fantano - J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-JANE REMOVER INTERVIEW
Anthony Fantano engages in a conversation with Jane Remover about her latest album 'Revenge Seekers'. Jane discusses the album's distinct sound, which blends catchy hooks with abrasive, layered production. She explains her creative process, which involved using samples from video games and her own previous work, emphasizing a spontaneous, 'autopilot' approach to music-making. Jane reflects on the challenges of balancing internet fame with personal authenticity, noting that her music is deeply influenced by online culture. She also touches on the blurred lines between underground and mainstream music, highlighting the evolving nature of the music industry. Jane's approach to music is both introspective and experimental, aiming to create a unique sound that resonates with her audience while maintaining her artistic integrity.
Key Points:
- Jane Remover's album 'Revenge Seekers' combines catchy hooks with complex, layered production.
- The album features samples from video games and Jane's previous work, reflecting her internet-influenced style.
- Jane's creative process was spontaneous, focusing on capturing a natural flow rather than overthinking.
- She discusses the challenges of internet fame and the blurred lines between underground and mainstream music.
- Jane emphasizes maintaining artistic integrity while navigating the evolving music industry.
Details:
1. 🎤 Catching Up with Jane Remover
- Anthony Fantano engages in an in-depth conversation with Jane Remover, focusing on her latest LP 'Revenge Seekers.'
- Jane Remover discusses the thematic elements and production choices of 'Revenge Seekers,' highlighting the album's experimental nature.
- The artist shares insights into her creative process, emphasizing a mix of introspection and innovation driving the album's development.
- There is a discussion of the album's reception and the impact of its experimental sound on her audience.
- Jane Remover reflects on her growth as an artist since the last meeting with Fantano, indicating a progression in her musical style and personal development.
2. 🎶 Discussing Music Evolution and Collaborations
- The artist reflects on an interview from three years ago, noting a significant evolution in their career since then, particularly in terms of musical style and collaborative efforts.
- In early interviews, the artist spoke extensively about the impact of 'frailty' on their career, marking a pivotal moment in their musical journey.
- The artist consistently expresses a deep appreciation for the self-titled Zenaia record, which remains a constant influence in their work.
- There is a strong sense of loyalty to musical influences, suggesting that while the artist evolves, they remain true to core inspirations.
- Specific collaborations and changes in music style are highlighted as key components of the artist's growth over the years.
3. 💿 The Making of "Revenge Seekers"
- The artist's growing profile presents unique opportunities for high-profile collaborations, enhancing visibility and reach.
- Approaching potential collaborators with a clear and compelling project idea significantly increases the likelihood of collaboration.
- Leveraging the existing talents of collaborators, such as their singing abilities, can add substantial value to the project and create a more enriching final product.
4. 🤔 Expectations vs Reality in Music Releases
- The artist's new music release represents a strategic shift from their traditional style, venturing into a rock-oriented, lo-fi project that contrasts with their previous sound.
- This change in musical direction is a deliberate attempt by the artist to explore new creative territories and potentially reach a broader audience.
- Despite the absence of specific expectations set by the artist, the release has generated discussions about its departure from the artist's established genre, which could be leveraged for marketing and audience engagement.
- To fully capitalize on this shift, the artist could measure audience reactions and engagement metrics to refine future projects and marketing strategies.
- The release could serve as a case study for understanding the impact of genre shifts on an artist's brand and audience perception, offering valuable insights for future strategic planning.
5. 🎸 Balancing Fame and Authenticity
- The artist has stopped engaging with comments or streams, indicating a shift from seeking external validation to focusing on personal satisfaction.
- Achieving financial stability by living off their music is a primary goal, reflecting a significant career milestone marked by independence.
- The artist feels overwhelmed by their success, which highlights the personal challenges of handling major achievements.
- Creating and producing music remains the core passion, driven by intrinsic motivation rather than external rewards.
- The artist questions the value of fame and attention, prioritizing authenticity and personal fulfillment over public recognition.
