Jana started off as Red Leaf’s first Professional Track student (and is still studying hard!), but somehow she woke up one day as the Red Leaf Office Manager, too. She’s a singer-songwriter and working on an EP with Daniel Barrett as producer. Look for it this summer! Check out her website and read her blog for more randomness and fun.
1. Which was the first record you bought with your own money? Mary Chapin Carpenter’s “Stones in the Road”.
2. Which was the last record you bought with your own money? Kathleen Edwards’ “Asking for Flowers” – I’m a release day nerd for certain artists, and this one just came out.
3. What was the first solo you learned from a record — and can you still play it? Probably something from a Mary Chapin record. In high school I took guitar as an elective and we learned Red House by Hendrix note-for-note. And I forget how to play it.
4. Which recording of your own (or as a sideman) are you most proud of, and why? The EP I am working on right now. It represents progress in all forms to me.
5. What’s the difference between playing live and playing in a studio? My thoughts about recording have changed since working with Dan Barrett. He works to create a very relaxed, fun studio atmosphere. So it’s not a “studio” and we’re not “making a record.” We’re playing songs. Which is how I feel about playing live. Achieving studio slickness isn’t on my current list of Must-Dos. Maybe it will be later, who knows.
6. What’s the difference between a good gig and a bad gig? Frame of mind. When I decide to show up, it’s a good gig. When for whatever reason I don’t show up mentally, it could derail and usually does. I used to blame it on weather, guitar strings, crowd interest, and a multitude of other things…but it boils down to intention on my part.
7. What’s the difference between a good guitar and a bad guitar? I really have this intense fascination with anything with strings, so I think there’s a purpose for every guitar. Even the $6 ones you get across the border in Tijuana. (I have a blue one). I have another one that is from Malawi…a friend in the Peace Corps had one of the kids in her town make me a guitar out of scrap metal, wire, and wood. It’s full size and an amazing piece of work. I need to use it to record someday.
8. You play electric and acoustic. Do you approach the two differently? I feel more at home on the acoustic because I have played it more consistently for the past 7 years. Before that, though, I played electric guitar in a couple of high school bands and was much more practiced with it. This next year is all about guitar woodshedding (among other things). I’m pretty psyched.
9. Do you sound more like yourself on acoustic or electric? I’m hoping to develop the Jana Tone (TM) on electric over the course of the next few years…but I guess for all intents and purposes I am a songwriter who writes and performs my songs on an acoustic…so…acoustic.
10. Do you sound like yourself on other people’s guitars? I think so. I always enjoy trying other peoples’ set ups, seeing what they do for their style and so on. Each guitar has its own personality, so I guess it’s not about manhandling it into sounding like ME, it’s just appreciating it for what it is.
11. Which living artist (music, or other arts) would you like to collaborate with? Mary Chapin Carpenter, The Edge, Kathleen Edwards. What I have been listening to lately, anyway.
12. What dead artist would you like to have collaborated with? Johnny Cash. Somehow…it might have worked.
13. What’s your latest project about? It’s about being a baby songwriter but far along enough to be developing an identity. I’m over the part where I’m just trying to make a sound, any sound — and I’m moving past trying to sound like anyone else. So my latest project is finding out what Me sounds like.
Red Leaf is growing in every way…new students every week, more teachers, more rooms…and now we’re offering guitar and amp repair along with retail for your musical needs!
