She’s fierce, she’s confident and she sure as hell deserves the praise she receives. Thrilling Sydney musician and performer Montaigne (also known as Jessica Cerro) just tells it how it is – there’s no bullshit.
“I think what it is, is that I believe in my talent, in myself as a performer, and I think what I do is very good and I am not ashamed of that confidence and self belief and I kind of expect like these things because I work hard to achieve them,” Montaigne explains of her recent first-time ARIA nominations for best female artist, breakthrough artist and producer of the year (alongside stars like Sia, Delta Goodrem and DMA’s).
While grateful with the nominations, the 21 year old was not overly excited with the news, perceiving the praise as impersonal and coming from an “bodiless entity of someone who I don’t know”.
“To be honest, I am fairly emotionally disconnected from reality, just generally in life, so when it happened I was kinda like, ‘Yeah, okay cool’,” she laughs.
“And I was really hungry at the nominations and someone mentioned they had celery in their bag and I got more excited about that than about the fact I just got nominated in categories with Sia. So that’s the kind of person I am. I get more excited about celery.”
The self-confessed workaholic has been insanely busy since her beginning as one of the finalists in 2012 Triple J Unearthed High competition, captivating her audiences with her EP, releasing her debut album Glorious Heights, and more recently, a myriad of acclaimed performances during her national tour. It is clear that with hard work comes success for Montaigne, as she reveals that the national tour was the first tour that people have known her songs and sung along to them all. You can’t blame her for having confidence – she has well and truly earned it.
“I’m not good because it’s a natural thing. Maybe part of it is natural, but also I think, I have worked at it since I was 12. I’ve been writing everything since I was a very young person and I think confidence comes with, well it’s more like a shameless confidence that comes with actually knowing and recognising that you have put in the work to diverge this confidence.
“I believe in myself because I deserve to. I have my talent because I developed it myself. You know what I mean?”
Working on promoting Glorious Heights overseas, getting organised for gigs over the next month, thinking about the new music, and already on the line-up to play alongside Cyndi Lauper and Blondie for their 2017 Australian Tour (“now that’s something I got really excited about”), nothing will stop Montaigne from doing what she loves – and that includes playing Kingdom Hearts – the “best video game ever”.
“My doctor was actually [said] drink lots of water, increase your food intake and just fucking rest for God’s sake. So I was like fine, God. I’m just going to go to my parent’s house and play Kingdom Hearts all day.”
Between Montaigne locking herself out of the house (yes, really), and chatting about her healthy eating habits, she gives some insight into her stance on festivals, having not actually attended one until she began performing at them.
“The point of a festival, I think, is to bring people together in the spirit of art, music and harmony and around those things and for everyone to have a good time, and my problem is that I’m not very good at having a good time,” she laughs.
“I don’t drink, I don’t take drugs, I’m not into rowdiness. I’m an early morning person who does my yoga, goes to meditation and eats healthy. My big passions are language, eating food and music. I perceive the majority of people do and that it has a great amount of worth. I love playing festivals, my job is to be the performer and the entertainer and someone who is bringing about these good vibes.”
Speaking to Montaigne, she was full of energy, self-admittedly a little neurotic, and overall super accepting of the fact that people have moods and people, including herself, change. Again, telling it exactly how it is.
“We change day-to-day in terms of mood and character and belief and everything. I think right now my headset is just like, ‘Wow, I’m so neurotic,” she laughs. “I think if you caught me on any other day, I would be more like fucking yeah, love everything, I love hanging out and shit, but today in particular, like nah maybe not.”
“But I am so open to that. We just change as human beings everyday and we are so mercurial and I am accepting about that, but also frustrated about that in a total accepting way… yeah, I ramble a lot.”
She may, but we love her for it.
Written by Talia Rinaldo
When & Where: Beyond The Valley, Lardner – December 28 2016 – January 1 2017
