Name: Jackie Myers
Occupation: Pianist, vocalist, songwriter, composer
Nationality: American
Current release: Jackie Myers's new album What About The Butterfly is out via 577.
Recommendation for Kansas City, USA: LC’s BBQ

If you enjoyed this Jackie Myers interview and would like to stay up to date with her music, visit her official homepage. She is also on Instagram, bandcamp, and Facebook.



When did you first consciously start getting interested in singing? What was your first performance as a singer on stage or in the studio and what was the experience like?

Not until college really. That’s when I took my first vocal lesson.

I believe my first public performance as a singer was at my senior recital, which was also a raging kegger in the basement of one of our dorms; I went to a very liberal college.

If you're also playing other instruments, how does the expressive potential of these compare to your own voice?

I am primarily a pianist, although I also play the Hammond B3.

I learned piano much earlier than voice, so I feel much more expressive on my primary instrument.

[Read our feature on the Hammond B3]

Singing is an integral part of all cultures, and traditions. Which of these do you draw from – and why?

I am probably best described as 1 part singer-songwriter, 1 part Blues/R&B/Funk musician and 3 parts jazz musician.

What were some of the main challenges in your development as a singer/vocalist? Which practices, exercises, or teachers were most helpful in reaching your goals – were there also “harmful” ones?

For me it was working on projecting my voice and not tensing my throat. Lip trills, and singing with my tongue helped a lot.

What are the things you hear in a voice when listening to a vocalist? What moves you in the voices of other singers?

If their tone is unique and if their pitch is accurate or even intentionally inaccurate.

As long as I can hear intention and something that makes them uniquely them, I’m interested.

We have a speaking voice and a singing voice. Do these feel like they are natural extensions of each other, ends on a spectrum or different in kind?

In many ways, they are very similar, but ironically enough, I believe that when you’re singing, you’re truly saying something.

The tone, the placement, the rhythm are all functions of expression that allow communication in a way speaking could never really match.

How do you see the relationship between harmony, rhythm and melody? Do you feel that honing your sense of rhythm and groove has an effect on your singing skills?  

I think the most important and uniting concept between harmony, rhythm and melody is balance. For example, if the melody is very fast and complex and then the groove is also very fast, complex and involved, they may not allow for either aspect to be heard with clarity.

So as a composer, I often think to myself, ok, who is the star of this moment? Is it the horn line, is it the vocal line, is it the groove? And then I shape the rest of the composition to help shine a light on the priority.

Not always, in the sense that all rules are made to be broken, but definitely something I think about.  

What are the potentials and limits of your voice? How much of your vocal performance can and do you want to control?

I’m not sure if anyone can truly know the potential and limits of their voice.

To me, my voice is simply another instrument I compose for. I do aim to control it to service the compositions.

As a singer, it is possible to whisper at the audience, scream at the audience, reveal deep secrets or confront them with uncomfortable truths. Tell me about the sense of freedom that singing allows you to express yourself and how you perceive and build the relation with the audience.

For me, the most important thing about singing is conveying genuineness. I think in order to do so, the performer has to be vulnerable and that an audience connects to that energy.

I'd love to know more about the vocal performances for What About The Butterfly, please, and the qualities of your voice that you wanted to bring to the fore.

There are vocals on all of the tracks of my latest album, which is a contrast from some of my other work.

I believe that vocals can make music more inviting to a wider range of listeners. I tried to write and sing as honestly as I could.

When you're writing song lyrics, do you sense or see a connection between your voice and the text? Does it need to feel and sound “good” or “right” to sing certain words? What's your perspective in this regard of singing someone else's songs versus your own?

Writing song lyrics is very tricky, definitely not my strength, but something I’ve worked on a lot and gotten much better at. I would describe myself primarily as a composer and piano player who sings.

That being said, lyrically, my latest work on What About the Butterfly is definitely my strongest work yet.

Strain is a particularly serious issue for many vocalists. How do you take care of your voice? Are the recipes or techniques to get a damaged voice back in shape?

I have never damaged my voice beyond what simple rest will heal.

I find that warmup is essential and correct form is also very important. If you do a 25 minute vocal warmup every day, you are much less likely to injure yourself.

How has technology, such as autotune or effect processing, impacted singing? Has it been a concrete influence on your own approach?

I think autotune is like any tool. It can be used well, it can be used poorly. At times it can be used creatively like Cher’s “Believe” - brilliant use of autotune!

But I personally do not use it when I’m singing jazz.

For recording engineers, the human voice remains a tricky element to capture. What are some of the favourite recordings of your own voice so far and what makes voices sound great on record and in a live setting?

My favorite vocal performance is what’s currently featured on my latest release What About The Butterfly.

I am especially proud of the song “Just Past The Waves.”



Motherese may have been the origin of music, and singing is possibly the earliest form of musical expression, and culture in general. How connected is the human voice to your own sense of wellbeing, your creativity, and society as a whole?

As a composer, my interest in the origin of music lies within the history of notation. In that sense, the first musical work ever written down was Hurrian Hymn #6 in the 1400s BC.



It amazes me that even at that time, we as a species had the need to immortalize a melody by writing it down.

In many ways, I think a lot of artistic creation is a reckoning with mortality and a celebration of life.