Chomp Interviews Jackie Venson

Chomp sat down with Jackie Venson, an American singer-songwriter and guitarist who grew up in Austin, TX. She graduated from Berklee College of Music in 2011 and has since gone on to open for Jason Aldean, Tim McGraw and James Taylor. She released her debut studio album, The Light in Me in 2014. In April 2023 Jackie Venson performed on the CMTA Awards in Austin, Texas, joining, on guitar, Alanis Morissette for her performance and later Lainey Wilson for hers. In January 2023 Jackie Venson debuted her annual residency at the world-famous Antone's Night Club in Austin, selling out every Saturday that month.

Chomp: Tell me a little bit about yourself, your music career, and how it all got started. 

Jackie: Well my parents got me into music from a young age. My dad is a musician and my mom is a musician. My mom got me into piano lessons and I did that for a while and when I started getting into my teens my dad got me into playing with a band, he would let me play with his band sometimes. He also signed me up for this band program so he got me in on that. It was always just a very supportive musical family. One of my older brothers is also a musician as well, he’s in Houston. Even the people who aren’t musicians in the family are still very supportive.

Chomp: You’ve lived in Austin most of your life right? 

Jackie: Yes all of my life actually. 

Chomp: So how has that influenced you as an artist? 

Jackie: I think that’s what made me switch from playing the piano to playing the guitar. I think my interest in doing the electric guitar specifically was because of subliminal guitar brainwashing in Austin. You know, Austin is a guitar town and Texas is a guitar state. So there was subliminal brainwashing when it came to my electric guitar decision. 

Chomp: What do you love about the Austin music scene? 

Jackie: There is just so much opportunity. And there are some cities that have a lot of opportunities but those opportunities are sitting behind certain gatekeepers. But in Austin you can just build it up, you can build anything up from the ground up one fan at a time you know. The first fan all the way to the 1,000th fan. You can really do that here and I don’t know many other towns where you can do that. 

This is the only city in America, and I’ve been to a lot, that has this much opportunity as a musician.

Chomp: So how did you start off, did you play on the street or where did it all begin? 

Jackie: No, I started doing open mics and open blues jams. And then I just kept on playing and then I started writing my own songs because I was playing covers and then I would get my own ideas from those covers. So I started phasing my own songs into my sets and making it like 30% original, 70% covers until it was 100% my own songs. I played a lot of gigs where no one was there or where the whole band made like $75 or a gig where we would play for a percentage of the bar but the thing is that the gigs are there to begin with. There are not very many places on this planet that have that many gigs just waiting to be played as Austin. 

Chomp: Any advice for any up-and-coming artists?

Jackie: Get out there man. There's something for all levels- there is always a venue that needs performing from all kinds of talent. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a new band or an experienced band, there is a venue for everyone and that’s what Austin musicians got over everyone else. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up2KswOqNcM

Chomp: I know you released a new single last month; “‘Til This Pain Goes Away”, how does it feel to be releasing new music, and what does this song mean to you? 

Jackie: It’s cool because it’s a single off of the blues album and I’ve never done a blues album. I’ve always been all over the place with my genres. That song is really cool, it’s the type of song I’ve always wanted to write but that I could never get out of my head and I love how it sounds so I’m happy about that. Sometimes you get a song out of your head and you’re like it’s not as cool as I thought it would be. But sometimes you get it out of your head and you’re like wow that’s actually COOLER than I thought it would be. So that’s kind of how I feel about that song. 

Chomp: Is blues a genre you’ve just always wanted to do? 

Jackie: No this is all fans’ request. Fans have been like BLUES ALBUM, blues album, blues album!!! For like 10 years. So I am finally going to shut them up and give them what they want. I’m like what are you going to whine about after this?? I’m kidding obviously I’m grateful people are actually requesting shit. But what are they going to whine about once I put out this blues album? Because that’s the ONLY genre I ever get requested about. So I really wonder what are they going to request?? They might be like DO A HIP HOP ALBUM and I’m dowwwwnnnn I would also be down to do a reggae album. 

Chomp: Is there anything else you would like to add?

Jackie: Find me online, I have something on pretty much every streaming platform. I have a new album coming out in September, it will probably be sometime after September 20th so like the last week or so of the month.