#109 Alyssa Jacey
Alyssa Jasey - host audio and ringr_160211_164758_beatrice_empktpr.com
Rae Leigh: Welcome to a Songwriter tryst with Alyssa Jacey how are you?
Alyssa Jacey: Hi, I'm good.
I'm doing well. As we were just kind of briefly discussing yesterday was a big day.
Rae Leigh: Yep. So do you have a down day today after such a big fun day?
Alyssa Jacey: absolutely. Nursing myself to health again,
Rae Leigh: What's your poison. I'm going to ask you that. What, like, what is the thing that when you're celebrating you go to
Alyssa Jacey: celebration wise. I mean, yesterday in particular, it had been, I spent three months in this year, not drinking because I actually froze my eggs and you're not really
Rae Leigh: oh, well done.
Alyssa Jacey: you. Thank you,
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Alyssa Jacey: Quite a process going through that. And my friend who I played a show with yesterday, I promised him that we will have champagne. Well, he was really promising me that we'll have champagne. So we started with that, but then
Rae Leigh: Yep.
Alyssa Jacey: it went into it was just not that then it went into vagus Tito's soda, like all day.
Rae Leigh: Well done champagne. I love champagne, but it does go straight to my head,
but I'm impressed that you that you have frozen your eggs. That's a really big process to go through.
Alyssa Jacey: Thank you so much for that.
Rae Leigh: Do you have children?
Alyssa Jacey: I, don't. And that's why I'm actually finalizing a divorce. Just been married one and because I am 39 and don't have kids, I really wanted to do that because I want to, when they
Rae Leigh: Yeah, fair enough. I wasn't, we're going to have children, but I ended up with three. I blame the alcohol, I love them. babies are always good news. and that was the advice that someone gave me once. And I've stuck with that. But I have a sister who has tried IVF multiple times and she has has not been successful.
And so I'm actually going through the process now to donate my eggs so that she can use them.
So I was wondering about that process, cause I'm a bit nervous about, you know, the needles and the hormones and everything, but I was like, I know I have healthy eggs at work and I don't want them anymore. I've got enough.
So I'm like, you know, why not give it a go and see if it can give her hope of having a child as
Alyssa Jacey: that is incorrect. Incredible. I'm so happy to hear that you're doing that. And I'm sure that she is you know, over the moon. I can only imagine.
Rae Leigh: It's such a big process, but at the same time, it's it's worth a little bit of discomfort to give someone that joy of having a child. So I hope that you do get to have your own little one at the right time.
Alyssa Jacey: Nothing like with those needles, I hate needles. I hate them. I, hate them. I hate them.
Rae Leigh: me
Alyssa Jacey: Ugh. But I did It It helped having my,
I FaceTimed my dad the first time. So it was like someone was there with me when I did it.
And I FaceTime my mom the second time. I did it. And, you know I don't know what kind of support system you have there that maybe people can come over. And like, some of my girlfriends came over when I did it. So it really made the beginning, like the first week, a lot easier than the second week I was doing it by myself. No problem.
Rae Leigh: Yeah, no, I don't like needles to the point that I refused like epidurals and stuff, and I had three natural births because I'm so scared of a needle in the spine. Like anyway, it's really off topic. But I was just, I was curious, so I was just going to ask anyway, So I usually get people to start being a songwriting podcast to tell us a little bit about who you are and where you come from.
Alyssa Jacey: sure I am from San Diego, California, and I live in Nashville, Tennessee.
I never intended on being a musician or a singer or songwriter. I spent most of my life teaching dance or dancing, dance classes, dance teams identify the super Superbowl. I've been a courtyard. Yeah. And it's, and you're still a big part of my life.
I love dancing so much and I'm still choreographing it still. A couple of years ago, I choreograph three live dances for my friends, AP release party, which I had never done before,
Rae Leigh: Yay. Amazing.
Alyssa Jacey: but that's what I used to do. So I, and I went to school graduated from college and I thought I was, I had a communications major. I dropped my minor, but I was minoring in Spanish for quite a while.
Rae Leigh: Yep.
Alyssa Jacey: really know what I was going to do. I just thought I was going to dance and I'm in the middle of school actually took off two and a half years and just was working in restaurants and dancing, kind of figuring myself out. And nine months of those two and a half years, I moved to Los Angeles to teach dance. And that is where my singing career started. And it's a really, it's super strange. I was 23, almost 24, and I was singing at work and my coworkers heard me singing and they're like, you should try karaoke and we're going to force.
Rae Leigh: as all good friends do.
Alyssa Jacey: That's why I always say you never know, kind of like golden pieces of like good nugget advice that your friends might come up with more might try to talk you into doing, because I'm not rare occasion that they're right. It could be something amazing.
Rae Leigh: yeah, Absolutely.
Alyssa Jacey: so,
Rae Leigh: So you went to karaoke
Alyssa Jacey: so, the bar I worked at is one of the like four part time jobs that I had in LA. I would talk tail waitressing at a place called Gotham hall on third, the third street promenade, which the bar is no longer around, but they're like starting Wednesday of next week. We're going to start doing karaoke, Wednesdays. You're going to open the night. And I say,
Rae Leigh: oh yeah. What you're working to
They, oh, wow. Yep. Okay. Bit out of the job description.
Alyssa Jacey: A little bit.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Alyssa Jacey: I remember, I just remember, I remember everything about that whole three and a half minutes. It's so clear. Like it just happened. I remember I sang life goes on by Leann Rimes cause I was listening to country back then and I don't really listen to as much country now, but I already ugly had just come out that movie. So it was like big song. Yeah.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Alyssa Jacey: And
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Alyssa Jacey: I got off stage and just kind of went back around my business, you know, waiting on my tables and every single table that I went to said the exact same thing almost verbatim, which was, that was great. I love your voice. Where can we see your next show or where can we buy a CD?
And that's how my whole career started.
Rae Leigh: plus all that gives me chills. So they just all loved you that much and they wanted to support you in being a singer and you just weren't even thinking
Alyssa Jacey: Wasn't even thinking about it. And it took me a whole year of listening to to S for singing karaoke and hearing those same compliments. I mean, that was in LA.
