Okay With Every Part is your very first EP release as an independent artist. How does it differ from the work you’ve released previously on a label?

It’s all me. The label was incredible, no hard feelings, but there was a lot of imposter syndrome that came along with it, like getting billboards and all of these things. I would think, “Was this paid for, or did I earn this?” Now everything that I get I’ve earned, and it’s much more rewarding. Not saying that I didn’t earn it before, but I think it satisfies the internal voices. I’m funding the whole project, I’m pushing the whole project. It’s all on my shoulders, which is absolutely terrifying, but also very, very exciting. This is me and nobody’s standing in my way.

Do we have a track on the EP that you are particularly proud of?

I love my new song, “Happy Without You.” It’s in that lane of “I’m not Pretty” where I’m talking about a really big subject like breakups, but we’re going to dance about it and we’re going to thrive. It’s kind of like, you’re going to turn around, you’re going to see what you’ve lost, and it’s going to be a too-late kind of situation. It’s bringing a lot of empowerment to a painful thing that people go through. It’s very fun.

“Care About Me” is another one where I was just flooded with DMs and paragraphs in my comments from people saying that they’re in similar relationships that felt mundane. Again, it’s bittersweet. It sucks that so many people feel unseen and unheard and not cared about, but it is also beautiful that we are able to have this community where we all come together and we do care. That one is really special.

One of your biggest fans is your mom. You even wrote a song for her, “The Woman You Are,” that was released around Mother’s Day. What was her reaction when she heard it?

She’s the cutest thing ever. She brags to all her friends back in Canada, “Have you heard my song?” It’s like the ultimate girl power song. She deserves it. She’s done so much for me. I had been trying to write this song for like, years, but I just didn’t want it to be cheesy. If I just became half the woman that she is….. she’s absolutely incredible.

There’s a lot of talk about artists being in their eras. What era is JESSIA in right now?

I’m in my “I’m back” era. The past year was one of the hardest years with parting ways with the label and kind of losing my direction as an artist. I was chasing numbers and not chasing a sound. Now I’m being as authentically me as I possibly can and in doing so, I’ve gotten the best response. It’s like, “Oh wait, I could have just been myself the entire time.” I needed to try on all the different hats and go through the whole process but I’m back, and it feels so good.