Jessica.Paige & The Upstairs Band
Interview conducted on March 06, 2021
By Dan Locke
Jessica Paige- Deliciously sultry lounge music with flavors of hip-hop, jazz, and swing.
What is your upbringing?
I was born in Queens, NY into a very traditional Italian-American Family. I’m one of five siblings and we’re still very close. When I was 13, we moved to New Hope, Pennsylvania which was a big change but allowed me opportunities to explore the arts. I had a tumultuous childhood in New York, much of it highlighted by my father’s drug addiction and recovery. Pennsylvania was a fresh start for us and it changed my perspective on the world.
How did you discover music?
My father bought my mother a baby grand piano when I was four. She never got around to taking lessons, but I started teaching myself and a babysitter taught me some songs. I was playing The Entertainer at 5 years old! I still don’t know how my mother found the money to pay every week for lessons, because I never missed one, from 7 years old to 17, no matter how much we were struggling financially.
I remember getting scolded by my piano teacher because I would always jump ahead in the lesson book and by the time, I got to the song I knew it well enough that I was also singing along. Apparently, he didn’t like that. “Are you singing??!!” he asked. He only wanted me to count out loud. But the piano, and later singing with the piano, was my escape and my best friend in a world that really didn’t “get” me. I was exposed to a lot of things at an early age that children shouldn’t see, so it was difficult to relate to others my age.
Your Grandmother was into Lindy Hopper. How well do you dance?
I don’t know if I’m a “good” dancer, but I love to dance. I dance swing, salsa, and street. At parties, I’m usually the first one on the dance floor, because I know someone has to be! I definitely consider danceability when writing my up-tempo songs. You don’t want to be the song the DJ plays and everyone sits down because they can’t figure out how to dance to it.
How did you start to write music?
My first song was when I convinced my high school band teacher to let me take an independent study and write a song for the band. I wrote the song, all the band parts, transposed them, and then conducted them at the concert. I learned a lot about orchestrating from that project. I didn’t start seriously writing until after college, though I wish I had discovered it earlier because it was massively therapeutic, and still is.
Songwriting is not something that is taught in school, and some say it can’t be taught, but I had a really rough patch in high school where I attempted suicide multiple times. I know now that had I had the outlet of writing; I would have been able to handle those feelings in a healthy way. I was writing and playing around Philadelphia and then moved to New York for work where I didn’t play or write for ten years. Coming back to it originally was just to get back to “me.” I write songs primarily for me, and then I usually end up sharing them because I figure someone else might relate to this and it could help them through a tough time, too.
Describe your music.
A sultry cocktail of swing, hip-hop, blues, and rap.
The swing and jazz are from my grandparent’s influence. My grandfather was a jazz singer and MC at the Sprocket Club in Brooklyn prior to WWII. The hip-hop and rap are from growing up in NYC at the birth of hip hop when the street corners would be taken up by break-dancers on cardboard boxes and we’d all challenge each other to learn the words of songs.
“When we won the Philadelphia Music Award for Jazz in 2019, the judge afterward told me it was because jazz, at its core, is improvisation. He appreciated that we were improvising and that what we were doing was different and fresh. That’s not often what people think of when they hear jazz – they may think of their grandparent’s music. So part of the mission of my music is to bring jazz back to the forefront while keeping its integrity of improvisation. There is something raw and exciting about improvisation that is so rebellious and attractive to me.
Do people sometimes get you mixed up with Jessica Paige from America Idol?
Not yet! But I may be rebranding as an artist and using my last name, Jessica Magoch (pronounced MaGooch) because the name is so common.
Tell me about your band Jessica Paige and The Upstairs Band?
My band is such a critical part of the composition of the music. Because we are, at our roots, jazz-inspired I hire all jazz musicians because they are adept at improvising. I don’t write out any of the band parts; they compose them themselves, mostly on the spot. And all the solos are improvised, too, so you’ll never see the same show twice. Not everyone can be flexible in a live show like that, but we flow together. You might see different musicians depending on the show but there are always drums, bass, keys, vocals, and a horn section.
