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Jocelyn Mackenzie is a Brooklyn-based musician, maker, and medium. A "hyper-creative" according to Broadway World, she is a singer, songwriter, songwriting coach, theater maker, fiber artist, art director, makeup artist, stylist, music video producer, intuitive, empath, and psychic medium. Her diverse yet integrated skills inherently inform one another and are inextricably intermingled in her creative process.
A musician since memory, Mackenzie released her debut full length solo album PUSH on Ani DiFranco's label Righteous Babe Records in 2021. A record about healing through radical self love, PUSH was arranged for string quartet, voice, and synth percussion and called "unique and infectious" by American Songwriter. Co-created by an all-star team of composers and collaborators, including Sam McCormally, Emily Hope Price, Franz Nicolay, Adam Schatz, Jo Lampert, Barrie Lobo McClain, and more, Under the Radar described PUSH as "triumphant, spirited, powerful, and jubilant." She now has several releases on Righteous Babe, including latest single "Blouse," with new EP "Wake" anticipated for Spring 2023. Mackenzie’s first solo EP "Unlovely" was released in 2016 via Consequence of Sound and features a track co-written by Ani DiFranco.
Her music has been heard and commissioned for movies and television, in films such as Michael Showalter's "Spoiler Alert" (2023), a theme song for Rothy's sustainable handbags co-written by husband Harry Bolles (2020), and a Buddy Holly cover produced by Bolles for a Citibank ad (2020). She performs her live show on electric ukulele, SPD, and vocal loop pedal alongside Bolles on electric guitar and foot-operated bass. In 2022 she performed in The Righteous Babes, a rotating supergroup comprised of members of the Righteous Babe label including Gracie and Rachel, Holly Miranda, Pieta Brown, and Zoe Boekbinder, which opened for Ani DiFranco on two nationwide tours.
Formerly the singing drummer from indie-pop trio Pearl and the Beard (2007-2015), Mackenzie and bandmates Emily Hope Price and Jeremy Lloyd-Styles released six studio albums in their tenure. They boasted an extensive touring history across the US, UK, and Canada with such noteworthy artists as Ani DiFranco, Neko Case, Bastille, Iron & Wine, Ingrid Michaelson, Lucius, Dar Williams, Lady Lamb, and David Wax Museum.
Mackenzie's theatrical credits include “RUTKA,” to be presented as a work in progress at the NYPL at Lincoln Center in January 2023, for which she is co-writing music and lyrics with Jeremy Lloyd-Styles. She performed as swing in The Bengsons’ “Hundred Days” and was a performer and devising member of Trusty Sidekick Theater Company's “Mendelssohn Electric” and “The Stowaway.” She was Co-Music Director of “All We Have Left” alongside Emily Hope Price, Co-Music Director of “White Rose” alongside Ashley Frith in development with Off The Page Theater Co., and Music Curator of the Puppet Playlist variety show by Sinking Ship Productions.
As a visual artist, Mackenzie’s work centers around textiles, wearable art, found objects, zero waste styling, and performance art. She holds a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art (2005) and is skilled in knitting, crochet, makeup, costume creation, graphic design, and fabrication. Her talents as a knitter and crocheter have afforded her opportunities to work for clients such as Calvin Klein, Helmut Lang, and the Jim Henson Studios. She has produced and directed music videos for her own music and for others, including Zoe Boekbinder's single "I Am Yesterday." Prominent in her music video visual landscapes are elements of nature, intricate face makeups, and handmade props and masks.
Mackenzie is also a psychic medium who uses her finely tuned empathic and intuitive senses to offer intimate readings. Her work connects her clients with departed loved ones, bolsters their own intuitions, and offers guidance on their creative paths. She has studied under mediums Jaci Kenner, Penny Hayward, and Stephanie Banks, and her clients call her work "transformative and empowering." Predominantly clairaudient, her songwriting process involves deep listening and meditation to hear the sounds of the subtler worlds, then translating them through her body via music. Also clairvoyant, she uses this extra-sensory skill to inform her visual art, manifesting the unseen realms into physical reality through her various handcrafts.
In all facets of her creativity, Jocelyn Mackenzie integrates media and meaning to offer work that is sensual and personal, creating new worlds that beg to be explored.