No genre, no genre: An interview with Janine Rose

Janine Rose is a central-California-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist that makes music for people to swim in. 

Rose shared how her music bends genres in ways never heard of given the release of her first single “Outside Only”. I had the opportunity to speak with Rose about releasing her first single and how the global pandemic affected her as a musician and her craft as a whole.

 

Crespin: First off, tell me a little about yourself as an artist.

 

Rose: I have been making music for a while, probably about 6-8 years. My mom was a musician and I grew up in a very musical background. The music I am making now is nothing like what I grew up with. I have settled with who I am as an artist and I’m really happy with it.  

 

Crespin: What does settling in as an artist mean to you? Is it dialing into the music you want to put out? Or does it have to do with the message you want you listeners to get from the music?

 

Rose: A little bit of both! I have always had a strong sense of what type of music I want to make. Actually getting to the sounds I wanted — from sound production and lyrical point of view — along with the growth I want to go through before, during, and after making music made it so hard to settle on the sound I wanted. I’ve always had a clear picture of what I want my music to sound like but I’m just scratching the surface of what that really means to me. 

 

Crespin: What is your music about? What do you people take away after listening to your music?

 

Rose: The heart of my music is based on connection. I feel like my music has two modes. [There is] the melancholy and meditative music that I want people to listen to and help them check on themselves. Then there is the f**k you, this is my music and I’m going to do what I want. I think both modes are ‘coming home to yourself’ type messages.

 

Crespin: Was there connection to releasing your first single during quarantine? Or was it just a coincidence?

 

Rose: Honestly, I had not been planning it. Quarantine happened and a lot of things kind of came together … I just saw it as an extreme push to show me that my music was all I really had. It was really unexpected. 

 

The song was not written before quarantine and was put together in a week. I put all the other music I was working on away and really found my stride. I thought it was time to redefine who I am as an artist. 

 

Crespin: Did quarantine hinder or help your process in making the single in anyway?

 

Rose: If anything, it expedited the process and forced me to do things myself, which I had been wanting to do for the longest time. The song is all me. I do all the writing, play every instrument, the mixing, [and] the recording. [The] whole thing is my baby.

 

Crespin: So you’re coming out with another single soon? Tell me what that is about? 

 

Rose: It is called “HereNow” and it is the song for me. It is the song that I have wanted to write forever and I hope it’s a jumping off point for me as an artist. 

 

For the longest time I have been trying to combine acoustic and electric sounds in a way that doesn’t fit either. My goal is with my music [is] for people to think ‘oh this isn’t acoustic songwriting and it’s not electronic, so what type of genre does it fit into?’ 

 

I already know that idea is already its own genre. I messed around with a lot of the sounds in this song. For example, the percussion you hear in the song is me doing different knocks on my grandpa’s old grandfather clock and piano. It makes a super weird sound but I find it to be super calming and really interesting. I just don’t  hear many artists doing that today and I just think that drum kits today can be anything we find. 

 

Crespin: Overall, since you have restarted your journey as an artist, have you changed in any way?

 

Rose: Over the past months, I was doing really bad. I [was] unemployed. I was alone because my partner was working a ton. I just hit a breaking point. That’s where all the music really came from. I definitely think that the music that is coming out now is more “me” than anything I have ever done before. 

 

Crespin: Lastly, as an artist, what is something you want all your listeners to know?

 

Rose: I just want my listeners to know that everything that they are listening to is me. 

 

I have put everything I have into these songs and it has taken me so many years just to get to where I am today, so it means the world to me if you take the time to listen. These songs are my babies. I love how they sound and the messages that the lyrics convey is exactly what I wanted. I couldn’t be happier with it.