Musician Heats Up Harrison

At 18, a girl named Jessica left her mother’s home in Utica with the dream of one day becoming a star. After finishing college Jessica, now 23, goes by the name J. Antonette and is hoping to make the jump stardom.

J.Antonette has preformed throughout Westchester and Manhattan. The singer/songwriter recently finished her first music video, shot partially in Silver Lake.

Along with singing and starring in the video J.Antonette wrote the script and directed. The song, entitled “Can You Hear Me?”, is off of her untitled debut album.

The production team needed three different locations to capture the meaning of the song, which J.Antonette said is about her childhood. A room at Berkley College was used for a therapy session, an outdoor porch in Croton was used for another scene and finally the team came to the DiFeo residence in Silver Lake to film an intimate living room scene.

“I hunted down the locations myself,” J.Antonette said. “I looked for a house that would be cozy and cute, and it just happened that Sandy’s (DiFeo) was one of the ones that we settled on after looking for a couple of months.”

J.Antonette’s relationship with DiFeo originated while working with her daughter, Jessica Magnotta, at the Westchester Burger Company. One day after talking about not being able to find a good location for the scene Magnotta and DiFeo selflessly offered their home.

The singer has been accepting donations and sponsorships to help her crack into the music industry, but says she is paying for the music video mostly by herself. 

“I’ve been working double and triple shifts to pay for all of it,” said J.Antonette. “I have people like Danielle from Salon Denzo in White Plains who has traveled with me, been with me on all my trips, done my hair, she has helped set me up with makeup artists. She has been really active in sponsoring me for everything.”

J.Antonette has creative control over the entire production and looks at the project much like the way a mother would look at her newborn child.

“This is my baby, this is the first song off of my new album, this is my sound and everything I have done in the past has been mostly songwriting but this is like me now as an artist — this is me coming out,” J.Antonette said. “I did everything, I did the wardrobe, I did the sets, I am doing the props and it’s just me I’m just bossing everyone around.”

As for J.Antonette’s taste in music, she says she mostly responds to the raw emotion of a song or melody. Though she enjoys emotional rock music she describes her own styling as more pop alternative rock. 

“So it’s still mainstream," she said. "I’m not singing about booty shaking or stuff like that.”

“I sing a mix, there’s stuff you can work out to in the gym and then there’s stuff that is more playful and flirty but it still has a hard edge to it.”

Now that she has filmed the video and recorded a lot of her songs for her upcoming album J.Antonette is doing a lot of work in the studio. But it won't be long until the singer is back to doing live shows, which she says is her favorite part of the job. 

“I can’t explain it, it’s like you want to jump up and down a million times," J.Antonette said. “It’s like when you get excited on Christmas morning and you see all your presents and you don’t know which one to open first. That’s the feeling I get on stage. I get nerves, but that’s what gets you going on stage, that’s what pumps everybody up.”

The music video for “Can You Hear Me?” is now being edited so it can be viewed on television and websites like Hulu and YouTube. To promote her work J.Antonette will be making a televised appearance on a Mamaroneck public access show called “Open Stage” on Feb. 18 and recently performed at Fashion Week in Bryant Park.

To keep track of everything going on with J.Antonette check out http://www.jantonette.com for more details.