TALKING
in
EVERYTHINGS

WHO ARE YOU?

We are The Jades! Emma Wimsett, I’m the singer. I'm Kassidy Miller, I play the guitar. I'm Analise (Ise) Banko, and I play the piano.


THE ORIGIN OF THE JADES

Kassidy: Yeah, I think that we were in kind of a band starting like sophomore year of high school, me and Emma. And then that kind of fell off a little bit because we weren't practicing much. But then Ise stepped forward and played piano for us, and we really liked the vibes because we were all best friends already.

Ise: Yeah. Basically, I knew Emma through a mutual friend and the same way through Kassidy. Before I joined, you guys asked me to play, and I always was like “no!” because I didn’t think I could do it. And then they're like, “we don't have anyone else!”

C: Where did the name The Jades come from?

Emma: So there's kind of two things. So one of them, one of the definitions of jade, is a bad-tempered woman.

Kassidy: And the other reason, it was Lou Reed's. One of his first bands was called The Jades, and we thought that was cute for us. We like Lou Reed.


HOW DO YOU GUYS FIND BALANCE WHEN MAKING MUSIC WITH YOUR FRIENDS?

Emma: Fist fight.

*Group laughter*

Kassidy: I respect Analise and Emma a lot. I think something happens if one of us doesn't agree with something, whether it's a lyric or a chord choice. We inherently trust that judgment because we respect each other. And in the end, I think we ended up liking the alternative better than what we originally proposed. So I think it is actually much easier to work with people you are friends with.

E: So there's never been any type of argument where you felt too strongly about a certain project?

Ise: I think the only thing Kass has ever told me is don't make it too complicated! Because it's mostly Emma and Kassidy that do the songwriting, and then we all kind of work towards the instrumentation. So when it comes to that aspect, I really don't need to put much input into it because I'm not involved with that. But, yeah, I think we also have very similar music tastes to begin with. So I think that's why it works so well.

E: So how long have you guys known each other then?

Emma: Kassidy and I have known each other since eighth grade, and we became friends with Ise in ninth grade.



YOUR BIGGEST INSPIRATIONS IN TERMS OF CREATING MUSIC?

*The Jades Studio Has a bunch of Phoebe Bridgers posters plastered over their walls*

ALL: Phoebe and Mitski, Eliot Smith, Christian Lee Hutson, Charlie Hickey, The Magnetic Fields…

C: Is there a certain sound you guys want to go after?

Kassidy: It's probably Phoebe. I mean, I think we want to have our own distinctive sound. One big thing for me is I love artists that do something different, whether an EP or an album; they switch the production each time, but it kind of has the same feel. I think part of that is just the way people write songs, so you can kind of switch up the production. When we were working on the EP, we were looking at Stranger in the Alps just for inspiration with more ambient sounds that create that haunting reverb. But for the album that we're thinking about next, I think we want to be more, kind of, experimental.

WAS THERE A PARTICULAR ARTIST WHEN YOU WERE GROWING UP THAT MADE YOU WANT TO MAKE MUSIC?

ALL: Mitski

Kassidy: I was also one of those kids that grew up listening to the Beatles, which, now I probably don't listen to the Beatles as much. But it's funny that Elliott Smith was so inspired by the Beatles, and he seems to do something completely different. But yeah, I think for all of us, maybe Mitski and Phoebe are the ones that in our high school years we really thought, I want to make music like that.

Emma: Even middle school for me. Mitiski and Lana del Ray were my icons.


WHAT WAS YOUR MUSICAL EXPERIENCE LIKE BEFORE FORMING THE BAND?

Emma: Sadly, I used to do musical theater. I'm ashamed of my past and deeply sorry.

*Collective gasp*

E: Musical what? Musical huh? Nah you gotta formally apologize. Say, “I, Emma Wimsett.”

Emma: I, Emma Wimsett, am so sorry that I was formerly a theater kid. I regret it.

C: BOOOOOO

Kassidy: I took piano lessons when I was a kid. I really wanted to take guitar, but my grandma wanted me to learn piano first, which I'm grateful for because I think music theory, in particular, is a lot easier to learn on the piano. But then I started learning guitar in middle school, and that's mainly what I do now.

Ise: I've taken piano since I was five. So it was just this old lady named Ms. Janet. She would fall asleep during practice. Then I did band in middle school. I did French horn and played piano in a jazz band. And then, I did one year of marching band in high school. But it was terrible, and I hated it so much.


