By DAN ARMONAITIS
The past year has been full of change for Ticko, an Anderson-based singer-songwriter who is set to release her latest effort, a six-song EP titled “One Eighty.” Ticko will celebrate the self-produced release with a hometown performance at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 1 at Carolina Bauernhaus Brewery and Winery in Anderson.
“The album itself is supposed to reflect the 180 (degree) turn that my life has taken since the last album (2018’s “Cry Me a River”) came out,” said Jessica Ticko, a 19-year-old who uses only her last name for recording purposes. “Since then, I’ve finished college, I’ve gotten into a better relationship and I’ve made amends with a lot of things in my life that were always haunting me. So, this album, it’s just truthful.”
Truth, for Ticko, has typically been expressed via poignant songs that often have somber undertones. At least, that’s been the case with her previous two albums, which also include 2017’s “Young Mind, Old Soul.”
“The first two songs (on ‘One Eighty’) are actually kind of happy, which is weird for me,” Ticko said. “I usually write out of really deep and dark emotion. But, after what happened to me last year, I’ve realized that I just need to be grateful for life and enjoy every day.”
Of course, that’s not to say that all of the new songs are upbeat.
“‘Two Way Suitcase’ is actually about my parents’ divorce,” said Ticko, who added that she was 7 when that event occurred. “It’s from a child’s perspective of (the time) after the divorce and having to go between houses. It really is just honest, which is hard.
“It takes a while to finally write a song that you know people are going to ask questions about.”
Ticko, who plays guitar and piano, describes her music as “folk-Americana” but she also draws from plenty of pop-rock influences.
“I grew up listening to Billy Joel and Janis Joplin and the Eagles,” Ticko said. “My mom raised me on good music. And, then, vocally, Brandi Carlile (is an influence). She has an incredible voice, and I try to sound like her sometimes.”
Ultimately, though, Ticko is mostly inspired by lyrics.
“I don’t just listen to a song, I listen to a song for the words,” she said. “If the words don’t hit me, then I don’t care what the music sounds like. The words, they have to mean something.”
Although Ticko didn’t start playing musical instruments until she was 9 — having gotten her start on a cheap “Barbie piano” before quickly graduating to a proper keyboard — she said she’s been writing poetry since she was 7 or 8 and that she was about 14 when she wrote her first complete arrangement of a song.
“All my songs are stories of their own,” Ticko said. “Each song, if you listen to it and you listen to the words, it takes you on an emotional journey, and it tells a story.
“With this album, specifically, if you listen to every single song, it’ll explain the meaning of the album. It starts happy, and then there are some songs that are sarcastic and some that are angry, and there are some that are just pure hurt like ‘Two Way Suitcase’ and ‘Sweaty Hands.'”
But as fulfilling as songwriting is for her personal well-being, Ticko gets a special joy out of sharing her original material with others.
“It gives me the power to reach more people with my story,” Ticko said of making records and performing live. “It’s not me just sitting down with someone over coffee who’s going to halfway listen to what I have to say.
“Songs give me the opportunity to let people know what happened to me and, hopefully, they can use that as inspiration to know that they’re not alone in whatever they’re going through.”