JESSIKA ALLEGRA
2015 is the year for soon to be 23-year-old Jessika Allegra as it was her chance to write and release new material.
“This year, I wanted to take it seriously and become my own artist,” she says.
The comeback to original music came after she decided to take a break from songwriting after appearing on reality TV show, The Voice Australia in 2013.
Beginning songwriting at 13, Jessika released her first single on iTunes titled, Exclusively, which received a lot of attention from DJ’s around Australia and overseas.
“Someone from France got in contact with me, (out of the blue), and asked for my song and then he sent me a video of the song remixed playing at a nightclub. That was amazing, I’d love to do that again.”
Entering the Melbourne gig scene at 18, her first stint was at the popular Veludo bar in St Kilda.
Today, she regularly plays with her cover band Mixed Method at various bars in Crown Casino as well as acoustic gigs at World Bar, Southbank and Republica at St Kilda Beach.
Another motivator to get back into writing, she mentions, is the difficulty to obtain original gigs.
“You can’t get original gigs unless you have made it and have a big fan base. The gigs are usually unpaid and it’s not worth it.”
After a trip to Europe, she got back into songwriting at the start of this year.
When writing her music, Jessika uses a few methods.
One includes scheduling time out of her day to sit down and write something, which can be very hard for some songwriters. This normally consists of playing around with a few chords on the piano before writing lyrics.
Another way, she says, is spontaneous as she may think of a melody all of a sudden, and then have to quickly get out something to record it on. Thirdly, in the studio when writing her tracks, her producer would play some beats and that, she says is completely different but great as she can get a different perspective on writing.
Just recently, Jessika’s debut EP, Phenomenon features 4 tracks and shows great versatility.
Her single, Phenomenon, the title track on the EP is an upbeat and party-like song. It’s described as a song dedicated to anyone that has had a huge positive impact on someone’s life. Similar to Katy Perry’s Firework, the song is catchy and a video clip has also been released, which was shot at Melbourne venue Bobby McGee’s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r685E-WcOr0&feature=youtu.be
Other tracks on the EP include, Is This Love and Phoenix Rising which are said to be more personal ballads with the last track, Chasing The Thrill featuring rapper Nee-Q who co-wrote the song.
After releasing the EP, Jessika can definitely confirm that she has grown a lot of confidence with herself and her music.
“If you’re confident with yourself, you will get used to seeing and hearing yourself. It took me years to listen to myself and to be OK with it.”
In 2016, Jessika aims to get more attention with the release of her EP as well as continue to play around Melbourne.
Check out Jessika Allegra on:Website | Facebook | SoundcloudInstagram | Twitter | YouTube
You can purchase her EP, Phenomenon now on iTunes
