Jesse Palter Paper Trail
Prolific singer/songwriter Jesse Palter comes from a long line of creative genetics. Her great- grandfather invented iconic award-winning shoes, including the platform, the slingback and the peep- toe. Her great-grandmother was Estée Lauder’s interior decorator. And her grandmother is a notable New York opera prodigy. So it comes as no surprise that when this diminutive dynamo hits the stage, you’re in for a real experience. And like all great art, it’s autobiographical. Like an open book, she’s working out snapshots of her life onstage. The audience resonates. An artist is born.
By the time she signed to Artistry Music (a division of Mack Avenue Music Group), as the label’s first pop artist, she’d already written an astounding number of songs. Every time she sidles up to the piano to pen a new one, the Detroit born and bred/Los Angeles based multi-instrumentalist, commits to the discipline of perfecting her craft. She focuses on strengthening her creative muscles to explore what melodies, lyrics and chord changes work best. She allows herself to be vulnerable, brave and brutally honest at the same time.
All of the songs on Paper Trail, her full-length debut album, with ten tracks of aggressive, piano- pounding pop/rock in the soulful vein of Carole King, Sarah McLachlan and Sara Bareilles, were written by Palter. The first single, fan favorite “Sever The Ties,” is a powerful, rhythmic break-up song, that showcases Palter’s clever nuance and versatility.
The catchy track came to Palter in the shower: “The shampoo bottle fell and ricocheted off the shelf, hitting the shower door and bounced back a few times, causing this rhythmic pattern that made me think of the hand claps used throughout the song,” she explains.
Her powerful live performance during a recent Hotel Café residency literally brought down the house, showcasing her vocal versatility, as she seamlessly blends musical genres with nuance, attitude and style.
Paper Trail was produced by veteran keyboardist Doug Petty (Céline Dion, Britney Spears), who came in as a fan and agreed to produce her music whether she had a label deal or not. He helped Palter develop her unique sound and overall vision. His meticulous, mad scientist approach to production also allowed her to keep the integrity of her songs from demo stage through the various layers and textures brought forth, to compliment her artistry.
Testament to this artistry is the caliber of studio musicians who were invited to play on the project – including bassists Tim Lefebvre (David Bowie’s Blackstar) and Alex Al (Michael Jackson) and drummers Matt Chamberlain (Fiona Apple, Pearl Jam) and Aaron Sterling (John Mayer).
The album’s title track, the wistful ballad “Paper Trail,” is the one tune that came to Palter in a different way, in almost no time at all, as if divinely channeled. Though it’s a passionate, all at once melancholy and exuberant reflection on a love left behind, it became the perfect metaphor for the multi-faceted life and musical journey she’s been on these past years. It represents what the ten-track collection of songs means to her personally, as she moves forth into the next exciting phase of her career. Her multitude of talents as a vocalist and songwriter of strength and depth are showcased powerfully on the album.
“All of these songs are paving the way towards establishing myself as an artist and songwriter,” says Palter, who launched her career as a multiple award-winning jazz singer in Detroit and Chicago before moving to Los Angeles to pursue a career as an artist and a songwriter. “I feel most powerful and fulfilled right after I have completed a song. It’s truly a magical, if slightly elusive thing. I’m always in awe of the process. My approach throughout this project was to find a way to capture a full snapshot of my life and what I’ve been going through. This start of a new ‘Paper Trail’ is the beginning of what I hope will be a long, fulfilling journey.”
She continues: “I love that I have been able to tell my truths with songs that can mean so many things to different people,” she adds. “They’re about experiences I have had and the unique characters I have encountered living day to day in L.A., doing gigs everywhere I could, enjoying my life and pursuing my dream – while at the same time striving to make music that would both be authentic and take me to the next level in terms of building an audience. These tunes are 100 percent my life.”
Palter has been in the entertainment industry her entire life. She began singing publicly at age five and spent her childhood immersed in musical theatre, particularly during her years at a middle school specializing in the performing arts. She launched her jazz career as a teenager playing oboe and trumpet in the school’s jazz band and began writing songs. She made a connection with famed singer/songwriter Andrew Gold (“Thank You For Being A Friend”), who brought her to Nashville to work on original material and record a demo that gained the interest of several major labels.