What was your first performance like?
I had taken ten years away from music, so I had performed when I was younger, but when I came back as Jessica Paige & The Upstairs Band, our first gig was a show to benefit a women’s shelter at Bob & Barbara’s Lounge in South Philadelphia. I had only been writing for two months, but my friend Billie had asked me to do it. Billie and I were the only women that would show up to the late-night jam sessions in town. I told her I wasn’t ready (I didn’t have a band yet) and she said, “You’ll be ready.” So, I got some people together and we performed a short gig there on a weeknight in January.
Perhaps because of my theater background, when I approach a live show, I don’t just think about the music; I think about the experience. I design everything from the theme, the drink menu, promo posters, costumes, and decor. I invite non-music acts to perform with us, like burlesque and live painting. I pre-plan the experience from the moment they walk up to the venue and even before that buying their tickets. Some people might think this is crazy because I do it even for small gigs, but to me it’s fun! There’s no point in going to see a live show if it’s the same experience as listening at home. And I don’t write music or do live shows to blend into the background. It’s way too much work for that!
What is the greatest cover song?
My greatest cover song? People love “I’d Rather Go Blind,” and I love to perform it, too. I do my own version with a wailing high A at the end that sounds like I’m screaming but I’m actually singing. Keegan does an amazing solo on sax, too. We started playing that song at open blues jam sessions because it’s really easy for anyone to jump in with only two chords! Over the years, we’ve developed our own version of it that is really unique. I also love that the song was actually written by Etta James which was unusual for a female vocalist then.
What makes a good songwriter?
I don’t feel like I have the authority to answer this because I do believe for every song there is an audience somewhere in the world that will love it. But I think songwriting, at its core, is storytelling. The song has to tell a story, even if it’s an instrumental, and the audience wants to follow the arch of that story with the protagonist (usually the songwriter).
I also think it’s important to go with the flow and not judge your own music while you’re writing it. I did this a lot when I was younger when I was trying to write music, I thought other people would like. But I learned that music is its own entity. You, as the songwriter, are just the conduit for it to be channeled to the world. It’s not something you can overthink, because it doesn’t come from the mind. As much as there is a formula to write a Top 40 song today, it’s the songs that don’t follow the formula that seem to come out of nowhere that touch people the most.
What is the process of writing your music?
I usually start with a phrase or hook I’m inspired by, which then usually becomes the title of the song. So, I come up with a hook phrase and I think “I want to write a song about that.” Then it usually nudges me for a couple of days until I sit down, usually early morning, and write the lyrics. For me, writing the lyrics first without any musical ideas results in the most natural outcome. If I’m in a flow state, this takes about 15 minutes.
Then when I have three verses and a chorus, I start humming. I look to the sounds of the words to decide the melody, so it’s not too far from how you would actually speak it. A good hook is really important but it doesn’t have to be in the chorus, it can even just be an instrumental part. Then once I have the melody, I make sure to do a quick voice memo because sometimes these things disappear from the ether!
Then I get to the piano and plunk out the melody, and once I know what key I’ve been singing in, I find the chord progression that goes under it. By this time, the style has already decided itself, and knowing some music theory really helps find the chords that match what’s in my head. Like in Blues I’ll probably at the 7 or add some color with an augmented third. I try not to overthink it; I just want it to match what’s in my head.
Once the vocals and piano are finished, the song is basically “done.” The beautiful thing about a piano is it’s your percussion, bass, and harmony all in one instrument. This is the version I will play in a solo show. Adding the band just makes it that much more interesting if it’s appropriate for the song. So, the song takes about an hour to write from beginning to end, but then it could be another 20 hours of tweaks here and there and changes as we perform it live. This is why it’s so hard to get in the studio- because every time we play the songs get better as we improvise, so I know that no matter what I record today, it won’t be as good as it will be tomorrow which is really frustrating!
Do you belong to any songwriters’ organizations like the International singer-songwriter association, SESAC, BMI, or ASCAP?
Yes, ASCAP. I don’t really know what they do, but I know I have to be part of it to get my royalties.
