Meet Jessica Sikon | Songwriter & Singer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jessica Sikon and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jessica, have you ever found yourself in a spot where you had to decide whether to give up or keep going? How did you make the choice?
Does the idea of giving up create relief or anxiety in your system, thinking, and body? If the answer is relief, it may be time to reevaluate and figure out what the next step is toward a different path. If the idea of giving up leaves you feeling hopeless or anxious, then it’s probably a good idea to continue on, either in the same capacity or maybe you simply need to shift the technique.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
As the songwriter and lead for my musical project John’s Little Sister, I try to intentionally be authentic in my songwriting. I generally write based on feelings and experiences of external relationships and the relationship I have with myself and the world around me. I feel like the strength in my writing is the capacity to match melody and lyrics with a feeling. While I’m proud of the songs I’ve released, I’m more so looking forward to creating new feelings and exploring new landscapes within my songwriting. John’s Little Sister is evolving as my artistic identity and creative practices shift.
Writing songs is something that I like to do, but I’m continuing to recognize that it’s more of a need. I notice a difference in myself when I am not writing frequently, and it’s an unhappy one. So I am genuinely excited to feed this need and to see how it shows up.
One thing I am excited about is that I am learning more about production, and starting to trust myself more in the process of creating and music-writing. It’s taken me a long time to learn to trust myself in this process for some reason, and it’s a relief to be more in alignment with myself.
To answer the question of “how I got to where I am today professionally” is a bit of a challenge because I feel I have so much further to go in my professional career with music. I have so much work ahead of me, which I look forward to tackling, but I suppose I’ll just keep going the way that I have been up to this point, which is just continuing to do it and continuing to learn more about the business and the technology and the logistics (it’s a lot of logistics) of being a musician. As a musician now, you have to wear so many hats and I’m often struggling to keep everything in balance, which I haven’t quite figured out, in all honestly, but I intend to forever deepen my practice and I really hope that it continues to take me to where I want to be.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
One of my favorite things about Cleveland is the proximity to the parks. We have some beautiful nature and I enjoy spending as much time as I can being in it. I’d definitely take someone who is visiting to see the lake in as many different environments as possible, which obviously includes the beaches. As far as food and restaurants, my favorite place to spend time in public is Cent’s Pizza & Goods.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I want to acknowledge my bandmates and their willingness to stick with me while I slowly figure this out.

Instagram: @johnslittlesistermusic

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmGEclWz85vB1lyH99VYkmg

Image Credits
All photos taken by Alison Scarpulla