Growing up in Palos Verdes, Jessica Schwartz began music lessons at the age of 4 — first violin, and then piano. She began playing guitar at 9, and after her mother gave her an electric guitar at 13, she quickly became enthralled with punk rock. When she wasn’t practicing in her garage or, later, performing in bands, she immersed herself in all aspects of music scholarship. At New York University, her dissertation research sparked a life-changing expedition to the Marshall Islands for two years, where she documented “bomb songs” that were created in response to nuclear testing between 1946 and 1958.