In 2006 I started performing full-time. When I got pregnant 10 years later I was determined to keep gigging.

I expected it to be challenging.

What I didn’t expect was how lonely it was going to feel.

I’d just spent…

Booking agents get a bad rap.

And - frequently - they deserve it.

The barrier of entry to becoming a booking agent is literally zero: anyone with an email address and chutzpah can sell someone else’s services.

Consequently, the…

I almost didn’t bother with a second season of this podcast.

Not because I ran out of things to say, but because I genuinely wasn’t sure I had a point.

Season 1 of The Lady J Podcast was full of…

Last summer, my gigs were few and far between and my motivation was low. I needed a new challenge, but also needed some answers.

• What makes and sustains a career as a gigging musician?
• How do I get more gigs?
• …

Music. It’s the music that sets Christmas apart.

Other holidays may also be about love, and family, and food and gifts, and peaceful wishes, but no other holiday is as inextricably linked to its music as Christmas is.

Which is…

China was the worst.

Well, to be fair, not necessarily the worst. But, of all the countries I performed in when I was touring, it was definitely my least favourite.

Frankly, the sole redeeming feature of my 6-month Chinese…

In the wee hours of a mid-January morning in 2015 I landed in Dubai with my band, ready to begin a long sought-after residency at The Music Room, one of the city’s most interesting and prestigious live music venues. A…

It’s a friendly takeover!

Aston Wylie hosts a very special episode of The Lady J Podcast, interviewing Felix, my husband-slash-guitarist-slash-business partner, and me about our career together over the last two decades.

Felix and I have been together since 2006…

In this episode, Chris Santillán, musical director, pianist, and educator, proves how far a formal musical education can take you, if you “know your why”.

Chris has spent his career telling stories through music, on tour and at sea, and…

In this episode, Timo Higgs, DJ and producer, percussionist, music curator, lyricist, poet, and event organizer, shares how challenging life can be as an entrepreneur in a creative field, when you’re working from home… with a toddler.

Timo’s been working…

In this episode, Aston Wylie, singer-guitarist, songwriter, and fellow parent-of-a-small-child shares his conviction that original music belongs everywhere, including at cover gigs.

Aston talks about his journey writing and playing his own music, when being a solo performer becomes a…

Today we’re hearing from Joe Bashorun, a multi-instrumentalist and musical ‘ultra-marathoner’, who draws on four decades of experience to show us how he continues to evolve and find joy at every gig.

Joe talks about the changes he's seen in…

Today I’m sitting down with Mikey Reed, full-time gigging bassist-singer and notoriously busy guy, to find out how he gets himself so much work.

Mikey tells us what it takes to be a good band member: sharing how he prepares…

I firmly believe that there is nothing like being in the room with the person making the music that moves you.

Live music matters.

It matters to me because I love music, but also because it’s how I earn my…