Photo: Elena Stanton
Conzemius’ debut album blends emotion, ethereal sound and poetry.
The music has long flowed through Jill Conzemius’ veins, but for the first time, her voice and her words are joining for the world to hear. In August, Conzemius, who uses her last name as her stage name, released her debut EP Of the Water, a collection of deeply personal songs with an ethereal indie vibe. She describes her music as lyricism that floats with a beat. “There is beauty in this world, and I translate it,” she says.
The southwest Minneapolis resident says the music, which has been featured on The Current, couldn’t have come any earlier than it did. “It took some life actually,” Conzemius says. “You can’t rush depth and soul. This is the time. It feels right.”
Conzemius likes to say that there was an incubation period for her art. “There was a time that life’s challenges demanded all of my attention and effort,” she says. “But I had to live in those moments. I needed that for my own songs to come to life.”
Conzemius was the sort of toddler that toted a toy boombox and mic around her childhood home. Wherever there was music playing was where one could find her. “It’s been a known thing in my life,” she says. As she grew up, Conzemius joined choirs and bands. Then she found work recording vocals for singer-songwriters in many genres, including soulful Americana and Motown. And while the work was good, it felt more like she was doing impressions of other musicians instead of defining her own sound. “It ended up confusing me as an artist,” she says. “I began to wonder ‘What is Jill’s voice?’” The answer to that question can be found on Of the Water. “It tells the story of softness and chaos after healing. There is beauty in emotion,” she says.
Of the six songs on the album, Conzemius says the title track is the most personal. “It’s about self-acceptance [and] swimming through the depths of who you are,” she says. “My songs are full of metaphors. I like the simplicity of keeping it poetic.”
Since her youth, Conzemius has kept notebooks and journals to jot down her thoughts and poetry. Now, her phone serves the same purpose, holding lines for future use. That future isn’t far off. After releasing her debut EP, Conzemius is preparing to share more of her music with the world in late spring. “I want to do this forever,” she says. “I want to create this art and feed it for as long as I can.”
Conzemius
Instagram: @conzemius_music
