Liz Janes- Interview
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Liz Janes-  Interview

 

By: D.A. Nation
     http://www.thecrutch.net




The dazzling chanteuse of Asthmatic Kitty records, Liz Janes, once said she wants “to play guitar like Son House and sing like Mavis Staples” – an admirable, but odd, aspiration from a musician who’s often praised for sounding like nobody but herself. Janes grew up on the east coast, a child of top 40 radio who spent her formative years sneaking into Philadelphia jazz clubs. Later on Janes became involved in punk and art rock bands, but she secretly composed music of her own. With the help of Danielson Family member, Sufjan Stevens, and her husband, Michael Kaufmann, Janes recorded some of her own experimental blues songs. Her debut record Dog Gone Fire was released for Steven’s Asthmatic Kitty label in 2001. Three years later Janes returned with her take on the music of the American west, Poison and Snakes. Recently, The Crutch caught up with Janes – who’s also a very busy new mother – to talk about influences, blues songs and dancing with babies.

 

 

 

 

 

 I keep reading things about your roots in the NW improv punk scene. What's that all about? How are you connected to or influenced by your musical upbringing?

 

 I started making music with my friends in Olympia, WA where I went to college.  I’d always been a frustrated singer, too horrified to participate in music with others.  Sometime in the middle of college, I left my aspirations of a Philosophy PhD behind, and delved into visual art and music without looking back.  My friends were a bunch of punk rockers, some with pop tendencies, some with art-noise tendencies.  I’d bang away on whatever was around, to join in the cacophony.  It was very liberating, and I started writing my own little songs in private at that time.


 How did you get involved with Sufjan Stevens and Asthmatic Kitty?

 

 Sufjan and Michael Kaufmann became fast friends during the year that Mike was living in NYC. (Mike over the years has evolved into the third person of AK, Sufjan, Lowell, and Mike)  I was living in Gloucester, MA and visiting Mike in the city a lot that year (we married about a year later).  Mike is a compulsive networker and just really finds fulfillment in encouraging artists in their work.  I was a great project for him, being the closet songwriter that I was.  He played some silly 4-track stuff I’d done for Sufjan, and Suf said I should come by to record.  It was a very private 4-track tape, by the way, that I’d given to Mike in complete trust.  Anyway, I was moving away from Gloucester to go to Mexico for a couple of months and NYC was on the way, so I stopped in on Suf for about a day and a half and recorded guitar and vocals for all the songs on Done Gone Fire.  When I returned from Mexico a few months later, Sufjan had produced my songs into a brilliant full sound.  I was amazed at what he’d done, and OK’d the whole deal.  Next thing I knew, I had a thousand pressed cds being sent out to press and everything. I figured, “gee, I better learn how to perform”(performance being, hands down, my biggest fear).  Lowell, Sufjan, and Mike have been so supportive from the beginning.  They’ve really embraced my work and done a lot to see me succeed.  I guess a shorter answer to your question would be that I’m a recipient of the free grace of Asthmatic Kitty.


 One review I read said that you keep your influences "compartmentalized" -- what do you think that means, and what/who do you consider to be influences?

 

 Hmmm, I don’t know what that means.  My biggest influence is old old gospel, blues, and folk from scratchy old records.  I love the Smithsonian Folkways label. 


What was the first blues song you remember being moved by?

 

 I grew up on top 40 radio, and I always loved listening to music.  But to answer your question, I’d have to say when I was 18yrs old and living in Seattle, WA.  I had gone to sleep really early because I was rowing crew at the time.  I heard a visitor enter the apartment to visit my housemates, and a bit later, the most beautiful music started playing in the living room.  It was so beautiful; I thought there had to be a supernatural creature in the next room making those sounds.  It turned out to be Daryl.  A friend of my friend’s from back east.  I don’t know what the song was, and he’s never formally recorded which is a sad sad thing for all of human kind.  But Daryl sounded a lot like Stevie Wonder, but mixed up with Son House and Frank Black.  It was really sweet, really messed up blues.


What's on the turntable/disc player/ipod at home?

My 14 month old son is an incredible dancer, so I’ve mostly been spinning stuff that we can dance to.  Half-Handed Clouds new record “Thy is a Word” is the newest pop masterpiece from Jon Ringhofer.  Brother Danielson’s “Brother is to Son” is my favorite Danielson record to date...just when you think they can’t get any better, they just do!  The other record we’ve been listening to non-stop is Devin Davis “Lonely People of the World, Unite!”  It’s a true solid rocker with really playful and surreal lyrics.  We do interpretive dance to Joanna Newsom’s “Milk Eyed Mender” We LOVE her.

By: D.A. Nation
     http://www.thecrutch.net

 

 

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Interview

The Crutch