WHAT WAS THE CREATIVE PROCESS OF CREATING THE EP?

Ise: We wrote the EP back in Gainesville, Florida, where we are all from. It was made before we moved out to New York City.

Emma: So “Tie Your Dress” is about Twilight. We're all big Twilight fans. Sometimes you need a random idea to get the ball rolling.

Kassidy: It's one of the things it's not really about. Yeah, we do that often with books, TV shows, or movies where we just start with a particular feeling. But it is kind of just a way to start the storytelling process. But it's not like a Twilight fanfiction song.

C: So, How much of your songwriting is a real-life experience?

Emma: It's all real-life experience.

Kassidy: I think it kind of just becomes like a combination of both of our experiences and then also kind of whatever books, movies, TV shows that we're engaged with at the time.

Emma: But it's all real feelings that we’re having.

Kassidy: Yeah. So I think that's it. And it's strange because I feel we've written so many songs together now that there are some that aren't out yet or anything, but we can both kind of predict what each other is thinking.

Emma: We’re a hive mind!

Kassidy: Yeah. Like yesterday, we were working on a song, and I wrote a verse for it, and Emma was like, “Oh, my God. That's just like the song that I was listening to when I was thinking about writing this song.” I feel part of it is just that we both listen to similar music, watch similar things, and read similar things. We also know each other in our personal lives obviously, so it's easy to move in and out of that collaborative process.

Emma: Kass has written a lot of lyrics about my life experiences, and I’ve written lyrics about her life too.

E: So would you say the first EP came out very naturally then?

Ise: It was weird because it was during Covid. It was kind of like, “Let’s do this because we are bored.”

Kassidy: A huge part of it was releasing songs to mark the end of an era. For example, the song “Everything” we wrote when we were seventeen, and we felt it would be weird to release later. We had to release it before we left. It was like moving on from our old lives, moving from Gainesville to New York City.

Emma: Yeah you kinda just grow out of some of those feelings, I guess.


IS THERE A REASON YOU GUYS WORK ON MUSIC?

C: Do you each have a different reason for working on music? Why do you create?

Ise: For me, it's just another creative outlet. I enjoy doing it and the feeling I get when something clicks or you just get right in the moment of it. It's a de-stresser for me from other aspects of my life, like school or work.

Kassidy: When new records come out, you kind of get that. I don't know if it feels compulsive, I guess, to make music. It's like you want to do what other people are doing and make something that good. I think it's the same with any creative thing. You see something impressive, and you are like I want to do that too.

Emma: For me, I think it's just so satisfying when you can write a song that's accurate to what you're feeling. That's the satisfying part for me. Being able to convey my emotions through art.


DOES MAKING MUSIC CLASH WITH YOUR OTHER INTERESTS?

Ise: I would say because I'm going into illustration, I actually think it can go hand in hand with my interests because that field is so freelance.  Depending on if you get lucky, you can really dive into whatever passions you have. So a lot of my professors, actually my illustration professor, knows I'm in a band. And she likes our music, so she keeps telling me to pursue more drawings that are music-based. So I don't think it'll ever go away. I will say maybe after graduation when it comes to finding a job. But I don't think that aspect will change much because we're just so close.  I feel like, at this point, we're never really going to ever be apart  from each other in any way, if it's physically or anything. So I think The Jades will always go on, in one way or another.

E: Do you guys feel the same? The Jades can coexist besides whatever you have in life?

Emma: Yeah, because we're all in creative fields. For example with literary studies, writing obviously helps with songwriting. Oh yeah, you (Kass) had a thing about this.

Kassidy: Oh yeah. I just think that architecture has made me a better songwriter. It makes you less precious about your ideas so that you can really move through multiple iterations. I’m more prepared to scrap things and just start over in the interest of making something that's even better.

Ise: I guess I can also add. I've started—I joined film club this year at school, and I've also realized how movie soundtracks, too, are influencing my sound— how I see sounds. Just living here, you're around so many creative people you'll meet that it's hard to miss sources of inspiration. I've gone to so many concerts now and have seen so many new artists. Even outside of these two, my other friends are somehow involved in music.



HOW IS CREATING MUSIC HERE DIFFERENT VERSUS THAN IN GAINESVILLE?

Kassidy: I feel last year was harder because we had to do a lot of our practice and writing in Washington Square Park.

Ise: That's true. Yeah.

Emma: That was tricky.

