Chicago-based singer-songwriter Jess Robbins is feeling grateful for things mostly working out the past few months. Robbins has been performing under the moniker Course with a revolving lineup since late 2019. In October 2023, the group released its sophomore album Tight Feathers, the follow-up to its 2021 debut A Late Hour. Robbins highlights her continued growth as a songwriter on the album, and with the help of her bandmates and producer Kyle Andrews finessed synth pop, alternative, electronic, and rock sounds to create a special, multilayered sound.
Robbins is also grateful she was able to squeeze in the recording of her session for Water Tower Sessions with bandmate Jamie Semel between two separate illness bouts. In early February, Robbins came down with Covid and had to isolate herself. After getting back to normal, she invited Semel over to her home to film an acoustic version of the band’s song “The Leaver.” The next day she got bronchitis and couldn’t talk at all.
“I got a good window of having been very sick, kind of better and then bad again,” says Robbins during a Zoom interview earlier in March. “I’m glad I got it done because that next day I got bronchitis and could not talk for two weeks. It was crazy. I still have it kind of, it’s terrible. It’s been the longest illness ever.”
Despite the “rough winter so far, illness wise,” she tries to look at the positives, like how fun the session was. Robbins set up her iPhone to film their performance in a well-lit room in her house that had a mostly blank wall outside of a quilt given to her by a friend. It’s where she stores her microphones and other musical equipment. While it’s not a professional studio, they enjoyed the room’s “makeshift” vibes.
Robbins is thankful that Semel was able to come over and perform the song acoustically with her. Despite not having the full band and the “electronic and more synth based” sound from Tight Feathers, they found enjoyment creating a stripped-down, acoustic version of the song, which Robbins says is one of her favorites from the album.
“I always think it’s good to just pare it down a little bit and have just an acoustic version of your song, which is nice,” she says. “I think it translates well acoustically and we enjoyed singing on it,” she says. “There are a lot of electronic parts to some of the [other] songs. We can play [them] acoustically, but it’s not as interesting without the other pieces.”
“I like having a full band and I like being able to play just by myself or with Jamie. It’s nice to just mix it up. I think I do write all my songs acoustically, so it’s always good to come back to that.”
Robbins’ favorite part of the session was getting to sing with Semel, who she’s known and performed with for many years. “We tried [to have] her to harmonize actually throughout the whole song, which we’ve never done before for this session,” she says.
Of the song’s inspiration itself, Robbins co-wrote it with the help of her friend Marypat Farrell, an actress, improvisor (i.e., Second City stage in Toronto) and songwriter based in L.A.
“I had gotten a skeleton of the song, kind of the melody. I had the chorus down and the verses, and she helped with the lyrics,” says Robbins. “We did the lyrics together, which was really fun. She came up with The Leaver, which I thought was a great kind of sentiment for what I was going for with that song.”
Scummy Water Tower recently caught up with Robbins to discuss the origins of the band, its name, creating an eclectic sound with the band, and what’s next for the group.
How did the band originally form?
I was a solo artist just under my name, and then I decided that I wanted to incorporate a band more. Everyone was contributing and I felt like this is a band, it’s not just me. We came up with a band name and we became Course and it just felt more like it should be. I’ve had a rotating cast of people actually over the past few years with Course just because of the pandemic. And then just with everything, people change things around their schedules.
It’s hard. We’re not in our early twenties, can’t just rehearse all the time whenever we want, so we have to make time. And I’ve had some people who have been around since the beginning and then just a few new people here and there. I don’t really play out a lot. I don’t tour or play a lot of shows, or I haven’t recently. So, I haven’t had to have a band. Although we did do a release party and that was really fun to have the full band play the whole record in its entirety. And I didn’t write it with a full band, so that was fun.
What’s the story behind the band’s name, Course?