- Future goals are being shaped by these reflections, potentially influencing the artist's music style and public persona to align more closely with personal values.
6. 🕸️ Internet Culture Influence on Music
- The artist experiences a duality between enjoying attention and being skeptical of it, indicating a balance struggle in their career.
- Internet culture has led to a new type of 'internet-based' fans who are highly engaged online.
- This segment highlights the dual nature of fame within internet culture, where artists simultaneously revel in and are wary of intense online attention.
- For example, artists often gain rapid fame but face challenges with privacy and authenticity, as highlighted by the artist's experience.
7. 🎵 The Unique Sound of Jane Remover's Music
- Jane Remover's music is characterized by an 'internet' sound, which differentiates it from traditional 'real IRL' artists like Sabrina Carpenter. This sound is crafted through digital production techniques and online platform influences, creating a unique auditory experience.
- The 'internet' sound influences the audience's perception and engagement, blending virtual and live interactions at concerts, resulting in a unique fan experience compared to traditional music acts.
- Jane Remover's music appeals to a digital-savvy audience, leveraging online platforms for distribution and community building, which shapes a distinct connection between the artist and her fans.
- The categorization of Jane Remover's music as 'internet-based' affects how fans interact with her music, emphasizing an experience that is both virtual and personal.
8. 🎮 Sampling and Creativity
- Live performances show high audience engagement, with fans knowing most lyrics, akin to mainstream artists like Sabrina Carpenter, indicating strong fan interaction in real life.
- The artist's music is characterized as 'very internety,' highlighting its appeal to an online audience and digital-native style, impacting both music production and fanbase.
- Sample usage in tracks like 'Revenge Secret' is described as 'inaccessible to a degree,' appealing to niche audiences familiar with internet culture.
- The artist leverages internet influence to shape their music, using online trends and digital platforms to engage audiences, suggesting a strategic use of internet culture in creative processes.
9. 🧩 Thematic Connections Across Albums
- Music balances being catchy and inaccessible, appealing to varied audiences and suggesting a strategic artistic approach.
- Personal growth and evolving perceptions are highlighted, particularly over the last year and a half, indicating a conscious development journey.
- Remaining true to oneself while evolving past internet influences is emphasized, reflecting a strategy for personal and artistic development.
- Cultural connections to the internet strongly influence thematic elements and branding strategies, showcasing a modern approach to audience engagement.
- More concrete examples of cultural influence include the use of internet trends and memes in lyrical content, enhancing relatability and engagement.
10. 🎧 Sampling Techniques and Influences
- The artist employs a unique sampling approach by not relying solely on copyrighted material, allowing for greater creative freedom.
- Personal reference points heavily influence the sampling choices, resulting in a distinctive sound.
- Unlike traditional hip-hop and electronic music, which often sample popular, established songs, this record draws from the artist's previous work, niche online culture, and video games.
- Specific examples of samples include sounds from niche video games and previous tracks by the artist, adding a unique layer to the music's texture.
- This approach not only diversifies the sound palette but also creates a more personal and culturally rich listening experience.
11. 🎶 Creative Process and Inspirations
- The artist incorporates sounds from personal interests, such as gaming, to create thematic or personal connections in music.
- Significant examples include using 'Palia Cry' from Pokemon in a lead single, which highlights how personal gaming experiences influence their music.
- The artist explores sound banks to find unique sounds, with the incorporation of gaming sounds often being coincidental yet meaningful due to personal connections.
- Beyond gaming, the artist integrates various inspirations to enrich their music, showcasing a broad spectrum of influences.
12. 🎤 Influences and Personal Tastes
- The artist consistently uses a specific sound effect across nearly every song on an album, indicating it as a signature element of their musical style.
- Initially, the sound effect held a specific meaning, but it has transitioned into a stylistic choice, showcasing the evolution from intentional symbolism to aesthetic preference.
- The artist sources sounds from diverse inspirations, including video games and friends' gaming sessions, reflecting a resourceful and eclectic approach to sound design.
