{"id":9822,"date":"2014-10-29T06:53:45","date_gmt":"2014-10-29T13:53:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=9822"},"modified":"2014-10-27T15:00:50","modified_gmt":"2014-10-27T22:00:50","slug":"jesse-roper-stays-true-to-metchosin-roots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2014\/10\/29\/jesse-roper-stays-true-to-metchosin-roots\/","title":{"rendered":"Jesse Roper stays true to Metchosin roots"},"content":{"rendered":"

Victoria\u2019s Jesse Roper strutted barefoot on stages all over Vancouver Island this summer playing his eclectic music. And although playing live as The Roper Show is what he loves to do, Roper says it\u2019s very difficult to get recognized without traditional radio airplay.<\/p>\n

\u201cMainstream radio is, from what I can tell, the best way to get out there, still,\u201d says Roper from his van, parked just outside of Banff. \u201cThe internet is good, but it is very saturated.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Jesse Roper giving it his all on stage (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a result of his music finally making it on the radio this past year, Roper was accepted to play almost every notable music festival on the island last summer, including Rock the Shores, Tall Tree, Rock the Woods, and Vicfest. Roper\u2019s bluegrass-rock song \u201cYukon Girl\u201d was a popular request, he says\u00c9 thanks to radio play.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen my stuff came out on the Q, it was night-and-day difference from before,\u201d says Roper. \u201cAll of a sudden people knew the song, and people were really looking forward to hearing the song when I played it at shows.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though radio play is a goal, it isn\u2019t always that easy to make music that follows the criteria of the typical successful song. It can be an arduous process of balancing one\u2019s inspirations and what others want to hear, says Roper.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get told all the time, \u2018Write a hit!\u2019\u201d says Roper. \u201cIf I could just do that, I would just do that. I don\u2019t know how to write a hit.\u201d<\/p>\n

True to his bohemian style, the less-catchy song \u201cRedbird\u201d is the opposite of everything that he has been suggested to do. Redbird<\/i> is also the title of his upcoming album, due in early 2015, and it should be full of surprises, as Roper chooses to throw caution to the wind and just write what he wants.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is all for me; that\u2019s why I\u2019m doing it,\u201d says Roper, still groggy from an unexpected late-night show. \u201cI wrote \u2018Redbird\u2019 so that I would have fun playing it. It\u2019s definitely not something that plays on the radio… it\u2019s not really catchy and hooky, but I kind of like it for that. It\u2019s just a real expression of how I like to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s likely Roper\u2019s fans will continue to see the poncho-wearing guitarist stay true to his Metchosin roots by pursuing his career in a way that makes him happy. It\u2019s a lesson for everyone to do what they love authentically, and to have faith in the creative process, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to fight inspiration,\u201d says Roper. \u201cYou kind of have to go with whatever\u2019s coming into your mind at the time, or else it all just sounds, I don\u2019t know, fake.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Victoria\u2019s Jesse Roper strutted barefoot on stages all over Vancouver Island this summer playing his eclectic music. And although playing live as The Roper Show is what he loves to do, Roper says it\u2019s very difficult to get recognized without traditional radio airplay. \u201cMainstream radio is, from what I can tell, the best way to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9823,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,134],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-october-29-2014"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9822"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9824,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9822\/revisions\/9824"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}