Echoes Podcast: Jaymie Rose Hennegan

I'm John D. Libretto, and you're hearing the Echoes podcast from PRX.

Vic Hennigan is an artist who has been on Echoes and the Echoes podcast many times over the last two decades.

The last appearance was broadcast in 2023 from a 2022 Echoes performance.

Back then, Hennigan was black, bald, and masculine.

He's still black, but everything else has changed since the transition to Jamie Rose Hennigan.

Everything except the music.

I've always been very much in touch with my feminine side.

It's always been a part of me. I think it's a big part of my music, too, is that feminine energy that rides with me.

We hear about Jamie Rose Hennigan's transition and her debut album, Transition, today on the Echoes podcast.

Before we get to that, though, I want to tell you about a sale that's going on.

At Echoes Online, it's a chance for you to hear Echoes on your own schedule and pretty much wherever you are.

We're giving almost 20% off so you can take Echoes with you wherever your travels go this summer and listen to it on demand.

You'll get access to more Echoes programs than you could possibly listen to in a summer and a lot more.

And you can get it all on your iPhone or Droid with the free Echoes app.

Just type Echoes Online Summer Sale into your browser or go to Echoes.com.

That's Echoes Online Summer Sale at Echoes.org.

And now let's make a transition as Jamie Rose Hennigan talks about her transition.

Music

This is a third-generation space music artist heavily influenced by musicians like Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream, and Jean-Michel Jarre.

In fact, you first heard all those artists when I played them on the radio at WXPN in Philadelphia.

Hennigan began making his own music in the early 2000s and had his first Echoes appearance in 2005.

Hennigan has been on many times since, most recently in 2022 when he performed live on the show.

Back then, Hennigan was...

This is from the 2023 album A Moment in Time, live at the Gatherings.

Now I have a new album by Jamie Rose Hennigan, and it sounds like this.

do you hear a similarity in style there's no mistake in between the last visit in october of

2022 and april of 2023 something changed i transitioned a little over a year ago i don't

know it's always been a part of me and i just decided to go ahead and do it i think what really

inspired me to do it was the fact that about a year and a half ago my father passed away you

know and then my sister surprisingly passed away and the thing about them is she's only four years

older than me and they both died very unhappy not really fulfilled people and so on my

birthday over a year and a half ago like you know i'm not going to go down like that you know and

this is kind of something that's been a part of my life on and off in april last year jamie sent

me a picture wearing a dress and blonde wig i wrote back and said i had to check to make sure

the date wasn't april 1st i remember when i sent you a text and it happened to be on april fool's

day and i didn't even think about it i don't know if you're familiar with like the native american

term two-spirit i've always felt like i was a little bit of a fool and i've always felt like

i resonated with being a two-spirit even though living in a more masculine body and i just

decided to flip it and i said i'm gonna do it as jamie and i fell into conversation it felt the same

as it ever was she was speaking from a home studio wearing a black tank top a silver pendant

blue eyeliner and that long blonde hair her synthesizers surround her in the background

i'm in my recording studio and technically i live in ranchos de taos new mexico

which is about four miles right outside of taos new mexico jamie's new album is called transition

and that title has a double meaning so first of all i don't want it to be a big deal that i

transgendered i don't want it to be like my claim to fame or what every time somebody sees me they

know me for but at the same time those two concerts on there were my first concerts i did

after my transition and this is technically my first release after my transition so

um i kind of wanted to give it some kind of acknowledgement so that was one of the reasons

why i named it transitions but the other one is a little bit more esoteric my sets are very freeform

so what happens is going from like say one piece to another i have what's called transition pieces

and to me they are just as important if not more

than the actual pieces so like you know i'll have a piece that's kind of you know with a groove and

then some sequencing going on and some soloing then when i bring it all down i have what's called

my transition pieces which is usually going to be like some kind of really washy pad you know

something kind of cool sounding sound effect or something and actually i mean those are totally

freeform i never know what i'm going to grab so that was also a part of the title too because

i do that a lot i have these big transitions before it goes into the next piece

so

the transitions are nice but it's a sequence for overdrive that charges this album

transition is two discs one

recording one

live at the Cosmic Crossings concert series in New Jersey and the other captured live in the

studio on the Stars End radio show in Philadelphia on WXPN. Jamie's concerts are completely improvised.