So when I moved back to finished school and I continued to do karaoke once a week, and literally like, just about every single night, I heard those exact same words. Where are you playing? Where can we see a show? How could we buy a CD? So after a year of hearing the same thing virtually every single week I made the decision and it was December of 2004 to call the only that I knew.
And I said, I know, you know, me as Liz JC the choreographer, but I think I'm supposed to be a singer.
Can you record me?
Rae Leigh: that's awesome. So did you then, did you have your own songs that you wanted to write? I mean, like if people are asking, they want to give you money and for how many years was it a full year or two years doing karaoke.
Alyssa Jacey: of singing karaoke.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. And think about all the money that you could have made even just selling CDs for the people that wanted to,
Alyssa Jacey: Yeah.
Rae Leigh: that'd be like, okay, there's a missed opportunity here. Absolutely. Did you, were you writing songs at home
Alyssa Jacey: No, I hadn't even written a song, so, and again, his response he's like, I'm, the producer is like, yeah, I can record you. Do you have any songs? And I'm like, oh yeah. That's okay. So I just sat down and it was like the longest kiss. It was my first single. Then I wrote a song called believing in you. It's about believing in yourself. And then my grandma had just passed,
That next month. And so I wrote a song called you a part of me, which was about my grandma and that was my first demo or those three songs.
Rae Leigh: Wow. And how did that first song writing process go for you? Like, did you get any help? What did you just give it a
Alyssa Jacey: I just gave it a go. It just came out. It's everything about this career is still I'm sitting here right now. Kind of with my hand over my face. Cause I'm still in disbelief. I just it's. It's been, it has been 16 years and it's still so mind boggling to me that this happened.
Rae Leigh: Yeah, that's, it's absolutely crazy, but I'm so glad that deeds and I'm so glad that you
followed the signs, even if it took a year of people saying where's you see day for you to go do that. it's
Alyssa Jacey: well, I so badly, and thank you so much for saying that and thank you for having me on this because I so badly want my story to be shared, to inspire other people to live out
their dreams or explore other options. Get creative, find a passion. You never know. That's my favorite thing to say in the world. My favorite phrase is you never know, because you never know, what curve balls life are to life is gonna throw at you. You never know what doors might open or closed leads you to another one. I mean, you just don't know.
Rae Leigh: so true. So true.
Alyssa Jacey: Right? So thank you so much for having me today because I opportunity
to share this with people and anyone who's listening. I truly hope
that you know, you find your passion and go for it.
Rae Leigh: So tell us a little bit about how this journey unfolded you. You went to your friends, you got these three songs produced. like, how did this ball start rolling and just keep building momentum to where you are now? What do you think? A few of the key moments
that really stood out to you, that made you go wow, this is exactly where you're meant to
Alyssa Jacey: absolutely. The drive that I saw unfold within myself was. Probably like the reason why anything has happened for me in my career, because I had never seen myself motivated before. Like I have been in music. I kind of, half-assed a lot of stuff. Like, yes, I was a professional dancer, but I was never great.
I couldn't, I would never call myself a great dancer. I was good, but there are a great team surrounding me and they took off and they did things like backup dance for Justin Timberlake and usher and you know, people like that. And I just was never get there. Even when I moved to LA to teach dance, I was drinking too much and working for part-time jobs as a cocktail waitress.
I mean, I have asked it, you know, and I got like A's and B's in school and CS too sometimes. And I could have been there, but then music came about and it was like, I hit the ground sprinting. So after these three songs were produced and recorded, I stopped at nothing to get local interviews, paper, radio station, like almost instantly local radio was playing the longest kiss.
I submitted it to play at the Del Mar fair, which is now called the San Diego county fair. I got accepted and I didn't play any instruments at the time. So I asked one of my friends to play guitar for me and I sang to a backing track and
not left and right. Just next thing I know it's these songs and they still, to this day, they just pour out.
It's unsafe, it's unstoppable the creation activity.
Rae Leigh: Yeah,
Alyssa Jacey: So is each
Rae Leigh: that's
Alyssa Jacey: It's just been fun and as each cool, great thing happened, I would just piggyback off of that. And then. And kept that energy flowing. And just next thing I know I'm going on his little miniature tour, I've been booking myself. So I've, I booked myself in Europe.
I've booked myself all over the nation. I got myself on different other TV stations and radio stations and just, it just kinda came, it came, the next steps just became apparent as
Hit that, you know, let's just call it like a list of goals or something as I hit each goal,
the next one became apparent. And then I'd okay. Check that off the list. Then the next one became apparent and that's kinda just how it keeps going.
Rae Leigh: We just kept doing the next thing in front of
Alyssa Jacey: yeah. Yeah. There's no real planning, honestly. It was just I think this is what I'm
supposed to do. And I think this is what I'm supposed to do next. And I think this is how I'm supposed to do it. And branding with blue came really easily for me playing guitar. Like
it just, everything just kind of, I don't know, it just works so lucky, but I worked.
Rae Leigh: It's one of those things that, yeah. You know, when you know Danny
Alyssa Jacey: Yes.
Rae Leigh: and you worked hard, you have to work hard.
Alyssa Jacey: Yes. I mean, this is, I might be making it sound like it's easy, but no, this has been a trying industry to be in. And I've second guessed myself more times than I can count, but I've been
more sure of myself than I haven't been. And I believe that's how anyone can get to that next step.
Rae Leigh: I used to hate that phrase before I was married and stuff that people say, you know, when you know, you know, and I was like that's so like cliche, but then like, yeah, for me, I feel
like becoming a musician. I think I always knew I just had a lot of fee there. You know, being a songwriter, like I was, I've been. songwriting since I was six, but it was always a private like diary writing thing. Like no one knew that's who I was. And I feel like I've finally come out of the closet. Yeah.
It is one of those things that like, yeah. Once, once you actually make that decision of this is who I am, and this is who I'm going to be just doing it. Like once the doubt gets out of the way, I think that's a big thing that a lot of people struggle with.
How have you dealt with that?
Alyssa Jacey: Well, the doubt is everywhere. I mean, I can look out the window and see doubt. Like it's surrounds you if you focus on it. Right. So what I've done is I use the phrase blinders. I put my metaphorical blinders on and I just stayed the course because it's so easy to
fall victim to the negativity and right off the bat, I was being told by so many people, oh, you
don't want to get into music. You don't want to get into this industry. It's so to it so hard to make it well. I something happened in me that made me almost want to hear that because I wanted to prove them wrong. So I guess I took the doubt and ignored the, can I cuss on here?