What was the title of your first original song? Did you record it?
My first original song was “How Could I Forget?” I recorded it on a demo CD but never released it. Back then you really needed a label to release music. I really liked that song. I wanted to write a song that was about someone in particular but left a lot of the description blank in the song so people could fill in the blanks with their own person.
“Your name was…
Your eyes were…
Your lips were…
Your kiss was…
How could I forget?”
Which is also a play on words – did she really forget? Or could she not forget? Which you’ll find a lot in my songs if you listen closely. I recently had someone find me from Australia saying he had heard the song on my MySpace page a million years ago and found me again on Facebook and also thought of that song. I need to bring that one back!
How was it to have one of your songs to be nominated for song of the year?
Such an honor! I only released two songs at that point so being nominated for song of the year was humbling. I ended up being #13 for 2020.
How do you stay healthy while performing?
I am a martial artist (second-degree black belt) and that is my main form of exercise. I don’t have the gumption to exercise just to be healthy or to look good, but I do like to train to get better at martial arts. Lung capacity is obviously very important for a vocalist, so I make sure to maintain that with Karate and Kickboxing. I usually take a kickboxing class the morning of a show to warm up my lungs. Foodwise, I have Crohn’s disease, so I’m really careful about what I eat especially leading up to a show, and I usually don’t eat much on the day of a show. I especially avoid carbs that will slow me down. Again, as a vocalist avoiding alcohol, caffeine, salt, and dairy on show days is important, and staying hydrated is always numero uno – it also keeps the immune system strong. Regarding getting sick, it’s never actually affected my voice and I can usually get through the show but I take some extra doses of zinc if I feel something coming on. I studied musical theater in college (that’s originally what I wanted to do) and if you were in a show and got sick you just performed sick.
What are your feelings about streaming music?
I started out my career when musicians were highly dependent on managers and labels to publish music, so for me, streaming is a vehicle to get my music heard. I think in any industry, you have to give the customer what they want or someone else will, and they want to stream, so we have to adjust the product. It’s still an artist’s choice if they want to publish to streaming platforms. For me, I see it as a form of free advertisement.
The symbol # is known as the number sign, hash, [ or (in North American usage) pound sign. The symbol has historically been used for a wide range of purposes Since 2007, widespread usage of the symbol to introduce metadata tags on social media platforms has led to such tags being known as “hashtags”, and from that, the symbol itself is sometimes called a hashtag. Are people forgetting that the # is a part of music?
Haha. I don’t think anyone but musicians knew that anyway. But you could say the same for the letter “b,” right?
Why did you decide to do the video Warrior?
I was commissioned to do WARRIOR by World Financial Group who was hosting an event on financial literacy for women. I knew I needed to write a power ballad that was inspiring. I thought about where many of these women are and where they came from. The idea was around the question of what happens between the time we’re told we can grow up to be anything we want and the reality of getting caught in a dead-end 9-5 job, barely paying the bills but feeling like there are no other options? Inside each woman is a warrior she just has yet to unleash. Happiness and success aren’t just for other people, it’s for you, too. The style is a pop departure from my swing-hip-hop style, but I see it as a perfect Disney Princess song and I hope Disney licenses it one day.
Digital vs. vinyl?
I only buy music on vinyl. But I know my audience is half and half.
What song from the past is in your mind right now? Moreover, what is the meaning that song means to you?
You can never play “Stand by Me” without me crying. It was playing when I was 8 years old, at the end of a children’s visiting weekend at the rehab my dad was staying at in Upstate NY. I cried so hard they let my dad ride with us in the van back to Queens, which apparently never happens. Music has the power to get inside you a bring you back to a moment in time instantly which is why I am honored to do it.
How was it to create your first DIY music video at the beginning of the lockdown “COVID-19 Blues”?
So much fun! I thought – ok, we’re here for two weeks. Let’s document this, do something fun and keep ourselves busy. I didn’t think we were at the beginning of a year-long quarantine! I think it got over 60,000 views and hundreds of shares on Facebook so I’m glad it made people laugh a little.
