Jenn Bostic: ‘Music is my therapy’
American Country and Christian singer songwriter Jenn Bostic has told Downtown Country, music helped heal her wounds after losing her dad as a young child.
Last updated 25th Feb 2018
Speaking to Downtown’s David Gordon, the 32-year-old said channelling her pain into her work, helped her to grieve:
“When I was ten years old I lost my dad in a car accident," she said.
“He was the first person to ever encourage me to play music and to inspire me in this way and after I lost him I threw myself into song writing.
“It was the therapy that I used to express all of those emotions that I was feeling.
“It wasn’t until many years after the accident that I wrote ‘Jealous of the Angels’… and that was everything that needed to come out.
“That was a weight lifted from my shoulders and I never really planned to perform the song live, that was something I just did to heal but I was sitting at the Bluebird café in Nashville and I was in the round and it was coming up on my turn.
“And I just had this overwhelming sense I was supposed to play this song and I played it.
“And after the show a woman approached me and said I lost my dad two days ago and I know you played that song for me.
“So that was the beginning of knowing that vulnerably sharing my heart through song and putting it out in the universe, not only was helping me but it was connecting with people and… here I am playing it in Northern Ireland so I’m grateful for that.”
Despite the track’s success (it won five awards in 2012) Jenn said it was penned in just 45 minutes.
She told us emotions ran high during the production process:
“It’s crazy because I was on my way to the writing session and Zach (Rundqusit) and Jimmy (Fortune) and I had talked about the fact that we wanted to write about what had happened with my dad and I felt so unprepared," she said.
“So I got there early and I pulled into this parking lot and it was raining and I just grabbed my notebook and I started writing to just get myself back there in that place.
“And I wrote six pages front and back, got to the session and just started reading the pages and within that was ‘I’m so jealous of the angels that are with my dad now.’
“We took a lot of those pieces and put them in the song, it probably took 45 minutes to write it between the three of us.
“We were all crying, it was just one of those really spiritual, magical moments in song writing.”
Jenn’s music spans many genres and when asked to describe her own musical style, she said it can be difficult to tie it down:
“I love so many different styles of music and that has been both a wonderful thing and a challenge in the industry," she said.
“I have been told I’m too pop for country, I’ve been told I’m too Christian for pop, I’ve been told so many different things but honestly I just write from my heart and I write the music that I love making and I just pray that it connects with people.”
Her new album ‘Revival’ is her first in three years and features song ‘Faint of Heart.’
Jenn performed it for us in the Downtown Country studio and said she is excited to release some new work:
“This new album is kind of a combination of pop, gospel with a little bit of Bluesy-soul to it.
“The song is an awakening, it’s a rebirth of something and I’m so grateful that I get to put a positive message out in the world.
“There’s enough darkness that we don’t need to have any more of that.
“For me this album is a new, fresh thing, I haven’t had an album out since 2015 so this is new and exciting for me as well.
“I just hope it encourages people to remember that if we can all just focus on the fact that something great is about to happen and live our lives that way and live in hope and positivity.”
Jenn plays Belfast Nashville Songwriters festival on March, 8 and according to the Philadelphia born star, Belfast is one of her favourite places to visit:
“I love it over here, I have made some really incredible friends over here, I’ve led some worship over here, I’ve done some shows over here and I can’t wait until Belnash with two my really great friends they’re both from here Gary Quinn and Megan O’Neill," she added.