Jessica Smucker

She doesn’t want to be a superhero, but Lancaster native Jessica Smucker is by no means a fall-girl. As the unassuming front for her dark pop band, The Sleeping World, this folk-rock singer-songwriter unabashedly takes a stand for her haunting, even self-professed “gloomy” lyrics; for her controversial themes; for her suspenseful storytelling metered out in keen poetic morsels; and for her penchant to perform in venues other than bars and clubs — places where the music can actually be heard. And appreciated. “I want my music to find the people who want to hear it,” she says simply.
Yet, it was precisely the fall that animated what Jessica intrinsically knew was her first “good” song. She’d been writing songs, “every now and then,” for her entire life. But Same Time Every Year was different. It was more complex. Lamenting and nostalgic at the same time, it delineated the blurring of seasonal lines as we age — when there is no more school in the fall. The song worked, Jessica explains, because of its equal measures of clarity and ambiguity, because of its invitation to let people “co-opt it for their own emotional purposes.” That’s what a good song does.

As an insomniac, often a willful one because she just can’t let go, Jessica refuses to give up on the integrity of her music. Or of good songs. So, in this fall issue of FIG, we salute Jessica Smucker and The Sleeping World — even when supine, they’re perpetually awake, always standing up, always striving to “take it as far as it can go.” (So long as they always come back to Lancaster, of course. Anytime of year…) - Fig Magazine

The word “process” can take on a number of meanings. As a noun, it can be a summary of sorts, a defining of the methodology employed transitioning from point A to point B. As a verb, it’s meaning instead denotes the actions behind understanding – the mulling over, the breaking down, the comprehending.

For Jessica Smucker, the act of songwriting falls somewhere in between the two definitions. More than just a layering of words atop a musical foundation, Smucker’s writing has developed into a sort of cathartic release, an occasion to not only address the emotions – and demons – once penned up inside, but more importantly, an opportunity to reflect, make sense of and ultimately deal with them. The creation of a song is, in essence, a happy little bi-product.

Even at 33 years old, Smucker is still very new at this whole recording artist thing, levying her first crack at it just three years ago when she first formed her band The Sleeping World. “When I started doing the band back then, I didn’t really like my own name and wanted instead to find a band name. It was kind of hard to name it something I could really stand behind, though; and it’s so easy to come up with something cheesy or pretentious.”

The Sleeping World, then, developed as a tip of the hat to Leonard Cohen, one of Smucker’s biggest influences. Intimidated by the pressure of picking the perfect name, Smucker decided to turn to Cohen’s works for inspiration. To her dismay, most of her favorite lines and lyrics had already been taken in one way or another. Finally, following a good bit of research, she found one that stuck.

“The last refuge of the insomniac is a sense of superiority to the sleeping world,” recites Smucker, almost mechanically. “I definitely identified with the insomnia part, and at the time I had a keyboard player who was also a major insomniac. It was kind of arbitrary, but it was a quote from someone I liked.” Now three years into it, the phrase has grown in meaning. “More than just a band name, we are talking about the listener and the audience as ‘the sleeping world.’ We’re talking to you.”

Those familiar with Smucker’s work know the depth of her material. Regarded for her lyrical prowess – she recently captured first place honors at the 2010 SolarFest Singer-Songwriter Showcase in July, as well as second place at the Susquehanna Music & Arts Festival in May– the songstress credits her long history and fascination with writing poetry as a driving force behind the songs in her catalog.

“I do a lot of processing information in my songs,” remarks Smucker. “I always did that with my poetry, too.” Over time, however, songwriting replaced poetry as the preferred creative release, as Smucker decided to instead invest her energy into creating songs. “I burnt myself out with poetry, and really started driving myself crazy, taking it too seriously. It was too hard to accomplish anything as a poet; it was hard to feel relevant. I found that songwriting was relaxing. I could literally pull my thoughts out of my head and couple that with something physical like playing the piano. I haven’t wanted to go back and focus on poetry ever since.”

The “information processing” is not your average momentary reflection. Instead, hers is a creative digesting of some emotionally heavy topics, most prominently those of religion, sexuality and the experience of a divorce.

This becomes particularly evident with the release of This Broken Moment, Smucker’s third recording and first full-length album, which is due out this month. For Smucker, the album presents a striking contrast to previous recordings on a number of levels.

Where she once characterized her writing as tapping into a “dark, sinister place” in her mind, Smucker admits to nodes of optimism on This Broken Moment. “We’ve done a much better job balancing itout lately,” she says. “With this album, I feel really good about how much more up-tempo it is. It’s not likely to clobber anyone emotionally.”

The album title is a lyric contained in the eleventh track, “New Year Song”: If I have to drown in this dark sea / I can be brave / I’m not gonna let this broken moment slip away. This is a theme Smucker has derived from Leonard Cohen’s “Anthem” (There’s a crack in everything / that’s how the light gets in); the underlying emotion is that of hope, of making the best out of the worst.

