A Spez-aile performance
September 11th 2012
By Nicholas M. Pescod
Toronto's Jessica Speziale to perform at the Glad Day Bookshop
When she was only eight months old Jessica Speziale went on tour with her father’s band, Backstreet, in Las Vegas.
Now, more than 20-years later the Toronto pop rock singer-songwriter has gone from song writing to releasing CD’s and touring around Southern Ontario.
On Sept. 8, Speziale performed a three hour set at the Pepperwood, a high-class restaurant in Burlington, Ont.
“It was a three-hour performance which I don’t get the chance do to very often,” she says. “I played most of my original catalogues tonight and a couple of covers which is kind of rare for me.”
Speziale will be at it again on Sept. 13, when she takes the stage at the Glad Day Bookshop in Toronto.
“I'm really excited,” Speziale says. “I love performing, and we will be adding some new songs into the set for this one. Also, I'm really looking forward to being an audience member. It's a poetry cabaret and we're the musical feature.”
Earlier this year Speziale completed a Southern Ontario tour, which saw her make stops in Bracebridge, Brampton, Burlington, Mississauga, Guelph, Hamilton, Newmarket, Ottawa, Toronto and London.
“The tour was awesome,” she says. “I had the best time. It was just my guitar and I. I also randomly picked up people as I went along the way, family members, friends, and a band. It was great.”
“It’s a lot of fun because it meant that I got to meet a lot of artists in those areas that I had either heard about or talked to on the Internet,” she adds. “It was great to meet a whole bunch of people I had never met before.”
Speziale released her debut EP Dear Reverie back in November and has been performing ever since.
She says that her 4-piece band would begin recording a new song sometime in October.
“It’s a new song called ‘Give Me Something’ and then we will work on some music videos,” Speziale says. “Hopefully we will have three or four music videos coming out over the winter time.”
She also hinted at the creative beginnings of possibly her next album and knows what she’ll do differently for her next release.
“I have been working on some new material for my next EP,” she adds. “I was so anxious with the last EP . . . I’d really like get some promotional things together before my next EP launches.”
For those who’ve had the privilege of sharing the stage with Speziale, they have nothing but good things to say about her.
“She’s very easy to work with and most talented musicians are. When you have enough songs in your repertoire it’s really easy to go into the mix and add your own flavor on top of it,” djembe player David Sufrins says. “It’s a lot of fun working with her.”
According to those who have heard Speziale’s dazzling performances they’re a mix of Serena Ryder with the heart and soul of Alicia Keys.
The Torontonian’s music and songwriting career began on her kitchen table when she was just a little girl. She would spend hours writing music as her father played the acoustic guitar.
“I remember being really nervous about opening up creatively and trying new things in front of my dad, but he started it off and was incredibly encouraging, so we wrote a lot of music,” Speziale says. “He would play guitar and we would write the lyrics together. Or I would come with lyrics and a melody and he would put the instrumentation together. Soon it would become a real rush of excitement to go to my dad's house and sit around the kitchen table with a guitar.”
“We still write together from time to time,” she adds.
She says she often keeps a notebook beside her nightstand so she can jot down any vital ideas for songs that she might think of while in those moments before sleep.
Speziale can also play the saxophone and appeared in several school musicals, one of which featured two of her own songs.
“I picked up the guitar for the first time when I was nine,” she says.
According to the pop-rock singer, musicians such as Alanis Morissette, Sass Jordan, Amanda Marshall, and Daniel John were all extremely influential in her own musical career.
“I wanted to be like her (Morissette),” Speziale says. “I loved her songs. Jagged Little Pill was such an epic album. She was full of angst and upbeat.”
Speziale will also be performing at All Stars Bar and Grill in Brampton, Ont on Sept. 15.
Songs on Rotation
1. Dear Reverie
2. Brace Yourself
3. Babyface
For more information on Jessica Speziale
visit www.jessicaspeziale.com and follow @Spezzie on Twitter.