Well, it’s very hard to come up with a band name in general. It’s hard to come up with a business name, you know what I mean? Everything’s taken. We just really had a very hard time coming up with a name and we finally figured out four names that we liked, and we voted on it and Course won. It was amazing that Course wasn’t taken just because it’s kind of a common word, obviously, but it means so many different things. But if you look us up, usually on YouTube, it’ll just come up with courses on biology. It’s like school related more, so that’s kind of funny.
How would you describe the band’s sound? What makes it unique?
It’s acoustic songs put to more electronic synth music. We want it to be more upbeat. I mean, I always write a lot of sad songs, that’s just where I go to. But this record, I really tried to make an effort to write more upbeat, fun songs because the sad ones just get people down a little bit sometimes, but I like to write slower songs. It was a challenge to write kind of faster pace upbeat songs, even though some of them are still slower. But I tried my best.
How did you most want to differentiate Tight Feathers from the band’s debut?
Kyle Andrews and I worked on Tight Feathers together, just the two of us. I didn’t have a band for this record, Jamie was on it, but that’s it. Just me, Jamie, and Kyle. And one, because it was kind of a scheduling and financial thing to have. It’s very hard and expensive to have many days in the studio. So, we kind of did everything from home. Kind of went back and forth and Kyle [on Zoom] and I wrote a couple songs together and we just worked really well together, so we’re like, “let’s just do this record together.” And that was it. So that is how this record differentiates from the last which was more full band where I had my whole band, drummer, bass player, keyboardist. Everyone kind of did every part and then we put it together. I wrote the songs some with Kyle [Andrews], and then he would produce them. We’d go back and forth on instrumentation. So, definitely a different process, but I enjoyed doing both.
How did the album’s theme emerge through making the album?
I think the theme came from the song “Too Busy for Feelings,” kind of being living in this chaotic world. It’s a constant TikTok or Instagram and just swipe everything information, and you never really just sit back and feel anything. So, you can push your own feelings aside to just deal with everything else going on. And that was kind of the theme we went with, which is modern society and being too busy to really deal with your own emotions.
What were some of the biggest surprises making the album?
Well, it was fun to do. We worked at a studio in Chicago to do the vocals, and we did 12 songs in two days, so that was surprising to get all that done because I did not think we’d be able to do that. And then I got Covid after that, so I’ve had just a lot of illness after these big things that happened.
It was really fun to get that done. It was really fun to work with Kyle [Andrews], send him a very basic demo and talk to him about his ideas and then to come back and put it together. It was just really fun to hear it that way as opposed to practicing with a band and tweaking it in real time. Having this kind of back and forth online was very surprising and fun. I liked it more than I thought I would.
What are you most looking forward to in the year ahead?
Making another record. We already started making the third one, so that’s been fun. Although it’s a much slower process, very busy. I kind of want to work with the piano more maybe, and I play the mandolin, so maybe just try different instruments or get new ideas from different instruments.
Do you think it’ll be a continuation of the sound from this album or much more different?
I don’t know. I think hard to get away from myself, which is I feel like all these records are really how I play, and I think it’ll always kind of be there at the root. But I like to experiment with different things. I feel like you shouldn’t be pigeonholed into a sound. I just like trying different things. I might try some new things on this new one just for fun because why not, right?
Yeah, for sure. Any plans to play shows later this year?
I’d like to. I’m going to try to play another show in the summer or late spring. That’s my goal, but I got to get on that. I got to figure that out. The band wants to play again, which is fun. We did the release show, and everyone learned those songs. It was a lot of work, and they were like, “let’s do it again.” One of our band members just had a baby so he’s not going to be ready to play for a couple months or a month or so. So, we’ll wait until that time and then go play.
You can follow and learn more about Course on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Joshua is co-founder of Scummy Water Tower. He’s freelanced for a variety of newspapers, magazines, and websites, including: Rolling Stone, The Boston Globe, Chicago Sun-Times, Guitar World, MTV News, Grammy.com, Chicago Magazine, Milwaukee Magazine, MKE Lifestyle, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, A.V. Club, SPIN, Alternative Press, Under the Radar, Paste, PopMatters, American Songwriter, and Relix. You can email him at josh@scummywatertower.com.