“When I think of a broken moment, I think of it as an opportunity to make something beautiful from it,” says Smucker. “This isn’t just some devastated, broken album. My whole life as a musician has emerged from going through a divorce and coming back home and not really knowing what I was going to do. I don’t know if the idea will come through to other people, but that’s what it means for me. This Broken Moment is an opportunity.”

Sure, titles like “The Blues are Here to Stay” and “Shut Up” may entice the listener to assume that all is still not-so-peachy in the relationship world. Songs li - Fly Magazine

By JON FERGUSON
Staff Writer

Both music and writing have played important roles in Jessica Smucker's life, but for the longest time the singer-songwriter didn't think it possible to join the two.

As a child, the graduate of Lancaster Mennonite High School took piano lessons and sang enough around the house for it to bug her brothers.
"When I was a kid, I was always singing," she says. "My brothers tried to make a rule against me singing at the dinner table. I was definitely full of music all the time. But it never occurred to me to pursue it seriously."

Writing, however, did become a serious endeavor for Smucker, who will perform with her band, the Sleeping World, Saturday at Hans Herr House as part of the Music in the Orchard series. Also on the bill is the trio Mandalele.

A poet, Smucker attended Indiana's Goshen University and graduated from Western Illinois University with a degree in English and creative writing.

Her poems have been published in Spoon River Poetry and the Potomac Review and four are included in the anthology "A Cappella: Mennonite Voices in Poetry."

At some point, however, the writing stopped being fun and she started banging away at the piano to relieve stress. Soon she was writing songs.

"The process of writing at the piano was more holistic for me," Smucker, 34, says. "It was incorporating my body into the process. It was grounding."

Smucker, who moved from the Midwest back to Lancaster in 2005, didn't know what to do with her songs until she played them for Jeff Bryson, the mandolinist for Vinegar Creek Constituency.

Bryson, who was impressed, asked her what could he do to convince her to play the songs for other people, and Smucker told him he could help her put together a band.

"When I realized I was writing some good songs, I still wasn't sure what to do with them because I still didn't see myself as being enough of a musician to go out and play them for people," she says. "I was thinking I needed to have a band to sort of build me up as a musician. They could cover my musical lack."

Smucker, who works part-time for Fly Magazine and also helps out her father at a farmers' market stand in Allentown, has been pursuing music for about four years.

In that time, she has settled on a band that includes bassist Dave Sheaffer and drummer Tommy Leanza and has released two EPs -- "The Sleeping World" (2008) and "Reluctantly Yours" (2010) and one full-length album, "This Broken Moment" (2010).

As well as performing in a trio, she and Sheaffer sometimes work as a duo and she also does some solo shows, something that would have been unimaginable just a couple of years ago.

"I would have been terrified when I was starting out to to play without my band," Smucker says. "I needed them to sort of carry me musically."
Smucker and her band will travel to Vermont next month to play an event called SolarFest, which sponsors a songwriting contest that she won last year. She also will be performing shows in Massachusetts and New York.

"For me, right now, it's just chipping away at it and knowing that I'm going to be investing a lot before it pans out," she says. "I just hope I can sustain it enough to be able to keep doing it."

Saturday's concert at Willow Street's Hans Herr House, the oldest house in Lancaster County, is the first of two Music in the Orchard events scheduled this summer.

The second will happen on July 23 and will feature local bands the Stray Birds and Fire in the Glen.
- Lancaster Intelligencer Journal

The Sleeping World
Published: October 2010
Story: Michael McMonagle
Photo: Press Photo

The word “process” can take on a number of meanings. As a noun, it can be a summary of sorts, a defining of the methodology employed transitioning from point A to point B. As a verb, it’s meaning instead denotes the actions behind understanding – the mulling over, the breaking down, the comprehending.

For Jessica Smucker, the act of songwriting falls somewhere in between the two definitions. More than just a layering of words atop a musical foundation, Smucker’s writing has developed into a sort of cathartic release, an occasion to not only address the emotions – and demons – once penned up inside, but more importantly, an opportunity to reflect, make sense of and ultimately deal with them. The creation of a song is, in essence, a happy little bi-product.

Even at 33 years old, Smucker is still very new at this whole recording artist thing, levying her first crack at it just three years ago when she first formed her band The Sleeping World. “When I started doing the band back then, I didn’t really like my own name and wanted instead to find a band name. It was kind of hard to name it something I could really stand behind, though; and it’s so easy to come up with something cheesy or pretentious.”

