Jessie Frye

Jessie Frye’s immersion into the collective vocabulary of Denton, Texas’ intimate music scene seemed predestined. A piano player since age 12, it wasn’t until late 2008 that Frye’s solo EP, The Delve, promised way more peaks than valleys, eventually garnering her a sight-unseen invitation to perform at Austin’s South by Southwest in 2009.

Frye had yet to perform a show, and didn’t even have a band assembled yet. The word “buzz” hardly covers that sort of mystical ascension.

Fast-forward a few years and Frye, along with her band?Chad Ford on drums, David Kellogg on bass, and Jordan Martin on guitar?have become staples of the Dallas-Fort Worth fabric, performing annually at regional fest 35 Denton, as well as SXSW, and have received radio airplay and a sizable amount of press. She was plucked as a “Band to Watch” by The New York Times at SXSW 2012. Cutting her teeth quickly, in 2011 Frye released her second EP, Fireworks Child, a title that doubles as an apt descriptor for her fiery stage presence as much as her inclusive sonic tendencies.

Produced by John Congleton (St. Vincent, Modest Mouse, Polyphonic Spree) and mixed by Joe McGrath (Morrissey, Ryan Adams), Fireworks Child would precipitate a tour of the Lone Star State that year, as well as usher in the seedlings of what would become Frye’s first LP, the upcoming Obsidian, to be self-released February 11, 2014.

“I discovered what I do and don’t believe in as I was writing these songs,” explains Frye. “Just my perspective on the world. There were some deep inner changes that some of these songs address.” Frye’s convictions extended not only to a litany of cathartic lyricism on Obsidian, but also to her approach in the studio. Case in point would be Frye’s intense vocal range being performed entirely without that vapid crutch of 21st Century pop music: auto-tune. “Everything you’re hearing is something I can achieve in real life,” says Frye. “It’s not a facade. That’s something I’m really proud of.”

Obsidian opens with the ominous thud of tribal-pounding drums?a sonic contribution offered by the album’s mixer, Matt Asianian. The track “Never Been to Paris” sheds light on Frye’s blossoming songwriting parameters musically. Concurrently, and strikingly at times, it also exposes the breadth of her lyrical experimentation.

The song was also indirectly influenced by a particularly bad breakup Frye experienced. “I really thought this was going to be a breakup record,” explains Frye. “I was at a point in my life where I was feeling neglected and unfulfilled, and I wrote ‘Never Been to Paris’ because I have this subscription to W magazine. I would just look at these photographs of these beautiful models and designers. It started to become this daydream world of mine, having these faraway thoughts in this place I wish I could be. Daydreaming about a place that isn’t real made me feel better about the relationship I was in. I made up these scenarios that were inspired by the photographs in the magazines, which is the lyrics to the song.”

Frye’s compositions come steeped in seemingly dichotomous musical terrain, stirring generous helpings of synth-based glam-pop bangers like “White Heat” next to the pulverizing breakup rocker “Dear”. There are vulnerable pieces, too, such as the piano-and-voice-based “Sabotage,” which focuses Frye’s innately gorgeous songwriting and vocal range within a no-frills package. It’s in these cathartic vignettes that Frye’s burgeoning world view and expanding aural affinities are given breathing room from more densely layered tunes like the shameless decadence of dance-pop jam “Brave the Night.”

“Sometimes I think it comes across on record that I have a hard time writing in one genre,” admits Frye with a laugh. “This is the first time I incorporated a synthesizer into my writing process. Before, we were a four-piece rock band; there weren’t a lot of bells and whistles on the record. With Obsidian, I feel like we played around a lot more with the arrangements and took more risks.”

The risks, as is abundantly clear when listening to Frye’s debut LP, were well worth it.