Rae Leigh: Yeah,
Alyssa Jacey: Ignore the shit out of It
Rae Leigh: Well done.
Alyssa Jacey: Got it. Put your metaphorical blinders on and keep moving forward. So, I mean, again, not everything's rainbows and butterflies. So when I did, when the doubt has set in before, like for example, I find my voice to be very inconsistent.
Sometimes I feel like I sound great. And sometimes I'm like, oh no, why are you crying? But,
I,
Rae Leigh: It might be the champagne.
Alyssa Jacey: yes, You learn quickly that drink during performances is not a good thing. So i, I did that like the first couple of years to get through some butterflies, but yes, I don't do that
I mean, not a lot,
but So, yeah, you just, I guess, oh shoot. No, I don't even know I was going to say it, but yeah, that
Rae Leigh: You get, through the doubt and you just, and I think it's good to acknowledge that we all
feel it. Entities there. It's not like some people will don't have any doubt and just, super confident all the time. It's like, it's a choice you have to continuously choose to be confident and be who you are and know that like no deep down inside you beyond everything else, that this is what you're meant to be doing. And that's, that is a beautiful confidence to have. And that will help you get through the get through those doubts because fear holds us back. I know it held me back for a very long time, but you know, it's going to keep going. I love it. So
Alyssa Jacey: fear then. Do you just kind of unfolded for you? Like, oh, this is actually a lot and I don't have to be scared of this. This is a lot easier, more fun than I ever thought it could be.
Rae Leigh: I don't, I literally feel like someone flipped a switch inside my body.
It was like fear off. And I think it was for me a self-worth thing, like something in my head clicked where it was like, no one else in the world is ever going to give me the validation that I feel like I need. Other than myself, or like my, belief of myself, and I'm never gonna make everyone happy because beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I have to do what I love. And then like once I kind of realized that I was like, oh my goodness, I can do whatever I want. And no one really, it doesn't really matter what anyone else thinks.
And as long as I'm having fun and I'm being true to myself and I validate myself and like, I hold my own integrity and I can sit with that. Other people can say whatever they want to say and think whatever they want to think. But the good people that see what I'm doing and the reasons I'm doing it, they'll gravitate towards me.
And, you know, yeah, I dunno. It was like an instant thing. I feel like it's like my second life, I was rebel and in my kitchen,
Alyssa Jacey: I see, ah, I love this story too. I hope you get the opportunity to share this story as often as you can.
Rae Leigh: well, tell me your story. So like what is it that your doing your music for? What's your hope behind the message and the music that you're
Alyssa Jacey: I will tell you exactly. And that's where I, my brain stopped thinking about a minute ago,
I was I've met
Rae Leigh: Okay. Let's go.
Alyssa Jacey: and I learned maybe six years ago, what my whole purpose on this earth is it's not to entertain. It's not to play music. It's to inspire people through my story. So when people see me, a lot of people assume I've been playing guitar and songwriting and singing since I was a kid and they assume like, oh, you must have wanted to do this your whole life.
And I'm like, actually, no, I had no idea that I had a voice. I had no idea that I'd be able to play instruments or song right at all. And. So my purpose behind the music really is just to get a chance to say this story. I want to inspire people through be like being someone who spent almost a quarter of their life, not knowing that they had these, I guess, for lack of better words, talents, maybe they're underdeveloped and I'm always going to be developing them.
But I'm a professional now. And I never knew that I had that in me. And I think that's so special and important and I to get out because I guarantee you that there are so many other people just like me who don't know what the possibilities are in front of them. And they're living their life unhappy or feeling maybe empty or like a piece is missing.
And I want to help you. Like, I want to help you understand that's not how you have to live your life. And that's why. I have, an inspirational career coaching business called I am unashamedly me.
Rae Leigh: Nice.
Alyssa Jacey: I love to share this story and inspire and help other people find their passions And cultivate their passions and talents. and whether they are just hobbies or they turn it into a full-time job. So that is my it's the long winded answer to your question of what? Why am I doing this? Well, I love it. I love it, but it's to be inspirational and motivate other people
Rae Leigh: and you're living like you're living by example. And I absolutely respect that And I
think what you said is exactly what everyone needs. Like everyone needs someone to believe in them and to show them that they can believe in themselves too. And that's one thing that has been very clear when I have been talking to people in this podcast on a regular basis over the last seven months. Is that no one. Has done what they have done without someone else, even if it's just one of the person believing in them and saying, yes, you can do this. Isn't that crazy? Like it doesn't like we need someone else to give us that validation of yes, you can do it. You have to have it like kids that are doing it is because they've got parents to say, yes, you can do this.
One of the reasons I didn't do it for so long is because I didn't have anyone saying that's okay. That's okay to want to be a singer songwriter and go and be an artist because that wasn't a thing in my family or where I grew up in a small country town. You don't people where I come from don't do that.
You know, I had to have a husband and a few of his friends and then over a long period of time, little small micro people saying, yeah, I think you should be doing that. Yes.
Alyssa Jacey: Wow. Well, that's I agree with that. And you need to have a strong support system. There's no way. I would be where I am today without my core three, which had been my mom, my dad, my brother, they have supportive. I mean, from the second I told them I was gonna pursue music and my dad was a little bit harder to crack just because I had just moved back from LA to San Diego and started going back to school again.
And he's like, oh, you just moved to LA to teach dance. And you're going back to, I do music. I don't know, but he's been one of my strongest supporters. I mean, he's constantly sending out my newsletter to his friends or inviting his friends to my shows. And he's so proud of me, my parents and my brother, and they're proud and I could not have done much of anything in life.
Really. Everybody needs it. And of course friends, and then the more you sing and the more you get in front of people, the more people hear you, the more people might enjoy and they tell you, and it's incredible. And. Some of my favorite memories and it's my most recent memories are crying after shows because people are coming up to me and saying, you inspired me through your story to do this.
Like, I'm going to, I'm going to move from where was it playing in San Juan Capistrano at a
place called the coach house. One of my other favorite venues in the world. and there's a woman after the show. And she's like, I have been on the fence about whether or not I should pursue this other career and leave my job and you know what, I'm going to do it.
