Artist Of The Week #111 - Jane Herships
This week’s Artist Of The Week, is New York City based Jane Herships, who has just released her latest album - ‘The Home Record’. Jane took a moment to talk to us about road trips, living in a TV free home and the personal side of this album.
So, your new album ‘The Home Record’ is out now. How does it feel it have it out there?
It feels really great to have it out there. I think the best part about finishing a record is being able to move onto the next album and new batches of songs.
Does the title has a specific meaning?
The title “The Home Record” really does mean a lot for me on so many levels. I went through a really rough patch a few years ago. A break up, losing the place I lived and the future I thought I would have. I wrote these songs in the aftermath of having my life pretty much fall apart before my eyes. It took me awhile to find a home again, and not just a literal “home”. But, I I think the songs and music have always been my true home, and as long as I have a place to create, I’m good.
You originally performed under the name ‘Spider’, what has made you shed this title?
The name spider was never supposed to stick. My drummer at the time kinda just said the name once, and it was when we were working on a song for the second record which is bit heavier and it kinda just stuck. I’ve always had this irrational fear of spiders and music was something that I was terrified of doing, and honestly didn’t think I could ever do professionally. There were a lot of years of sitting in my bedroom playing guitar to myself. So the name spider was about facing your fears. I think that being able to step away from that even more and being able to make music under my own name is an even better way of facing your fears. I’m the one who is actually saying these things and writing the songs. In a way it feels one step closer to overcoming something I was really afraid of doing.
Having grown up in a TV-free home, what activities did you do as a child?
I was really shy and I spent a lot of time alone. I read voraciously and spent a lot of time listening to old records that were in my parents collection. They were kind of random, like entire recordings of old Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, or classical records with some kids music mixed in, but also a lot of the Beatles and Leonard Cohen. I think this was my original musical education.
While on road trips, you used to sing songs with your mother in the car, what were the main songs you used to sing? Mostly songs my mom had learned when she was a kid. Songs that she had learned at camp or that her mother had sung to her. They were mostly traditional folk songs and rounds. Songs that were easy to learn and harmonize.
Do you feel those two experiences - living in a TV-free home and those roads trips, helped shape you as a musician?
Absolutely. Since we didn’t have a tv, whenever we were bored, we would have to find something to do, which usually meant something creative. It also taught us how to be resourceful. Music definitely became a go to for me at a young age.
What would you say are the key themes and inspirations on the album?
Saying good bye, letting go and acceptance.
Do you have a favorite lyric on the album? If so, which one and why?
The line “it must have been the world between us” is a contender. Mostly because I just can’t believe no one has used it before. I also really like the part in the end of
“summer moon” about the crickets and the fireflies.
Now the album is out there, what next?
Make another one.