Early life Hoop was born in
Santa Rosa, California, to traditional
Mormon parents Janette and Jack Dennis Hoop. She grew up singing
hymns and
folk tunes with her family in
four-part harmony. At age 14, her parents separated, and two years later she broke away from her Mormon religion. Hoop described abandoning her faith as a process of detoxification, saying, "Now I feel free of it: I have faith in people".
Career 2003–2007 While she had been creating music since she was a teenager, being a survival guide provided Hoop with the "mental space to write as I worked". Conway sent a demo of the song "Seed of Wonder" to the DJ
Nic Harcourt who began to play the song on
Morning Becomes Eclectic on KCRW. It became one of the most requested songs on the show and created a considerable amount interest in the acoustic live shows Hoop had begun to play around Los Angeles.
2008–present As a result of meeting Tom Piper, the touring manager of the band Elbow, Hoop moved to
Manchester, England in 2008. Initially she found it difficult to adjust "as a California girl, I find it hard to stay under that canopy of cloud". She worked as a backing singer on
Peter Gabriel's
New Blood Tour in 2011. The following year she released
The House That Jack Built. In 2013 and 2014 she released
Complete Kismet Acoustic and
Undress, re-interpretations of songs from "Kismet" and "Hunting My Dress" respectively. In 2016, Hoop released
Love Letter for Fire, an album of duets with American singer-songwriter Sam Beam (
Iron & Wine). Jesca Hoop signed with the label
Sub Pop and announced that she would release the album
Memories Are Now on February 10, 2017.
Collaborations Hoop has collaborated with many recording artists, including
Stewart Copeland,
Guy Garvey,
Willy Mason,
Blake Mills,
Shearwater, Erika Wennerstrom,
The Ditty Bops and many more. Hoop's extensive touring since her debut record saw her opening for
Mark Knopfler,
Elbow,
Placebo,
EELS,
Shuggie Otis,
Iron & Wine,
Andrew Bird,
Punch Brothers,
Shearwater and
The Ditty Bops. On April 15, 2016, Hoop released
Love Letter for Fire, an album of duets with American singer-songwriter
Iron & Wine, on
Sub Pop. The album features contributions from
Wilco's
Glenn Kotche,
Rob Burger,
Eyvind Kang,
Sebastian Steinberg, and Edward Rankin-Parker. It was produced, recorded, and mixed by
Tucker Martine. Hoop and Iron & Wine toured North America in support of the album, starting in May 2016.
Style Hoop's style has been characterised as largely experimental with folk, rock, and electronic influences. Her early mentor, Tom Waits, described it as, "like a four-sided coin. She is an old soul, like a black pearl, a good witch or a red moon. Her music is like going swimming in a lake at night". She often finds that, "I have an identity crisis every time I write a catalogue of songs, I think: what is this music? Where does it fit?". She explained her tendency to move between a number of styles as, "I am impressed by the power of music and its ability to transform the vessel it enters. I am everyday affected by it. If I want to change my mood, I change my music". ==Discography==