I have confidence in myself. I heard your story. I'm so inspired by you. And like where people come to me and say, I inspire them. That's my purpose. I'm living my purpose. And I'm not asking them to tell me that they're just doing it, which means I'm fulfilling my purpose. And it makes me so full. I'm just full of joy and happiness. and so, but it's just, it's the constant support as a support system. We need it and with everything.
Rae Leigh: That's amazing and well done. I think that being an inspiration to other people is one of the greatest gifts that we can be. and one of the greatest purposes you can have because we need each other and that's the reality of it. You know, we can't, it's not, I am legend. We're not all running around an empty planet.
We, we, we can't do what we do without others. And music connects us. Tell me about some of the like your most exciting moment of that. Like, I guess there's those moments when people come up and tell you how much it meant to you, but has it been like your favorite experience or co-write or something that, yeah,
Alyssa Jacey: Well, I knew the second we started asking this question. I have a smile on my face because I have a few of these stories, but the main one that came to mind was, again, I'm playing at the coach house 700 seat venue, sold out opening for Shawn Colvin. Do you know who that is?
Rae Leigh: No, I
Alyssa Jacey: She has a hit song.
Like her biggest song was called Sonny came home. She was big in the nineties late nineties, early two thousands. And it was just, it usually there's an opening act, a supporting act. And then the headliner and on that bill, it was just me opening for Sean. So right away, that was pretty cool. And I was a fan of her.
I mean, again, I'm now opening. I've opened for women who are huge to me in the nineties that I never, because I wasn't a musician. So I'm just listening to the music, liking it and who the hell would have known that later on in life opening for them. Mind-blowing so this is moment, which you can actually look up on YouTube.
Thank goodness. It was kind of recorded. Someone was filming at a table and it just got from my knees down so you can see my bare feet. But it was my very first standing ovation
and.
Rae Leigh: Oh, wow.
Alyssa Jacey: my God, it was incredible. I had just written a song called down and I really wanted to debut it. And I ended the set with that song.
And it's, it is a very, it's a, gosh, I don't know how you call it like a bittersweet, but moving song. And I play that song. I ended with it and then the applause and the whistling seemed to just never end and people stood up and it was oh, and you can see, you can't see my face and you can't see them, but you can hear them.
You can see my feet go like back and forth. Oh, excited. Like, oh my gosh. Thank you. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. It was dead silent too. At the end of the song, like you could hear a pin drop and then interrupted and I will just, I'll never forget that moment. It was so magical and like, whoa, look at me.
I'm opening for Shawn Colvin. Someone I've been a fan of since before I played music and now I'm getting a standing ovation at the coach house for like most famous people have performed. Like this is my life.
Rae Leigh: That's crazy.
Alyssa Jacey: that's, one of them. I don't know how many other stories you want, but I have a couple other ones. If you want to share it, if you want to hear.
Rae Leigh: I have to hear. that song now.
Alyssa Jacey: Yeah, please do look it up. The live version just came out last month or an in late March. It's on and then parentheses arms of love. And there's the recorded version that came out, I think in 2013 or 14.
Rae Leigh: amazing. So, yeah that's I can't even imagine, like, I mean, I love it when I haven't had like that moment yet it'll come. But like the moments when you see people connecting to your music and that sort of pin dropping moment, even if it's just with one person it's like, it's magical. So I'm so glad to hear that you.
That you've had That sort of validation and recognition for what you've been able to achieve it. So
Alyssa Jacey: thank you.
Rae Leigh: Have you done much? Co-writing
Alyssa Jacey: So yes. Nashville kind of forces you to do that before I moved to Nashville, I could probably count on one hand how many times I had co-written it's so different in San Diego, the songwriting scene, and then you come here and it's just everybody's job. Like everyone's a songwriter and I correct.
Correct. Correct. And for the first, maybe two and a half, three years, I've been here nine and a half years now. I was co-writing. All the time. And I just wasn't, I wasn't getting out the songs that I wanted.
And unfortunately, this is a sad part of this industry, but men tend to sometimes
utilize that, oh, let's co-write to hit on you.
And it became, oh, just like what the word painstakingly annoying that I stopped writing. And I stopped writing with men. I stopped running with women. I just like, I don't want you to try to use this as a time to waste my time. I'm when I'm correct. I'm there to work. And so yeah.
Rae Leigh: So That that happened That happened multiple times for you.
Alyssa Jacey: Oh, sorry.
Rae Leigh: Was it just a couple? Just all the time?
Alyssa Jacey: I didn't co-write for years. I, and I've been co-running again now for about three, but yeah, there are probably a good three years where I might have co-written with like a friend here and there or something, but, not, I stayed, it was awful.
Rae Leigh: It's funny. Cause a lot of the people that I worked with in Nashville, they won't work in
like, like in twos they always want groups of three and maybe that's why,
Alyssa Jacey: Yeah,
Rae Leigh: because in Australia it's like I've only ever done, individual co-writes like me and one other
person, I went to Nashville. I'm like, why is everyone writing in threes? And you know what? That makes so much sense because how much safer is it having another person in the room?
Alyssa Jacey: Yes.
Rae Leigh: I could just make it straight
Alyssa Jacey: Yeah, absolutely. I found two people. There are two people that I write songs with. Now one's a guy, one's a girl and I will shout their names out because they are incredible artists. The guy's name is Tolan Shaw, T O L a N S H a w. And is Christie Huff, H U F F. And she's in LA he's here in Nashville.
We were introduced by one of Jason morasses co-writers that?
Was a judge on a panel for a songwriting competition that I won back in San Diego a couple of years ago.
Rae Leigh: Yep.
Alyssa Jacey: he's like, you gotta meet this guy tall. And he just moved to Nashville. We've written together.
He's written with Jason. Like I think you guys would hit it off and Tolan and I four out of
four or five out of five now writing sessions, just some of my favorite songs, just boom. And then same with christie. She's insane. Talented. My God, these people are so good.
Rae Leigh: It's so good.
When you find people that you actually click with though, like and you know that. you can go back and it's just going to come out
Alyssa Jacey: Well, you need to be a fan of theirs too. I believe like the people that, you write with you, I assume you've heard their stuff before and you like their stuff, right?
