Music & Muscians

Faithfully Pursuing Her Music Career
By Damaris Colon

A frustrated father, gazing at fresh pen marks and a cut in the family’s leather sofa, sought answers from his two year-old, noodle-haired daughter.

“Jessie, do you know who did this?”

“Yes, me,” she replied.

“Would you like to tell me why,” her father questioned.

“Because mommy made me mad,” a young Jessica Nunez-Mattocks responded honestly, and her father tried desperately to keep from laughing in order to teach his child a lesson.

Looking back on that exchange with her father, Nunez-Mattocks remembers “the greatest childhood ever,” which some friends compared to the Cosbys. She remembers her house always being busy and having a great relationship with her three sisters.

Although Nunez-Mattocks now calls New York home, she was a military baby who spent a great deal of her childhood traveling between Germany, New York, and Maryland. Nunez-Mattocks credits her outlook on life to her upbringing in Europe, as well as her parents exposing her and her siblings to different cultures at a young age. Now 23, Nunez-Mattocks is pursuing a career as a singer, songwriter, and stylist/designer, and credits her parents for giving her the freedom to pursue those creative interests.


Jessica Nunez-Mattocks records under the artist name
JessieADORE and is working on a new album.

Nunez-Mattocks has been singing since “forever,” before she could talk, according to family members. She perfected her craft as an ambitious high school vocal major attending the Duke Ellington School of Arts in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

In high school, Nunez-Mattocks says she was friends with nearly everyone -- jocks, cheerleaders, mathletes, artsy students, and older kids. She nicknamed Oodles for her noodle-shaped locks and was dubbed the honorary cool kid from New York.


Nunez-Mattocks is critical of current music i
ndustry trends.

Nunez-Mattocks, currently single, is highly focused on her goals. She says she works everyday to strengthen her relationship with Jesus, whom she describes as “the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

When asked about the state of music right now, Nunez-Mattocks becomes very passionate. “I am rather disgusted with the state of music right now. It lacks substance. People who are considered the "best" are only that because any real competition is blackballed and the only other artists around for them to be compared to are talentless,” she says.

Nunez-Mattocks records under the artist name JessieADORE and is working on releasing an EP, “The Heathen’s Epiphany.” (Listen to a few songs here).

Nunez-Mattocks may feel frustrated with the music industry now because she is a new artist who must battle against such established songstresses as Beyonce and Rihanna to gain recognition. Nunez-Mattocks says she wants to be a true artist, who is seen for her talent and not judged on anything other than her music.
However, one can’t help but note Nunez-Mattocks’ fashionable and trendy style. She has already received recognition from Clutch Magazine, where she describes her personal style as classic.

When asked where she sees herself in the next five years, she says, “I try not to kid myself by mapping out where I’ll be in the future. I have done that so often in this process we call “maturing” and there are always so many variables, and things that work out better than you could ever imagine. I just allow God to direct me...surely His way is guaranteed success.”