- There is a focused strategy on archiving and revisiting these collected sounds, which is a significant part of the creative workflow, allowing for strategic reuse in future projects.
13. 🎸 Musical Preferences and Pokemon
13.1. Musical Preferences
13.2. Pokemon Influences
14. 🎶 Exploring Self-Sampling
- The speaker has a nostalgic interest in older Pokemon trading cards, particularly Gyarados, Onyx, and Slowpoke, highlighting a connection to the original 150 Pokemon.
- Their preference for Squirtle as a starter Pokemon, leading to Blastoise, reflects strategic choices in gaming.
- The discussion on self-sampling in music reveals that a guitar part in "Star People" resembles "Famous Girl" but was confirmed as an original play rather than a sampled stem.
- Self-sampling is presented as creating unique sounds that echo previous work without direct sampling, showcasing innovation in music production.
15. 🔗 Connecting Musical Works
- The artist's creative evolution since the 'frailty' era is marked by exploring different music projects that reflect diverse aspects of their artistry.
- These projects are interconnected, utilizing samples and references that create a cohesive creative network.
- Fans perceive these projects and albums as forming a 'community of works,' such as 'sister' or 'cousin' albums, even if not intentionally planned by the artist.
- One fan described the albums 'frailty,' 'census,' and 'revenge' as a trilogy, each representing a different stage or setting, highlighting the narrative structure perceived by the audience.
16. 🔥 Visual and Symbolic Elements in Music
- The artist emphasizes creativity over structured concepts, focusing on 'vibes' rather than specific themes.
- There is no deep symbolism in the imagery; it's more about matching the visual energy with the music.
- The cover art and promotional visuals, featuring flames and a sword, are reflections of what the artist imagines while creating the music.
- There is a collaborative effort between the artist and the photographer, Brendan, to bring these visual elements to life.
- The process involved practical challenges, such as safety with flames during photo shoots, illustrating commitment to visual storytelling.
- To enhance understanding, a comparison to other artists who also use visual symbolism effectively could be included, showing the diversity in approach and impact on audience perception.
- Separating the creative process from practical challenges within the discussion would provide clearer insights into the strategic application of visuals in music.
17. 🔄 Revisiting Old Works
- Artists often revisit older pieces or versions of their work, such as musical compositions or producer tags, to integrate them into new projects, providing a fresh perspective and enriching the new work.
- This approach can be both spontaneous, involving a random collection of sounds, and deliberate, where it reflects recurring themes and narratives from previous records, enhancing the depth and continuity of the artist's body of work.
- The album serves as a comprehensive reflection of all previous work, incorporating meaningful samples that resonate with long-time fans, creating a sense of familiarity and evolution. This method not only honors past efforts but also strategically leverages them to connect with the audience and enrich the artistic narrative.
18. 📚 Sampling Own Work to Avoid Legal Issues
- The artist leveraged a backlog of unreleased music to sample their own work, avoiding legal issues with publishing.
- By sampling their own music, the artist found a creative solution to reuse material without copyright concerns.
- Utilized segments of previous songs, even if the full song was not deemed good enough for release, ensuring personal satisfaction and innovation.
- Processed samples through filters to alter the sound, maintaining originality, and making it unrecognizable to listeners.
- Example: The 'Angels and Camo' sample, heavily altered but originally from the artist's own music.
19. 🎧 Autopilot Creativity
- The creative process for the album 'Revenge Seekers' was characterized by an autopilot approach, allowing for a blend of subconscious creativity and instinct.
- This approach led to the album being both hook-driven and accessible, achieving a balance between complexity and catchiness.
- The album's overwhelming nature, combined with its catchy elements, resulted from this unique creative process, showcasing a seamless integration of creativity and instinct.
20. 🎶 Writing and Expressing New Ideas
- The artist reduced overthinking during the creative process, leading to increased confidence and efficiency. Songs on 'Revenge Seekers' were completed in one or two studio sessions.
