Singer Will Janney, who records under the name JANNEY, makes light, danceable music that feels like an antidote to the depressing year we have all just experienced.
Janney grew up in Stafford County and took voice lessons in middle school, but pursued other interests and went to George Washington University in D.C. where he majored in marketing and psychology. He decided to follow his creative side and went to Parsons School of Design in New York City for graduate studies in fashion design.
"Senior year of college I just had all these melodies that kept getting stuck in my head," said Janney. "So I started to find a new voice teacher as a way to get those melodies out. I found a voice teacher in New York City who was able to create piano accompaniments to the songs that I had written and were stuck in my head. I started everything with piano demos with my voice coach. I would send those to the producers with a few reference tracks of what sort of sonic world I wanted the music to exist in. We would just go from there."
Though Janney does not read music or play an instrument, his strong sense of melody and rhythm allow him to work with producers who turn his ideas into club beats with synthesizer backgrounds.
He produced his own demo at a studio in Virginia Beach, where he took a more hands-on approach to create his electronic accompaniment with the studio musicians, but then decided to collaborate with seasoned producers for the tracks on his four-song EP that came out this month. That release is a preview of a full 11-song album scheduled to be released April 2.
"I worked with two different producers. One of them was Nash Overstreet. He's in that band Hot Chelle Rae. Then I worked with this producer named Aaron Kelley. He's based down in Dallas and we did five of the 11 songs. Aaron would send me a reference beat to a demo I had done down in Virginia Beach. We would decide what we liked about it and what we didn't like about it. Once we got the instrumental component where we wanted it to be, then I went down to Texas and I laid down the vocals."
The songs cover a period of time over the last two years so they are a mix of songs written before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a light feel to the song "nyc nights" that looks back on the time before the lockdown.
"Really, it's a love song at the end of the day," said Janney. "When you meet that person that's 'the person,' you know. Our love together will shine brighter than the New York City nights. Obviously, it speaks to going out in the city and experiencing the city, but I still think that the actual take-away of that track is still something that could happen during the coronavirus as well."
"It kind of touches on the pandemic and the energy that everyone feels during the pandemic," said Janney. "It's not directly speaking to the pandemic, but certain tracks definitely were inspired by what was happening around me."
Here's what's been happening:
In 'Hollywood Eden,' Joel Selvin pays homage to the sunny pop of 1960s L.A. | Datebook
Early in "Hollywood Eden," Nancy Sinatra arrives at her high school driving a pink 1957 Ford Thunderbird. It's the first of its kind ever made, and, we learn, a birthday present from her very famous father.
The sweet set of wheels is but one of many delicious details carefully strewn throughout music historian Joel Selvin's latest work, out Tuesday, April 6, which gives readers a front-row seat to the surf rock craze that ruled Southern California in the late '50s and early '60s.
What starts with the early recording sessions of pop duo Jan and Dean in a (now legendary) Bel Air Hills garage later morphs into the moment John Lennon and Paul McCartney first heard "Pet Sounds" in a London hotel room. Thankfully, Selvin — The Chronicle's former music critic, who also penned "Altamont: The Rolling Stones, the Hells Angels, and the Inside Story of Rock’s Darkest Day " — has a knack for bringing cohesion to the chaos of rock ‘n’ roll history.
In this case, it was a yearbook for the 1958 class of Hollywood's University High School that got him started.
"Hollywood Eden," in essence, follows a handful of soon-to-be-famous students who all happened to be classmates with one another. Among them: Jan Berry, Dean Torrence, Nancy Sinatra, Jill Gibson, drummer Sandy Nelson, producer Kim Fowley, musician Bruce Johnston and surfer Kathy Kohner (a.k.a. "Gidget").
With the exception of Kohner, this pool of talent would soon go from cutting records in Berry's garage after class, on tape recorders once owned by Howard Hughes, to rewriting the pop charts. In this fascinating ride through the brief, blazing heyday of surf rock madness, Selvin strives to balance the hefty amount of existing work on the subject with his own firsthand research and interviews.
"This is not an unknown topic," he said. "There have been thousands and thousands and thousands of hours applied to researching this stuff, so once I'd absorbed the existing research, it was then incumbent on me to go and find the stuff between the cracks — and there was plenty of that."
Among finds like Sinatra's Thunderbird or Torrence's bizarre subsequent involvement in the kidnapping of her brother, Frank Sinatra Jr., tantalizing rabbit holes into the past are not the only motive here. Another part of Selvin's focus is dedicated to reshaping some of the narratives surrounding members of this unofficial group.
"I was really lucky to be able to inveigle her cooperation," he said. "She’s a widely exhibited sculptor and painter, so she’s very removed from that part of her youth. I really wanted to bring her into the foreground because it was such a boy’s club. It was like archaeology to bring Jill out as a character who was more than 'just somebody’s girlfriend,' which this book should make abundantly clear."
Pop Music students maintain collaborative creative efforts | Daily Trojan
This week marks the first year since the coronavirus pandemic turned USC's student body on its head. For popular music majors — a group of students whose curriculum relies heavily on in-person experiences — at the Thornton School of Music, this change forced them to become innovative in the ways they create community.
A year later, from new performance methods and programs to foster connections, the limitations of a virtual environment have not stopped students from doing what they do best: making music.
Usually, first year showcases are performed at Tommy's Place, but because of the coronavirus pandemic and performance classes being placed on hold for Fall 2020, the first virtual showcase was hosted Mar. 5 and garnered around 140 attendees. The event, carried out by the freshmen pop class, was open to the entire student body, past alumni, professors, faculty, staff and parents.
