Biography
Jesca Hoop layers quirky melodies and razor-sharp harmonies across her artful indie folk, producing sparse songs that evoke Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, and Vashti Bunyan. Her recording career opened with the 2007 album Kismet, the first in a succession of releases that stayed unpredictable even while remaining inside the boundaries of her established sound. She joined Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam for the 2016 album Love Letter for Fire and then issued her solo Sub Pop debut, Memories Are Now, the following year. Hoop’s sixth studio album, Order of Romance, appeared in 2022 with a pair of backing singers, a core rhythm section, and a horn and woodwind quintet.
Born in Santa Rosa, California, Jesca Hoop secured her first major opportunity in the early 2000s by working as a nanny for Tom Waits’ children. Raised in a musically inclined Mormon household, she departed after her parents separated when she was 14. She spent time in California, Wyoming, and Arizona sharpening her songwriting before spending five years with the Waits family. Tom Waits responded to Hoop’s offbeat folk songs, which aligned her in certain respects with the so-called New Weird Americans that included Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom, and Faun Fables. He forwarded her demo, a version of the song Seed of Wonder, to Lionel Conway, who then passed it to KCRW’s Nic Harcourt. The DJ broadcast Seed of Wonder, generating enough listener interest that record companies began approaching her. She signed with 3 Entertainment, an offshoot of Columbia Records. Produced by 3 Entertainment head Tony Berg, her full-length debut Kismet reached the Billboard independent and Heatseekers album charts upon its 2007 release.
After Columbia closed 3 Entertainment, the Kismet Acoustic EP appeared in 2008 on the Last Laugh imprint. By then based in Manchester, England, Hoop signed with the independent Vanguard Records, which released her sophomore album Hunting My Dress in 2010. The live recording The Complete Kismet Acoustic and the EP Snowglobe both came out in 2011. Her third album, House That Jack Built, was co-produced with Berg and issued by Last Laugh in 2012. She again reworked earlier material for the acoustic LP Undress, released in 2014.
Hoop teamed with Iron and Wine’s Sam Beam for the 2016 Sub Pop release Love Letter for Fire. She followed with her own Sub Pop album, Memories Are Now, in 2017. Her first solo project recorded outside Tony Berg’s Zeitgeist Studios, the set was tracked in North Hollywood with producer Blake Mills and returned Hoop to the Top 20 of the Heatseekers Albums chart. Her fifth album of original material, Stonechild, arrived in 2019 on Memphis Industries and was produced by longtime PJ Harvey collaborator John Parish (This Is the Kit, Aldous Harding). The record featured indie pop harmonists Lucius along with This Is the Kit’s Kate Stables and Rozi Plain. After issuing further reinterpretations on The Deconstruction of Jack’s House in 2021, she again enlisted Parish for Order of Romance in 2022. That album’s supporting musicians included vocalists Chloe Foy and Rachel Rimmer, drummer Seb Rochford (Babyshambles, Polar Bear), bassist Jon Thorne (Lamb, Yorkston/Thorne/Khan), and a horn and woodwind quintet.
Born in Santa Rosa, California, Jesca Hoop secured her first major opportunity in the early 2000s by working as a nanny for Tom Waits’ children. Raised in a musically inclined Mormon household, she departed after her parents separated when she was 14. She spent time in California, Wyoming, and Arizona sharpening her songwriting before spending five years with the Waits family. Tom Waits responded to Hoop’s offbeat folk songs, which aligned her in certain respects with the so-called New Weird Americans that included Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom, and Faun Fables. He forwarded her demo, a version of the song Seed of Wonder, to Lionel Conway, who then passed it to KCRW’s Nic Harcourt. The DJ broadcast Seed of Wonder, generating enough listener interest that record companies began approaching her. She signed with 3 Entertainment, an offshoot of Columbia Records. Produced by 3 Entertainment head Tony Berg, her full-length debut Kismet reached the Billboard independent and Heatseekers album charts upon its 2007 release.
After Columbia closed 3 Entertainment, the Kismet Acoustic EP appeared in 2008 on the Last Laugh imprint. By then based in Manchester, England, Hoop signed with the independent Vanguard Records, which released her sophomore album Hunting My Dress in 2010. The live recording The Complete Kismet Acoustic and the EP Snowglobe both came out in 2011. Her third album, House That Jack Built, was co-produced with Berg and issued by Last Laugh in 2012. She again reworked earlier material for the acoustic LP Undress, released in 2014.
Hoop teamed with Iron and Wine’s Sam Beam for the 2016 Sub Pop release Love Letter for Fire. She followed with her own Sub Pop album, Memories Are Now, in 2017. Her first solo project recorded outside Tony Berg’s Zeitgeist Studios, the set was tracked in North Hollywood with producer Blake Mills and returned Hoop to the Top 20 of the Heatseekers Albums chart. Her fifth album of original material, Stonechild, arrived in 2019 on Memphis Industries and was produced by longtime PJ Harvey collaborator John Parish (This Is the Kit, Aldous Harding). The record featured indie pop harmonists Lucius along with This Is the Kit’s Kate Stables and Rozi Plain. After issuing further reinterpretations on The Deconstruction of Jack’s House in 2021, she again enlisted Parish for Order of Romance in 2022. That album’s supporting musicians included vocalists Chloe Foy and Rachel Rimmer, drummer Seb Rochford (Babyshambles, Polar Bear), bassist Jon Thorne (Lamb, Yorkston/Thorne/Khan), and a horn and woodwind quintet.
Albums
Order of Romance
2022
The Deconstruction of Jack's House
2021
STONECHILD
2019
Memories Are Now
2017
Love Letter for Fire
2016
Undress
2014
The Complete Kismet Acoustic
2011
Snowglobe - EP
2011
Hunting My Dress
2010
Kismet
2007
Singles
