Just Janie grew up writing songs and poetry tucked beneath Central Otago’s Hawkdun Ranges. She writes music as a form of therapy, a way to release her thoughts and emotions. “My grandma Suey used to say that you should write your worries onto a piece of paper, then throw the paper in the bin,” she says. “I’ve carried this idea with me throughout my life, and I bring this approach into my song writing.” This process led Janie to study and practice arts therapy in Ōtautahi.
Since releasing her EP Muse and Musician in 2024, Janie has become a voice in Aotearoa retro-folk. Earlier this month, she released her debut album Mythology of the Girls, continuing that trajectory. Recently Janie has been delving into poetry through re-working half-written songs that didn’t quite work. She has published poems in The Quick Brown Dog, Odeon Magazine, Circular Publishing, and 1964 Magazine.
Here’s Janie’s Shameless Plug.
My personal motto is actually Penny Lane’s from Almost Famous. “If you ever get lonely, just go to the record store and visit your friends”. Works every time.
A book I always recommend is Slow Days, Fast Company by Eve Babitz. This collection of short stories and personal essays is an ode of 70’s California; from Rockstars to Artists to Muses. Her writing style feels lyrical. 11/10. Delicious.
The most fun I’ve ever had on a project was recording my first album at Sublime Studios. I’d researched vintage recording processes, desiring to sonically capture the essence of the era that inspired this body of work. I also wanted to capture the magic I could feel on stage, and not risk losing that in something overly produced and perfect. Tracking the entire project live through an all-analog pathway to tape felt like the answer.
As a band, this meant being prepared. The other exciting element with tape is that there are imperfections. You can listen to old recordings of Joni Mitchell and Crosby, Stills and Nash and hear little human moments. That’s the magic.
You can almost hear me grinning in those songs, looking through the window of my sound booth at my drummer, guitarist and bass player. On the third day, I walked out of the studio and looked over the vineyards towards the mountains feeling that I finally knew what I was doing. This was what it should feel like.
My guilty pleasure is going into Knitworld with no plan and coming out with many beautiful balls of wool. I always justify it as creating unique stage outfits, so there’s no stopping me.
My favourite TV show is Shameless, the US version. A creature of comfort, a regular winter's night will involve crochet to the background of Chicago’s southside, the Albi room and pure Gallagher chaos.
A perfect day in Ōtautahi starts with a Coffee and Bear Claw at Addington Coffee Company before ducking around the corner to Steadfast books to browse for a vintage paperback copy of The Stepford Wives or Valley of the Dolls. A record store called The Flipside is up next. I recently discovered this gem while on the hunt for The Grateful Dead and J.J Cale with my partner. Vintage toys, crochet, musical instruments and of course, vinyl. Then we need to head out to the beach and my longtime favourite Seaside Vintage in New Brighton! It’s a retro haven full of treasures. I found the most delicious vintage tablecloth there, which I have upcycled into a vest; the new staple of my summer wardrobe! And since we’re being decadent, let's finish the day with a beer and board games at Punky Brewsters.
My all time favourite album is impossible is decide, so I’ll give you my top three:
- Dire Straits, Self titled Album (1978)
- Fleetwood Mac, Tusk (1979)
- Lost in the Dreaming, The War on Drugs (2014)
- All Things Must Pass, George Harrison (1970)
Okay so it became four… I could keep going!
My closest collaborator is my brother Tim. It’s messy, full of sibling drama and bickering. Big-sister, little-brother dynamics. It’s chaotic and involves simmering in the car at 5:20pm, while he is running 30 minutes late to a soundcheck at 5pm. It’s having someone to trust, to call and ask for help. It’s having someone to translate the musical ideas in my mind, to a language other collaborators understand. It’s having a handy man who builds me a music video set and stays up till 2am learning to play harmonica, so we can put a ‘Neil Young esc’ solo in my song. For all the annoyance and patience required, he’s someone who has got my back and helps make sure my creative vision comes to life.
My biggest inspiration musically is Laurel Canyon’s folk hey-day! I have a case of nostalgia for the era. Ann Powers (Travelling: On the Path to Joni Mitchell) created a Playlist in her biography, tracking the romance between Joni and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young through the songs they wrote back and forwards. The musos were all writing to each other, a secret (or not so secret) little code, from love songs to dreams of domestic bliss to bittersweet goodbyes. And in the evenings they all crowded into each other's canyon homes, to play and sing and write together. It’s so easy to daydream about, with their own music as the backdrop.
Which leads to my Shameless Plug, my debut album Mythology of the Girls. A reaction to nostalgia through a modern lens, and vice versa, the album pays homage to the folk scene of the late sixties and early seventies. Each track contemplates the desire for an era, experienced through social media, documentaries, books and film. An era when women faced a myriad of societal limitations. The songs are based on personal experiences in Aotearoa as a young woman, an artist, a musician, a mental health worker and advocate. These personal anecdotes are mirrored by stories of women throughout history, who walked so we could run.
There are themes of suburban neurosis through the lens of 1970s feminist horror films. There are themes of psychological manipulation of young impressionable women through cult fanaticism. There are themes exploring modern media’s sensationalisation of true crime, as a genre that fixates on the perpetrators of violence, not the victims.
Here’s the first single and music video.