Kassidy: But now that we have our own place, I think it's a lot easier because we used to practice at Emma's house, and she has, like, two other siblings and dogs. So there was just constant noise coming in and out.  But now, it's when we want to sit down and focus, we can. I think that's just a space thing. I don't know if it's that different. Well, we're exposed to more here, being able to go to museums and kind of gain inspiration. There is a new experience.

Ise: Here, it's easier to get access, or at least for me, if I want to draw inspiration from something. But I think right now I'm struggling with time to be bored. I feel like I always have better ideas or I just have a better time if I just give myself time to do nothing. I just need time just to put stuff down that's terrible and eventually, work through it. But yeah. So I had some time this weekend, but that's been my struggle.

Emma: For me, creating music here hasn’t been that different from creating music back in Gainesville. I guess we get to go to more concerts now, and that inspires me.


DO YOU GUYS HAVE ANY GOALS YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE WITH THE JADES?

ALL: Make an album!

Emma: And befriend Phoebe Bridgers.

Ise: I think, at the moment, it's getting back into making more music again. I think I'm finally getting reinvigorated again.

Emma: Also befriending Taylor Swift. What's happening with Karlie Kloss?

Kassidy: Make something better than the EP.


DO YOU GUYS HAVE ANY EXPERIENCE PLAYING LIVE TOGETHER?

Kassidy: We sttarted in high school, but Ise wasn’t there for Emma and I’s first performance.

Emma: I possibly had Covid right before it started getting reported in the US. I was deathly sick, probably the sickest I've ever been in my life. But we had this gig, so I just took a bunch of Nyquil.

Ise: She actually sounded great!

Emma: Not my best work, but we made a lot of money.

Kassidy: That was, like, February almost March. And then we had another show lined up in April 2020, but that got canceled because Covid hit.



WHY HASN’T THERE BEEN ANY NEW MUSIC?

Kassidy: I mean, we've been writing. I think it's just the thing that's strange, and the thing that was strange about the EP, was that before COVID, we were 17. And then after COVID, it was like, now we are 18. It was like everything felt very different in our lives when we were moving. And I think now it's a matter of regrouping and writing music that reflects what's happening in our lives now. And because of that, we actually had a lot of songs that we used to play that now we don't really care for because, again, like I said, the songs we chose for the EP were ones that we were like, okay, we won't grow out of this completely. But there are some we just threw away. So now we're starting completely over. But we have quite a few songs that we're just reworking. I think it's important for us to make things that we enjoy and would actually listen to.


HAVE YOU GUYS EVER PLAYED AROUND WITH ADDING MORE MEMBERS?

Emma: Yeah, we need them. We want a drummer and a violinist.

Ise: Yea Kassidy was actually asking me to make a post on Lex, to find new members.

E: That's kind of scary, though, adding people to something where you guys already have something built up.

Ise: Yeah, we want non-men. That solves the problem.

Emma: Ideally, it'd be the kind of thing where they help us with recording, and they help us with shows, and we would be the core, which is something a lot of bands have.


WHY IS SELF-PROMOTION SO EMBARRASSING?

C: You guys put a lot of effort into your work and music. Why not show it off?

Ise: I feel TikTok ruined self-promotion for me because you would see those obnoxious promotional videos. It's not like the music was bad. Most of the time the music was really nice. But it was those videos where it was like, “Yeah, this is the hundredth day I'm posting the same video to promote my music!” And I'm just like, “Oh my gosh.”

Kassidy: We want to be lowkey. I can't imagine Elliott Smith in the age of the internet. How would Elliott Smith promote his music? He'd probably just sit on the corner and say, “Hey guys, this is my song,” but that doesn't work now.

Emma: Father John Misty would just go to random bars and give people his CD and be like, “Please listen to it.”

Ise: I just think also the feeling of being earnest is just a terrible feeling to have when you're just telling somebody. You're like, “yeah, love me.”

E: There is a line between, like, oh, I want to be humble, but also being guarded about your music. If you guys put all of this emotion into it, more people should hear it!!

Emma: But that is also why it's harder to share.

E: That is true, sharing art when it is emotionally charged is very frightening at times.

Ise: There was one time, remember, where we were like we’re in a band! And we showed an acquaintance our music, and then she showed us her friends, and they had like a million streams on Spotify. And I was like, oh, okay… so I guess it's fear of rejection, and I don't know, not wanting to be cringe.



HOW HAS THE RECEPTION ON MUSIC BEEN?

Kassidy: Oh, yeah. I mean our mom's friends love us.