- The artist experienced a sense of detachment from the music upon completion, allowing them to perceive it as if it was created by someone else, which contributed to a fresh perspective.
- Listening to the music repeatedly without making changes helped the artist maintain the original vision, leading to a final product that matched initial expectations.
- The completion of the album felt sudden, yet the outcome aligned with the artist's initial vision, suggesting a focused and intuitive creation process.
21. 🎤 The Role of Humor and Bravado in Lyrics
- The artist transitions to a new record that introduces a vastly different sonic and lyrical world compared to previous works like 'Census' and 'Venturing.'
- A different mindset or voice is adopted for writing songs in projects like 'Venturing' and 'Census' compared to more recent works, indicating a strategic shift in creative approach.
- The use of braggadocious lines, such as 'Jesus never had it with a freak,' highlights a new lyrical direction that contrasts with past projects, emphasizing bravado.
- The artist intentionally incorporates humor, evident in trolling lines, suggesting a deliberate choice to provoke or amuse the audience, impacting the listener's perception and the artist's image.
22. 🗣️ Independent Creative Choices
- The artist emphasizes a 'zestiness quota' in their album, deliberately incorporating bold, unexpected elements to surprise listeners.
- A 'spicy bar quota' involves pushing lyrical boundaries with wild, confrontational content, aiming to challenge the norms of music creation.
- The creative process has evolved from seeking approval to valuing independent choices, reflecting increased confidence and self-reliance.
- The focus has shifted from external validation to personal satisfaction, indicating a mature approach to music production.
- While feedback from others, such as a manager, is considered, the artist prioritizes personal autonomy in the creative process.
23. 🎶 Musical Preferences During Album Creation
23.1. Creative Autonomy in Album Creation
23.2. Influence of Tour Experience on Album Creation
23.3. Consistent Musical Influences
24. 🔊 Evolution of Sound and Influence
- During album production, the artist focuses exclusively on the album itself, avoiding external music to maintain creative purity.
- Recent listening habits include heavy rotation of Luther Vandross, showcasing an influence from classic R&B.
- Genres such as pop, rap, and electronic are consistently top choices, reflecting a diverse blend in their music production.
- The top song on their playlist last year was a track by Miranda Cosgrove, notable for its sampling of Nelly's 'Dilemma', indicating a preference for innovative sampling techniques.
- Acknowledged as a visionary, the artist often draws inspiration from unexpected sources, as highlighted by audience recognition of their innovative approach.
25. 🎶 Defining Underground Music
- 'Daria Core' is recognized as a pivotal and influential sound within the underground music scene, impacting other musical styles significantly.
- Artists are revisiting foundational sounds such as early 'Daria' and 'Digiore', which were influential but became less prominent as artists expanded their musical explorations.
- There is a noted resurgence of the 'early Digi Core' style, demonstrating its cyclical popularity and lasting influence on contemporary music.
- The artist emphasizes the importance of understanding the historical context of their work to counter misperceptions of it being derivative.
- While styles like 'frailty' and 'senses' have influenced music, they are less pervasive compared to the dominant 'Daria Core'.
26. 🚀 Trends and Mainstream Influence
- The album strategically blends modern pop and hip-hop trends with rock to expand its audience beyond traditional rock fans. For instance, the adoption of trap beats or auto-tune, which are prevalent in mainstream music, is a deliberate attempt to capture a broader listener base.
- There is a conscious effort to adapt to the evolution of the underground music scene over the past four and a half years, ensuring the music remains relevant and avoids sounding outdated.
- The artist notes that social media and streaming platforms have significantly blurred the lines between underground and mainstream music, making it crucial to incorporate popular elements to maintain relevance.
- This crossover into mainstream trends is intended to attract listeners who might not have previously engaged with the artist's rock-focused work, showing a strategic shift in production to include elements like catchy hooks and electronic influences.
27. 🔄 Understanding the Underground-Mainstream Divide
- The distinction between 'underground' and 'mainstream' music is increasingly unclear, as digital platforms redefine music consumption patterns.
