Welcome to BuzzMusic, Jenn DeSantis! We’re totally captivated by your incredible vocal stylings and lyrics messages. Where did you find inspiration to write the moving song “Every Part of Me?”
Thank you so much BuzzMusic! That is such a wonderful thing to hear. I appreciate it. I found inspiration from my parents and my grandparents. My parents have been married for over 30 years and my grandparents for 61 years, and my grandpa was married to my grandma for about 50 years before my grandpa passed away. I really want love like all of theirs someday. I remember seeing my parents curled up together on the couch late at night. My dad had his head on my mom’s shoulder. In fact, they always fall asleep like that. That’s where I get the line “I know you’re stressed, I know you’re tired. Put your weary head on me.”
My dad is a doctor and is gone for most of the day while my mom stays at home. From when I was little till even now, she won’t start eating dinner without my dad. She gets so happy when she looks out the window and sees his car coming up the hill. It’s really admirable. They respect each other and my dad always tries to clean the dishes after she makes dinner. She always says “No Joe I got this. Go relax.” But, he never ceases always try. My granddad paints and has a couple of paintings of my grandmom in their living room. He even has a love letter he wrote to her framed on their wall. I also remember my grandpa and grandma on my mom’s side playing the piano and singing together. I know true love is out there and that this person will love the good, ugly, embarrassing, all of it. I will take good care of the person I love if they will let me. Someday, I believe I will find her. Until then, I live my life.
You’ve mentioned that you sang in a church choir with your mom, and were also influenced by your dad's Classic Rock collection. What other genres do you think helped you shape your overall sound?
Other genres that helped my sound progress are EDM and classical music.
“Every Part of Me” provides incredibly moving and emotional lyrics. What helps you channel your thoughts to a song?
What helps me is to write down everything I am feeling on a piece of paper. It doesn’t even have to make sense. Just write it out. However, for this song, I closed my eyes. I had the melody in my head like I always do. Then I sing my thoughts as I play the melody on the piano until it starts to make sense. Sometimes during a certain part of the song, a specific word jumps out at me. For the chorus, that came to me almost immediately. “I want to be the ocean that calms you. Feel every breath become slower again.” As my eyes were closed, I thought about calming down my partner. Waves of anxiety are going through their body and I want to be soothing to them as the ocean.
You also mentioned that you grew up mimicking your brother on the piano. What was it like growing up in such a musical family?
It was so lovely. I wonder what I would do instead if it wasn’t for my musical family to inspire me and support me. Music was always around me from my dad listening to his records to my mom singing the “Ave Maria” for the church. As a kid, I would sometimes wake up to my brother playing the piano and have singing competitions with my sister. You couldn’t escape the music if you tried. I believe I got my gift to play piano by ear from my grandfather and great-grandfather. My grandpa still plays classical pieces by ear, and he is 90 years old! It is just amazing! My great-grandfather played for silent films so when I finally played for a 1940s silent film last month, I channelled him.
What can we expect to see from you throughout 2020?
You can expect me to go live a lot more on my social media! It is hard to tell what will happen due to the coronavirus. However, I want to hopefully do a tour of the east coast and have a single out! There is more to come to everyone! I cannot wait to show you.
Listen to “Every Part of Me” here.