Emma: Yeah. Most of our fan base is our mother's friends.

Ise: We make music for the Milfs.

Emma: That's actually our slogan, Music for Milfs.

Ise: I think all of our parents are pretty supportive of any of our creative endeavors. Also, all my friends I've talked to and shout-out to my illustration professor. Everyone has been super supportive.

E: Tell her about this, tell her to read this.

Ise: I will. I'll email it to her. Actually, I have her phone number, so I can text her.

E: Be like, READ THIS. I shouted you out in this.

Emma: MK is probably our biggest supporter.

Kassidy: MK was our manager for a while, she would get us gigs and be like, “You better get your shit together cause you’ve got a show in two weeks.”

Emma: Mom-agers.


SO WHAT IS THE PROCESS OF PREPARING FOR A LIVE SHOW, THEN?

Kassidy: We’re super disorganized. When it comes to recording, I’m very organized. But when it comes to live shows, Ise is the one who shows up with the binder.

Ise: I think it’s just because I did band and recitals, so I’m used to being a little music nerd and prepared. Yeah. And also recitals, too. PR recitals. I had to practice a lot to use up and memorize everything. But yeah, it's just rehearsing.

C: What was in the binder?

Ise: I guess our setlist was The binder. That came in handy.

Kassidy: Yeah, in the end everyone was like, “Oh my god!” And we were just throwing the binder into the audience.

E: How was the turnout of the show?

Kassidy: Yeah, it was good. A lot of people we knew came, including a lot of my coworkers. They were in their late 20s, super cool and intimidating. I told them about it, and they said, “Yeah, I'll come.” And I was like, “Man, that's so cool.”

C: That’s super cool. And it was strictly a The Jades show? No openers?

ALL: It was just us, yeah.

E: With just three songs? That’s crazy.

Kassidy: No, it was a one and a half hour set. That was back when we had ten songs. We played ten original songs and eight covers probably.



WHAT’S PLANNED NEXT?

E: How's the new album coming along? You got a name yet?

Ise: No, we don't have a name. We're definitely still at the beginning stages—

Emma: Wait, what did we even name our first one?

Kassidy: The Jades. We literally named it The Jades.

Ise: —like, we finally organized all the demos we made during the year. Right now we have ten songs so far. Yeah, so now we’ve moved onto tweaking and production.

C: But do you guys have the general sound that you guys are going for on this album?

Kassidy: I don't know if we talked about it; I'm really inspired by Christian Lee Hutson’s Quitters, and also Emma might get mad at me for saying this right now, but I've never been a 1975 fan. But their new album Being Funny in a Foreign Language, the weird, experimental, distorted violins are great.

Emma: I don't have a problem with 1975.

E: So, If we put on record that Emma likes 1975, you’ll be cool with that?

Emma: Don't say all that either.

Ise: So far, we have the songs and demos, but we're still experimenting with the sound.

Emma: Ise made a really cool instrumental.

Ise: So since we haven't really been making music before that, I was just fucking around on GarageBand and making weird songs. Most of them just sound like video game music. But now I'm learning GarageBand on my phone, so I've been getting more into it. It has been lots of fun. Weirdly enough, I think since I have been getting more into film, it has remained a core when I create. But I've been really into how sound production is in movies and how that translates into different songs. So I think it's been trying to find where I can discover different sounds and how I can manipulate them and how they can come together. So, yes, I guess I've been making very haunting music.

Kassidy: It's like the new Phoebe song “Sidelines,” where she says, like, sorry, she keeps coming up but—

Ise:  We should just get a count of how many times Phoebe's brought up in this interview.

Kassidy: Yeah definitely. But like she said, she was going for a very cinematic and lo-fi production. You hear that in with the violins and the little synthesizer keyboard. I feel that's very our vibe, or at least what we’re shooting for.

Ise: Also, I think we're all fairly into horror movies. So I think that also translates pretty well. Because with that genre, it's like, again, that sound is so important to it that you get a lot of interesting soundtracks.

C: So do you guys have any singles planned?

Kassidy: We have been working on this song we’ve been referring to as “Pavement.” We all really love it, so we think we want to release that next.

Emma: You asked us about our style earlier. I have been thinking about how I would describe us. I think Ise encompassed it best. Our style is “Haunted and Sexy” and “For the Milfs”. You’ll love this next album… if you’re deeply disturbed and troubled.

Ise: Also listen to the EP! The Jades is out now!