Jesca Hoop Mixes Up Old and New

Meeting Jesca Hoop before a recent opening-slot gig at the Showbox, we weren't entirely sure what to make of her. With her debut LP not out for two months and only a few songs available streaming on the net, we labored--mistakenly--under the impression that this waifish Jack Mormon who'd spent several years homesteading was really just another singer-songwriter strumming an acoustic guitar.

And it's true--when she took the stage, she did open with set of several acoustic guitar songs. By the same token, her music never quite comfortably fit with the standard folk-songstress vibe. Her playing was decidedly more dynamic, shifting between lovely little arpeggios and neck-sliding chord strumming. Then there's her voice, which falls more on the Bjork/Fiona Apple side of the spectrum than the Indigo Girls'.

"I wasn't exposed to pop culture," she explained of her small-town, Mormon upbringing. "There was no MTV, one top-40 radio station." Although her website cites such 80s influences as the Police and Tears for Fears, Hoop describes her evolution as a musical artist as one of self-discovery. "I had to formulate that on my own," she says.

That evolution was in no small part driven by her gradual movement away from her religious upbringing. "My parents splitting up caused me to take this really big left turn," she explains. That included following her significant other into the wilderness. For a few years, Hoop abandoned her music to live and work in the wilderness in Northern California, Wyoming and Arizona. But eventually she decided she needed to return to music.

"There's nothing like a room full of people listening," she told us backstage at the Showbox.

Onstage, Hoop is a dynamic personality. Dressed in a t-shirt and jeans with a decidedly unseasonable furry winter cap on, Hoop played with minimal back-up: a keyboardist and a drum-machine operator (Damian Anthony, one of the producers of her upcoming debut album, Kismet, due out from Columbia Records Sept. 18). Partly that was due to limited stage space as she toured with 24-piece outfit The Polyphonic Spree. After the opening set of primarily acoustic guitar songs, Hoop veered into bluesy, experimental territory. Putting her guitar down, she followed keyboardist Tony Berg through some lilting, torch-song style numbers, while Anthony delivered dance-pop beats. In the interview, Hoop cited Kate Bush as an inspiration for her attempts to mix old and new musical styles, but we were reminded of (as above) Fiona Apple's pop-oriented blues, or Bjork's earlier, more approachable work.

On the whole, we left pleasantly surprised. A few songs are available online for those wanting to sample, but honestly, they didn't do Hoop justice in terms of her diverse, adventurous set. But as she told us at the close of our interview, "I want people to know we made a great record, and I'm a live artist."