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How does your classical background combined with the guitar define your music?

Paquette: As far as chord progression, I think I'm still very classical in structuring. But sometimes I feel so trapped in that classical box. I'm like, I want to be a jazzer, but my brain doesn't go there. Maybe one day.

I hear your official "debut" came in college.

Paquette: Yes. Prairie Bible College is a musical college. I went there thinking I'd be a piano teacher or something. Well, I used to play songs for my roommate and for friends. One day, we stopped in at the coffee house just to see what was going on. My friends were like, "Jill, go up there and sing." I don't do well in front of people. Paul says we should boast in our weakness, and I want to say that I hate getting up in front of people. It makes me so nervous I almost get sick every time. Anyway, I got up there, borrowed somebody's guitar, scrambled to find a pick, and played this song called "Forget." I was looking down the whole time. When I was done, everybody was clapping and screaming. Matt Brower was there that evening, and he apparently liked what he heard. I worked with Matt a lot of years after that. [Brouwer, a worship leader, later recorded a CD with Reunion and scored a radio hit with his song, "Water." Paquette was in Brouwer's band at the time, playing piano and singing background.]

How old were you when you realized you wanted to do this professionally?

Paquette: Twenty-four—this year! "Professionally" always cracks me up. There's nothing that feels professional about what I do. I feel like God is building in me, more and more, a desire to do this. I'm not sure what else I would really do. I don't think I'm really created to do like carpentry or anything. So I'm just staying with this as long as it lasts, I guess.

What else would you be doing if you weren't doing this?

Paquette: I really don't know. I guess it's just part of being in your mid-twenties and finding what you're passionate about and what you want your life to be about. Maybe I'm still in that process, and right now music and meeting people and traveling is the opportunity I have.

What needs to happen for you to get your big break? A radio single?

Paquette: Radio really doesn't like my stuff, I don't think. Hopefully a single will catch on. But I'm way more concerned about doing a good live show. It's important for me to be growing and becoming a better musician.

Do you have a specific audience you're trying to reach?

Paquette: I was the kind of kid who always tried to be somewhere with God that I wasn't, wanting to be like people who seemed like they had it all together. I hope my music resonates with people like that—people who maybe feel pressured to be something they're not.

Isn't that the theme behind your song "Not the Only One"?

Paquette: Yes.

Faith is hard, so don't pretend like you've got it all together, right?

Paquette: Yes, and I used to be really intimidated by people like that. Because I didn't know where I fit. I knew all this stuff, but wasn't sure if I really believed it. It was a lot of looking around and thinking, Who am I going to mimic so I can make sense of this? Yes, that's the theme of "Not the Only One." That song sounds frustrated, and it is. I was tired of looking at other people's lives and comparing mine to theirs.

What do you see yourself doing in ten years?

Paquette: Probably teaching piano.

In Nashville?

Paquette: I don't know how long this Nashville thing will last. I don't know what next year looks like. My manager is like, "We've got to set goals." I'm like, "What?" I don't know. I hope I'm doing something that's meaningful. I don't know what it looks like, though, in ten years. When I look at a year ago, I never would have foreseen this year. So I don't know. I hope to be a passionate person. I think I'll always lead an exciting life.

For more about Jill Paquette, visit our artist page for her, where you'll also find a review of her self-titled debut. Visit Christianbook.com to listen to sound clips and buy her music.

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