Jessie May Takes on Metal, Motherhood, and Making Lists
Jessie May is many things — a mother, rock n’ roll musician, librarian, and personal finance guru. But her greatest superpower, perhaps, is her ability to do it all singlehandedly (albeit, with a teeny bit of babysitting help).
The toddler mom not only wields a guitar and sings (and growls) for punk-metal-slash-stoner-metal duo Turkey Vulture, but she also plays bass like a badass. And instead of outsourcing publicity and marketing, she networks like a shark, and even runs her own personal finance/music Substack (which is awesome!). Shortly after having her first child, Jessie published her own book on personal finance: Money Hacks For Metalheads and Old Millennials: Conquering Finance One Riff At A Time.
That’s why her husband, drummer and band artist Jim Clegg, is the perfect partner to raise little men with (her sons are currently 2 and 3.5!).
We recently caught up with the couple, who are based in Milford, Connecticut, to find out how they made On The List, their most ambitious record yet.
Rockmommy: You said the new record is a convergence of Turkey Vulture’s “past and present.” Jessie, you and Jim met and played together in another band and another life! Can you take us back to that?
Jessie May: Yeah, in the spring of 2008 I went to this open mic in Stamford, Connecticut, to meet some people and somehow I ended up joining the hard rock band Pink Missile on bass. If you told me the drummer and I would be married with two kids sixteen years later, I would have been very surprised! The 00s and early/mid 2010s were a lot of fun in the Stamford music scene. We had a big friend group where everyone was involved in bands or artwork or something creative.
Rockmommy: I love that Ghost Cult magazine acknowledged your sound as hitting the intersection of punk, doom metal, and stoner rock. Who are your influences (are they different for you and Jim)?
Jessie May: I’ve gone through a lot of musical phases. In my 20s I listened to a lot of melodic metal … then I started gravitating towards stoner and doom metal in my late twenties and early thirties. As my thirties went on, I ended up listening to more and more punk — I feel like Jim has something to do with that lol. For the writing of this particular EP, there was a lot of Social Distortion and Misfits playing in the background.
Jim Clegg: I’d say I was the opposite (laughs) I started with punk and went on to all the different metals. I’m new to the doom and stoner metal section but I dig it.
Rockmommy: How is this latest record different from 2021’s Twist the Knife, besides the fact that you’re now a parent to two toddlers? :) Also: How do said toddler sons inspire you? You must have a very long to-do list and I can’t even believe you got this record, On The List, produced!
Jessie May: I feel like I had more time to write parts when I was a mom to just one toddler! Twist the Knife has a lot of guitar harmonies whereas On The List is more straight-ahead. I do think I focused more on bass for this EP though, probably because I wasn’t so busy writing guitar parts lol.
Funny story, I was actually pregnant with our younger son when we recorded Twist the Knife but didn’t know yet! So I like to say he was in the studio with us. From my end, the only way we could get On The List recorded was because I had the summer off as a teacher. I finished up a grad program this summer as well, but only the very last course. So the second half of June and all of July was very focused on getting all the parts written and tracked, getting our promo materials ready, etc. I couldn’t see pulling that off during the school year at all.
As far as inspiration, our kids really seem to enjoy music — not necessarily our music, especially if they come home to a loud band practice, but they listen to everything from Sesame Street to Metallica. It’s inspiring to see how much joy they get from music at a young age! It reminds me that this is supposed to be fun when I’m bogged down with getting that box of CDs out of the closet.
Rockmommy: Your last record Twist the Knife had a brilliant song, “She’s Married, but Not to Me.” Can you share the backstory for Rockmommy readers?
Jim Clegg: I reconnected with an old high school friend I hadn’t seen in years. We met up a few times at bars for shows and what have you before we started our own band at the time, Lobsterface. One night, my friend asks, “Where’s your wife?” and it took me a bit to realize he was talking about Jess, and I replied, “Oh, she’s married, but not to me.” I told Jess about that and years later, it became a song…after we got married. He kind of predicted the future maybe a little bit, my friend did.
Rockmommy: Your song, “Jill the Ripper” is different from the others — it’s produced by Americana folk/90s jam-band hero Steve Rodgers (of Mighty Purple fame). How did that influence the way it came out?
Jessie May: I wanted to record that song with Steve after hearing some recordings he did with Sarah Dunn, and I knew he’s a great musician himself and has a lot of experience with folk/Americana music. He has a big footprint on the song — he played guitar, banjo, and accordion on it! In fact, adding the accordion was his idea altogether. He also had another idea that came out really well, which was to have Jim sing the song along with me. I think having both our vocals added to the creepy, old-timey vibe we were going for.
Jim Clegg: I really got to step out of my comfort zone and actually sang and was totally comfortable doing it the entire time! Recording with both Steve and Tom (for the first five tracks) were very cool and comfortable experiences.
[SEE RELATED: Steve Rodgers and the Art of Rebuilding a Music Scene]
Rockmommy: Can you tell us about the artwork and how you selected it?
Jim Clegg: I drew the cover before we even talked about recording. I thought it would make a cool sticker, but then we started talking about recording, and choosing what was going to be the cover was an easy decision. It’s a sticker now too!
Rockmommy: Which one of your kids is going to grow up to be the drummer (or the bass/guitar player)? Do either of them sing?
Jessie May: I guess you never know what your kids will be into, but I’d be very surprised if they didn’t turn out playing some kind of music. Tonight, I was practicing a song on the upright bass, which lives near their bedroom; they poked their heads out their bedroom door and wanted me to play the song over and over again, and they started playing along using their dinosaurs (a raptor and a T-Rex) as their guitars! After a couple times, they even started singing along with the song – heck, we might need to have them do backing vocals on our next EP!
Jim Clegg: We totally should!
Rockmommy: What’s your best advice for practicing at home while raising young kids who might wake up if you blast your music too late?
Jessie May: You have to be really “outside the box” — like if you’ve got twenty minutes together with no kids, you can have band practice. Lately we’ve been practicing in between when I get out of work and daycare pickup. We even practiced at like 8:30 in the morning the other day! We just ran through the two newest songs so we wouldn’t annoy the neighbors too much, but you should be awake anyways #sorrynotsorry.
I also have to remind myself to use my time well. If I’m going to watch TV and scroll for an hour after my kids go to bed, do I really “not have time to practice”? I don’t think so. So lately I’ve been trying to play on my own more, even if it’s just 15 minutes or half an hour.
Jim Clegg: It’s not walking into the weekly band practice with a six pack and a 12-pack waiting in the car kind of party anymore lol.
Marisa Torrieri Bloom is the editor and founder of Rockmommy.
