Q&A: Jesse Detor Enters Her Most Fearless Era Yet
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY KIMBERLY KAPELA ☆
Photo Credit: Cyn-Ean Yu
ON LOVE, LOSS AND LETTING GO: JESSE DETOR TWISTS AT THE STARS — Jesse Detor makes unapologetic, spill-your-guts music for anyone who’s ever learned their strength the hard way. With a biting edge that channels the grit of 90s alt-rock, Detor is lighting the fuse on a revitalized new era for the band.
Her band — Berklee College of Music standouts Daisy Soper, Sam Anderson and Emma Harner — built a sound that feels like a diary entry set on fire: jagged and unfiltered. Detor carries the riotous spark of Riot Grrrl icons, pulling from the raw edges of Hole and the melody-forward aggression of Veruca Salt, while infusing the biting, hyper-emotional storytelling like Olivia Rodrigo.
Her newest singles, “Once” and “Sex Dream” mark a bold new era for the band and serve as the first glimpse into their forthcoming EP Twist at the Star, arriving early next year. The EP zooms in on a relationship unraveling, not from the perspective of its brightest moments, but through the slow, almost imperceptible bruises — the “microdosing of pain,” as Detor puts it — that signal an ending that hasn’t been spoken yet but is already in motion. Rather than recounting the relationship itself, Twist at the Star studies what comes after.
“That's what I love about this EP — it’s not an exploration of the feelings of the relationship, but the exploration of that second development, which is the end,” Detor says. “It's like the immediate end, and then the mourning period, and then you come back into contact, you fight, and then you let things go. It's that second cycle that goes on in every relationship.”
“Once” captures that liminal space perfectly. With its simmering nostalgia, slow-burn intensity, and the band’s signature punch, the single sets the emotional tone for what’s to come: an EP that doesn’t shy away from discomfort, but instead dives straight into the ache.
As Jesse Detor steps into this new era, she’s sharpening her edges even more. Twist at the Star promises to be a cathartic gut-punch of a project, a lived-in, brutally honest portrait of what remains when the dust of a relationship finally settles.
Photo Credit: Renee Newman
LUNA: Welcome back and thank you for talking to Luna again. It's super exciting to have you back since the last time we talked at your Lollapalooza debut. I would love to catch up and see how life has been treating you and what have you been up to since the last time we talked.
JESSE: It's great to be back as well. Life has been treating me very well. I've moved to LA and I've released the first track of my upcoming EP, which I'm super excited about. The track's called “Once.”
LUNA: “Once” marks your first new single from your upcoming EP Twist at the Star. What inspired this song, and what story were you hoping to tell through it?
JESSE: “Once” is the heart of this upcoming EP. The whole EP is about one relationship and the progression of it and the way that it develops as time goes on, but it actually starts at the end. “Once” is a song about a conversation in which a relationship comes to an end, and the feeling of devastation and how the situation hurts so much. I don't understand how I'm supposed to feel like this, but then also realize that I've actually felt this way for a while. I think oftentimes in a relationship, you're microdosing the pain of the end for a long time, and you're feeling it in a little bit of bursts, and then you feel it all at once.
LUNA: How did the creative process unfold for this track — from the first idea to the final recording? Were there any unexpected turns along the way?
JESSE: This song I wrote pretty much in one sitting — like melody and lyrics — and then I have an amazing band. I have Emma Harner on guitar. I have Sam Anderson on bass, and I have Daisy Soper on drums. So once I wrote the song, I brought that to Emma, and I sent her the track with the bare roots of the verse and chorus riff, and then she really flushed that out and finished everything up. I brought it to the rest of the band, and Sam and Emma wrote this super cool rock outro, which is awesome. They all contributed. Then we brought it into the studio. Our producer, Rob Chiarappa, he's awesome. We were definitely influenced by different things this time, so there were heavier, more atmospheric influences.
LUNA: Since “Once” is the first single from Twist at the Star, how does it set the tone for the rest of the EP? Why did you choose “Once” as the song to introduce this new era of your music?
JESSE: I think “Once” is a really good first step. It feels like we're plunging into this new era. I think “Sex Dream” is more similar to “Sophia I'm Sorry” and “Apartment Song,” and it's just got a bit of a new flair. It's introduced with “Once.” That's why I thought it was a good starter.
