hard time letting go because I can do so much on my own that finding someone who I feel loves and cares about the work in the same way is sometimes hard for me and it means often I have no time for anything other than art and or supporting it, leading to always having something to create or somewhere to be or someone to discuss it with, meaning carving out time for spiritual practices, for yoga, for running, for learning for friends can be challenging but I am working always on finding a balance.
KZ: You’ve said that the “Quiet Riot” lyrics were inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement; you’ve also made several public statements commenting on the country’s current equality imbalance. How did this collaboration with MSD come about, and what is the overall message you are trying to send to your audience on these important topics?
JA: MSD had contacted me and sent me a track titled ‘ok’; he gave me complete freedom to write as I felt [and] at the same time I was very aware of what was happening with Occupy; I live in downtown LA and only blocks from the protest, after watching them bring in the storm troopers clear out the park, take lots of people in, and the huge comedown and shut down I felt I wanted to write something about it. I realized when watching thousands of storm troopers armed marching in to remove all of the protesters, that protesting wasn’t changing anything, it was just getting worse laws passed, more people on lists, and seeing the slap down caused me to remember losing my best friend who was framed and wiped off the face of the earth for being political. We live in very interesting times here, and as a artist it’s hard not to vocalize what you really think and feel until you see what happens when you do, until you question if you are vocal how safe you will be and then if being vocal even makes a difference.
As someone who has a idealistic perspective of a world where more then 5 percent had 15 dollars to their name, where everyone had enough to eat, where women and men were equal, where religion wasn’t the cause of violence, war and separation, anytime I see lots of people trying to move toward changing things it gives me some feeling of hope, but hope is dangerous when you then watch it get pushed down, like the child who believes if they come to America they will have a better life, unaware that what they are sold as the American dream only belongs to very few who can overcome the easy traps of becoming completely dependent on the system, obese and on fifteen medications to numb the heart or silence the spirit. The dream is here, it’s always here, it’s just a matter of if we can see it and live it, and not get lost in someone else’s dream…. we all have our own dreams, even though many don’t even know what they are because they were raised and taught to believe in someone else’s without ever knowing it wasn’t their own.
‘Quiet Riot’ is about more then a protest; I went down and sat on the steps where the protest had been, the last remaining few hundred people around me, standing there as most had abandoned the cause, and wrote the song, while sitting being in the middle of the fusion of the storm troopers and the protesters.
It’s easy to lose your dreams, your path, your own way, when all of the sudden you realize you’re facing a very large challenge, and maybe our Riots won’t be on the streets, and maybe they will be Quiet, but change happens within our own hearts and lives and standing our ground and living for our dreams and for what we believe in I feel is how we can change things, for all of us, how we live, what we buy, what we support, what we do, is all a form of causing change or protesting… being at a physical protest is not the only way we can affect change. If we become the best we can at what we do and rise to a place of influence we can affect many lives, what we do with our money time and energy is very effective.
I wrote this in hope people would realize they aren’t alone out there, and we don’t have to give up on our dreams, be it for change or what we want to create with our lives on this earth. It was a song for my friends, for my loved ones, the ones here and the ones past, in hopes even if it’s just a bad day it could be a song to inspire them not to give up, on what they believe in or in their dreams.
KZ: With the festival season already upon us, what do the next 6 months look like for you? What upcoming projects are you most excited for?
JA: I am finishing up a solo Album, with collaborations with MSD, Phutureprimitive, Knight Riderz, Blunt Instrumental, Great Scott, Tina Guo, and many other super talented artists.
It’s a fairly conceptual album about unlocking part of the code; I am working in a million dollar studio in LA as well as my home, and its been so amazing to be able to create anything I can dream of, I am working on a visual story to go with it..
I am working on a iBook to go with the album which would be the story of the record, the pictures from behind the scenes, a digital diary to my life; I have more to do in my mind than I know how to create with just one of me but it’s all really exciting.
I am also doing as many collaborations with people I love working with as possible and am always so excited to co-create, I just with I had another me.
I am doing shows and performing as a DJ where I mix and sing live, and sometimes if it’s a bigger show, bring in my dancers who are amazing, as well as feature other artists if and when possible.
There are lots of big projects with big names in the works, but I tend to not talk about them until they are done, contracts are signed and it’s about to come out but it’s all very exciting.
I am also working on a merch line, which I hope to release soon, and when not working on music, or art in one way or another I am usually home with the cats drinking tea, practicing, at the gym, or coming up with another idea.
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