Focus on: Jan Johnston

[@mr]

*Including Interview

source: www.janjohnston.com
http://dancemusic.about.com/od/artistsh ... tonInt.htm

Biography:

She's worked with BT, Chicane, and Oakenfold. Had tracks featured in movies like American Pie and Hackers 2. Yet, strange though it may sound, Jan's current story kicks off a few years ago in a bargain bin in Manchester.
January 95: BT (Brian Transeau) is over from the US doing some studio work and is busy rifling through the city's Bluezone second hand record shop. Picking up a vinyl copy of "Paris", with a b-side of "The Prayer" (which he later sampled and with Taylor produced "Calling Your Name"). Impressed by the face on the sleeve, he promptly buys it (for 50p no less!)

You know what DJs are like. Nine months later, he's finally listened to it. "This voice came out and I just fell on the floor. I simply had to track this woman down and work with her." It was, however, another nine months before he managed to contact the elusive songstress. Jan says: "Brian was over in Manchester for one day only. He asked if I was free, we hit the studio, and laid down "Remember", our first collaboration, which was later used in Hackers 2."

Everyone loved it. Offers flooded in, and, as well as immediately flying over to LA to work on new material, Jan was soon lending her distinctive vocals to a plethora of other artists: Chicane on "Love Will Come", "Take Me By the Hand", by Victor Imbres' Submerge project and Freefall's number one club hit "Skydive". On top of this, she and BT did a sell-out 30-date tour of the States from San Francisco to Florida. Which is how she captured the eagle eyes - and ears - of a certain well-known DJ:

"Paul (Oakenfold) pulled me aside one night after the show and whispered in my ear, "I want to sign you." I was initially a bit cautious because I'm more singer-songwriter than dance diva, but he assured me I'd have free reign. And I obviously had a lot of respect for his reputation in the industry." Jan signed to Perfecto in Summer 99. Relocating to LA to record with US producer Jamie Myerson, they worked on and recorded Jan's debut album in the first six months of last year.

A subtle marriage of Jan's open lyrics and Jamie's quietly understated production, the forthcoming album "Emerging" is testament to the strength of traditional songwriting that can and still exists within a dance sensibility: "I can't bear the idea of not communicating something to my audience. I love combining dance influences beats and breaks here and there with everything I've experienced over the years in relationships and life generally. I want to pull people's emotions, make them feel what I feel. If they do, then I've succeeded."

Tracks range from the painful experience of a relationship breakdown in the epic "No Excuses" through to the nascent sense of finding inner peace in title track "Emerging"; along the way Jan also covers the Carpenters' classic "Superstar" ("purely to put myself up against a great artist!") and ends with the pensive prayer to a higher being, "God's Plan." First single "Flesh", released April 9, is, as its title suggests, a paean to somewhat more biblical pleasures, in the less holy sense of the word!

orn and bred in the gray swathes of Salford, Jan was intent on doing the right thing by her parents and getting a job in the local bank, despite a natural vocal ability. Yet instincts can only be suppressed for so long, and soon she'd formed a duo called JJ, flirting with chart success after the band was signed to Sony. Following their subsequent departure from the label, Jan was signed as a solo artist to A&M, where she released a handful of singles, including the aforementioned "Calling Your Name", as well as a critically- acclaimed album "Naked But for the Lilies." Which is where BT comes in, which brings us up to the present. Heck, she even featured on his latest club smash "Mercury and Solace".

# 1. Jan on life: "I think I'm a genuine gypsy. Most people couldn't bear to stand on quicksand. I seem to relish getting up to my chin and then crawling out again. I've been floating for years now, and even sold my house to pursue this dream. I know it will happen. You have to fight in life."
# 2. Jan on her music: "It's like Joni Mitchell and George Michael rubbing up against 4 Hero and Ricky Lee Jones." You can't say fairer than that.

Discography:



Let The World Fall Apart (Around Me)
Waiting (Leama & Moor
This Is The Party (Cosmic Gate)
Rush (JJoy)
Beautiful (Glimpse Of Heaven) (DJ Shah)
Communicate (BT - Emotional Technology)
Perfecto Presents ... The Club - Delirium
I Feel Wonderful
Transparent


Let The World Fall Apart (Around Me)
Waiting (Leama & Moor
This Is The Party (Cosmic Gate)
Rush (JJoy)
Beautiful (Glimpse Of Heaven) (DJ Shah)
Communicate (BT - Emotional Technology)
Perfecto Presents ... The Club - Delirium
I Feel Wonderful
Transparent
Nothing But You
Reflections
Raging (Storm)


