"What do we learn?
"The great artists aren't afraid to grow while retaining what was unique about them in the first place," says Janita from her Brooklyn home. "Those are the artists I've always admired. So with this album, I felt I had to raise the stakes for myself, regardless of the risks." Risks that, in the end, proved to be as much personal as musical.
Before moving to Brooklyn as a seventeen-year old, Janita
It was another artist, it turns out, who became the catalyst for the changes ahead. "I remember Meshell Ndegeocello
Haunted
At its core, Haunted
So, how do you describe your music to people, Janita?
I call my music Alternative Soul. It is a mixture of all my influences, and I listen to and love quite a variety of music genres. My instinct is to opt for anything with a lot of heart and gravitas; something I can sink my teeth into... And I strive to make such music myself.
I grew up listening to a lot of soul, R&B and hip hop, and discovered alternative a little later in life. It is all melding in my singing, in my songwriting and my musicianship.
Tell me about how you originally got into your craft.
I learned how to sing before I learned how to talk, and got my own little Casio when I was 3. It was one of those crappy little 80's electric pianos with crappy drum tracks... But I loved it! I was just enthralled by music straight away. It seemed like it was in my blood and came very natural to me always.
I started writing my own songs on the piano at 5 years old. Throughout my childhood I sang, played, danced and performed, encouraged by my mom especially... And then I got my first record deal at 13. The following year, I was already a big star in my native Finland, and by 17 I moved to New York to really pursue my dreams in music. As you can see, all of it began when I was very young.
What is your favorite thing to do in the whole wide world?
The answer to this tends to change depending on where I am in my life... Right now, my favorite thing is to hang out in parks reading, listening to music, watching the sunset and having deep conversations with people I admire and love.
Perhaps later on in the future I would site raucous sex and drinking scotch, ha. Damn, that sounds pretty good actually too.... Life keeps flowing and changing.
What is your biggest challenge when it comes to running your business?
Ambition means something different to me now, than what it used to. I have way more ambition towards having an enjoyable, balanced life now, than I have towards the business side of music. I am not an artist dead-set on making connections, conquering the world and promoting myself at every opportunity. In all honesty, I feel slightly awkward socially, and am way more interested in making good music than schmoozing. In that way, my biggest challenge in running my business is me. I'd rather just sing and do my thing, than try to be pleasing to people.
When you were a kid, what did you think you were going to be when you grew up?
I thought I was going to be a pianist or a ballerina. I was never trained in singing... Instead I was studying both classical piano and ballet in esteemed national institutions, so it looked like one of those would become my craft. But singing naturally grew to be my forte...
In what way has your community impacted your development as a musician?
Finland is not known for it's passionate people—rather, we are known to be introverted, quiet and unassuming. That does not mean that passion isn't within us though. It's just that the culture does a very good job at suppressing it.
I certainly struggled with that and ended up becoming quite compulsive about expressing myself anyway, in a way that was accepted. The culture put me into a situation where the only outlet for my emotions was music and art, so I dove very deep into them. In the end, I think I'm better for it. I think it's given me a lot of depth.
What other artists out there do you love?
For the same reason as I love the Russian author Dostoyevsky,
What does your future hold?
Less inhibitions, less worry, more work, more play... and a lot of love. Connections with a few important people (and I mean this mostly in the non-business-sense), and a strengthened connection with the world. Yeah.