Jesca Hoop has lived all over the map, and her rich life experience is reflected in her distinctive voice and natural gift for inventive song craft. Hoop is the real deal and a true one of a kind.
She learned to sing at an early age, harmonising with her musical Mormon family in northern California. She began writing highly idiosyncratic songs at the age of 14 to keep her company on her long walks to school. At 16, Hoop broke away from her strict upbringing and began what she calls her ‘life as a racoon’, off the grid & close to nature. Rambling through the high mountain deserts of the Southwest and along the coastlines of the Northwest, she worked as a wilderness survival guide and chalked up skills in farming, surveying, and carpentry.
Her songwriting continued throughout, shared on porches, in deep river canyons and around campfires. In 2004 the desire to share these songs on a broader scale set in. She settled in Los Angeles, where she honed her songwriting craft, recorded and released her debut and sophomore records and developed a reputation as a unique and beguiling live performer of real substance. She now resides in Manchester, England and travels the world with her songs.
Jesca has quite the growing collection of fans in high places: Tom Waits described her music as being “like a four sided coin. She is an old soul, like a black pearl, a good witch or red moon. Her music is like going swimming in a lake at night”.
Peter Gabriel took her on tour through South America to sing with him, and in recent years she has been hand picked to play as support on tour for Eels, Andrew Bird, Sinead O'Conner, Placebo, Punch Brothers, Shearwater, Iron and Wine and Elbow: Elbow’s Guy Garvey even has her do regular stints as guest presenter on his BBC radio show, to great reception.
Most Recently Hoop has spent many months on the road with Iron And Wine playing shows and spending our day hours co writing a record of duets with lead man Sam Beam to be recording in spring 2015. She recently co-wrote and recorded an album of duets with Iron and Wine. Hoop has released three critically acclaimed studio Albums, 3 ep's, 2 live albums and has a new record produced by the young and fantastic Blake Mills in the pipe line.
Photo credit - Shirlaine Forrest