On the Rise: Monogem

Three-year-old Jen Hirsh used to love Luciano Pavarotti.

But, Hirsh said, probably only because the opera singer had a beard that made him look like her father. Her first musical memories involve her and her father driving in the car to school, listening to the Three Tenors.

“I’ve been singing ever since I was age 3, ever since I could open my mouth,” Hirsh said.

Hirsh has since strayed from her early exposure to opera. Since 2014, Hirsh has released a musical project, creating electronic pop and rhythm and blues music under the moniker “Monogem.”

The project represents Hirsh’s musical reinvention from a jazzy singer-songwriter to an electronic pop artist.

Growing up, Hirsh took vocal lessons and participated in choir and musicals. She then attended Berklee College of Music, where she primarily focused on jazz, until she took a class in songwriting and began to create her own music.

“I was mainly singing jazz standards and other people’s music until I found songwriting,” Hirsh said. “It’s just such an amazing feeling to be able to perform something in front of an audience that is honest and completely true to myself.”

After graduating from Berklee College of Music, Hirsh moved to New York City and performed regularly at the Bowery Poetry Club as a singer-songwriter. Playing her own jazz and soul music at the club made her realize that she wanted to be a musician and performer for the rest of her life, she said.

“When I started playing my own music out, and booking shows, selling tickets, creating fans, being able to speak to people from the stage – that time period of my life, definitely I knew there was no turning back,” Hirsh said. “There was no plan B.”

In 2012, Hirsh competed on “American Idol,” making it to the top 24. A Los Angeles native, she moved back after the show and decided to reinvent herself with a new musical style and name.

“I just wanted to reinvent myself, which is such a cool thing to be able to do as an artist,” Hirsh said. “In another five or 10 years, I could come up with a totally different concept and make completely different music – there’s such a sense of freedom.”

Hirsh took her stage name, Monogem, from the “Monogem ring,” which refers to a ring of supernova remnants detected near the Monoceros and Gemini constellations. The name resonated with Hirsh – according to Monogem’s website, the largest of such supernova remnants ever found was located near the constellation Cancer and Hirsh said she is an astrological Cancer. Her visual inspiration for the project was also based on galactic, outer space imagery, Hirsh said.

Monogem’s first self-titled EP debuted in 2015, while her second EP, “100%,” came out Friday. “100%” had a much more complex production that used analog and synthesizers such as a therevox and modular synthesizers, Hirsh said.

Hirsh collaborates with different producers and writers during the writing process, she said. For “100%,” two of her primary collaborators were Peter Dyer, who produced the album, and Neara Russell, who produced the titular single.

“I feel like we took some chances on the production, so it was really exciting to stretch ourselves sonically on this album,” Hirsh said.

“We’ve got a good language back and forth,” Dyer said. “She can riff on a lot of songs and kind of improvise and embellish in ways that other vocalists don’t as much. That kind of smooth soulfulness is nice over the more synth-pop-y songs.”

The session in which Hirsh and Russell wrote the title song “100%” was magical, Russell said, because they felt comfortable being vulnerable with each other and were able to work quickly together. Russell prepared chords before the session and when Hirsh arrived, she liked it and the two immediately began working on the song.

“She and I work really well together,” Russell said. “She’ll sing the melodies and come up with lyrics and then I start coming up with more musical production ideas and then we finished that song in the same day.”

In addition to crafting EPs, Hirsh performs live shows, primarily in Los Angeles. For her upcoming EP release show Wednesday, she’ll play the new songs from “100%.”

Hirsh said she is excited to celebrate the release of her EP in Los Angeles, especially within the community of female musicians that she has come to inhabit since moving back to her hometown.

“There have been times where I’m like, ‘This would have been so much easier if I was a hot, British man,'” Hirsh said. “But I also feel like when we have success, it’s like this big mighty moment for all women and I’m really proud to be in such an amazing community of female musicians right now.”