The move from one’s hometown to New York City can be daunting, but for True Jackson, it’s just another tour stop. Jackson, a freshman at The New School, is a Los Angeles-born musician continuing her craft in New York. Switching from a contemporary music major at Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts to the College of Performing Arts, she is taking the semester off to live in London before pursuing the Singer-Songwriter major next fall.

Not many college freshmen can say they are balancing their studies while pursuing a full-time music career. For Jackson, this was her plan from the start.

“I’ve been playing guitar, singing, and writing songs since I was about 7 or 8,” the now 18-year-old said. 

Jackson being influenced by performers like Taylor Swift, along with the motivation from her parents, fueled her tenacity to pursue music. 

“My mom’s an actress and my dad’s a chef, so they both wanted me to find my art,” she said.

 If there was someone to accredit this journey to, Jackson said it would be her mom. Being in the industry herself, her mother was able to not only give her connections to the music world but also provide salient advice about being an artist. 

“My mom told me, ‘You can do it your own way. There’s no set way to perform. As an artist, there’s no standard,’ which definitely changed a lot for me,” she said. 

Through guidance from her mom, the young singer-songwriter was able to find her own musical identity. She describes first making music and not knowing how she wanted to sound or what to write. With more experimentation and self-confidence, she found the type of music that she identifies with most. She favors an alternative rock sound for her music but isn’t concerned with putting a label on her work. Her music can’t be confined to a specific genre, she said. 

Jackson played shows in her hometown with the help of her mom, while also pursuing connections on her own. The artist’s favorite show to date was back in L.A. before the start of her freshman year of college. The show wasn’t pre-planned, but she and her band wanted one last goodbye before she moved to New York. They all persisted, as she recalled them saying: “We really wanna do this. Can you do it for us?” Together,  they built the stage they performed on by hand, creating her most memorable show before moving on to the next chapter of her music career. 

With her first memories of creating music, as well as her fan base being in L.A., the move to New York proved to be difficult at first. But she took the challenge and has begun to find her music community. 

“The transition to New York and leaving my friends, then meeting new people, and now realizing what I want, definitely let me focus on myself and what I want in my life,” Jackson said. “Before, music was a hobby. Now, it’s ‘this is what I’m going to do.’”

Her decision to take on music as a full-time career shows just a glimpse of Jackson’s passion for music.

“When people ask me what I want with music, I say to be successful. That doesn’t mean being famous, I just want to be able to have it as my career,” Jackson said. “Being able to perform, wherever and whatever I can is honestly the best.” 

She has already accomplished many of the milestones she set for herself at a young age. One of her greatest achievements was in January when she performed at the legendary venue The Village in L.A. In New York, she recently had her first gig at Berlin, a popular nightclub. Now, she’s planning performances for next month, and working on a new record. 

“I have a goal to have a whole album about my senior year into freshman year. I went through a lot, like applying to college, COVID, the strike, and graduating high school during such a weird time. So that’s in the works,” Jackson said. 

The college freshman continues to work on the project, remaining inspired by the people and places around her. As she strives towards her career, there’s one thing she wants people to take from her music: that it’s for everyone. 

“Once I started performing, I realized the impact my songs had, both with the way I wrote them and how people reacted to them,” Jackson said. “I realized, ‘that’s what I want to do. I want to write music for other people.”

Checkout True’s music: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5B415EJ481J15R96TqdTna