Jesca Hoop

Jesca Hoop is a breath of fresh air for me. I love women singer-songwriters, and I love indie rock, and I love anything that makes me say "this is original", and I really feel she has found a bit of it all. She is eclectic and different, yet all her music has a very accessible melodic nature that makes it easy to bop along to at the same time. Her work is dreamy, artistic and beautiful.

This is what I would expect from a woman as interesting as Jesca though. Brought up in a Mormon family and singing in her high school choir, then fell into the theatre community and was surrounded by the community's eccentrics. Later, after rebelling against her religious upbringing and staying out late at clubs and smoking pot, she found work as a wilderness rehabilitation counselor and living in the mountains for years learning to live as a survivalist. She finally missed the theatre and making music and moved back to California to start a band. It was during this period she met Tom Waits and became a nanny to his children, and it was Tom Waits who became her mentor and told her she was ready to do shows and make a record after hearing her song "Seed of Wonder". That song has since been a most requested track on stations in California and has landed her a deal with Sony music.

Jesca will be a special guest for Matt Pond PA at a free show hosted by the wonderful radio station WXPN, at the Chameleon Club tomorrow night here in Lancaster, PA.

• Seed of Wonder (via Fabulist)
• Summertime (via Puddlegum)