Rae Leigh: yeah. Well, not always, like I'm learning that. I think I've been doing a lot of co-writing and just trying to meet people that, you know, see what comes out of it. Cause you never know what's going to come out. Sometimes it's absolute gold and you can't expect that. And then other times it's like trying to pull teeth.
But either way, it doesn't matter what the experience you're going to end up with a song baby at the end of it. If you don't give up and I'm a big believer in finishing the song always. And that, that song can still, even if it's a really hard experience, that song can
still go out into the world and do amazing things. You know, it, you may never want to speak to your co-writer again, as long as you get all your paperwork in line, you don't have to. But yeah, it's just one of those things it's like, I do really like writing with new people, even if the only thing I learned is that it wasn't a good correct,
Alyssa Jacey: Interesting.
Rae Leigh: Jimmy. But I think it's just about being open to it.
Can, it may not be great, but that's okay. You're not going to know unless you
Alyssa Jacey: Yeah, I want to say, oh God, I don't want to rain on that positive
comment.
Rae Leigh: no, go on, go ahead. If, I mean, if I'd had the experiences that you had and like people kept on trying to sleep with me and like, look, I'm married with three kids. I still get hit on like all the time. And that's fine. I'm kind of used to it now. And I actually just I think that it takes a bit of guts when people do hit on me.
And so I just like, well, you know, good for you to having the courage, but, if I try to do work and trying to be professional and people kept hitting on me when we've organized a co-write, but you know, you rock up for one thing and they try to trick you into something else. That's not cool. And that would wear you down.
Absolutely.
Alyssa Jacey: it's that? And it's my time is precious. I think if there's anything I've learned in my last, not, I think I know I'm certain, if there's anything I've learned in my last year and a half on this earth, I have learned that you cannot get back time and life is you know, we're throwing out cliches today, but life is short And, never know what tomorrow is gonna bring. And so if someone's going to get together with me, even if it's, even if it's, I'm not someone that hits on me, guy, girl, whoever, but it's someone who wants to do mess around the whole Time Like, okay, we get together, we talk for 10, 15 minutes. That's fine. Let's get to work.
But some people want to talk over coffee for an hour first or like tell me their life story. And I'm like no, we're not here at the lunch for that. This is work.
Rae Leigh: I'm not your therapist.
Alyssa Jacey: Yeah.
Rae Leigh: You're right. Time is absolutely precious. And I'm definitely learning that the more and more I get into This industry is like, be more conscious about like, even with this podcast, like I'm getting loads of submissions all the time and I love everyone and I wish I could interview everyone, but it is about, you know, picking the people that are going to add the most value to the podcast and to me and to everyone who's listening, you know?
Alyssa Jacey: yeah. Amazing. I totally agree.
Rae Leigh: But that comes with with experience. And so we just got to go with it. All right. So tell me what's the best advice you've ever received being a songwriter?
Alyssa Jacey: Okay. So being a songwriter different than just in general being better
Rae Leigh: Well, if yeah, they can overlap sometimes. Can't they.
Alyssa Jacey: I'll we can off the cuff, I would say just, and this is so, gosh, I'm going to be a hypocrite here because I typically don't go back and rework the song just about every song that you've ever heard of mine online was written. And that's how it started. That's how it ended. That's how it was recorded. I don't go back and change it. And I'm starting to do that now with the last like six months, I'm starting to do what I was told to do several years ago, which is make sure the song is what you want it. Like, you can sit on it for a little bit. You don't have to write it, record it, release it. You don't have to do that. And.
Rae Leigh: It's hard though, because you want
Alyssa Jacey: Oh, my gosh. Do I ever
Rae Leigh: like everything in your body is like release it. Now I just wrote it last night.
Alyssa Jacey: And that's how I roll it. That's how I've been doing. Like, I'll write a song one night and then the very next day I'll play it live at a show. Just cause I get out
Rae Leigh: Me too.
Alyssa Jacey: awesome.
Rae Leigh: I'm sorry like that, but I have heard the rewrite thing and I'm starting to think that maybe rewriting And sitting on it for a little while is a good idea.
Alyssa Jacey: Yeah. And you know, it doesn't even necessarily have to be, I use that word rewrite and maybe it is rewriting, but you want to just, you want to go over each word means something and Nashville. I love you because you taught me to look at my songs and like really be into like with intent. You have the, you want to make sure that you're S you're getting out the specifics of what you want the world to hear. And. So with these newer songs I've been writing the last probably now coming up to a year. Definitely since the B they'd be in a pandemic. And then also at the beginning of this year, I've written the best material and it should be the more you write the better the materials should be. But these to me are like light years different in songwriting than where I was just a year and a half ago.
And it's I leave it to be because I'm reworking them.
Rae Leigh: been the biggest difference. Like what do you think kind of gave you that real aha moment of like, okay, let's start reworking these
Alyssa Jacey: well, it's I, to be honest, like listening to Christie Hough she's she has a Cape of a vocal capability for melodies. She's got such an amazing artistic creative brain for vocal melodies. So I might be, you know, more of the lyricist or like playing guitar in our co-writes, but she comes up with. These insane melodies.
And so it's people like Christie who inspire me in Tolan as well, who, who inspired me to look at my vocal melody. And often in my older songs, you'll hear that my vocals kind of follow the chords and that's okay. Sometimes it's good. Sometimes. Maybe not. I don't know if that song is
so great because of that. Whereas now I'm dancing all over the place with my vocals, doing all kinds of different things. And I think that really draws the ear in more And it makes me appreciate the song more as the writer.
Rae Leigh: I love that. I'm a total middle of the melody person and I love working with lyricists, but I do, I love it when the melody and the chords, they harmonize with each other and It's like a dance.
Alyssa Jacey: it is like a dance. It is fun. Oh my God.
It's like even more fun to write
songs now.
Rae Leigh: It's possible. If I could have more fun writing songs, like yeah. I mean, it's something I do
Alyssa Jacey: Yeah,
Rae Leigh: whenever I get the chance, but yeah, no that's really cool. And if you could go back or say, you're talking to like teenagers or people who are just starting out, cause you're an inspirational coaches, What, you'd love to do. What do you
think is like some of the key advice.