- Artists with millions of monthly listeners, such as those with 2 million or even 10 million, are still considered underground, indicating an evolving definition.
- Despite high streaming numbers, artists with 11 million Spotify listeners may struggle with concert ticket sales, highlighting a disconnect between online popularity and real-world success.
- The term 'underground' is being questioned for its validity, as listener metrics alone no longer accurately define an artist's status.
- The role of digital platforms is crucial in shifting perceptions, as they allow for broad exposure without traditional mainstream backing.
28. 🚧 Scrapped Albums and Creative Direction
- The artist scrapped an album featuring songs like 'Magic' and 'Flash in the Pan,' but the files are still cherished and listened to by the artist and friends, showing personal significance.
- Despite the album's creation last summer, labeled as a 'Chicago summer album' by friends, the release was postponed not due to dissatisfaction but due to timing considerations, reflecting strategic release planning.
- The artist intends to finish and release the album when the timing feels right, indicating a deliberate approach to aligning album releases with personal and market readiness.
- The artist aims to keep fans surprised and engaged, suggesting a strategic emphasis on maintaining fan interest and anticipation.
- By retaining the element of surprise, the artist integrates fan expectations into their creative decisions, showcasing a nuanced understanding of audience engagement.
29. 🎶 The Element of Surprise in Music Releases
- The artist released 'Flash in the Pan' after 'Census', intentionally shifting their musical direction to keep the audience engaged and surprised.
- An internal debate existed about releasing a Digi Core album instead, highlighting the artist's focus on diversifying their sound and strategies.
- The decision to withhold an unfinished 'scrap album' was a strategic move to maintain suspense and audience anticipation, enhancing engagement.
- Releasing 'Revenge Seekers' instead of the scrap album was seen as a way to generate more discussion, using divisiveness to create buzz and dialogue.
- While acknowledging the scrap album's potential success, the artist prioritized the impact of surprising the audience and fostering conversation over immediate reception.
- This strategic approach mirrors tactics used by other artists who leverage surprise to maintain relevance and stir public interest.
30. 🎛️ Complex Production and Mixing
- Some songs, like 'Turn Up or Die,' have around 100-105 stems, indicating a highly layered production approach.
- The artist was insistent on mixing the album themselves to ensure it sounded exactly as intended, highlighting the importance of personal involvement in complex mixing processes.
- The album features minimal collaboration, with Danny's feature being the only external contribution, emphasizing a highly personal and controlled creative process.
- The artist has been self-teaching mixing techniques over the years, demonstrating a commitment to mastering the craft and ensuring the album's sound is unique.
- Challenges and learning experiences were part of the process due to the complexity of assembling a variety of sounds, suggesting the need for meticulous attention to detail in production.
31. 💻 Tools and Techniques in Music Production
- Mastering the art of mixing chaotic sounds into distinguishable layers is crucial, with gain staging playing a critical role in achieving clarity within complex audio compositions.
- The use of FL Studio is highlighted, demonstrating that proficiency and comfort with a chosen tool can outweigh the need for the most advanced software.
- Challenges in using FL Studio for large project files are acknowledged, yet these are seen as opportunities for learning and growth, akin to using Sony Vegas for video editing instead of more advanced options like Adobe Premiere.
- Emphasizing familiarity with one's tools can lead to effective creative output, even if the tools are not the most advanced on the market.
32. 🎤 Live Performances and Future Plans
- The artist utilizes FL Studio for mixing to maintain a creative flow, which aligns with their unique mixing style, while Ableton is preferred for live shows due to its ease in sending audio to sound engineers, optimizing live performance logistics.
- Despite releasing a new album, the artist is currently not pursuing new recording projects, focusing energies on live performances, which they believe will maximize the album's impact.
- Their past recording pace was rapid, with two albums completed in five months, but the current emphasis is on leveraging live engagements as strategic opportunities for audience connection and album promotion.