Jessica Childress’ energy is palpable even through a screen.
Watching a video of the singer’s live performance “Far Away, ” it’s impossible not to get up and dance around.
Speaking with ESSENCE the singer revealed that she really never runs out of energy.
“This is my thing about who I am as a musician now, as somebody in the R&B space. I used to try unsuccessfully to be very cool and very sexy and just be very chill, but that is not who I am. And I just decided that what I want in a show is energy. I want to feel something. I want to be engaged.”
Her new remixed EP Far Away has the same energy, electric R&B meshed with a rock and roll vibe. The blend of genres and energy is probably due to the fact that the singer doesn’t limit what she listens to and is even a bit of a classical music nerd.
“I love classical music, and I’ve been getting back into my classical roots. I originally studied opera and choral music in college, and I’ve been going back to some of my old scores.”
“Honestly, reading my notes, reading the research I did on those composers likes Mahler and reading my notes about Mozart’s Requiem. This is so nerdy, I know, but I love picking apart those scores because a lot of that is sacred text that’s in music, but the emotion is so intense. Those scores just take you out, and I wanted to figure out what it was for me that connected with that music. So I’ve been sort of breaking that down.“
Up next for Childress is a full-length album in August that she can’t wait to share.
“The full-length album is coming out in August and hopefully we’ll be touring a little bit after that in the fall. I have been a writing machine. I’ve hit such a stride.”