Montaigne

Let’s get this one thing clear; Montaigne (aka Jessica Cerro) isn’t quirky, and she’s certainly not your pop princess. “I’ve noticed that every magazine or blog describes me as a ‘pop princess’ or ‘quirky-something’, and just…can they not?” she says in the last few minutes of our conversation. Touching on a subject that the media are slowly becoming more and more aware of realising; though it’s still early days as Montaigne has found.
“I see myself as half feminine and half masculine and the testosterone driven side of me is like, ‘Don’t call me that!’. Especially with the discourse around women and feminism these days people should consider a person with a bit more diversity within themselves, because people contain many selves.”
Bottom line; Montaigne is a musician and a performer and wants to be recognised solely for her craft and not the misplaced verbs and adjectives that get thrown around it. Though if I were to choose a word to describe Montaigne it would be ‘real’, a word that may be used in abundance but rarely sticks as it does with Montaigne.
“If I’m going to be a person in the public eye that people sort of respect or almost idolise, as people do with artists and musicians, I want to be a good example and not just be a shallow musician,” she says.
“I want to be someone who proliferates ideas that are going to be positive and beneficial to people’s lives. I think choosing Montaigne [after the philosopher and writer Michel de Montaigne] is relevant because that’s how people identify me on stage and it’s easy to remember.
“Nowadays I think people are looking for more artists with substance, who are saying more real things and just being more real in the pop world. Mostly I’m just trying to be me and hopefully people respect that. I find it pretty hard to be anything but me – and that’s a good thing. I think people, especially my fans, like who I am.”
Also someone who describes herself as “fucking weird” and is known for her love of Kingdom Hearts, Harry Potter and avocado (“It just makes everything better”) there’s something so commonplace in those that we can all relate to. The content in her songs reflects this even more, and is reinforced by getting chosen to perform at the Sony Music showcase as part of ARIA week festivities.
It’s still early days for Montaigne, but after having creative input for her music clip to ‘Clip My Wings’ alongside Guy Franklin, it became a moment she acknowledged her direction creatively and the confidence to voice it. She’s got a vision for what Montaigne will become, and chances are there’ll be a whole lot of avocado, honest words and social media “fuck ups” in the road to get there, but frankly, we wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I do have a clearer vision for who I am and what I want,” she says.
Montaigne is one of the performers as part of the City of Ballarat’s free Summer Sundays series in January which also sees the likes of John McNamara, All Our Exes Live in Texas and Thelma Plum perform.
Written by Amanda Sherring
When & Where: Botanical Gardens, Ballarat – January 24.