Well, things that you would say to people when they're coming to
Alyssa Jacey: you got yourself. You have absolutely got.
To believe in yourself if you don't, if you second, guess yourself too much, like you're human, we're all gonna, we're all gonna second guess ourselves. As I said that earlier, I second, guess myself a bunch, but you've got to believe in yourself because if you don't believe in you, no one else is going to, and you know, you can look at it whatever way he wants you, but this is somewhat of a sales profession where you're selling yourself. You're selling people on your music and you as a person. And if you don't have confidence, that's like a cell.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Yeah. And confidence can be hard to find sometimes.
Alyssa Jacey: it can be, but it's those little like victories that you hold onto like that Shawn Colvin standing ovation that stacked onto another victory was stacked onto another victory. And then all of a sudden, now I'm looking at mountains of victories and that's what you focus on. And you,
It's just it's constant work like work ethic. You want to get better. You want to work on yourself
all the time, working on your songs, working on your performance. So, but you don't, you can't really go anywhere unless the core is there and the core is believing in yourself. So I would say that's the number one thing. And then the second thing is surrounding yourself with like-minded people. You don't want to be hanging out with friends who are drag, wiggle, I'm always broke or I'm so depressed or, you know, hating on life. You want to surround yourself with like-minded and positive motivated people.
Rae Leigh: yes. And that is such a huge difference. You hang out at the
gym, you're going to get fit. You're hanging out at the bar. You're going to get drunk.
Alyssa Jacey: Yeah.
Rae Leigh: As you know, you choose you, choose which one you go to.
And
Alyssa Jacey: Yesterday you were all over the place.
Rae Leigh: I'm actually kind of curious in, like, you don't have to share if You don't want to but you have some serious drive and I recognize that in you, it takes one to know one, but like, do you know where that drive comes from within you? Cause I can see it through this computer and I'm listening to you and I'm like, whoa, she's got like some deep heart and drive in there that keeps her going.
And I know you're having fun and I know, you know, your purpose, but have you ever looked at what that deeper driver is for you
Alyssa Jacey: I'm glad that you asked me this question. It's going to make me really think about giving a good answer. The first thing I want to respond with is before music and I know I mentioned this already. I did not have a fricking percentage worth of the drive that came out of nowhere when this career.
Across the face. I mean, again, like I just, I could have, if I put this effort into my schooling, I'd probably be a doctor. I put it into dance. I would be on tour with usher, dancing for him or Janet Jackson. Remember it. And it just, I think I have to use the whole cliche thing of when, you know, you know, and this, I refer to this career when it showed up in my life as the universe literally smacking me across the face and shaking me on the shoulders and saying, if you do not pursue this career, you are going to be unhappy for the rest of your life.
I was told by some other force. And I perhaps like, because I was gifted that, gosh, this is the first time I'm saying this out loud. It's kind of weird. It almost makes me want to cry.
It may be this drive is my way of thinking. Whoever put that in front of my face.
Let them down, whoever event that God, the universe, whoever you want to say, but I feel chosen like this career chose me. I didn't choose it. And so I don't notice that even make sense.
Rae Leigh: oh, absolutely. Yeah. I feel, yeah, absolutely. I think it's absolutely beautiful that you just got to give back, like when you're given such a gift, you know, give some meant to be shared, they're meant to be unwrapped and used. and I felt like I feel like such a hypocrite because it took me so long to recognize that because that gift kept me alive. through Like PTSD and some traumatic events and music literally like kept me alive.
Like I didn't kill myself because I could play an instrument And I could sing a song. And that made like that gave me hope that it was going to get better, you know?
Alyssa Jacey: so true.
Rae Leigh: Absolutely music saves lives and it wasn't until I started to, I dealt with some of that stuff and I started, I got to the sort of end of the tunnel and I could recognize what music had done for me.
Like therapists had told me that music had saved my life, but I didn't see it at the time. And then I'm like, hang on a second. I'm singing these songs in my bedroom, these this music that comes to me, that's healing me and keeping me alive. I'm keeping it to myself. And I'm like, how selfish is that?
Like this music and what it's done for me,
if that could even do it for one other person it's worth
Alyssa Jacey: my gosh. Wow. See, you have so many great things to share to
everybody.
Rae Leigh: by me. You've brought it out in me, but I can feel it in you too. And I just, I'm just so honored and humbled that we've been able to connect because I think it's important that you know, what you're doing is such important work and it's so good. And it will go an unrecognized a lot of the time, but at the same time, hopefully you will never know the full extent of the work that you're doing and the value that you are putting into the world.
And I just think it's absolutely amazing. So thank you so much
Alyssa Jacey: well back at you. Yeah. Thank you.
Rae Leigh: All right. If you could co-write with anyone in the world, dead or alive, who would it be and
Alyssa Jacey: good Lord. Why do you ask these questions?
Oh, man. To write a song with anybody. Y also be fun to write a song with mother Teresa. She's not an artist, but she's an artist in another form.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Wow. Yep. That's I mean, I've never had that response, but tell me why mother Teresa. What about her grandma? You gravitate
Alyssa Jacey: You know, someone asked me in another interview, some other when was this? Maybe like back in January or February if you could have a drink with someone that are alive, who would it be? And I said, I would have a tea with mother Teresa she's, maybe she's just like on my brain. But I can really benefit from her just her view on people and the world and her, the humanity that she brought.
She's just, I mean, she's not calling mother Teresa for no reason. So I would, we would, get a great song out of, I just, I love, like I said, I love to inspire people.
So I think with her, stories and maybe how she speaks in a certain words that she might use that would really inspire a beautiful song that would help a lot of people.
Rae Leigh: Absolutely. I think that you probably already write their songs. You probably got the spirit of mother Theresa in there.
Alyssa Jacey: They were very sweet and I that's so cool to even hear you say that. And I would like to say I do, but she would like up my game by a billion percent.
Rae Leigh: yeah, Well, I mean, you know, we all have our own unique stories to share and yeah. I think she, would love what you're doing and yeah, she, and she's, she was an inspirational woman as well. So I like look at that she like and she will never know that the impact that she'd had on so many people and what they've then gone and done because of what she inspired in them. And in all of
Alyssa Jacey: What about you? Who would you write with
Rae Leigh: oh gosh, now I want to ride with mother Teresa. If we're going on, like down that path, I'd probably like to write a song with Jesus. Like that would be cool. like, I'd be like, Jesus, let's carry. Right. You know?
