Jes Hudak is a beautiful singer/songwriter living in Los Angeles. Her weapons of choice are the piano and her voice, and she has been known to wield a guitar from time to time. Seeing her live is quite an adventure, since she takes her audience on a journey through laughter and love and sadness and heartbreak. Her voice is powerful and soulful, and her songs are original, emotional, and real. Jes Hudak is truly unique and has a mesmerizing sound!!!
How has living in LA influenced your music?
The move to LA was pretty hard on me – I’m an east coaster at heart – but I have written some of my best songs since moving here. After living in Brooklyn, I ended up finding exactly what I was looking for in a living space here and that helps my writing because if inspiration strikes at 11pm, I can sing to my heart’s content and not bother any neighbors. Also, moving across the country is a big move for anyone, and trying to hash out my little niche out here has provided me with so many experiences and inspiration.
What advice would you give to other musicians out there trying to make it?
My advice to fellow musicians trying to make it in LA would be to get out and play as much as you can, see as much other live music as you can, talk to the musicians you see, and introduce yourself around. Find a venue that books similar artists to yourself, artists you admire, and check out as many shows as possible there. You never know who’s going to be out and about that night and in Hollywood, anything’s possible. I once made a mumbling ass out of myself introducing myself to the drummer of Kings of Leon. You just never know whom you might run into!
You are nominated for the LA Music Awards & Hollywood Music in Media Awards. Were you so excited when you heard the news?
Just being nominated is a huge honor, but since the nominations, I actually won the LA Music Award for Pop Single of the Year for my song “Another Day.” Woohoo!!! It’s very exciting. The way that particular song came about was just so magical that it’s completely appropriate that it would be the song that gets me noticed in LA. It was written for and inspired by the independent short film “Broken,” directed by Minh Nguyen and based on the life of lead actor and producer Markiece Palmer. They brought Edber Mamisao on board to direct a music video for the song, and we made (in my unbiased opinion…) a stunning work of art. I am so proud of this video and of the team who made it happen.
When did you know that music was going to be such an important part of your life?
There never really was a time when music wasn’t a huge part of my life. Ever since my first major gig, playing piano and singing “Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah” at my 3rd grade talent show, I’ve never deviated from this path. And I can tap dance. I don’t know what that has to do with anything, I just felt like sharing.
If you had to do your musical career all over again, would you do it the same way?
Oh yes indeed. I moved to New York City as soon as I could to immerse myself in music and I stumbled and made mistakes and still managed to ‘make it’ as a musician in the big city. Right before I moved to LA, I was working solely as a musician, singing somewhere with someone almost every night of the week. Whether it was my own show or singing backup and duets for reggae, rock, folk, country, or live hip-hop funk jazz (what’s up Redtime?!), I was out there doing it, living my dream. It’s a nice feeling because I know in my soul that if all else fails, I’ll just have to live my dream. Having faith in yourself is an unbelievable feeling.
As an independent artist, what is your biggest struggle?
The biggest struggle for me as an independent artist is getting my music out to the world. I know there are lots of people out there who would understand and relate to my music, it’s just a matter of getting my music to their ears. That is where the various social networking sites help, and I just happen to have lots of pages online where you can have a listen, watch a video, say hi, or ask me a question! Here’s a few:
http://jeshudak.com
http://www.myspace.com/jeshudak
http://youtube.com/jeshudak
http://www.facebook.com/jeshudakmusic
http://twitter.com/jeshudak
You can also find me on flickr, last.fm, purevolume, vimeo, ourstage…
We know that musicians often have crazy stories – Do you have any you would like to share?
Ummm, so many stories… Singing backup for Enrique Iglesias on the island of Malta for the Isle of MTV show was pretty insane. There were about 50,000 people in the audience, and I had some sweet solos in the set. Unfortunately my luggage didn’t arrive on time and I had to go find something to wear for the show about an hour before we were due backstage. I am no fashionista, so power-shopping in a foreign country is way scarier than singing “Como te quiero” to a mega-star in front of thousands of people. After our set, I danced with the fellows from OneRepublic on stage during N.E.R.D.’s set. Oh yeah, Lady Gaga was there too. Later that night I got a member of The Kooks into a party. It was definitely one of the craziest experiences of my life. Wow, how many names did I just drop!? But it really was like an insane dream come to life.
MORE COOL STUFF: Shows in LA & NYC, and ANOTHER music video!
LA: Weds Nov 18th @ Hotel Café, 7pm – www.hotelcafe.com
Weds Dec 16th @ Room 5, 8pm – www.room5lounge.com
NYC: Weds Dec 23rd @ Rockwood Music Hall, 8pm – www.rockwoodmusichall.com
This year I also had another amazing video made by brilliant director Kurt Nishimura. Please enjoy!
Please make sure to support this artist by commenting her MySpace and becoming a fan on Facebook!!!
