Megan Jerome Catch-Up Bonus: Transcript
Megan Jerome Episodes Both Podcast and Video
Leah Roseman:
Hi, you're listening to Conversations with Musicians with Leah Roseman, and this is a special bonus catch-up episode with singer-songwriter Megan Jerome. Today is also the release of my conversation with her husband, the jazz drummer, Mike Essoudry. In this short episode, you'll hear how Megan fell in love with Mike, as well as about the creation of her new album, Love, with The Together Ensemble, including two songs from the album, Hot Pink Heart and Isn't Life Grand. She also talked about some valuable mentorship that helped her secure funding for the album. Megan's original episode, as well as, this catch-up bonus, are linked together with the video and podcast versions and the transcripts.
Hey, Megan.
Megan Jerome:
Hi. How's it going, Leah?
Leah Roseman:
Good. This is fun.
Megan Jerome:
This is fun. This is fun.
Leah Roseman:
So we are going to release this special bonus episode the same day that we release your husband, Mike Essoudry's, episode about jazz drumming and his life. But I didn't get around to asking them how you guys met. In fact, I think your name only came up once, so I'm sure people would love to hear that.
Megan Jerome:
Well, we met at Carleton. I was in the music program. I was in first year, and Mike was in fourth year, and he was a TA for our class. And that was unusual, usually it's master students who are TAs. And he didn't really look the part, he had this orange crocheted toque, and he had this long hair, really long, and he wrote his name on the chalkboard, Mike Essoudry. So mysterious. What is this last name? And he wrote his phone number down and I recognized it as a Barrhaven phone number. And I thought, "Oh my God, this guy is so cool. He doesn't even need downtown."
So then I called because I really wanted to meet him, but I didn't have any questions. I really understood what was going on, so I had to pretend to have some questions so that I could meet him. So I called him and his mother answered the phone, but I didn't realize it was his mother. I thought it was just a Swedish masseuse that he was living with. But anyway, so Dave Hildinger was a great jazz pianist in Ottawa. Started a program at Ottawa U for jazz piano.
But he said, "Okay, find some people, Megan, to play with." And I said, "Well, I'm sure there'll be for first year folks." And he said, "No, no, no. Find people in fourth year. Always try to play with people who are better than you and try and do it regularly." And so he and I rehearsed, he agreed to this, even though he probably knew a million standards, I only knew Bye Bye Blackbird, Autumn Leaves, and Blues in B Flat. And that's all I played all year long. And he rehearsed with me every week.
And he was just so nice. It was just the easiest thing in the world. There was a party at Alan Gilmore's house. The music at Carleton is so small that frosh week is just hanging out with your professors in their backyard. We're just having parties. And then at night we would go to see Rob Frayne play, and I think maybe Rob was playing at the band called Bitches Brew at the Cave or something. And then he had another gig at Wim Cafe and it was just like, "Oh, do you want to go out on Friday night?" "Yeah." And, "Do you want to go out on Saturday night?" "Okay." And, "Do you think you want to go out?" "Okay." It was just so easy. Yeah.
Leah Roseman:
Okay. Nice. Nice story.
Megan Jerome:
Yeah.
Leah Roseman:
Here is Megan Jerome with ther newly released song "Isn't Life Grand" from her album "Love" with the Together Ensemble.
(Singing).
Hi, just a quick break from the episode. I’m an independant podcaster who does all the many jobs required to produce this series, and there are a lot of costs I bear as well. Please consider either buying me a virtual coffee as a tip or becoming a monthly supporter starting at 3 dollars Canadian (which is close to 2 dollars US or 2 Euros) and getting access to unique perks! The link is in the description. Now back to the episode!
So on this cold winters day, we're going to have a great catch up.
Megan Jerome:
Nice. Yeah.
Leah Roseman:
Since I first interviewed you, you have some big news.
Megan Jerome:
I do. I had a CD launch, so I've recorded a whole album. I got a grant from the Canada Council; that's big for me. So we recorded 12 new songs in CD form. And then we just did two shows at The Red Bird, which is a new venue in Ottawa. So there was a solo show in the afternoon, just me and the piano. There's a little acoustic piano there. Mario Carlucci from the CBC was there to just interview. So it was like a hosted concert, which I've never really done, but that was super nice.
And then the band show, Rebecca Campbell came from Toronto and Fred Guignon on guitar, Don Cummings on organ, Mike Essoudry on drums. And we played and it was sold out at The Red Bird. So we're super, super happy. And then I have a digital plan for the release, which is, the album is called Love, and it's all love songs. And I'm releasing digitally one song a month for the next year so that I can enjoy the release, enjoy the album, and call it Megan's Year of Love.
Leah Roseman:
Okay. So will that be on Bandcamp or all the streaming services?
Megan Jerome:
I think streaming services. I don't have Bandcamp right now.
Leah Roseman:
You've got to get Bandcamp.
Okay.
Megan Jerome:
I will only buy music on Bandcamp. I think it's important that all independent artists anyway.
Right. Okay. That's the new. I mean, I don't mean Bandcamp is new. That's my new goal. If you say so, I'll do it. Yeah. So just digital. I was going to go, well, I go through CD Baby to get the other ones.
Leah Roseman:
I think you're not prevented from, yeah.
Megan Jerome:
Not at all. No, no, no.
Leah Roseman:
One of the artists I'm interviewing soon, I was hearing him in another interview and he's been out there well known internationally for years. And he said it was a game changer to go on Bandcamp which he just did in the last year.
Megan Jerome:
Really?
Yeah.
Leah Roseman:
A game changer. Who?
I won't say because his episode's not released.
