When Jess Abbot started Tancred, she saw it as an outlet to put songs that she initially worked on for Minneapolis' Now Now and brought them to life. Fast-forward a few years, and what was meant to be a side project is now a full-time music gig going into her third album. Touching on her experiences in Minnesota and ideas about sex and women, Out of the Garden is a collection of 11 tracks that, at times, may be heavy but still have a beautiful melodic flow that will draw you in. We had the chance to talk to Jess about the making of this album as well as what she hopes fans will absorb from it.

Age: 25

Hometown: Kittery, ME

How did you get your start in music?

I've been playing guitar since I was little like seven or eight, and I stuck with it through school. And eventually when I became a senior in high school and had to start thinking about stuff, it was the only thing I really loved. And so I was asked to join Now Now in Minneapolis when I graduated [from high school]. I skipped on college and joined Now Now. Then I had been touring and writing music ever since.

Then I started Tancred a few years after I joined Now Now, just as a fun side project for songs that make it onto the final cut with Now Now. And it was supposed to be a recording project. But then, Now Now have been on hiatus for a while, and this turned into a more full-time thing for me. And I feel good about it.

How does it feel that you initially thought it was a side thing and now you're three albums in?

It's funny because it is the third album, but it feels like the first album to me. The first few were recording project, but I was so young when the first album came out. I was 19, and the second one came out when I was 21. It feels like [those] chapters in my life are over now, and this is the first album that I wrote intending to tour with it and go hard with it. Because of that knowledge, I put more of myself in the writing and went back to those steps to figure out my voice as an artist. And for the first time, I'm finally where I want to be with everything. So this feels like Tancred's first record to me, even though it's not.

The lyrics on this album have a lot of depth, and I read that they were inspired by your time working at a liquor store in Minnesota. Can you talk about how that time inspired you to write songs?

I think the topics I touch on in this album are moments that I've gone through my whole life that I didn't really understand until I was living in Minneapolis and working in that store. I had a lot of experiences that opened my eyes to a lot of stuff, and that was happening while I was writing these songs. I was living in a city in a poor area of town where there was a lot of crime and a lot of poverty. It was my first time living in that type of environment. I grew up in very middle class areas, so I didn't care about all the things I should've been caring about. So when I was pushed into it, it was a really important time in my life.

It also also helped me tap into my own femininity as a woman. Because when you're thrown into hostile environments like that, you're more aware of yourself. Working at the liquor store was a great experience. And the people I worked with, I felt safe with. But a lot of the customers would just say and do inappropriate things, and I had to reflect on myself a lot and how I look at other people. Being a woman in the world is still not the easiest trip. So that definitely came through in my writing.

What's the meaning behind the album title?

When I started to have first-hand experiences, like negative experiences because I was a woman, I had a lot of baby feminist anger where you're learning and experiencing all these things. And the only way you know how to focus on it is to be mad. So I would just go home from work and complain to my partner at the time and just be so hurt and mad. And I thought of all the bad things women go through, tracing back to the first woman, that being Eve [from the Bible].

She totally was blacklisted, and it's infuriating to me that you can go to the very first story and you see that she's being suppressed as a woman. And I'm not religious at all or was raised with religion in anyway. So for me to feel things from the Bible and really get riled up about it in 2016, I wanted to take the idea of that story and get completely out of it. So Out of the Garden was my way of being like, "Forget this stupid, fucking story. And go out into the wild and enjoy it." Like see exile more as a reward than a punishment.

What do you hope people will take away from Out of the Garden?

One of the themes is your femininity as a woman. A lot of these songs to me are about sexual repression for not just me but everyone — like how you're supposed to handle sex. Being open, discussing it and wanting to act on things are wonderful organic things [in terms of sex] that I think is something we don't talk about enough in the world.

Another big theme of it is your own strength as a person, not just physically. Knowing yourself is the biggest part of being a strong person. Having control in your own life, and this album definitely helps me get there in my own way. Writing this album made me feel more comfortable about my music. Then the lyrical content helped me be more comfortable with who I am inside as a person.