Camas singer-songwriter, 13, on road to success

CAMAS — Jette Bigelow knows she wants to be a professional musician when she grows up. She’s just not willing to wait until she’s an adult to make her dreams come true. The Camas resident’s musical journey accelerated in 2024, when she was 10 years old. Having already learned to play piano, on which she performed cover songs, she moved on to the ukulele and guitar and took her act public, performing at a variety of locations and public events. Then she started writing her own songs, eventually recording two of them and releasing them on Spotify. Since then, the Camas resident has steadily worked to improve her craft, taking vocal and guitar lessons and continuing to perform. Now, at the tender age of 13, she’s ready to take her career to a bigger stage. Jette, who performs under the stage name Jette B, released two songs on Spotify on Oct. 9 in advance of a full-length album scheduled for spring 2027. “Sometimes I feel like, ‘Oh dear, some people are already famous at my age,’ and I stress about that,” she said. “But when I realize (a lot of) people just barely started practicing music at my age, then I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m kind of ahead of everybody.’ ” The songs — “Roll Your Eyes,” which addresses feeling unwanted or out of place, and “Person to Blame,” which explores persistent self-reproach — were produced by Nate Kohrs, a Portland-based music producer and composer who has crafted cinematic scores for global brands and collaborated with industry icons like Philip Glass, Mark Ronson and Kylie Minogue. Kohrs is also working on Jette’s upcoming album, which is not yet named. Jette’s songwriting process involves emotions, experiences, observations and guitar chord ideas, with lyrics that often draw from her own life or situations involving friends. “I sit down with her as she’s doing the writing process most of the time, and I help her with editing and bring (her ideas) into a structure,” said Megan Bigelow, Jette’s mother. “We get to talk a lot about what’s going on in school, what she’s exploring right now in terms of emotional feelings. I feel like I know every intimate detail and how she arrived at every single word on every song.” Jette records ideas and saves chords on her phone and has roughly 20 songs or song concepts. Her music combines indie pop, pop rock and emotionally reflective pop, with inspiration from artists such as Olivia Rodrigo, her favorite musician. “My favorite part about writing songs is the fact that I can relate to them so much,” she said. “Whenever I’m in that same situation again, I can just sing my own songs.” Jette, a Skyridge Middle School student, continues to take vocal and guitar lessons. She has also received songwriting instruction at Berklee College of Music in Boston and plans to return for additional summer programs. She released her first original single, “Happy Place,” in 2024. “Black Dot” followed the same year, then “The Cover Album,” a set of five covers of songs by Radiohead, Oasis, Coldplay, Florence + The Machine and Thirty Seconds to Mars. “Her maturity, attitude and commitment have improved significantly,” Megan Bigelow said. “There’s just so much work that goes into each and every one of those songs that she, as a 13-year-old, is willing to put in.” Megan Bigelow said she and her husband support their daughter’s creative work while protecting time for rest and ordinary teenage experiences, balancing demanding creative commitments with school, friendships and one hour of free time per night. “It was really important to us that she had the opportunity to explore,” Megan Bigelow said. “We just wanted to make sure that she always just had the instruments available. There was a point at which she was interested in drums, and so we brought drums. We just wanted to keep the creativity going.” That support has given Jette room to develop not only as a songwriter but also as a performer. She has regularly performed at various locations and community events, from restaurant patios and farmers markets to a “busk stop” at Burning Man, for the past three years. She’s also starting to pursue acting; she recently landed a role in an upcoming production of “1984” with Portland-based Experience Theater Project. “She’s developing her stage presence, but even at a very young age she was able to just be willing to pick up a microphone and play her guitar for strangers,” Megan Bigelow said. “She’s very comfortable in front of people. She has sort of let go of any inhibitions in terms of just getting into her music that she’s performing, and that’s been remarkable to watch.” Doug Flanagan: 360-735-4669; doug.flanagan@columbian.com

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