Artist Profile: Tenci Lead Singer Jess Shoman on the Band’s Growth

When it comes to music, Jess Shoman doesn’t see the point in creating alone. They are the lead singer of Tenci, a band founded in Shoman’s bedroom in 2018 that has been expanding ever since. Shoman is no stranger to creating community; even from an early age, they acknowledge their wish to create and collaborate with others.

“I've always wished that I came from a super musical family,” Shoman reflected recently in an interview with The Harvard Crimson.

Despite this early lack of a familial music community, Shoman’s childhood still held important influences for their development as a musician. Tenci’s name is derived from the nickname of Shoman’s grandmother, Hortencia, who served as an important influence on the singer growing up.

“My grandma's not a musician,” Shoman said. “But I remember always hearing her singing while she was doing chores. She has this really beautiful, romantic vibrato and I feel like I at first subtly started mimicking that. Our voices are similar in that way.”

The organic way that Shoman found their sound also extends to how they found their band. When describing the Chicago community, Shoman emphasized that “it's pretty close knit” — they met all of the members of Tenci through DIY shows and performing in the same circles. “When Tenci started playing shows back in 2018, 2019, Kurt had a DIY space in their basement. And we played a show there, and I met Kurt, who is also in a band with Izzy. Joey I met because I went to one of his shows,” Shoman said. “We just hit it off right away.”

It’s safe to say that with Tenci, Shoman has found their long-sought musical family. “We are just the biggest goofs ever, we’re constantly laughing,” Shoman said. “We're able to stay very light-hearted and not take things very seriously. And I think that really helps us get through things together. Everyone in the band is so caring and thoughtful and communicative. They truly are some of my best friends. They stick with you through everything. I think it's rare that that happens.”

Despite Tenci’s strong dynamic, Shoman usually opts to begin the writing process independently, on their own time. “I'm constantly writing in my notes app on my phone, and constantly recording little snippets of voice memos,” they said. “I think lyrically, I usually start with a more dumbed down version of what a song will eventually be. Then I go back, and it's like a puzzle.”

After consolidating their preliminary brainstorming, Shoman is comfortable enough with the band to open things up from there. “I'll bring the songs to the band in their skeletal form, and together, we'll just add, start playing around with them and just start shaping it and molding it from there,” Shoman said. “It's super collaborative.”

Shoman is especially grateful to have a group of musicians that are open to this type of joint effort, and attributes much of Tenci’s sound and success to the other band members’ interpretations of what Shoman themself brings to the table.

“I think that makes it more special for me, how the music's just naturally formed from what I'm trying to say,” she said.

A favorite song of Shoman’s comes from Tenci’s first album, “My Heart is an Open Field.” The song, “No Wings,” is a perfect example of Shoman’s ability to entrust vulnerable material to their band, and the emotional benefits of this workshopping experience. “The actual topic of the song is pretty traumatic for me,” Shoman said. “The way that the song sounds turns it around, and is very lighthearted and playful, really helps me get through that trauma and process things. Now when I play it, I'm having such a great time. I feel like I rewrote my narrative, a little bit. And that is pretty powerful for me. We always have a good time playing it.”

Tenci’s debut LP, “My Heart is an Open Field,” is a fluid collaboration between the band’s personnel, and many other artists involved in the Chicago music scene. The album as a whole could be loosely categorized as indie music, however, it also invokes many rock and folk elements that make it somewhat difficult to place. Shoman confirmed that “My Heart is an Open Field'' was produced in a tight time frame — the entire project was recorded in roughly two months. With Tenci’s second album, “A Swollen River, A Well Overflowing,” Shoman commented that the timeline was looser, and includes material that the band has been developing for over two years.

“I would say having more time with the second album, I had a little more room to play,” Shoman said. “I definitely had a little more room to think about what I was doing, and really be intentional about the different musical elements. Since with this new record we didn’t have any featured people, it was just us four in the band to play it on the record, basically. We were kind of just in our own little world.”

The band plans to embark on a 40-city tour following the Nov. 4 release of Tenci’s second album. With the growth of Tenci’s platform over recent years, Shoman has begun to wrap their head around their expanding fan base.

“When people come up to me and say anything about liking the band, it's always very thoughtful, and I'm always really surprised that people like it, even though that's silly to say out loud,” Shoman said. “We've had a couple people come up and they've had tears in their eyes. The fans I've met have been very sensitive and emotional and sweet. And I really appreciate that vulnerability.”

Along with a profound appreciation for the band’s listeners, Shoman has also been intentional about supporting the local music communities at Tenci’s tour venues. “We've decided to book locals for all the individual shows,” Shoman said. “It's always more fun to me when a bunch of locals are on the show, just because I really get to get a glimpse into what the community is like, and I feel like we can share that together. I hand-picked most of them and did a lot of digging and research and listening to music. So I'm very excited to finally get to hear it all live.”

Although Shoman acknowledges the many stressors of going on tour, they’re also approaching the upcoming few months with anticipation and experience. Among the many packing lists, boxes, and logistics to remember, Shoman shared their tour motto — “once you're in the car, you can't look back.”

Tenci performed live in Cambridge at the Lilypad on Friday, Nov. 11. After the upcoming tour, Shoman foresees a return of Tenci to its roots — that of natural collaboration and spending quality time as a band. “I hope that we can just have fun playing music very loosely,” Shoman said. “I’d say next year, we’ll be entering a more experimental stage of how we want Tenci to evolve.”