Both (Pfizer and BioNTech) and Moderna have concluded Phase 3 Study of the Coronavirus vaccine. With both vaccines, it takes two shots. How many people do you think will take it and how many will forget to take the second shot?
At least 20% won’t take the second shot – my mom already decided she doesn’t need it because she read an article that you don’t need the second shot if you had Covid, which she did. J&J has a single-shot vaccine now so that should help!
How long before the whole world will be vaccinated against the virus. You have to remember there only has to be a 70% for Herd immunity (Herd immunity occurs when a large portion of a community (the herd) becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. As a result, the whole community becomes protected — not just those who are immune.)
Well, I guess the whole world will never be vaccinated but perhaps they will be immune. I’m not a scientist but 5 years sounds like a good, uneducated guess!
If “Video Killed the Radio Star” do you think that the Covid-19 virus has killed live music?
Absolutely not. People will come out stronger for live music again when they feel safe. But like any industry, there will be changes. Since artists were forced to start performing online, and audiences learned how to watch and support them online, including buying those little hearts on Facebook, you’ll see a hybrid version. You’ll see more bands live streaming their shows so people can buy tickets out of the area and as a result, they will make more money from live shows, not less. What they thought was going to kill their careers will be an opportunity if we take it.
Do you feel the Covid-19 virus going to affect the music business in the future?
I was always primarily an online musician. I only perform 4-6 times per year. So, for me, I was used to being online. There are many musicians who only performed live and for them, it was a big adjustment when Covid hit. Similar to the effect on Live music, I think artists have a new skill of collaborating virtually, which we didn’t have before, which means you aren’t restricted to working with musicians in your local area. I really think, for the most part, we’ll be out of it eventually and it will be a blip – a blip that spawned more virtual engagement and music-making.
What have you been doing with your self-quarantine?
Writing music 🙂 I’ve worked from home for the last ten years in my day job (Sales Coaching) so I’m used to being home a lot but I just miss karate and playing live. We’ve also been cooking a lot! And I’ve taken some classes like dance and freestyle rap.
Are you still learning how to play trumpet?
Hmmm… That was the plan. I played French Horn in high school, mostly because my band teacher said it was the easiest instrument to guarantee myself a seat in the Regional Band with my crush. I ended up touring Italy with a youth honor’s band because of French Horn that’s how much I wanted a seat in that stupid band! A trumpet is the easier version of French Horn so I’d be lying if I said I learned it from scratch. I had to adjust some of the fingering but it’s the same instrument. I love a jazz trumpet. I’m not good enough to play for my own band, but I love the sound of it.
The more I try to learn other instruments I realize singing is actually one thing other instrumentalists wish they could do better. And I prefer to sing, so even with 10 years of piano lessons and 4 years of French Horn, I consider my primary instrument my voice
Have you discovered or rediscovered any new hobbies?
I mentioned some classes I’ve been taking above, but one thing we do now that we weren’t doing much of before is going out for walks as a family. It’s the highlight of our day and there are a lot more people out walking now than before, so we are enjoying our suburban community. Usually, people are darting around to all different activities and work but it’s nice to feel that sense of community again with your actual neighbors.
95% of people said that they have changed the way they watch television. This includes people who don’t have television and using their computers to do streaming of programs and movies. Which is your favorite streaming channel?
Netflix is where I stream, but I don’t watch much TV. I get annoyed, actually, when I get sucked into a good series because I really want to finish it but there are so many more productive things I can be doing with my time. I prefer to be a creator rather than a consumer.
Many artists are doing nightly concerts over either YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. In October that is going to change at least on Facebook. Facebook is cracking down on live-streamed shows that include recorded music with new terms of service, preventing artists from using the platform for “commercial or non-personal” purposes, unless they have obtained the relevant licenses.
The updated music guidelines state that users “may not use videos on our products [which include Instagram] to create a music listening experience […] This will include [Facebook] Live,” and stipulates that such content should be posted for the enjoyment of friends and family only.
