One to watch: Janeva is the next Geelong musician we’ve got our eye on
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One to watch: Janeva is the next Geelong musician we’ve got our eye on

Perhaps it’s the vision board that’s helped Janeva set her sights on her music career, but more likely it’s her humble nature and raw talent that has already seen her work with the likes of London Topaz, LDRU and Dugong Jr. With her first solo single released (‘You & I), she’s well onto achieving her goals.

“I have this vision board of everything I want to do, in my career or experiences and ‘Just go to Falls Festival’ has been one of them,” a festival she has missed out on due to her hospitality work. “So when I got the call to sing there I literally just started crying and I was over the moon. It was a very surreal opportunity. I’d be happy to just go and watch, that’d be a dream, but to actually be able to perform…”

The opportunity arose from her live performance with LDRU, which saw her perform in front of thousands before she’d released her own single and taken to the stage herself on tour. It’s a big jump for the Geelong singer, who first got a taste for the industry in the local soul band the Sweethearts, but it’s one she’s taken to like she was born to do it.

“You have thousands of people watching you and you can’t go wrong when you love what you’re doing,” she says. “The crowd gives you so much energy so you can’t do anything but give that back and try to absorb as much as you can. I get the biggest rush from performing live on stage.”

With an incredibly musical family, including a grandma who worked as a singer, a grandfather who is a big music-lover and influence on her as well as both parents having experience as performers, music was always the future she was set to take. And while they’ve instilled great industry knowledge in her, meeting the likes of Tash Sultana and other musicians backstage has helped her take the next big steps in furthering her career.

“You get so much out of being backstage and being able to watch the other artists prepare themselves,” she says. “I was like a sponge tying to absorb as much as I could and ask people questions and learn as much as I could about ‘How did they get there?’, ‘What are their influences?’ and ‘How do they prepare to perform in front of so many people?’,” she says. “I saw Childish Gambino [backstage] and he does yoga before he performs.”

Spending so much time these past few months backstage at Falls Festival, Southbound, Banana Fields and Spilt Milk!, Janeva has become very aware on how, as she says, “dangerously underestimated” females are in the industry – and she’s a clear case of a musician who’s going to prove it wrong.

“I’m very passionate about it, and it was one of my first experiences touring with LDRU. It’s been a massive eye opener, because I’ve come from such a solid background of where females have been able to do everything. And I started asking, ‘Where are the girls?’, even backstage, ‘Is there another female I can talk to?’ And it would turn out to be the girlfriend of the DJs. If anything it just fuels the fire, because there’s a space for more females,” she says. “I think we all play a part in making that change.”

With a support network of strong women around her, from her mother to her sisters, Janeva has the perfect foundations for greatness. Pair the strong women in her life with the rest of her family, friends and those who have supported her this far and she’s sure to be playing Falls Festival as herself (and not a guest vocalist) in no time. Though the days of attending the festival as a punter seem to be behind her.

Janeva is currently working towards her debut EP, following her passion of writing music and staying very involved in the process (as she has done with videos and photos to date). Find her on Facebook or Instagram to keep up to date with her music.

You can find her new single ‘You & I’ on triple j unearthed and Spotify. Be sure to request for it to be played on triple j via texting 0439 757 555.

Fine Janeva on triple j unearthed or Facebook.

Written by Amanda Sherring
Photo by Liekography