Alyssa Jacey: What kind of song would you want to get out with him?
Rae Leigh: I think that he kind of does for me and I actually read the Bible on a daily basis. And
If someone is a Bible reader, you? would hear like, most of my, like a lot of my lyrics are ripped off, straight from the public domain of the Bible. Because I think there's some really cool, like human sayings in there. But I think I love and that acceptance and grace that I think we all need to have for ourselves and other people that is not
I don't think even taught in the church. Like it's just not, I think it's overseen by the rules of like how we're supposed to be. And yet, like, we just need to have compassion that we are human.
Alyssa Jacey: yeah.
Rae Leigh: and I think I love that, that, that humanity and that emotional intelligence that seems to not be taught in schools, which are probably should be. But yeah, that idea of just, yeah, but like, I mean,
Alyssa Jacey: Love it.
Rae Leigh: there's a million, I mean, I'd love learning Cohen and you know, there's so many people that I would love to write with, but you know, since you said that, then that's probably
Alyssa Jacey: I Love it. Great song. We should put all four of us in a room
Rae Leigh: Jesus' mother Teresa. Oh, anyway. It's like, what are you doing now?
What, like
Alyssa Jacey: being hung up.
Rae Leigh: COVID done to you and yeah. Other than being hungry and like having a random talk about Jesus and mother Teresa, what's your plans for music this year?
Alyssa Jacey: So maybe this isn't time to announce it. Maybe it's not, I'm not quite sure I'll figure it out after the sentence.
Rae Leigh: Okay.
Alyssa Jacey: I. I just released my first live album ninth album in general. And thank you. Thank you. I'm like, I'm proud of it and I'm not proud of it like that. This is the thing that I, I worry about.
Like, you know, people are going to hear this album, this live album, they're going like, oh, this must be what she's like live and absolutely a hundred percent the banter that you hear in between the songs you can expect that kind of, you know, that kind of stuff at every single show. I don't say the same thing twice, but I really love messing with the audience, but but my voice was inconsistent.
So, I and the whole point of me saying that is, what am I doing? Well, I just released that album, but I have these songs that I'm so proud of that, like I was mentioning, I've been writing over the last six months or so, and I badly want to get in the studio and record them, but it's expensive to record.
And I just put on an album and I do have a single on releasing in early June, another one, probably at the end of July, early August. And those are all done already. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Actually, one of them I wrote with Christie Hough. Yeah.
Rae Leigh: I'm going to have to check
Alyssa Jacey: Oh, you've got to and Tolan told Shaw third grade.
Rae Leigh: Yep. I've got their names written
Alyssa Jacey: Yeah, absolutely. You're going to go down the rabbit hole of awesome music and you're not going to leave.
Rae Leigh: I've been in that rabbit hole for about seven months and I'm not going anywhere.
Alyssa Jacey: And the second, so see me cry is the name of that song that Christy and I wrote together. And I've been rapping in a lot of my songs over the last couple of years. So I have my, probably my S in my top two or three favorite wraps I've ever written in the song. That's coming out. The second version of drowning me, my most popular song in my probably favorite of all of my songs I've ever written.
I released a song called journey me in 2013 and because it's like the most streamed and the most downloaded, the most requested it shows I decided to make a second version of it. So that is coming out. That's the June one. And I'm cultivating, I'm really focusing on this inspirational career coaching.
I was, I had a business called image 1228, which was like a music mentoring, business. And.
I am now rebranding it and calling it inspirational career coaching because I want to work with people that are not just musicians. I want to work with men, women, all ages, all sexes, all like all stages of life any career.
So I am an ashamedly me is my main focus right now while still, you know, songwriting and occasionally performing. And I just got back from Hawaii and I was performing there for three weeks.
Rae Leigh: wow. Fun.
Alyssa Jacey: Pardon me?
Rae Leigh: How does someone get to like sing in Hawaii for
Alyssa Jacey: Right. Okay.
Rae Leigh: just,
Alyssa Jacey: Okay.
Rae Leigh: I want to know that. Tell me that
Alyssa Jacey: So honest with you. I do not remember for the life of me, like how my first show even happened. I've been there 11 times in my life. And eight or nine of eight of those have been for music, I believe. And I don't remember the first one, but I remember as each time I would go back, I would build, I mean, I have never worked harder to break into the scene as I have in Hawaii, Hawaii can be pretty particular when it comes to who they hire.
A lot of they support local artists which, you know, it's not bad. It's not good. It's just is what it is, but it's some can hinder, you know, your ability to get into that market. And so I have been like aggressively pounding on their doors, but like again, a nice professional way. Professionally aggressively, I dunno, I guess it was a bad word, but I've been working my butt off to break into that industry. So little by little in that market,
I would just. Kind of, I don't know, next step maybe it was hard rock because I've played it a bunch of different, hard rock cafes, like all over the world. And maybe that
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Alyssa Jacey: have been,
Rae Leigh: And they're quite a big franchise.
Alyssa Jacey: they have a big franchise and I have, I've got to, if we have the time, I have to tell you the story of how I even got into the hard rock cafe.
Do we have
Rae Leigh: well, I mean, yeah, go for it. Oh, I'll have to have some time for it. Yeah. Go for it. Just tell me the story.
Alyssa Jacey: us, I want people to hear this and go like, damn, I can do anything too. So I was staying on the big island and I had two days that I wanted to travel to Honolulu on a wahoo, the island of Oahu and visited one of my friends. So I had 48 hours in town. He picked me up from the airport and he's like, oh, by the way, we're like, as we're driving down the street, he points to the right.
That's the hard rock cafe. It just opened. Maybe next time you're in town. You can try to play here and I'm like pull over. Pull over. going to see if I can get myself a show tomorrow night. So I ran upstairs. Yeah. Alls. And I asked the man for the manager. Hi. I was just wondering who does your booking, are they here on or they're not here.
Okay. Well, I'm in town for one night only. And I was wondering, you know, can I open for whoever you have performing tomorrow night, I've played, you know, this is what I've done. I'd like to whatever. And I've opened for Bruno Mars. I've done this, and Bruno's from Hawaii. So that was kind of good to throw that in there.
