"Oshkosh's Jonelle Vette feeling the 'Wonderlust'" by Erin Wassinger, Oshkosh Northwestern
Feb 12, 2009
The last time The Northwestern talked to Jonelle Vette (February 2008), she talked about quitting her "safe" job in Washington D.C. to make a living out of making music. She'd studied jazz here in Oshkosh under Janet Planet and John Harmon, she'd moved to California to study Brazilian jazz, and she'd made a three-song demo.
In 2007, she released "Vette," her debut EP with Low Cut Records, and now she's back with her latest release on the indie label, the pop/ alt EP called "Wonderlust." Her vocals on the album go back and forth between breathy ("Kisses Goodbye") and power pop ("Repent"), and the songs are the result of a collaboration between Vette and songwriter Rob Guiles of Los Angeles.
Last year the singer/ songwriter told us "I was really raised to work hard, to go out there and get the best job possible; I was never really raised to be an artist." Well, by the sound of her music, she could have fans fooled.
Her CD is available at LouLou Boutique, 419 N. Main St., Oshkosh, and online through iTunes, and other online retailers. You can preview her single "Repent" in the Osh24seven mp3 player or online here.
"'Success' has a new take for Oshkosh artist, singer"
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By Sarah Owen
of The Northwestern
One day, she quit her job.
Jonelle
Vette was earning a tidy living in arts administration out in
Washington D.C. But helping other people get their music out to the
world only made the Oshkosh native question her own purpose.
Which soon led her back to the Alice in Wonderland-like rabbit hole that promised more magic in life — an outlet for expression.
"I'd
kind of decided I wasn't going to do music at an early age," she
admits. "But I started to miss it. I thought, 'What have I done' I'm in
my mid-20s (then) and just sort of realize 'Life's passing you by.'"
From
there, Vette's life became a quest to live creatively. She found
photography, sold some art work and studied jazz at home in Oshkosh
under local jazz artists Janet Planet and John Harmon.
Starting over to pursue an alternative route to making a living was something Vette said she struggled with.
"I
traded a career in arts administration that was really safe and secure
for what seemed like a more passion-led, fulfilling kind of life," she
said. "I was really raised to work hard, to go out there and get the
best job possible; I was never really raised to be an artist."
At
one point, she moved to California to study Brazilian jazz and ended up
taking songwriting classes with the likes of Bonnie Hayes – and made
her first three-song demo CD.
Soon, she found herself in Boston
at Berklee College of Music, focusing on vocal performance, jazz and
songwriting. That was where she started her first band devoted to her
own original music.
A year-and-a-half later, her debut CD "VETTE"
was released on the indie label Low Cut Records, and is a collection of
alternative pop and trip hop influenced tracks, heavily reflective of
her journey. But the band has since gone south, however Vette continues
to write and perform her original music, some of which is featured on
the "Vette" EP.
"Shortly after we broke up, I graduated from
Berklee College of Music and decided to move to Nashville just to focus
on writing," the singer said.
While the reason behind her album
and songs initially were to help the act get gigs, Vette said it's
taken her in another direction — one where she's realized that her
focus in on writing, recording and taking seriously a music career as
an independent recording artist while also navigating seeking ways to
simply live creatively.
"One of the coolest things I've seen
about choosing this path is learning how following your intuition leads
you to developing passionate pursuits - taking you to places you didn't
expect you were going to go," she said.
Just being able to live like
that, in that world of imagination, is kind of the ideal or sort of the
measure of success for me, she added, "now if i could just start making
a real living at it and all my creative pursuits!"
Vette's
creative avenues outside of music have mainly been silk screen printing
and photography. To see some of her more current photographs, visit the
link: http://www.jpgmag.com/people/vettegirl.
February 2, 2008, The Oshkosh Northwestern
Sarah Owen: (920) 426-6671 or
sowen2@thenorthwestern.com.