Megan Jerome:
Okay, okay, okay. Okay, cool.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah. And I think you'll see, I mean, there's a community. I think when Bandcamp, it's come up with several of the artists I've talked to. I think when it first started it was much better because it was before streaming that Bandcamp started, so people were buying albums. But I buy albums all the time on Bandcamp and it's very easy. I don't know. I just think it's-
Megan Jerome:
And then you keep them on your computer?
Leah Roseman:
What I do, I have the app on my phone, so when I download the stuff I want to be listening to at that time. And then I can remove them when I and put other stuff on.
Megan Jerome:
Okay. Okay. Got it.
Leah Roseman:
But I don't know, because we know the stream services, the artists aren't getting money, right? That's a sham.
Megan Jerome:
It's like photocopying music.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah. So get yourself on Bandcamp.
Megan Jerome:
Okay. All right. I will. Good.
Leah Roseman:
And this grant you got. I was talking to a European jazz musician who's also going to be featured soon, and she was saying, "Yeah, you think we have support, but in Canada it seems much easier to get funding to produce albums, which is very hard in other countries." So it is a wonderful thing. What specific kind of grant was it that you applied for?
Megan Jerome:
It's on the Canada Council. I think it was called Concept to Realization. It's different now than it used to be. I kept calling the grant officer and whoever I spoke to was always really, really helpful. So I totally recommend that if somebody's applying. And there's another guy, his name is Vel Omazic and he has a organization in Toronto, and I can talk about that later. But he helped me a lot with my application.
So the grant, I think it was called Concept to Realization. So the idea was very clear. Basically I have these songs. I had gotten a grant from the city of Ottawa to write the songs. So I wrote the songs and then it paid us to rehearse. And I did three mini sessions in the Spring. We would rehearse and then take a break, rehearse, take a break, rehearse, take a break. And in there I did a solo show of all the new stuff. And we did a band show of all the new stuff. And then we recorded at Don's house. And Dave Bignell, who is in Ottawa, who he recorded it at Don's house.
And the last album, he'd really helped me, we took it to him to mix, but actually he had all these producing ideas. We added vocals, we added piano parts, we added all this stuff. So this time I brought him in way earlier. We've been talking about what to do on the album for a year, maybe meeting and talking and trading ideas. So it covered that. The producer, me, everybody in the band rehearsing, recording, mixing, mastering, producing the cd, playing the concert.
Some artwork.
Leah Roseman:
Fantastic. Yeah.
Megan Jerome:
Yeah. Yes. Because otherwise it' like, how am I going to do this again? I think for a certain amount it's always been my own investment, which of course is natural. But then after a while it's like, well, I don't really make a lot of money playing music live. So at a certain point I thought, it's not that sustainable for me to keep.
If you're doing it yourself, maybe you're doing it for all your friends are doing you favors. Maybe it's five or $10,000. I don't think it's ever any less than that, which is a lot of money. So I was like, okay, I can't just do that every two years. So anyway, thank you. Thank you to the Canada Council and the city of Ottawa. Yeah. It's a big deal. It's a really big deal.
Leah Roseman:
When we first spoke, because this will be linked to your original interview, you sang some songs and they are on that album, right?
Megan Jerome:
Yeah. Yep.
Leah Roseman:
Okay, cool. So can you tell me about this organization, this guy in Toronto who helped out with the grant?
Megan Jerome:
Yeah, his name is Vel Omazic and he has an organization called CMI, which is Canada Music Incubators. And they offer free artist, entrepreneur, boot camps across the whole country and one-on-one mentorship. And it's amazing. Vel is the leader of the thing, but you can get mentorship from different people in his organization based on what your needs are.
And Mike and I went, they offered a free artist entrepreneur bootcamp in Ottawa for a weekend seven years ago. And Mike and I went and it was great. We were like, what's this going to be like? But it was full, full, full of information, super helpful information for every different person there, depending on everybody's different goals.
And then if you do one of their boot camps, your reward is free mentorship. And it's like that. He read contracts with Mike and advised Mike about contracts. He edited question by question, my grant applications. I had all the artist part. He said, "All you need are some more details. You're playing a venue, what's the seats, how are the tickets?" All this kind of stuff. Really, really, I think he's the reason I got the grant. So anybody can take these free workshops and you can also purchase mentorship. Yeah. Yeah. It's amazing. He's 100% pure gold, helpful information tailored to you specifically.
Leah Roseman:
That's really, really great.
Megan Jerome:
It's amazing. It's amazing. Yeah. I think he really, really saw a gap. Because his history I think is in commercial, Sony or something. I don't know his whole past, but even I think maybe his brother is a super famous Canadian rockstar. I don't know. But yeah, so Vel is like a link. I'm sure he's the reason I got the grant in terms of beefing up all my answers with more facts, more details.
But yeah, I think he noticed a gap between independent artists and the information that we don't have. So the first time he came to Ottawa, we were like, oh my God, we were so thirsty for this. Because he's from Toronto. And if you're in Toronto, people just know more. It's a bigger city. They have more connections. We just don't know that here. We don't even know what to ask. So he's that and he's doing it all across the country. Yeah. He's really, really special. It's a very, very special project. Yeah. Okay.
Leah Roseman:
Okay.
Megan has also shared another song from her new album, “Hot Pink Heart”. Megan Jerome and the Together Ensemble
(Singing).
I hope those of you who heard my original episode of Megan enjoyed this catch up. And if you missed it, you'll find her personal journey interesting and inspiring. We talked quite a lot about her unique approach to teaching, as well. Season three of this podcast and video series continues with an inspiring variety of musicians worldwide, sharing their unique perspectives from a life so enriched by music. You can find a link to support this work in the description. Have a great week!