Let The World Fall Apart (Around Me)
Waiting (Leama & Moor
This Is The Party (Cosmic Gate)
Rush (JJoy)
Beautiful (Glimpse Of Heaven) (DJ Shah)
Communicate (BT - Emotional Technology)
Perfecto Presents ... The Club - Delirium
I Feel Wonderful
Transparent
Nothing But You
Reflections
Raging (Storm)
Beachbreeze
Calling Your Name
Venus (DJ Cor Fijneman featuring ...)
A Perfecto Summer - As The Cracks Appear
Superstar
Am I On Pause
Let The World Fall Apart (Around Me)
Waiting (Leama & Moor
This Is The Party (Cosmic Gate)
Rush (JJoy)
Beautiful (Glimpse Of Heaven) (DJ Shah)
Communicate (BT - Emotional Technology)
Perfecto Presents ... The Club - Delirium
I Feel Wonderful
Transparent
Nothing But You
Reflections
Raging (Storm)
Beachbreeze
Calling Your Name
Venus (DJ Cor Fijneman featuring ...)
A Perfecto Summer - As The Cracks Appear
Superstar
Am I On Pause
Emerging
Silent Words
Flesh(Jan Johnston and BT)


Let The World Fall Apart (Around Me)
Waiting (Leama & Moor
This Is The Party (Cosmic Gate)
Rush (JJoy)
Beautiful (Glimpse Of Heaven) (DJ Shah)
Communicate (BT - Emotional Technology)
Perfecto Presents ... The Club - Delirium
I Feel Wonderful
Transparent
Nothing But You
Reflections
Raging (Storm)
Beachbreeze
Calling Your Name
Venus (DJ Cor Fijneman featuring ...)
A Perfecto Summer - As The Cracks Appear
Superstar
Am I On Pause
Emerging
Silent Words
Flesh(Jan Johnston and BT)
Love Will Come (Tomski featuring ...)
Mercury and Solace(BT)
Asking Too Much(with Jamie Myerson)


Let The World Fall Apart (Around Me)
Waiting (Leama & Moor
This Is The Party (Cosmic Gate)
Rush (JJoy)
Beautiful (Glimpse Of Heaven) (DJ Shah)
Communicate (BT - Emotional Technology)
Perfecto Presents ... The Club - Delirium
I Feel Wonderful
Transparent
Nothing But You
Reflections
Raging (Storm)
Beachbreeze
Calling Your Name
Venus (DJ Cor Fijneman featuring ...)
A Perfecto Summer - As The Cracks Appear
Superstar
Am I On Pause
Emerging
Silent Words
Flesh(Jan Johnston and BT)
Love Will Come (Tomski featuring ...)
Mercury and Solace(BT)
Asking Too Much(with Jamie Myerson)
Skydive (Freefall)
Remember + Lullaby For Gaia (BT_ESCM)
Take Me By The Hand (SubMerge feat Jan Johnston)


Let The World Fall Apart (Around Me)
Waiting (Leama & Moor
This Is The Party (Cosmic Gate)
Rush (JJoy)
Beautiful (Glimpse Of Heaven) (DJ Shah)
Communicate (BT - Emotional Technology)
Perfecto Presents ... The Club - Delirium
I Feel Wonderful
Transparent
Nothing But You
Reflections
Raging (Storm)
Beachbreeze
Calling Your Name
Venus (DJ Cor Fijneman featuring ...)
A Perfecto Summer - As The Cracks Appear
Superstar
Am I On Pause
Emerging
Silent Words
Flesh(Jan Johnston and BT)
Love Will Come (Tomski featuring ...)
Mercury and Solace(BT)
Asking Too Much(with Jamie Myerson)
Skydive (Freefall)
Remember + Lullaby For Gaia (BT_ESCM)
Take Me By The Hand (SubMerge feat Jan Johnston)
Anomaly - Calling Your Name (Libra / Taylor)
Paris
Movement In Still Life(BT)


Let The World Fall Apart (Around Me)
Waiting (Leama & Moor
This Is The Party (Cosmic Gate)
Rush (JJoy)
Beautiful (Glimpse Of Heaven) (DJ Shah)
Communicate (BT - Emotional Technology)
Perfecto Presents ... The Club - Delirium
I Feel Wonderful
Transparent
Nothing But You
Reflections
Raging (Storm)
Beachbreeze
Calling Your Name
Venus (DJ Cor Fijneman featuring ...)
A Perfecto Summer - As The Cracks Appear
Superstar
Am I On Pause
Emerging
Silent Words
Flesh(Jan Johnston and BT)
Love Will Come (Tomski featuring ...)
Mercury and Solace(BT)
Asking Too Much(with Jamie Myerson)
Skydive (Freefall)
Remember + Lullaby For Gaia (BT_ESCM)
Take Me By The Hand (SubMerge feat Jan Johnston)
Anomaly - Calling Your Name (Libra / Taylor)
Paris
Movement In Still Life(BT)
Hackers 3 - Quiet Then (Cloak)
R&R - Sunblind (BT)
Swordfish OST - Unafraid (Soundtrack)
Ibiza - Superstar, Silent Words(Paul Oakenfold)
The Shadow Lounge - Am I On Pause? (Paul Oakenfold)
There Is More Beyond Words - Totally Blind
In My Memory - Close To You (DJ Tiesto)
Perfecto's Greatest Hits (Perfecto Compilation)
Naked But For Lilies
Alive
Paris
Intro...
Crying Over You
If This Is Love
Slide Away
If I Never See Sunday Again

