Lang senior Petra Jarrar thought her moment as a musician had passed. Wanting to focus on school, Jarrar put her dream as an aspiring singer-songwriter aside to finish her years at Lang as a Politics major with a minor in Global Studies and Music. With the encouragement of her mother to start making music again in 2014, Jarrar is beginning to make her mark on the music scene.
Just before going on a mini tour in Los Angeles, Jarrar and her band stopped by Free Press Live to premiere two new songs, “Luck Boy” and “I Know Better Now.”
The band consists of of Jarrar, as lead singer and songwriter, her older brother Felix Jarrar on keyboard, Jazz and Contemporary Music junior Misia Vessio on drums, recent Performing Arts grad Alex Talarico on bass, and BAFA student at Lang and Jazz Rosdeli Marte on backing vocals.
“I really didn’t see myself doing music because I felt as though I had lost my opportunity,” Jarrar said. “But I was talking to my mom one day and she was just like, ‘You know, you never really know until you try something.’ So, I just decided to put my song ‘Glamour Girl’ out there.”
Jarrar put the song on her Soundcloud and decided that if nothing happened, she would stop doing music. Within a week several music blogs published pieces about her work, bringing attention to her music. Jarrar has since performed headlining shows at The Bitter End and The Studio at Webster Hall.
“[It] was crazy to think that it even happened,” Jarrar said. “I was just not anticipating on it being received the way that it was.”
Her Los Angeles shows, kicking off February 13-15, will mark her first time performing outside of New York City in the United States, but she has already performed internationally. She and her band toured Japan in early September as part of the Kansai Music Conference in Osaka, Japan and performed a string of headlining shows in Tokyo, Kyoto and Kobe.
“Expect to dance a lot and be on your feet,” Jarrar said about her upcoming Los Angeles shows. She will also be embarking on a U.S. tour later in the year.
You can catch Jarrar back in New York City Feb. 25 at The Bitter End and March 16 at DROM.
Correction: Rosdeli Marte is a BAFA student Lang and Jazz. An earlier version of this story misstated that Marte went to Lang and Parsons.