We caught up with the brilliant and insightful John John Jesse a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi John John, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
Strangely enough my career started as a way to keep sane between NA meetings when I very first got clean. There wasn’t a goal of a big career or anything. I was going quite mad and was very emotionally fragile and painting gave me a real sense of calm. A way to vent and possibly tell my darker story through a pretty painting.
Rewind years earlier in the mid 1980s and I was living in a punk squat and doing flyers and art for my newly formed punk band Nausea. I later did gig flyers for more punk and New York Hardcore shows that were happening in the Lower East Side of New York City. I never thought much about my abilities to paint and draw. It was just simply something that came easily.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Some may know me more for my paintings and others would remember me as the bassist and founder of NYC political punk band Nausea.
I am a native of NYC and was an early teen when I discovered punk music and the growing scene happening around me. I grew ups in the Lower East Side and it was always around and I was just simply drawn to it.
Forming my own band after I dropped out of high school in the mid 80s, Nausea was born and we went on to tour the world and release one full length LP and 2 7″ eps till out breakup in 1992.
As for my 2o plus year career in the arts it was almost an accident becoming my full time job. As mentioned in the previous question I started painting the keep sane between NA meetings and eventually I showed some friends what I was doing and they got men included in small art shows and it did not take long from there to get my first gallery representation in New York and to get featured in magazines like Rolling Stone, Juxtapose etc. Crazy. It was like a gift from the universe for getting sober and finally showing myself some love.
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?
You just have to be ready to buckle in and start your work and keep at it. It’s difficult to many and they may not be ready to take time from going out at night and concentrate on this one thing, It’s ok. I wasn’t ready till I was 30 years old. We all have a time that is right. Any journey has its own unique tale. Just love what you do. Imagine if you would still love doing it when you’re much older. Put love into it. Don’t immediately concern yourself with fame or wealth.
Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?
Well it’s unusual form of impact, but my father was not in the picture since I was 3, so my mom raised me by herself. Like most single parents she had to work all the time. By the time I was 8 I had the keys to our NYC apartment and came home from school by myself. They call us “latch-key kids”. This was during the time in the 70s and 80s when the Lower East Side of NYC looked like a bombed out city of WWII. Endless streets of abandoned buildings, junkies, everywhere and rampant homelessness. I was an only child so I spent SOO much time alone drawing and watching reruns of 1960s and 70s cartoons and since I had no siblings to distract me, my imagination grew and flourished and became endless. And it’s ever present to this day. So basically since my Mom wasn’t very present (not her fault) because of having to support us I developed such a creative and vivid mind.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @johnjohnjesse @nausea_nyc
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/johnjohnjesseart/
Image Credits
Live Nausea Photo by Chris Boarts Larson
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
