We caught up with Chicago singer-songwriter Jessica Viscius about her sister Alexa's enduring influence, shipwrecks, Miller High Life and her latest LP,There’s an openness to Jessica Viscius that is rare to come by. Best known as the frontman of Bnny, the Chicago musician is never one to mince words. Her sentences are punctuated with laughter as she describes her latest interests and informs me of her longtime love/hate relationship with Miller High Life.
The influence of her sister Alexa is vital to Viscius’s artistic journey, as they remain lifelong collaborators and confidants. Alexa plays bass in Bnny while working as a professional photographer and designer. You’ve probably seen her photo byline underneath manymusic headlines. “I truly don’t think I’d be an artist today without her,” Viscius explains. “She was always into cool stuff way before I was. She’s so hard-working and determined, she inspires me and keeps me on track.
Viscius was encouraged to form a band and soon after played her unfortunately ill-fated first show at Cafe Mustache, an intimate venue in Chicago. “I was so incredibly nervous that a few chords into the first song I fully forgot all the lyrics and stopped the set to covertly ask my band for help. It felt disastrous at the time but I look now and laugh. I was totally new to performing, to playing guitar, to the Chicago music scene,” she says.