How do you think this will change the landscape of Facebook?
I’m not aware of that change in terms of service. I’ve seen the opposite, actually, with Facebook putting a big push on promoting live streams from your business page and giving fans the ability to support you financially. This sounds like another one of their attempts to make sure people are not using their personal page for business.
How can bands keep their fans if they cannot play live in front of the fans and sell merchandise to them at the show?
They can do the same thing online. Make sure you are adding people to and communicating with your email list. I have fans all over the world that will probably never see me live but feel connected to me. That is all part of nurturing your fan base. I think you can definitely keep your fans and also continue to earn money. A lot of money goes into producing a live show that people don’t realize, and some artists don’t calculate. Between rehearsals, and equipment, space, advertising, and paying the band, I usually don’t take anything personally on live gigs, even the ones that pay well. As long as you stay in front of them online, you’ll keep them as fans, and maybe even make a better profit.
Is pay to play still a thing? Now pay to play also means things like playlist on the internet and opening slots for a major band on tour.
There will always be people trying to make money off of desperate artists. Usually, pay-to-play, especially on Spotify playlists, will end up hurting you more than helping you, and they’re not “real” plays of actual fans that would come support you live and buy from you. An artist has to decide their worth and once they do, people will step up. You also have to have guidelines for yourself of when you’ll play for free, which is also a form of pay-to-play because you have expenses incurred for playing for free.
What about Holographic concerts in our living room?
Love it! I really want to write a musical for VR. My son has the Optimus Headset and I love it! This is the direction we’re going. My next big purchase is a VR Camera.
Did you know that the Grammys MusicCares can help artists? The MusiCares COVID-19 Relief has helped thousands of music industry artists and professionals during these difficult days. This is the most recipients helped, for any single event, in MusiCares’ history. The need remains great, and these unique times remain critical for music people. It has taken a community uplifting one another to get through this pandemic, and MusiCares has pulled together a list of additional organizations and resources to further support you. https://www.grammy.com/musicares/get-help/relief-resources Have you applied yet?
That’s great! I did not know about that.
In the past, if a musician stops doing music, they find a new career. For example, David Lee Roth from Van Halen became a licensed EMT in NY for 6 years, San Spitz (guitarist for Anthrax) became a master watchmaker, Dee Snider (Twisted Sister) voice-over work for SpongeBob SquarePants. If you can’t do music what would you like to be doing?
I am multi-passionate and I’m glad we live in a world where you don’t have to choose. I am also an online sales coach and I teach people how to unleash their rebel artist to make more sales. I primarily focus on female tech entrepreneurs, because they are severely underfunded and learning sales is the only way their genius can be shared with the world. I don’t see why I’d ever have to stop doing music unless I relied on it financially. I imagine myself writing music well into my 100’s. There is a big problem in the industry with certain age groups’ voices being ignored.
Spotify just deleted 750,00 songs, mostly from independent artists. Was your saved?
I didn’t know that, but my songs are still up! Yay!
Sony Music in November and Warner Music Group in December, The ByteDance-owned video app revealed on (February 8) that it has struck an “expanded” global licensing agreement with Universal Music Group. Now that TikTok is now fully licensed by all three major record companies, will you start using TikTok more?
Yes! I think TikTok is an amazing advertising tool for your music. I heard that Olivia Rodrigo was thinking about her fans using TikTok when she wrote the bridge for Driver’s License.
How often do you use a loop pedal in your recording?
Rarely. I write music on piano and I find that looping makes writing more restrictive.
Anything you would like to say in closing.
The main reason I write is to one day be the song some 17-year-old girl plays alone in her bedroom as she stares at the ceiling, lost in her feelings, and realizes she’s not alone. Someone else, actually a lot of people, know exactly how she feels, and it’s ok.
I am focused on not judging my own music and not being worried about whether or not I am “good” at it, because it keeps whispering in my ear to come back and songs keep popping up. So, I just write. The business of music, well, that I am still learning but it’s necessary to actually be heard. Thank you for reaching out!
You must be logged in to post a comment.