Mentor Profile: Jenna Fournier
When I think about what makes Jenna Fournier the right person to mentor songwriters, it's not the résumé though the résumé is striking. Four international tours of Japan with her band NIIGHTS. Three studio releases. A solo project, Kid Tigrrr, that caught the attention of Billy Corgan, who invited her to sing backup on the new Smashing Pumpkins record and then brought her on tour playing bass with his side project. A song that landed in The Guardian. Paintings exhibited in galleries across the country.
What makes her right for this work is something else: she's been a working artist long enough to have lived through the parts of the journey nobody talks about. The label split. The pandemic that erased a year of plans. Teaching herself audio engineering, ensuring creative freedom. Releasing music on her own terms after years of doing it the more traditional way.
That perspective is rare, and it's what shapes how she shows up as a mentor.
The path that got her here
Jenna started NIIGHTS in 2010 and spent the next decade building a career that included headline runs, international touring, and label deals on two continents. When the pandemic hit in 2020, NIIGHTS lost its tour, parted ways with both its U.S. and Japanese labels, and Jenna found herself with a backlog of songs and no obvious way to release them.
She bought herself therapy as a birthday present, took online classes in audio engineering, and started recording at home. The result, after three years of work, was Stoned + Animald - the debut Kid Tigrrr record, a layered and experimental album that deals openly with mental health, abuse, and survival. She produced most of it herself in a corner of her home studio.
The record didn't just exist. It found its audience. Listeners started reaching out to tell her the songs had helped them work through their own experiences. That, she's said, is the kind of feedback that keeps her going.
What she brings to TERRA
Jenna's mentorship work draws from all of it: the years inside the traditional music industry, the years rebuilding outside of it, and the slow, hard-won knowledge of what it actually takes to make a record at home and release it well.
Jenna is a deep listener who has a clear understanding of how to encourage and push her mentees through asking the right, and sometimes difficult, questions. One of her mentees said it best, “In two sessions, I feel like I’m on a great path and have the direction I need.” That’s what Jenna can provide - direction and actionable work.
She also rents a space at Superior Sounds in Cleveland, OH. This gives her access to a world-class studio as she continues to build her artistry. There are options for her to sit in sessions with booked time, offering insight on arrangement, production, and everything that comes with it.
Who Jenna is good for
Writers or Artists looking to connect deeply with themselves would be served well by Jenna. So would anyone curious about how to build a sustainable model for being a modern artist - particularly songwriters who are stepping out of bands into solo work, learning to record at home, or rebuilding their creative practice after a setback.
Working with Jenna
You can learn more about Jenna's work at kidtigrrr.com and listen to her music on Spotify, Bandcamp, and Apple Music. To work with her as a mentor, reach out and we'll set up an introduction.
Read more about our Mentorship Program here.