JENN BLOSIL**

KOHS had a memorable interview with local artist and former American Idol contestant, Jen Blossel. She took time to answer students' questions and emphasized the importance of doing what you love. Jen also shared her experience with record labels and how she refused to compromise her beliefs in her music. She discussed her songwriting process and encouraged students to start with whatever inspires them. The interview was a great experience for the students, who were inspired and encouraged by Jen's words. This past year, KOHS had the opportunity to interview popular local artist and former American Idol contestant, Jen Blossel. This was a very memorable and fun interview for the students, because Jen took the time at the beginning and end of the interview to meet with the students and answer their questions. There was a line of students waiting to meet her, and she didn't leave until the line was through completely. Hello. Hi. This is Jen Blossel. Hello. Are we just diving right in? We are diving right in. What a fun... The last time I was here was just in like a little chill classroom, so that's why I'm just wearing like a sweatshirt, and you guys, you guys came, you showed up, you really showed up. At the very beginning of the interview, Jen answered students' questions, and one of our students in particular had a very good question about deciding what to major in in college and deciding what they wanted their job to be as they got older, and asked Jen what she thought and how she decided on what she wanted to do as a high school student. This was Jen's response. Here's the thing. I think life is so challenging, so if you're doing what you love, you're willing... How do I say this? The word passion in German roughly can translate to mean to be willing to suffer for something, and so I think it's like, yeah, choose the thing that you like doing, because when it gets difficult, you like it, and you'll still keep investing in the thing that you like instead of doing something else that maybe you don't love as much, and then when it gets really difficult, and you're like, I want to quit. I don't know, so if you're loving radio and this is something that's intriguing to you, ride that wave, baby. Might as well make life easier by doing things you love. The first question that our interviewer asked Jen during her interview with KOHS was a musical podcast question. If there was a musical podcast in the future that was doing a sort of documentary type thing where they look back on the artist and their career and look at the highlights, they asked her what they think the documentary sort of musical podcast would focus on, and she talked about sticking to her guns and believing in God and the songs that she wrote and showed to record labels that they would not record with her because of her beliefs. If a historical music podcast did an episode on you, what would you want them to say? Like, what are some important landmarks in your life that you would want people to know about you? I wrote a song about how I'm beautiful because God made me, and that's where I believe my worth and beauty comes from. And they basically were like, it's not edgy enough. You need to be more edgy. And I was like, okay, that's understandable. I'm an artist who happens to be Christian, but I'm not specifically trying to make Christian music, so this is a weird place to be in. And so I would go to L.A. and work for two weeks with an A&R guy, which is basically record labels have like little baby record labels underneath them, and then these people called A&R people that go out and find talent, and then they're like, cool, we want to work with you, and now we're part of this bigger thing. So this little guy, this A&R dude, and I were working together, and I didn't want to sign anything, so they go work out there, then come to Utah, then go back out there, then come to Utah. And during one of the times where I came back to Utah, and I was like, okay, let me rework this song, I just had a really powerful experience where I revisited this song to work on it, see if I can maybe rephrase things so it wasn't overtly about God. But I just had this powerful experience where I fell on the ground, and I felt like God really knew me, and that was the first time I felt that. I was like 19, and I was like, I feel like God knows me. And in that moment, I realized that me taking God out of this song isn't just about, like, I'm taking God out of this song, but I lose, and I think we all do, we lose our power when we're not truthful. And for me, writing this song about what I believe was where my beauty came from was the truth for me, and when I remove that from the picture, I lose my strength as an artist and as an individual. So for me, it wasn't just like, I'm not willing to compromise about God, it was, I'm unwilling to compromise about the truth that I feel I need to express as an artist, and I'm not willing to compromise on that. In a final segment of the interview with KOHS that Jen Blossel had, we asked her about her writing process and how she writes songs. And she gave the students a brief introduction into songwriting and how to get started with a song. There are a lot of different entry points into a song, and so I'd say start with whatever's flowing. Like, if you have the music first, start there and put a melody to the music. I like when I'm working with other people to start with, like, a concept or a feeling. What are you feeling about? What are you thinking? So much of songwriting happens before you ever sit down. Like, if you've ever tried to write a song, does it feel daunting to sit down and be like, no, I need to write a song? And it's like, where, what are you pulling from? Right? So you're looking at, like, this blank thing and expecting this ocean to just, like, or this river to come forth. So what I do is just marinate in the idea first. Get curious about what you're feeling. Start playing around with words in your brain or, like, being aware and allowing yourself to feel the thing. Take notes. I love in my notes app, like, taking notes about what I'm doing, how I'm feeling. Like, Ellen and I will do this when we're writing songs. And she's like, I wrote all this stuff down in my notes app. I'm like, brilliant. This is going to be such good content. And then we go through, and then we're like, okay, what's the vibe that we want this to be? Because that will, again, when I'm like, if I want a vibe, I'll sit at a piano. If I want this vibe, I'll do guitar. So then it informs us, like, what mood do we want this to be in? What do we want this song to feel like? Okay, rad. What are some songs that feel kind of like this? What are the chords that they're using? I think a lot of times we think songwriting is, like, so impossible. But really, it's just, like, breaking it down little pieces. Like, okay, what do you want to talk about? The chorus is, like, the main idea or concept. So the verses are just building the story around the main point. Jen Blossel was one of the students' favorite interviews this year. She took time with each student individually after her interview and made sure their questions were answered and that they felt heard by the artist. And every student learned something. Some students even played their songs for Jen, and she encouraged them to keep going with their music. And it was overall a wonderful interview that most students remember that were there. And it was very memorable and fun. And we hope to have Jen back again soon.