Interview:

DJ Ron Slomowicz: So first let's talk about the CD Femme Fatales. Your music has been included on several compilations over the years, how is this one different?
Jan Johnston: Well, the fact that it's the Leading Ladies of Electronica certainly grabbed my attention. Mike Burns of Interstate was the person that had asked for that track and licensed it from Armin van Buuren, who I'd signed that track to. I was very, very happy about the compilation.

RS: Have you worked with any female producers before?
Jan Johnston: No, I haven't. Kirsty Hawkshaw and myself have been talking about doing a project together. We were both working in Malta last New Year's Eve and we had dinner together. We thought nobody would expect us to do this. Before the Leading Lady CD came along, we already had in mind working together. So, the girls are definitely pulling something together.

RS: Awesome. You just mentioned live gigs on New Year's Eve, so do you gig out often, do you tour a lot?
Jan Johnston: Oh I wish. This year has been very healthy with tours because I did the Two Tribes all over Australia with Prodigy and some great guys I've worked with over the years. That was wonderful, but generally there isn't enough gigs for personal appearances like myself, because the DJs tend to drain the budgets so there's nothing left over for personal appearances. I think the clubs and promoters must reason that the songs are going to be played anyway in the sets so we have got it covered. But if they would just take the time out to let me and the other girls gig a little more during the year, they'd find that they have a great night. When I'm actually gigging the crowd loves it. I love it because it's wonderful to travel, it certainly helps the Visa card because you're constantly out there finding new opportunities. You know what it's like at the moment, it's not like labels are coming along and bestowing on you the chance to record. They want finished masters, so you have to pretty much do it yourself now. So, the gigs always help but there's not enough of them, which is very sad.

RS: I totally agree. Talking about labels, let's go back to your beginning. Your bio starts in '94 with you on A&M records and an album which BT found the song on. Back then, what was your musical style and who are your musical influences?
Jan Johnston: I don't know who my influences were. I definitely loved the singer/ songwriters like your Suzanne Vega and the Sundays. The music was very melodic and I've never lost that. My writing has stayed the same, it's just that the vehicles that I worked with changed a little. The dance world with 4-on-the-floor just added a different ingredient. That's where I sort of started, and then Brian found that record and when he flipped it and saw that it was myself writing he thought he had to get in touch with me. I gave him dry vocals first for Calling Your Name and that was so well received that I went in to the studio with him and he played me a piece of music and said will you write something to this. I set off as a singer/ songwriter with verse, bridge, chorus, verse, bridge, chorus, middle 8, chorus 8. I think I was probably the first person in dance to do it that way where you're actually writing a song with emotions with a dance track. That's what opened all the doors for me.

RS: Before BT contacted you did you know about electronic music, were you a club-goer and all?
Jan Johnston: Oh yes. I was very aware because I'd gone down to the Hacienda quite a few times in Manchester. It's a really weird thing because I'd heard a whisper through the grapevine that BT was going to get in touch with me and it's a small world. So I went down to the Hacienda on one of those occasions he was playing and it was a little after that that he got in touch with me. It was fate knocking, definitely, because I'd heard a whisper, I didn't know how real it was, but the vocals were then asked for, for Calling Your Name, and then they got in touch. He was in Manchester again and I went in to the studio and wrote Remember. Paul Oakenfold, who Brian was actually signed to at that time, loved the track and sent me out to Maryland where Brian was. I wrote with Brian and we became friends and we have worked together several times. Generally I've been able to go back to each of the guys, Paul Van Dyk, Oakenfold, and BT for different projects. The one thing I've not been able to have is the big guys work on my records, so I have to find the great new guys that are coming up and that's what I've been doing.

RS: I was going to ask you if there would ever be a Jan Johnston album which combined all the different producers you've worked with onto one CD?

Jan Johnston: Wouldn't it be wonderful?

