We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jaimee Jakobczak. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jaimee below.
Jaimee, so great to be with you and I think a lot of folks are going to benefit from hearing your story and lessons and wisdom. Imposter Syndrome is something that we know how words to describe, but it’s something that has held people back forever and so we’re really interested to hear about your story and how you overcame imposter syndrome.
If I’m being totally honest, I still struggle with this from time to time, but I’ve got a much better handle on it now than I did when I was younger. When you’re young you don’t realize how deeply media can impact your perception of the world you live in and I think one thing that was challenging for me is that I didn’t often see women in the types of roles I was interested in. For better or for worse, I was largely oblivious for a long time that, for example, there are not very many women music producers, engineers, or even women who front bands – I still devleoped a keen interest in all these areas, but I was working off the influence of men who would never and never did face the same obstacles I would come across as I got more involved in the industry and as I got older.
It still really baffles me how many people will simply turn away your experience, skills and abilities on the basis of your sex alone or your physical features or determine that your value is worth less than that of a man even if you come with significantly more experience and that makes it tricky.
I can recall so many situations where I’d gone to play a gig with my band or was working with another band as their producer/manager and have other industry professionals question me, “so, why are you here?” – Buddy I am keeping this entire operation together!
These days I find the imposter syndrome still creeping along because I haven’t yet found the level of success I am aiming for, the one that mirrors the success of my predecessors and mentors. It doesn’t stop me anymore (years ago, it did), but I don’t think I’ll fully absolve myself of it until I reach a certain level and that’s a goal post that is in constant flux.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
My main priority is my slowly budding music career. I’m solo singer-songwriter Neither Could Dylan and I self-produce, mix and master my own work. Neither Could Dylan to me is about so much more than just writing songs and performing them, it’s really an entire way of life and focuses significantly on maintaining a postive outlook and approach to your goals, whatever they might be. My songs are often inspired by tragic or difficult events that I’ve gone through or have impacted me deeply, the kind of experiences that can have you holed up in bed for weeks not wanting to face the world again. Neither Could Dylan is all about taking little steps towards where you want to be and having compassion for yourself in the moments that you’re not sure you can do it – fighting that imposter syndrome and believing in yourself and your life’s purpose. It started with the idea of, “I’ve never produced my own song from scratch” – and neither had Bob Dylan when he slung a guitar and harmonica to his back and headed out onto the road. The project has snowballed a lot since those initial thoughts to multiple full length albums, EP’s, cover song productions to performing live and hitting a lot of “Firsts”. As I continue the project I’m always asking myself, “what haven’t I done yet?” and “what would I like to try?” and I find more often than not I really surprise myself and the results encourage me to continue to get better and try even more things that maybe I used to be too afraid or lacking the confidence to try in my younger years.
My new album is called “Foxchase” and it’ll arrive this year with the first single arriving to streaming services this February. It’s a bit of a grand odyssey and a much more cinematic album than my previous efforts. Lyrically it builds on a lot of the ideas I’ve addressed briefly for you here today and I hope it does two things: encourages new artists to take that next step towards whatever goal they’re working towards whether it’s recording or performing live shows or otherwise, and I hope that when it reaches those ears who are laying in those beds struggling to face the world that they know I’ve been there too and that they’re not alone.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
One of the most important things for me to comes to terms with was that everyone will feel “ready” to tackle their goals at different stages and to be compassionate with myself in knowing when I just wasn’t there yet. I think sometimes when you’re a big dreamer like me, you’re so eager to move to the next stage of things that you don’t allow yourself the time to really ready yourself for the journey and then when you find yourself say, feeling less confident as you approach the stage for your live performance, you get discouraged with yourself and it’s easy for feelings of failure to creep in. Once your in those moments, you have to really pivot your frame of mind and become your own biggest cheerleader, “Yeah, that didn’t go as well as I hoped, but I still went out there and did it and learned something from it; Next time I’ll try x,y,z and see if it goes better.” Show kindness with yourself first and the rest will fall into place. Don’t rush into things out of fear of missing out, but also don’t run away from experiences just because it’s giving you those jitters. You can be totally rehearsed and well prepared for an experience, but there’s always other variables that can come up unexpectedly that change the entire scope of the situation – in those moments understand that you can only do the best you can and there will be other opportunities.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
I am absolutely looking to collaborate with others! As much as I love being able to do so much music on my own and on my own terms, it pales in comparison to working with other artists and sharing those special moments together. I’d love to have at least one other singer-songwriter to perform duets with, for example, and I’d love to finally get a proper band together so that I can perform live with a group again – I really miss that!
I’d also love to work with other artists again and help them bring their own visions to life – I was 19 years old when I started working with other bands as their engineer and producer and I’ve learned so much more since then, so if you happen to hear my own productions and you think there’s something cool there that would benefit your own projects, never hesitate to e-mail me at [email protected] or reach out through my social media channels. There’s a lot you can do remotely, but I’m willing to travel for the right projects, too.
And if anyone can reach Greig Nori for me, I’d love to get him to produce a track or two of my own. That’s a big dream of mine and I won’t really rest until he explicity tells me my music sucks 🙂
Contact Info:
- Website: www.neithercoulddylan.ca
- Instagram: instagram.com/neithercoulddylan
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/neithercoulddylan
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaimeejakobczak/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/neithercoulddyl
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3MYexMMZ0IomV01LozN7eg
- Other: I also run a music blog on www.crookedforest.ca