The EP is called Twist at the Star, because it's about this girl that I was seeing, and she had this little star necklace that she wore. When I first started seeing her, it was this really cute little, silver thing. Every time that she would lie to me, she would play with it. It was like a nervous habit. And by the time we were done, it had turned from this cute little thing to this gross, ugly black thing that she wore all the time, and it felt like this weird symbol of the way that our relationship had just deteriorated horribly. I think that “Once” is not a description of how badly things really felt when they came to an end, but it is the first time that I noticed how things had really been going. That's what I love about this EP is it's not an exploration of the feelings of the relationship, but it's the exploration of that second development — which is the end. It's like the immediate end, and then it's the mourning period, and then you come back into contact, and you fight, and then you let things go. It's that second cycle that goes on in every relationship.
LUNA: Can you share a bit about the sonic direction of Twist at the Star — are there any new sounds or collaborators that helped shape the project?
JESSE: It's all the same people. It's just a new direction. Also, my producer did have a mix assist, same as Ronald Lucchesi, who helped out with mixing. I think that helped with the new direction as well. Sonically, we've explored what we were doing before, and now I've been really loving Deftones and more synth heavy, otherworldly, angry vibe. No one new, but just us trying something out.
LUNA: Did you take any creative risks or experiment with new approaches on Twist at the Star compared to the It Wasn’t Supposed to End Like This EP? What felt different about your creative approach or mindset compared to your previous releases?
JESSE: That's a good question. I think this EP allowed us to lean more into instrumentation. I think my band was really key in creating this new sound as it came to the arranging and recording processes. I think that's a lot of the parts where this EP differs from others, and so experimenting with new tones, with new sounds allowed us to go in a different sonic direction.
LUNA: How do you hope listeners — especially your femme audience — can connect with or find power in this new era of music from you? What emotions or messages do you want to leave with them?
JESSE: I love that question. As a femme band, we always cater to femme audience and the things you might be feeling. I love that this EP is very lesbian. It's by a woman. It's about a woman. It's all about feeling a really intense emotional bond towards somebody and connecting. I feel like as women, and letting go of that is just so difficult. I think that allowing yourself to take time and allowing yourself to feel a full cycle, a full range of things about an ending, instead of trying to skip to the fun part, is so needed to fully process and move on from that cycle.
There's a fun song that's coming up called, “You Think Of Me,” which is the really fun part of a breakup. Fuck you. I'm the best and I hate you, but unfortunately, you do not arrive there so immediately. I think allowing yourself to feel all of the things that you want to feel and want someone back, and grieve someone deeply and hate them and then also miss them, is something that you should not feel any sort of guilt or shame about, and you should just really openly be allowed to feel all the things that you feel.
LUNA: What is fueling your fire right now that’s pushing you into this new chapter in your career?
JESSE: First of all, being in a new city, it's a brave new life. It's so exciting. I think that right now, getting involved in things politically is really important. Going to a lot of benefit shows for issues like Palestine, issues like ICE raids, these things are really important.
As a woman, I feel like considering these are issues that disproportionately affect women and women's violence is super present in a lot of these situations, making sure to take our connection and our sense of community and really direct that towards the things that matter is something that's been inspiring to me lately. I know I write a lot of relationship songs, and I think a lot of people take that to mean that I don't have anything to say, or that's sort of a shallow thing. I think it's the opposite. I think that expressing your emotions about anything is important, and getting up on stage is an opportunity to talk about the things that matter to you, even if your music is just just about who you like.
LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like that you would like to share with Luna?
JESSE: I'm so excited. This is my favorite creation that I've made so far. I'm so excited to share it with everybody. This year is going to be a really exciting year of releases, meeting new people, new fans, connecting with the new city, and hopefully playing as many shows as possible. “Sex Dream” is out on the 20th. There's going to be a super cute music video for it, which I'm really excited for. It's princess themed, so expect some pink. The EP is super connected, and all of the videos in the EP have a narrative that follows them throughout, which I'm just really excited about.
For anyone reading this and feels inspired and wants to give a donation, one place that I really like is the Immigrant Defenders Law Center. I have their link in my bio, but you can look them up and they're California-focused.
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