Yeah. We've been booked for eight months, so sorry. Like you're going to have like try again, honey. And I'm like, okay. Can I have the email of the booking agent please? Sure. Yeah, but I'm just letting you know, you're going to have to send in a press kit. You're going to have to wait and like yeah. Yeah. If I, whatever. I go back to my hotel and very rarely do I ever pretend to be somebody else, like 98% of the messages I've ever emailed have been me, but I have pretended to be my own manager a couple of times. And, but I did, I sat down and I wrote a little Like maybe six sentence fluffed up email about my and by fluff, I just mean like a braggy email, Alyssa Jaycees, and one more night, she's open for prayers and pepper. She's toured the world and this, and I told him all facts And she performed there tomorrow night. I woke up to a response from the booking agent. We'd love to have her. She can play for 30 minutes before the the headlining band. We can pay her this. She can have this food, whatever. And I got myself a show,
Rae Leigh: that's insane.
Alyssa Jacey: been playing there ever since.
Rae Leigh: Like that's well done. And like, I have heard of that. I've had a few people saying that they've actors as their own booking agent or they've acted as their own manager And you know, it just sometimes yeah, it's all perception. Isn't it?
Alyssa Jacey: yes, but I wonder what does it look like on the other end? Because I was a booking agent for so many years. My first job for two and a half years in Nashville was host what we call writer's nights here, which you probably know of, but for people don't know what a right writer's night is.
It's when you get to three or four people up on stage at the same time they each individually go like in a round, in a circle, you sing your song, then you, and around you, go.
And I did that at a few different venues for two And a half years. So when I receive emails from people And it's like hi, I am john Smith. and I represent blah, blah, blah. It's like, okay. Sometimes it looks professional and sometimes it's like, I kind of appreciate it more when it's the artist.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Alyssa Jacey: So
Rae Leigh: Yeah. It really does depend doesn't it? And it also, like the email can come across in so many different ways and I'm lending that being on the other side, getting the
Alyssa Jacey: oh, sure. Yeah. For you. Exactly. Yeah. So what does that look like?
Rae Leigh: Tyrone. Oh, it's and see, like I'm, really not great at verbal cue. I'm better in person. I would, I want to pick up the phone and I want to talk to someone. Absolutely. Just like we're doing now, because if I tried to communicate. My high and my goal and my desire via words, for some reason, I think it always comes across wrong.
Alyssa Jacey: Okay.
Rae Leigh: So you know, so my husband is actually the head of communications and does all the bookings and manages all the scheduling and everything For the podcast. And he's like my husband manager. But he's really good at that. You know, he's really good at that communication. So it is about maybe recognizing what your strengths are. Cause we definitely get some emails where we could question whether that's what they really meant to say and whether they meant it to come across that way.
But I also have a lot of compassion for those emails because. You know, it's probably something that I would do. So yeah, it is funny thing, but yeah, I'm definitely a big believer in go with your strengths and then find people who are strong in the areas. You're not strong in because we've got to work together and you don't have to be good at everything.
And that was the thing I learned from Nashville. I went in 2019
Alyssa Jacey: wow. You're just here.
Rae Leigh: I, yeah, I was just there and I wanted to go back the moment I could and then COVID hit. But I think in Australia that I definitely grew up with this big idea that you had to do everything. And just the idea of having to do everything was so overwhelming that I never did anything.
And being in Nashville, I realized. Hang on a second. I don't have to do everything. In fact, I can just do the stuff that I know I'm good at and that I love. And once I realized that I came back and that was kind of when I'm like, okay, let's hit the ground running, I've got this. And I've got a bit of a backing.
I've got support and I've got the drive clearly now. I'm just going to do what I can do. I'm going to try and find the people that I can work with and I'm still doing that. But I'm enjoying the journey and I think that's the most
Alyssa Jacey: it is. I'm so happy to hear all of this.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Thank you. This has been a really nice chat. Is there anything else you would like to say? I know that we probably could talk for another hour, but we're going to finish up. Is there anything else you would like to say before we do, I'm going to put all of your details and a nice description and blog on the website, along with all your socials.
And so people can follow you and get in touch with you and your business and your music. Is there anything else you would like to
Alyssa Jacey: yes, I, we didn't talk anything about blue and Alzheimer's, and I can wrap that up pretty quickly.
Rae Leigh: Yes, let's go.
Alyssa Jacey: my brand is blue. I call my fans the blue crew. I have a slogan that I developed back when I first started performing. So early 2005, bring the crew, wear your blue. My aunt had passed away from Alzheimer's the month after I started writing those first three songs and recording, and she never got to see a show.
And I said if I were to ever, or when I should say, get to the point of being able to donate, or give back, I'm sorry. I'll do it through wearing the color blue. And giving to Alzheimer's. So for the, since I moved to Nashville, so almost nine and a half years now I have been donating $1 from my ticket sales to the alzheimer's association. All you gotta do is just show, up to my show, wearing blue. And that's the way for me to my fans, as well as to it's very easy. Like you don't have to pay extra. I take it out on what I make and give it to
Rae Leigh: Yeah,
Alyssa Jacey: and give it to the Alzheimer's association.
Rae Leigh: that's beautiful. Well done for that. I think it's really important to, to support those sorts of causes, especially the ones that you're drawn to. And yeah. Alzheimer's is not a nice thing for the person going through it or for their
Alyssa Jacey: Not at all.
Rae Leigh: yeah, it's hard. It's actually a movie that we watched. What's the movie, the father. Have you seen the
Alyssa Jacey: I'm going to you tonight now. Apparently.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Yeah. It's like, it's all about, oh it's incredible. You're going to love it. It's an amazing crew. And it's it's all about that story anyway. So yeah, definitely go watch the father I watched the other day and it's just, it will really sit with you, especially if that's
Alyssa Jacey: it. I'll totally do that when we hang up
Rae Leigh: All right. Well, thank you so much. I've got to go. I've got another meeting to go into, but you've been amazing and I really appreciate all. the time that you've given and I look forward to supporting you and saying, stay
Alyssa Jacey: equally. I'm so grateful. Thank you so, so much for having me and I really have enjoyed talking to you as well. You're definitely an inspiration
Rae Leigh: oh, you too lovely to meet you.
