Jess Henderson
The Unforced Rythm
It’s a bit of an understatement to say that the last 18 months have been unpredictable, maybe a little unexpected, leaving us a touch uncertain.
And in a lot of ways this has also been my experience in my professional creative life. In 2006 when I started studying songwriting, I had vague aspirations of living and working as a songwriter. This is now my reality and it looks completely different to my early fantasy of success.
I clearly remember a prophecy I received during my time at college where I was told that I needed to be like a metronome. Which for a musician brought back the memories (trauma) of all the hours of practice playing against a metronome and listening back to find that I was rushing or late. So at the time I remember thinking that this word felt restrictive and rigid. But I’ve discovered is that there IS a rhythm to my creativity, like my walk with God. It reminded me of this scripture;
Matthew 11:28 MSG;
“Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
Last year as a freelancer, when a lot of my work fell through as the world shut down, working as a creative felt impossible. I’d been steadily working towards leaving my part time job to step into being self employed full time for around 3 years and 2020 really threw all those plans out the window.
I felt discouraged and a little hopeless. Yet I found myself leaning into the rhythm of creating for the love of it again. To begin with it was just to keep me busy while we were in countless lockdowns. I started writing instrumental pieces every week, with no purpose other than to create. I would hit record and just play my piano. Some days it was a real struggle, other days it was easy. I took the pressure off and tried not to judge myself too harshly if I wasn’t always a genius. And I continued to place my trust and hope in God that he had a way through for me.
To cut a long story short these instrumental pieces ended up opening a brand new door in my music career. It was sudden and unexpected and wasn’t what I thought breakthrough would look like at all. But the opportunity came at the perfect time and lead to me developing whole new skillsets as a composer and consistent work for me in 2021.
Over the years as a creative I’ve learnt to celebrate the little wins, the small successes. To be adaptable and ready to pivot. To think of my creative life in the long term not short term. To embrace new ways to express myself creatively and not to get stuck in what I know and to do it for the LOVE of creating.
God has proven faithful to my obedience again and again. It isn’t often glamorous, but it is consistent. It doesn’t look flashy but it is always steady.
It’s an unforced rhythm.
Jess Henderson is a freelance music producer, songwriter, singer and keyboardist. After studying songwriting at C3 College for 3 years, Jess and her husband Jason made the move to London where they now run the Worship and Creative team at C3 London.
She has written songs that have been featured in the Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony and in domestic and international television shows. She also has several production and composition credits working for commercial clients including Carnival Cruises and Collaborateur branding agency.
Her production has shaped the sound of several independent releases including the latest album from Lucy Mason: Flashback Romance, which garnered critical acclaim including the following praise from The Independent Review: “Haunting vocals and clear, brilliantly produced pop.”