The event featured four bands of students who learned a repertoire list of two to three songs — note for note — with various instruments over the beginning of the semester before recording their respective performances on Acapella, a sound engineering and songwriting app.
Sophie Feldman, a junior majoring in popular music and psychology who attended the showcase, said she applauded the students' performance and their adaptation to the virtual stage.
Freshman Maddi Lasker, who participated in the showcase, said she was quite impressed with the level of warmth, friendliness and initiative the upperclassmen took in welcoming the newcomers.
"Online, it’s very easy for things to be awkward or you can be hesitant to other people, but [the upperclassmen] were so outgoing, so friendly and overall just so excited to get to know us," Lasker said.
Thornton's Popular Music Performance program has always been a tight knit community, according to sophomore Maria McMillan, owing to its small size of around 25-30 people per cohort.
As a small community, popular music students rely on one another not just for academics and performances but for social support and advice, junior Dominic Anzalone said. The major organizes each class into bands with different mixes of students and instruments — a difficult thing to do without in-person classes and with in-person performances postponed.
All The Best New Pop Music From This Week: Taylor Swift, Demi Lovato
Taylor Swift is currently rerecording all of her music after a record label deal went awry. That means she’s also able to share some previously unheard tracks that she recorded during her past album cycles. This week, Swift teamed up with country star Maren Morris to share the gentle tune “You All Over Me,” which was originally recorded at the same time as her Fearless album.
Justin Bieber may have released his swooning album Justice last week, but he didn’t stop there. The singer followed-up the release with a deluxe version of the album, which boasted six new star-studded tracks, including the snappy “Know No Better” with DaBaby.
Alaina Castillo is currently gearing up for her debut LP, and while she makes fans wait for more information about the full-length release, the singer shared her chilled-out track “Indica.” “'Indica' is about escaping into an alternate reality,” Castillo said about the flowing single. “I want it to be a reset button that puts you in a different universe once you’ve listened to it.”
After serving up several hits last year, Karol G released her anticipated third studio album KG0516 , featuring the rhythmic single “El Makinon." About her LP, Karol G said: “I experimented a lot with different sounds, genres and unique vibes. It’s definitely something that hasn’t been heard before from me and the songs are all a representation of who I am today as a person and an artist.”
Following his work on Justin Bieber’s hit single “Lonely,” Benny Blanco returns to share Friends Keep Secrets 2 , a star-studded album that features collaborators like Omar Apollo, Halsey, Ty Dolla Sign, and more. It also boasts his down tempo track “Unlearn,” which offers an open space for songwriter Gracie Abrams to debut her tender and moving vocals.
After making a name for himself with his debut 2019 project You , Ali Gatie has now shared his anticipated soulful EP The Idea Of Her . The 10-track effort includes several captivating tracks, including his Marshmello collaboration “Do You Believe,” which Gatie says is “about love as a whole—the type of love that takes a day to happen and the type of heartbreak that takes years to recover from."
Fans fell in love with UMI’s melodic musings when she released her EP Introspection in 2020. But this week, she completely reworked each track to further lean into her R&B sensibilities. "I’m really letting myself sing for the first time," she said about the reworked project.
Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
In case you are keeping track:
K-Pop Evolution is YouTube's seven-part K-Pop documentary - Music Ally
Lil Nas X and the Anti-Pop Conservative Outrage Machine
Riverside native Brooke Reese blends music and pop culture on Apple Music Hits’ ‘Pop
For nearly six years, radio personality Brooke Reese has been hosting music chart countdowns from around the world and interviewing some of the biggest stars in music on “The Chart Show,” which lands on the streaming service Apple Music 1 Monday-Thursday.
Riverside native Brooke Reese is the current host of “The Chart Show” on Apple Music 1 and recently launched “Pop Hits Radio” on Apple Music Hits, where she discusses and shares music, fashion, movies and pop culture from the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. (Photo by Sebastian Kim)
When she’s not at a drive-in or daydreaming about the chicken flautas from Olivia’s Mexican Restaurant near her childhood home, Reese is studying global music charts and recording chats with artists like Monsta X , Kelly Clarkson, Charlie Puth, Ava Max, Aly & AJ, Gabby Barrett and Kane Brown for “The Chart Show.”
She’s made the best out of a challenging situation and said she’s grateful for the opportunity to continue to entertain and grow her global audience since the program is so musically diverse and can now be heard in over 165 countries.
“It’s so much fun, and my knowledge for music has grown immensely,” she said. “It’s about artists here in the U.S. having big moments, but also artists breaking around the world, so you’ve got J-pop music, K-pop music, hip-hop and so much Latin music. That’s the way people listen to music now with streaming. ‘The Chart Show’ is kind of like making your own playlist with music from around the world and everything just kind of melts together. It’s fun to see what people are listening to and what they’re connecting with on a personal level.”
Earlier this month, Reese launched a brand-new show, “Pop Hits Radio,” on Apple Music Hits, which airs on Saturdays and Sundays. The show gives Reese the freedom to run wild with ideas for a curated playlist each week. They’re crafted more like a soundtrack to specific periods of time between the 1990s and 2010s and also incorporate fashion, television shows and other pop-culture tidbits.
“I feel like everybody right now is looking for something to brighten up their world a little bit,” she said. “People are already diving into TV shows and their favorite albums and songs. My favorite thing about music is that it makes memories and holds memories for you. So when you hear something it can instantly take you back to a moment or specific state of mind.”
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