Interview by Brooke Gibbs.

Futuremag Music sat down with Eora/Sydney-based indie-pop artist Jessica Fortuin about her latest release, The Devil.

FMM: Your single, The Devil, has been out for a couple of days now. How are you feeling? What's the reaction been?

Jessica: It's been really great. I've had this song for so long and it's been something I've wanted to release for a really long time and for it to finally be out, is so cool. It's been like the first time people have been telling me, oh my God, I'm so excited for this song to be out, which has been really cool. I got my first editorial playlist which is really cool. Yeah, it's just been so good.

FMM: So exciting. As you mentioned, you've had it for a while, this song. So how did you know when you were ready to share it?

Jessica: I think when I made it, I was still really young. I didn't know anything about the industry. I didn't really know anyone in the industry. I think after I kind of on a whim, released the first single from the whole EP project I worked on, I was like, okay, I'm getting there, I need to release one more and then kind of get more experience in what I'm doing. Then this one, it felt like this was the right next single to release. I don't know, it just felt normal, I guess.

FMM: Yeah, it makes sense, and I've seen your stuff on social media. It looks like you've got like the right audience and the safe place to be releasing songs that are personal to you now.

Jessica: I've had so many people say really encouraging things and really nice stuff, so it's been so awesome to know I've kind of fostered an environment of people that are like-minded and that are excited for projects like these two.

FMM: You wrote The Devil when you were 16, so between writing it and then releasing it now, has the song and its meaning evolved for you overtime as you have experienced new things?

Jessica: Totally. I wrote this song as a young girl wanting to understand the world more and the female experience. I've moved out of home, and I've met so many more women. I think the stories that I wrote The Devil about, I've come to learn more and more with so many people sharing their stories with me and gaining my own experience and just the female experience and the not so fun sides of that. I definitely think this song has built more complexity to it, at least in my internal world now.

FMM: Yes, I did love that you mentioned sharing stories has a power. Do you think it might have been different for you at that time when this happened if you did have a song similar to The Devil that you could have listened to as you were processing your feelings?

Jessica: Totally. I think it would have been so helpful to have a song that empathised with it, not just being a one and done kind of experience. It would have been so helpful to have a song that made me feel less alone at that time, and I'm so happy that maybe this song can be that for some people.

FMM: Yeah, what a nice feeling. It's so good to see that you're in that position where you can be that person for other people that you may have wished that you had when you're going through this yourself. I love that you recorded it with Fletcher Matthew. Can you tell me about that and how you knew Fletcher was the right fit for how you wanted to track the sound?

Jessica: So I first worked with him on a song called Tell Your Mom I said Hi and I was super young. I think I was maybe 17 or 18 when I did that song with him, and I messaged a bunch of producers. I was on Google just trying to find a producer. I had never met any other musicians in the songwriter kind of industry, so I was just trying to use Google and Wikipedia to find my way around. I emailed at least 20 different producers and his manager was the only one that got back to me, so I found his song. I think it was the band, The Boys, their first ever single. It was up on SoundCloud and I commented on it like, oh, this sounds great, who produced it? And they responded and that's how I found him, but it just felt so perfect and serendipitous that he was the only person that responded that first time. I was looking for a producer and because I worked with him on that and was like, oh, he's amazing, he's a pro, and then when I went into the studio with him again, it wasn't really a song I was wanting to do with him. I just was like, oh yeah, here's this demo that I've had some people see, and they really, really like it. And he's like, well, show it to me then. And I was like, yeah, okay, and I showed it to him, and he was like, we have to do this one. I literally can't imagine the song any other way. I think it was so perfect, just the way everything all lined up for me to work with him on it.

FMM: Sometimes it's the unplanned things that have the great outcomes, and for the producers that didn't respond to you, that's their loss, because this is a great, so hopefully they listen to this song and wish they had responded to you.

Jessica: Yeah, but also, I'm so glad they didn't, because Fletcher is amazing. I feel like I got to work with him just before he kind of started to go on this really huge incline and do so well for himself. I was so unexperienced. I'd never played any live shows. I was just writing songs in my bedroom, and it was really cool to have someone be like, these songs are cool, let's work on them.

FMM: All it takes that one person just to have faith in you. I love your sound, I love your music, I love the look you have going on today with the red ribbons. Who are some people you draw creative inspiration from?

Jessica: I'd say I love what all the pop girlies are doing now. I think pop music hasn't been this good in so long, and I haven't been enjoying it and having as much fun with it as I have been now, but definitely Chappell Roan. I think she's amazing. I got to see her live just before she blew up. I think Olivia Rodrigo has some really cool visuals. I've been loving a lot of Australian music, too. There's so many great Australian bands that you don't know unless you go to see live music, so I've been loving GRXCE and CLEWS, and there's just so many cool people.

And I think visually, I grew up really interested in street fashion and Japanese street fashion, and it's always been a soft spot in my heart, all the subcultures within that. I'd say that's also a huge inspiration for me. I just love maximalism.

FMM: You shared on Instagram, you’ve been writing a new song, so what are your plans for the rest of the year?

Jessica: Yeah, so I worked with Flecther Matthews back in 2022 and created a whole EP with him. There’s now three singles out from that and there’s two more songs that are going to be released. It’s funny because we’re already in the studio working on the next project. We’ve got one song complete from the next project and then we are in the studio working on a couple of more things. The EP that’s not even out yet and was made so long ago, was such a different part of my life, so it’s really cool to be back in the studio working on something new that feels so current for me.

FMM: Do the songs on the EP have a similar theme to The Devil, or what can we expect from the upcoming releases?

Jessica: I think you can expect… Oh, that's a good question. Well, the other EP, I hadn't met my guitarist Lucy yet, so there’s going to be a lot more live instrument in there. It's going to be very inspired by the kind of pop resurrection we're having now. I love 80s music, so there's going to be a little bit of 80s power ballad stuff going on in there in rock, really. I’d never seen any live local bands until I met my guitarist Lucy, so it’s going to have a lot more live music influence.

FMM: Do you perform live at all? Or how can people continue to support you?

Jessica: Yeah, so I mean my social media, I'll be posting a lot more snippets whether it's new stuff we're making or when the songs from the first EP are coming out. In terms of live shows, I have nothing set in stone yet for 2025, but we have been gigging a lot. We did some support for YAGKI and a femme-fronted night which was so fun and a couple of other gigs.

FMM: Did you have anything that you wanted to add about The Devil or about yourself as an artist that you really want people to know?

Jesscia: That is an awesome question. If you're feeling alone and if you're going through anything, I want you to find the sisterhood feeling that I found in The Devil. I hope anyone out there that is looking for that kind of sense of not being alone, can find it within the song and follow the journey. If you’re a fellow musician like me, message me. We can write music, or I’ll come to your gig. I always want to see what everyone’s doing.