There are no computers on stage but she does have sequencers reprogrammed and that she brings in

at will creating that synchronous sound of multiple interlocked patterns. You can hear

how it comes together on tracks like Inanna's Dance. What I really love about it is that backwards

voicing sequence and it's the sound I made and it was just sort of sitting in my polymorph

and I just pulled it up and started doing this like kind of thing I was like cool and so you

know I threw a bass line underneath of it and then just started you know I was like okay definitely

feels like kind of like

arabic scale you know

because I did this live on Stars End in the middle I just I don't know I kind of like lost my mind

I literally just like was just pulling up stuff and just playing noise and just like

and cranking the reverbs and just doing weird stuff and I was like yeah this is fun

and then I brought the bass back in it was like okay let's get back to the track and I am fascinated by the Anunnaki. She was one of the princesses so I named it after her because I can kind of picture you know in Mesopotamia and kind of picture her kind of dancing and flowing to the piece.

music

Garden of the Sacred Moon is another one of those spontaneous creations that seems structured

including a false ending but it's very much in the moment.

As the rhythm was playing all of a sudden I was thinking Violin.

I was thinking Violin.

I was using the wave state and I brought in like a violin solo and just started playing again it's all freeform so it's just kind of as I'm going I'm just like oh I hear a violin in this and so I just started doing a violin solo on it.

Just to be clear when Jamie says Violin she means a violin sound on her synthesizers.

just to be clear when Jamie says Violin she means a violin sound on her synthesizers.

Jamie Rose Hennigan does have

a bit more of a melodic feel

than many space musicians

I mean I grew up

the world's biggest Beatle fan

so I am very melodic automatically

I'm a singer-songwriter by trade

because I'm technically a guitar player

so I'm always thinking melody

so next thing you know

when I start doing a solo

I start thinking melody

especially something that's kind of low

and kind of mellow like that

I'm automatically going into

some kind of really cool melody

Jamie Rose Hennigan

seems pretty happy in her new identity

as she engages in hormone replacement therapy

her voice is getting higher

her shape is softening

and her breasts are growing

but there have been some potholes on the path

like her mother

to whom she's very close

well first of all my daughter

she's 27

she's at that age where like

they don't care

she goes you know I don't care

you know half of my friends are queer

my mother

okay that's a different story

she did not take to it well

but thought well I'm going to be momless now

fortunately a woman

at her mother's retirement home intervened

there was a woman who worked at the reception desk

who I loved

and I never even really thought much about it

but it turns out

she's an LGBTQ plus counselor

and she went to my mom

and they had a long talk

and my mom had to come to Jesus moment

and you know we've been fine ever since

she realized you know what

I'm still me you know yeah

I wear skirts and long hair now

and you know my voice is a little higher

but I'm still me

she's fine like yeah you know you are

and now and I knew I was okay

when one day she looked at this outfit I was wearing

and she was like

I hate to admit it but you look really good in that

Jamie doesn't think that her new more feminine side

will alter her music

because it was always there

this has been a part of my life

ever since I can remember

I mean I have photos of me

at like 1920s

years old

putting dresses on

you know

I've always been very much in touch

with my feminine side

it's always always been a part of me

I think it's a big part of my music too

is that feminine energy

that rides with me

so

Jamie

Rose Hennigan

rides Sequencer Delirium

on her debut album Transition

recorded live on the Star's End radio show

and the Cosmic Crossings concert series

it's going to be the Echoes CD of the Month

for August

I will have a link to Jamie Rose Hennigan's transition

on the posting for this podcast

I also have a playlist for all the music

you just heard in this feature

you can find it all at

echoes.com

or

echoes

E-C-H-O-E-S

dot org

O-R-G

the Echoes podcast has taken a break for August

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this has been the Echoes podcast from PRX

I'm John DiLiberto

see you tonight

on the radio somewhere in the country

or at Echoes online

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or whenever you want