Student finds joy in music
While most college students spend their time focusing on school, work and obtaining and keeping a social life, Emily Jenkins also focuses on writing and performing music. Jenkins is a local musician who performs at open-mic nights in Logan. She started writing her own music when she was in eighth grade.
“When I was little, I listened to a lot of Three Doors Down and Hoobastank and it made me want to learn the electric guitar and be in a famous band someday,” Jenkins said. “And so once I learned how to play, I started writing music, but they were horrible songs.
“High school is when my songs started getting good, and I started getting confident enough to share them with people. I started writing because I wanted to have songs that were my own.”
Jenkins, who comes from a musical family, said she grew up playing the piano, classical, acoustic and electric guitars, as well as the trumpet and bass. Her mother required her and each of her siblings to take piano lessons before they were allowed to take lessons for other instruments, she said.
Jenkins said she was required to practice the piano for at least a half hour every day.
“My mom would go in the kitchen and set the timer for a half hour and we were supposed to sit there and play until the timer went off, but sometimes when she would leave the kitchen I would run in there and change the timer so I wouldn’t have to practice as long,” she said.
Once Jenkins entered high school, she said, she formed a band call TeliFone Pole with her two best friends. For three years the band played several basement and garage shows where it opened for many of their friends’ bands and headlined a few themselves.
During the three years together, the band competed in a battle-of-the-bands competition two years in a row and it was recognized in the local paper for having surprising hard rocking talent and wardrobe choices.
Jenkins said she wrote most of the lyrics for her band as well as the music for her own guitar part. After high school ended, the band broke up. She began playing solo when she started her freshman year of college.
At that point, Jenkins said, her songs seemed to get better and a little more personal.
“I get my inspiration from a certain experience with a certain person, but then once I start writing the song, it changes so it’s not exactly about the person but has the same feelings,” she said. “Sometimes I write about hope — like things that I hope for in the future, things I want to accomplish in a way. Or sometimes things just come to me. Sometimes it’s not about anything specific but it comes from a feeling.”
Jenkins said she admires music from a wide variety of artists, including Coldplay, Sing it Loud, Jeremy Fowler, Love You Long Time, Mayday Parade, Relient K and Willow Smith.
“Most bands I don’t love until after I’ve seen them in concert,” Jenkins said. “Once that happens, I become almost obsessed with their music. Most of the bands I admire, I like because their songs are real or because they put on a good show and sound the same live as they do on a recording or because of their word choice,” she said. Jenkins said she finds being in college makes it a lot more difficult to find time to practice and write songs.
“I try and do all my schoolwork first because that’s what’s most important, and then, if I’m not working or have free time, I practice. But sometimes my guitar is used as a procrastinator, like when I’m supposed to be studying, I play instead,” she said.
Jenkins said she usually plays 7-10 hours a week, depending on whether her roommates are home or not.
When asked what advice she would give to beginners who are nervous about performing, Jenkins said the more experience one gets, the less nervous they’ll become — even when it comes to messing up.
“When I mess up, I usually make a face on accident, so I think everyone knows I messed up, but I just keep going and most of the time people don’t seem to notice,” she said.
Jenkins said she performed in a talent show during her freshman year when she forgot two lines of the song she was playing.
“I just kept playing until I remembered,” she said. “And in my band, if we messed up, we would just keep going — it was no big deal, most of the time half the people don’t even notice.”
– lizzie.carson@aggiemail.usu.edu