Interview: Posie

Words & Photos by Giovanni Zuniga

Posie is an East Coast solo artist currently based in Los Angeles. She sits down with Melophile Media to discuss working with her boyfriend/producer Jermey and why they no longer work as a duo, walking multiple roads together, writing from a woman’s perspective, and how nostalgia is fuel for memories that become songs.

Giovanni: Why did you choose [the artist name] Posie?

Posie: <Laughs>. Well this is a very long road. We can talk about a lot of different phases. My full name is Jessica Flamand, and although I feel it is a pretty last name it's a little difficult for people to wrap their head around how it's spelled and how you say it. 

When I was thinking of becoming a solo artist it seemed simpler, more succinct, [to use Posie]. The first time I used Posie was when I was 17 or 18, and I was living in France and I was going out to shows and open mics and I wanted an alter ego.

There's like a lot of  beautiful concepts or descriptions of what Posie is. When I moved back to the US, I met Jeremy, a couple months later, and we became a duo and we became Jesse and Jeremy. 

We had a lot of names <laughs>. I feel as much as I like writing songs and I like taking on new identities. I also feel I can quickly slip into wanting a different name. So, we've been Magazine Husband, Thought Dream, Ron, Paula, Flauman, Jesse and Jermy. When we decided not to be a duo anymore, I was like, let's use an artist's name and I'll just go back to Posie. And so that's how that came around again. 

Giovanni: Is there a reason why you're not a duo anymore? 

Posie: We used to sing together. We used to. Yeah. And, um, we don't do that anymore, so, um, that's kind of why…

Giovanni: <laughs>. But is there a reason why you guys decided not to pursue it as a duo? 

Posie: Yeah. Yeah. There are reasons. There are a lot of reasons. I feel the most comfortable singing on my own and my identity and personality comes through when I'm singing. And I feel like it's hard when you're a duo, you kind of level the playing field. I think there's something kind of mystical and otherworldly when you sing. You're [able] to convey more than what’s happening at the moment.  When you're a duo you have to level out. And I feel like, I don't know…

Giovanni: (Posie looks at Jeremy.)  Do you want him to chime in? 

Posie: Would you (Jeremy) like to chime in? 

Jeremy: We gravitate more to our strengths. I only started singing a couple years before we started singing together and I would harmonize with her a lot, but it just felt I was most comfortable  behind the guitar and getting into production and just more behind the scenes type of thing. And she's much better at talking to a crowd on stage and engaging. 

Posie: I wouldn't say that.

Giovanni: I feel like you (Posie) have the personality for an artist and being out there.

Posie: He has boundless creativity for writing tons of different genres and he can play way more instruments than I can. I have a very distilled down version of the reason why I sing and write and it’s to convey my life stories and that's what I'm doing. 

Giovanni: What do you want to say with your music? 

Posie: I think that singing in particular, and tone of voice, even lyrics are my true, true love; people can convey something that even lyrics can't tell. A lot of singing, for me, is [letting out] unknown things in my life. 

I recognize that in my favorite artists. [Their] unique tone or way of singing, it's their vision, it's their way, their essence is coming through. And I feel like for me, that's really the most important thing in music. There's no easy way to describe what that is. It's just that everyone has that. 

Giovanni: Who do you look up to?

Posie: There are a lot of female singers. Joni Mitchell and Stevie Nicks I love. They're just themselves in everything they create and everything they do. And then a lot less people know Laura Marling 'cause she is of our generation. She's this British singer who is kind of in the folk world. And she's probably the only reason I sing, honestly. When I was 12 years old or 13, I just started singing every single song on every record she'd ever release, over and over and over, every day, for years.

Giovanni: What are you trying to say with your music?

Posie:  The reason why I'm drawn to singing, and why I'm drawn to music, is that it's painting colors, it's casting spells, it’s the way that you get out the things that you can't easily say. The people that I grew up listening to have felt that way to me and have touched on what I recognize as their art.

Giovanni: So what do you want people to get from you?

Posie: I hope for a deep connection. I'm a romantic person and I don't know if optimistic is the right word. 

I have a very female, or like a womanly centered perspective, of the specialness of walking through life with a feminine identity and feeling that what you're dealing with is unique and feeling very connected to the world and romance comes through.

Jeremy: She's always meticulous with lyric writing. You're not so much a stream of consciousness writer. You want to bring in all.

Giovanni: Can you talk about the last song you released? 

Posie: The last song called, “ Forever Almost.” I thought that title was kind of a fun play on words. I’m going towards  the romantic state of mind that I find myself in a lot of the time. I have consistently different kaleidoscope viewpoints on love. And this one was a bit about a person that you can always imagine yourself being with, but you were never with. You think you could be with them forever.  And it's this moment of always feeling like, oh, what could have been?

It was describing that feeling of the person that you continually wonder about. There's actually not a female influence, but a male writer influence for me is Jeff Buckley. 

He's my hero in a lot of ways. In terms of people that you can just tangibly hear. Their self and how they sing is just incredible for that. The lyrics on the bridge are about him. That's a little extra note on that song. 

Giovanni: Let's hear about the next song you’re releasing.

Posie: It’s called, “Walking Away” and it's definitely the least theoretical song I've ever written or released. It's definitely singular about one person. It’s very, very, confessional. The person, who this song is about, will know exactly who they are and it's about them.

It's about a guy. 

Giovanni: Is that hard to work on a song about a guy and you have [a boyfriend]?

Posie: With a boyfriend as a producer? Yeah, it is.

Giovanni: How do you balance this [Jeremy]?

Jeremy: I don't ask a ton of questions. <laughs>.

Posie: It was very easy because he knows the full story about this person. And it's far in the past and I'm painting a very bad picture of this person. It's not like I'm writing a love song about another guy I have a crush on or something. He [Jeremy] should have his ego stroked to produce a song about this shit guy in my life. 

I feel like it was fun. We almost  fed on the situation. We walk a lot of very close roads with each other. Being together, riding together, producing together. There are a lot of times emotionally that you have to be like, let me respect your space.

Giovanni: You think you're a very nostalgic person? 

Posie: Yeah, I am. It's almost a negative quality. I definitely can get caught up in the past, but I think that is a helpful trait for a songwriter especially when you look at biographies and histories of great bands or writers. They have 2 to 10 big relationships. They're not endless, but they have 30 records. There's a certain point where you have to sometimes go over the same feeling and look at it from different ways and cast yourself into different lights and cast the other person..

Giovanni: So let's talk about the future. What's the plan? 

Posie: Something we haven't done very much of is videos and visuals and stuff like that. So, I'm excited for this song. I hope that we get a video for it. And then next year I think we're gonna put a full album out and we have some songs for that that I'm really excited about. And always writing, but continuing to evolve the sound that matches what's being written the best and hopefully live lots of live shows. 

I hope for some tours next year.

Giovanni: Where do you want to go? 

Posie: I want to go everywhere. Gio. <laughs>. I'll be happy wherever, whoever, will have me and will take it. 

Giovanni: Cool. Is there anything else you wanna say? 

Posie: I think that if there was just that little extra burst in sitting in rooms with creative people, and talking about stuff, that you enjoy, and is your life's passion, especially in this day and age with like technology, where we're at with everything, I think it's easy to get discouraged and feel isolated. 

I would just tell anyone who's making art to keep making art and who you are is important and what you're making is important. And if you're not in a big city in the world, if you don't feel like you're around people who understand what you're doing, you are in the right place at the right time and everything will make sense one day and everything's good and beautiful. 

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