The Sleeping World, then, developed as a tip of the hat to Leonard Cohen, one of Smucker’s biggest influences. Intimidated by the pressure of picking the perfect name, Smucker decided to turn to Cohen’s works for inspiration. To her dismay, most of her favorite lines and lyrics had already been taken in one way or another. Finally, following a good bit of research, she found one that stuck.

“The last refuge of the insomniac is a sense of superiority to the sleeping world,” recites Smucker, almost mechanically. “I definitely identified with the insomnia part, and at the time I had a keyboard player who was also a major insomniac. It was kind of arbitrary, but it was a quote from someone I liked.” Now three years into it, the phrase has grown in meaning. “More than just a band name, we are talking about the listener and the audience as ‘the sleeping world.’ We’re talking to you.”

Those familiar with Smucker’s work know the depth of her material. Regarded for her lyrical prowess – she recently captured first place honors at the 2010 SolarFest Singer-Songwriter Showcase in July, as well as second place at the Susquehanna Music & Arts Festival in May– the songstress credits her long history and fascination with writing poetry as a driving force behind the songs in her catalog.

“I do a lot of processing information in my songs,” remarks Smucker. “I always did that with my poetry, too.” Over time, however, songwriting replaced poetry as the preferred creative release, as Smucker decided to instead invest her energy into creating songs. “I burnt myself out with poetry, and really started driving myself crazy, taking it too seriously. It was too hard to accomplish anything as a poet; it was hard to feel relevant. I found that songwriting was relaxing. I could literally pull my thoughts out of my head and couple that with something physical like playing the piano. I haven’t wanted to go back and focus on poetry ever since.”

The “information processing” is not your average momentary reflection. Instead, hers is a creative digesting of some emotionally heavy topics, most prominently those of religion, sexuality and the experience of a divorce.

This becomes particularly evident with the release of This Broken Moment, Smucker’s third recording and first full-length album, which is due out this month. For Smucker, the album presents a striking contrast to previous recordings on a number of levels.

Where she once characterized her writing as tapping into a “dark, sinister place” in her mind, Smucker admits to nodes of optimism on This Broken Moment. “We’ve done a much better job balancing itout lately,” she says. “With this album, I feel really good about how much more up-tempo it is. It’s not likely to clobber anyone emotionally.”

The album title is a lyric contained in the eleventh track, “New Year Song”: If I have to drown in this dark sea / I can be brave / I’m not gonna let this broken moment slip away. This is a theme Smucker has derived from Leonard Cohen’s “Anthem” (There’s a crack in everything / that’s how the light gets in); the underlying emotion is that of hope, of making the best out of the worst.

“When I think of a broken moment, I think of it as an opportunity to make something beautiful from it,” says Smucker. “This isn’t just some devastated, broken album. My whole life as a musician has emerged from going through a divorce and coming back home and not really knowing what I was going to do. I don’t know if the idea will come through to other people, but that’s what it means for me. This Broken Moment is an opportunity.”

Sure, titles like “The Blues are Here to Stay” and “Shut Up” may enti - Fly Magazine

John Keats once wrote about the miracle of melancholia, the idea that only by experiencing sorrow can a person know true joy.
That idea – the “fertility of pain” – is what makes the music of Jessica Smucker Falcon and her band of merry men, The Sleeping World, so affecting. The songs are woven with a sort of defiant sadness, a square-jawed resilience that only comes once you’ve been knocked off your feet a few times and lived to tell about it.
Also a successful poet (and writer, casting director and film production coordinator), Smucker Falcon has a knack, if not a compulsion, for dumping out her proverbial purse on the table. She’s been writing music for about eight years, and poetry for even longer, so the process of digging deep into her personal history for lyrical fodder is more or less like second nature.
“It’s not scary, but it’s tricky,” she explains. “The idea of exposing my raw nerves to strangers is less daunting than the task of doing it right. The closer the song is to my heart – the more it taps into a pocket of pain that is still active for me – the harder it is for me to accept anything less than a smooth, perfect performance.”
Musically, The Sleeping World has a few obvious touchstones – melody-centric writers like Over The Rhine, Patty Griffin and Leonard Cohen (the band got its name from a Cohen quote), as well as several female artists (Liz Phair, PJ Harvey, Alanis Morissette) for whom timidity has never been an issue. At times lilting, shuffling, uplifting and melancholic, the music is also characterized by a certain menacing factor, something sinister lurking just under the surface, like swallowed anger.
“Sometimes, in order to work through a philosophical question or problem that’s eating at me, I have to go to this dark, sinister place in my mind and dredge up the roots of the problem in order to find my way to the other side of it,” Smucker Falcon says. “I’m conscious of it. I’m self- conscious about it. I worry that it will be misunderstood.
“There’s a lot of heavy shit in these songs, but I write them because I’m trying to find something true.”
While Smucker Falcon has been writing music as an emotional outlet for years, it wasn’t until early 2007 that, at the encouragement of some musician friends, she entertained the idea of it being an actual pursuit. After tossing a few songs out into the ether, she was able to attract an able-bodied cast of players to back her, including (after a few personnel shifts) Lancaster mainstays Matt Underhill and Tommy Leanza. And before she knew it, The Sleeping World just kind of was.
“It started happening in spite of me. I didn’t seek it out. It found me,” Smucker Falcon says. “I had just moved back to the area, was recently divorced, between jobs … Everything about my life at the time was transitional, so I had this enhanced openness to the whims of fate – or whatever. I figured if I let myself float for a while, I might end up somewhere good. And I did.
“It’s been the most challenging and rewarding creative pursuit of my life so far,” she adds.
The Sleeping World is currently in the midst of recording its debut EP, with a full-length album to follow within the year. Beyond that, the band will continue to spread that little miracle of melancholia around the midstate and collect more fans – like the one who decided to show her appreciation by making Smucker Falcon a battery-operated light-up bra.
“I thought that was the best thing ever – even though I’ll probably never have the guts to wear it on stage,” she laughs. “I’m a sucker for a good story, so for me it’s a highlight when something weird happens. For example, if some drunk lady comes up to me after a show and starts petting my dress or giving me wet kisses on my ears, it’s kind of a highlight.”
To each her own.
- Fly Magazine