RS: How do you find the guys that you work with?
Jan Johnston: I found I have a great gut instinct for finding the new guys, I really do. Slowly but surely, as I was out there working, I'd hear new music or I'd hear somebody playing and I'd think 'wow, that's very tender' or 'that's very melodic' and I must find out what that person has done or is doing. It turned out that I met a guy called DJ Manolo when I was working in Boston and DJ Tommy Boy when I was in Philadelphia. I gave them my songs with the melodies and the lyrics written and I needed great orchestration and I needed to be able to sort of give some sort of direction. Since I am not a producer, I don't know how to find what I'm looking for, but I knew I needed something very linear and very crystal, something that was very unobtrusive. I've also been working with DJ Shah in Berlin, Psyco and Mike Burns from Interstate in California and Mark James in Australia – all of whom I met while traveling. So I'm hoping that in the next six to eight months all these different things will begin to show their faces. They were all amazing and I would say the up and coming new DJs of the next few years.

RS: You're almost like a Joi Cardwell in that she finds the next bunch of guys and after she works with them, they become big.
Jan Johnston: Yes. Well that's the hope for all of us. There's new people sending me music all the time, but it's got to be good so that it grooves me that I can collaborate with it. So I'm working on my own things and I'm also listening to things that people gave me. When I find something that really grooves me I'm like OK, let's see if I can get together with this person.

RS: Talking about process, when you write a song do you normally write the lyrics and then give it to someone to produce, or do you get a track and you write to it? What's your normal modus operandi?
Jan Johnston: Well, both ways work really well. Sometimes I'll send out lyrics and melodies like I've done with Mike Burns at Interstate. Because I really trust, I really trust what he does and the same with Mark James in Australia, I gave him two songs that way. Then with the new guys that come along, they'll send me pretty much an open sketch, so I can write into that and then they'll re-orchestrate around it. Generally it's a center note that you're hearing, so from that your vocal and your story is built from that notation. They take all those highs and lows that you can pull from around that center note and orchestrate it and obviously if I like it or if they like what I do with their music, we'll go ahead. But I actually do it both ways, and when I feel comfortable and I really like the way that person worked with my voice and the way they see things, then I'll send them my own tracks which I would call my solo pile, and get them involved in that respect.

RS: Awesome. The first time you heard Anomaly, the track with BT, what was your first reaction?
Jan Johnston: I loved it, it gave me that piece of that heavenly thing that I tend to love with the heart - my vocal and harmony. That was the track that made me realize that I could move in to another area without losing anything of myself, anything of the song, or having to change anything. Things just moved a little quicker, that was all. I could still use the same melodies, the same harmonies, the same process of writing, it just moved a little quicker, that was all. I was happy that even today we could strip-down all those songs and do like an MTV unplugged with an acoustic guitar because the songs work at any level.

RS: You have a lot of songs in movies. Have you watched a movie where your song has been on the soundtrack?

Jan Johnston: Oh yes with Paul Oakenfold, we did the Swordfish Premiere. They brought me out to the Hudson Hotel here and sent a limousine. We went up the red carpet, watched the movie which was absolutely freaky, and it was a huge buzz for me. I remember thinking I better take all of this in because if it never happens again, at least I've got this to live with forever. Then we went back to the Rockefeller Center and Paul DJed and I did the track that he mixed, which was one of my songs off the album that I'd done for him in the film. I sang live and he played that evening. Rockefeller Center was rocking and the smell of flowers and the trays of food - it was just an amazing experience. I haven't had one quite like that since. We have had songs going into other films and on to other TV things, but that was the one where I was invited along to see the film and to perform live, so that was a huge night for me and obviously Paul Oakenfold was a huge part of that.

RS: I also wanted to ask you about your website. I was taking a look around it today. It's just amazing to see all of the different records you've been involved with.
Jan Johnston: The person who started my website, Graham Bates, was a fan and I didn't even know this website existed - we're going back now eight/nine years. A friend of mine put my name in and up came his site, and I was absolutely flabbergasted and got in touch with him. He's the person who looks after this for me and helps me with the newsletters. It's unbelievable to have somebody that cares that much and was a fan - that just blew me away. Obviously we've met and I've been down to his house many, many times now.

RS: It looks great. Are you involved with adding stuff to it?
Jan Johnston: Yes, all the time. I write to Graham as I'm doing something and I let him when the next gig is coming. He lets everybody know what's happening and what's going to be or hopefully what's going to be released next. I'll send him photographs or other people will send him photographs from gigs.

RS: One last question, what would you like to say to all the dance music lovers out there?
Jan Johnston: I can only thank them for continuing to love the music. It's very, very difficult now for an artist to actually get an album deal because of all the downloading, and that's made our lives extremely difficult. Because of the ongoing chats through the website and the support of our fans, its made me continue even though it's financially difficult. It makes me continue with this quest because when it gets very difficult, you sort of question yourself. You think, why am I doing this. Then you go to a gig and those dance lovers are there and they let you know what they feel and you realize that you have to continue. I love what I do, I love performances and writing. When I get in to the studio, that's where I feel most at home. So until it doesn't feel right, you have to continue and that's what I'll do. Right now it's still feeling very, very right