At 15, she began working with the GRAMMY®-winning production team the Bass Brothers, renowned for their work with Eminem. Her skill at improvisational singing, a developing passion for legendary jazz vocalists and her desire to become more respected as an instrumentalist, inspired an artistic shift towards jazz. She was accepted at the University of Michigan as a jazz vocalist and enrolled as a jazz and contemplative studies major during an immensely creative time. Her roommate was GRAMMY, Oscar® and Tony Award®-winning songwriter Benj Pasek (Pasek & Paul) best known for La La Land and The Greatest Showman. She also studied alongside some of the members of critically-acclaimed jazz/funk unit Vulfpeck, who’ve gone on to fund an admission free tour with their royalties.
Palter honed her skills performing throughout the Detroit area, sharing stages with music greats such as Christian McBride, Geoffrey Keezer, Avishai Cohen, Sean Jones and Marcus Belgrave, and later headlined at top venues across the country. She joined forces with keyboardist Sam Barsh to create Palter Ego, a popular duo that blended upbeat pop, jazz and soul, before moving to Los Angeles.
The move from jazz to pop was seamless, with her eclectic musical upbringing and deep respect and admiration for great songs and songwriters. She grew up with parents whose passion for music inspired her with a diverse record collection going from Carole King and Joni Mitchell to Prince, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and The Beatles.
The process of real life has given her plenty of material to work with. Her soulful and beautifully inspirational ballad “Alright In Time,” the first song written for the album, led to an incredible outpouring of emotion, and became the driving force of the project. She left a frustrating industry meeting where one of the powers that be told her he saw her as a certain type of artist. The sarcastic lyric “Watch me paint a self-portrait according to you” sparked a song that any creative soul who has ever been put in a box restricting their self-expression can relate to.
Palter shares her more rockin’ side on “TMI (Wouldn’t You Like To Know),” an irrepressibly funky, slyly self-deprecating jab at her propensity for putting her foot in her mouth. The album also includes the edgy, incisive pop-rocker “Heavy Is The Crown” exploring narcissism in the #metoo era, and the brooding, warning-filled power ballad “The Wrong Girl,” spoken like a true Detroit bad ass. Underscoring all of her myriad emotions throughout is Petty’s grounded but transcendent piano work, which eases effortlessly from states of grace to hypnotic pounding.
The clever songwriter has sharply chronicled some highs and lows. In “Waitin’,” the last song she wrote for the album, one might assume it’s about unrequited love. In actuality, it’s about her proving she’s a prolific songwriter with a plea to her label to move faster to seal the deal. “Wildfire” is a good, old- fashioned love song, where Palter boldly walked into a first-time session saying she wanted to write a song about sex – and cranked it out in one session. “Heart So Cold,” was written for a friend about a guy who was cheating on her. While sitting in a Whole Foods parking lot she had a synesthetic experience, seeing colors take shape, which became lyrics in the chorus. Her friend approved it, but the song ended up being more for Palter.
The album’s closer “Goodbye My Friend,” came to her in a dream where someone died. The day she signed her record deal, her aunt committed suicide. Though the song was about someone else, it took on a new meaning and was a powerful experience to record. You can hear the emotion in the track where Palter’s voice cracks. The producer insisted on leaving it in. It’s a dedication to her aunt.
Comments Palter: “Throughout my career, I feel like I have been progressing all along as a writer and discovering my own space and who I wanted to be,” Jesse says. “I’ve always been struck with all elements of the great songwriting I heard growing up – strong melodies, harmony and lyrics that had something important to convey. When I write, there are often chord changes and harmonies that reflect my jazzy background, but when I was working on this project, I purposely tried not to think about it and just wrote what came naturally.”
In her down time, she continues to gig around town, including performances with Jeff Goldblum, who once tapped her for a private event to open for her idol Carole King.
For more information, please visit www.jessepalter.com. Follow @jessepalter on social media.
Jesse Palter • Paper Trail Artistry Music • Release Date: July 19, 2019
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