Jessica Domingo

“The best thing about making music is creating your own unique take on it.”

Jessica grew up listening to different kinds of music. From exploring her mom’s old collection of albums, to listening to her dad’s favorite radio stations and being inspired by a variety of genres, she started to discover her own taste in music. All this has helped Jessica develop as an artist and performer. That commitment, along with her prodigious talent, have attracted fans from around the world, as well as yielded two CD releases (2010’s Take A Chance EP, and the new full-length, Just Vibe) and a series of widely seen YouTube performances —including a cover of Frank Ocean’s “Thinking About You” which has garnered more than two million views.

Jessica began piano lessons at age 5 and took up guitar at age 12. During this time, she also began performing in public. One of her fondest memories is performing at a café as part of a vocal workshop she belonged to. “That’s when I discovered my voice,” she explains. “It was fun being onstage, but also nerve wracking at first. I was still learning what I was doing, but then grew to love performing.”

The highly motivated Domingo received a significant career assist when she met Seattle-based producer Don Quijano, who was by her side at every performance. He taught Domingo guitar, provided industry guidance, and gave tips for working onstage and in the studio. The pair’s collaboration resulted in the Take A Chance EP.

While well received, the recording presented a conflict for Jessica: “I worked really hard on it, but I wasn’t satisfied with the final result because I only wrote two of the songs on it. I wanted to make an album of songs that I could more closely relate to, and that other people could be inspired by. Even if it was going to take longer to make, that’s what I felt was needed.”

It took two years, but Just Vibe – produced by Dylan Fant of Seattle’s One Shot Studio – shows that Jessica got what she wanted. The results are impressive, both for the range of her writing and the emotional resonance of her performances. The album’s 11 tracks have a natural, largely acoustic warmth and intimacy. Jessica plays guitar and ukulele on the album, and Fant’s unobtrusive production frames each song tactfully.

The album-closing “Knocks Me Off My Feet” is a particular favorite of Jessica’s—and an indication of how the experience of recording Just Vibe helped her reach a new level of motivation about her work. “It was the first song I recorded for the album,” she recalls. “It was late at night when I wrote it; I came into the booth and just played my ukulele, and I had no idea what to expect. Then a week later, I came back in and re-listened to ‘Knocks Me Off My Feet,’ and I instantly had a flow of ideas for what I wanted for my album. It had somehow come alive in the recording. It was so exciting to hear; that’s when I knew I wanted to make more music.”

She’s continued to do just that, balancing a busy schedule with the equally demanding priorities of school.

Jessica’s YouTube exposure has been accompanied by a hectic live performance schedule. She’s sung at the Bite of Seattle Festival for two consecutive years, appeared on television shows such as TFC (ABS-CBN), LA-TV18, done several teen outreach events, and has opened at major concerts and benefit concerts like Kolohe Kai, Ladi6, Lloyd, and Anuhea.

She has entered competitions such as Asian American Singing Idol, the Seattle Filipino community’s Pista Singing Idol, and the Filipino-Canadian PNT TV5 Singing Idol, where she placed in the top three in each contest.

In August 2014, Jessica completed a solo tour of the West Coast. All six shows were played to a packed house. In addition to the tour, Jessica was invited to the YouTube Space Headquarters to film, a rare opportunity offered only to the YouTubers who have over 10,000 subscribers. Jessica got qualified and  accepted by Vevo to have her own channel now.

Jessica just finished co-writing and recording an EP, Masterpiece, to be released in January 2015, with multi-platinum Grammy award-winning producer Mikal Blue at Revolver Recordings in Los Angeles. Each song will be released each month of the last quarter of the year, including the release of her original Christmas song, “I Can’t Wait For Christmas.”

Next up? After the release of both albums, Just Vibe and Masterpiece, she plans on writing and recording more music and self-producing her own music videos. She will be jumping back into the studio to record her fourth album with producer/songwriter Jesse Barrera in San Diego.

Just Vibe just became one of the few semi-finalists for the worldwide UnsignedOnly Music Competition 2014.