Get To Know Get To Know… Jahnah Camille

What’s your earliest musical memory? 
Going through guitar books and teaching myself when I was four, on the guitar that my parents threw away when we moved and my siblings took the opportunity to smash.

You hail from Birmingham, Alabama - what do you think of the music scene there at the moment? Is there much going on in the way of venues/promoters/community? Where do you feel your sound fits within this context?
I think there are a lot of amazing punk bands and a lot of amazing folk stuff too. What saturates the sound here seems to exist in extremes, but I think it’s cool. It feels very politically charged, in my opinion, and I think it’s cool to be around creative people who also take their ethics very seriously.

Saturn is probably the best venue in the world (no, I’m not biased). I feel like I really got my start there because my music didn’t fit into the scene really well, and I was able to hop on bills with touring bands because of it.

You’ve just released your latest EP, ‘My sunny oath!’ - congrats! What sort of headspace did you find yourself in when writing it? Did that feel like a change or progression from your ‘i tried to freeze light, but only remember a girl’ era?
I would say my headspace with writing has entirely transformed. With my first EP, all those songs were from high school, when I had a lot of structure in my life and a lot more free time, so I was always writing and always inspired. With ‘My sunny oath!’, I would say that much of my headspace was [characterised by] delirium, anxiety, and overwhelming sadness.

It was made in a transitional period of time for me, so I wasn’t writing as much - I literally wrote ‘what do you do?’ after my managers reached out and said that we really needed some demos to send over to my producer, because my studio session was coming up; I was freaking the fuck out and spat it out, and sent it to them 30 minutes later. Then ‘summer’s scorch’ and ‘away, again.’ were written at about 6am, because I didn’t like the songs I brought into the studio anymore and needed something else.

I think there’s a lot of room for weirdness when you’re exhausted and want to fall asleep; I often thrive, creatively, in that headspace. And then I wrote ‘sit with you’ through tears after a really traumatic event that I couldn’t not write about. Every song just felt very necessary, basically.

What was the first song/album you ever bought with your own money, and why?
It was probably ‘The Electric Lady’ by Janelle Monáe - I still really adore that album. It’s a beautifully genre-bending concept album, and kind of the last time she embodied her robot character. Her vocals are insane and it was also my introduction to Solange, who I’m a huge fan of now (there also was a Prince feature on there, but that’s since been removed from streaming). I just remember it being an amazing beacon of strangeness in my childhood, because I used to listen to the CD all the time. I’d really like to revisit it now that I’m not a kid anymore, though - I’d probably take a lot more away from it.

You’ve just come off tour with Blondshell, and have also supported cult favourite Soccer Mommy. What were these experiences like - were there any shows or moments which were particularly memorable? And what would you say people should expect from a Jahnah Camille live show?
I mainly remember being the most excited person in the room at any given point, and my older music peers telling me that I have every reason to be; I feel really pleased to have been able to do all this from my hometown.

I think people should expect nothing from my shows. I really see them as singular experiences and I’m sure different crowds have different experiences… but I think pretty universally, I like to have fun and laugh a lot, so it’s nice to do that with a crowd.

Tell us the best and worst advice you’ve ever been given as a musician…
The best advice I’ve been given as a musician is ‘people over profit’.

Now, I’ve never specifically been given the advice to conform, but I have had band members leave because my music wasn’t [consistent with] the sound locally. So I’d say if someone wants you to conform, they’re giving you bad advice; you’ll probably get further doing what feels natural to you.

I’m someone who’s been told to conform every step of the way, pretty much since I moved to Alabama. I gave it a lousy attempt when I was much younger, but from the age of maybe 14 and older, I said ‘fuck all that’, and that’s made it easier to value my own opinion and be successful at being me.

Finally, DIY are coming round for dinner - what are you making?
I’m making a miso red curry broth with udon noodles, edamame, roasted broccolini, and fish cakes. I was vegetarian for ten years and eating fish cakes literally broke me, so now I’m a pescatarian and it’s awesome. Then, maybe with a Vietnamese coffee spin on an espresso martini and lemon bars, because they’re my favourite dessert. 

‘My sunny oath!’ is out now via Winspear. 

Tags: Get to Know, Neu, Jahnah Camille