Philly Local Pick of the Day 9/9/08:

"You'll Forgive Me"
Sleeping World EP
The Sleeping World

http://wxpn.blogspot.com/2008/09/pick-of-day-9908.html

Blues meets Indie rock band, The Sleeping World, is certainly not asleep on the local music scene. Since their conception in 2007 the group has managed to earn themselves recognition in magazines, as well as, rapidly garnering a vast fan base. Fronted by singer/songwriter Jessica Smucker Falcon, this group strives to create music that will impact the world and between Falcon's lyrical honesty and insight their songs may achieve just that. Be sure to catch this awesome group live September 20th at the Lancaster Dispensing Company located in Lancaster, PA or catch them at our Philly Local Showcase.

It's time for another WXPN Philly Local Showcase, but this one is special. Featuring only artists from Central PA, this is a show you won't want to miss. Hosted at the Chameleon Club in Lancaster, PA. You can expect to see some of Central PA's finests artist like Slimfit, Farewell Flight, and pick of the day The Sleeping World! Check back in tomorrow for more info on the WXPN Central Pa Local Showcase! - Helen Leicht

Philly Local Pick of the Day 9/9/08:

"You'll Forgive Me"
Sleeping World EP
The Sleeping World

http://wxpn.blogspot.com/2008/09/pick-of-day-9908.html

Blues meets Indie rock band, The Sleeping World, is certainly not asleep on the local music scene. Since their conception in 2007 the group has managed to earn themselves recognition in magazines, as well as, rapidly garnering a vast fan base. Fronted by singer/songwriter Jessica Smucker Falcon, this group strives to create music that will impact the world and between Falcon's lyrical honesty and insight their songs may achieve just that. Be sure to catch this awesome group live September 20th at the Lancaster Dispensing Company located in Lancaster, PA or catch them at our Philly Local Showcase.

It's time for another WXPN Philly Local Showcase, but this one is special. Featuring only artists from Central PA, this is a show you won't want to miss. Hosted at the Chameleon Club in Lancaster, PA. You can expect to see some of Central PA's finests artist like Slimfit, Farewell Flight, and pick of the day The Sleeping World! Check back in tomorrow for more info on the WXPN Central Pa Local Showcase! - Helen Leicht

""Winter Tales Collection" is uniformly strong, with the enchanting original tunes from [Jessica] Smucker and [Michele] Mercure of particular interest."

Read full article: http://www.pennlive.com/music/patriotnews/index.ssf?/base/entertainment/1261166119128700.xml&coll=1 - Harrisburg Patriot-News

""Winter Tales Collection" is uniformly strong, with the enchanting original tunes from [Jessica] Smucker and [Michele] Mercure of particular interest."

Read full article: http://www.pennlive.com/music/patriotnews/index.ssf?/base/entertainment/1261166119128700.xml&coll=1 - Harrisburg Patriot-News

"...Jessica Smucker and her band have put together a really strong disc of well-written, well-performed songs. The in-your-face honesty of Smucker's songwriting really punches you in the stomach at times..."

http://brickthroughwindow.blogspot.com/2008_11_01_archive.html - I Threw a Brick through a Window / Ken Mueller

"...Jessica Smucker and her band have put together a really strong disc of well-written, well-performed songs. The in-your-face honesty of Smucker's songwriting really punches you in the stomach at times..."

http://brickthroughwindow.blogspot.com/2008_11_01_archive.html - I Threw a Brick through a Window / Ken Mueller