Artist Interview: janiebug (Jane Lillard '25)
(Reporting by Nathan Hausspiegel and Nolan Lewis)
I’m sitting in an uncomfortably small rolling desk-chair, watching the sun set through the windows and making sure that the audio being recorded into my phone via Voice Memos isn’t too quiet.
The place? An unassuming classroom on the second floor of Exley.
The company? Myself, perennial Aural Wes contributor Nolan Lewis, and janiebug — perhaps better known as Wesleyan’s own Jane Lillard ‘25.
The date? November 10th, the night before Duke Day, during which both Jane and Nolan would go on to deliver stellar performances, and for which I would be… in the audience.
The occasion? The recent release of “teeth”, the official debut single by janiebug (i.e., the first one released on streaming services that aren’t SoundCloud). It’s a fuzzy, noisy, cathartic jam that’s one of my favorite songs of the fall, so good that we had to sit down with Jane and talk about it as soon as we could after it came out, and that we learned during this interview was recorded entirely by Jane themselves (!). Listen to “teeth” below, then read the interview and check out Jane’s inspiration playlist at the bottom of this page! Or do all of that but in a different order. I don’t care!
-Nathan Hausspiegel
NATHAN: What’s up?
JANE: Is that like a rhetorical “what's up” or like, what's up?
NOLAN: What's up, how are you?
NATHAN: Yeah, what is up in a deeper sense? What's on your mind?
JANE: Oh… nothing much, honestly. I'm just, like… I feel like we're at that point in the year where every morning I wake up and I'm like, “do I really wanna go to class”? And I don't know, I'm not a big skipper, but I feel like… I've skipped a couple of times in the past few weeks and it's just like, I don't know, it's just kind of weirdly late in the semester. So I guess my body's fatigued but like, mentally, it does not feel like we've been here for like three months.
NATHAN: Yeah, for sure.
JANE: It's like freaking me out.
NOLAN: Much less that we have like three weeks left. *laughs*
JANE: I know, I hate it.
NATHAN: Are you just fatigued in general? Or are you busy with everything else?
JANE: I'm pretty busy. I'm a pretty busy person. Got a lot of class, work at the Star and Crescent, band practice. I, like, work in a psychology lab… Dungeons and Dragons, which I'm playing after this…
NATHAN: And you just released your first single underneath your own name!
JANE: Yeahhhhh!
NATHAN: That’s a crazy segue.
*everybody laughs*
NATHAN: I had a question for that. As a musician… you do a lot of things musically. Like, not just that you're super active, but you do a lot of different things. You play in Slore, and you DJ, like, techno raves a bunch, and you also drum — I've seen you drum to J Dilla beats in the rafters of ADP that one time. Why did you choose to release music doing this specifically, in this, like, noisy, punky genre?
JANE: Um… I actually wrote this song, like…. it wasn't two years ago, was it? Damn, maybe it was. It was like freshman winter/spring, a year and a half [ago], I guess. I think I remember working on it in the Inn when I had COVID, also shortly after my freshman boyfriend and I broke up. So it was just… it was a bad time for me, mentally in the doodoo pit. So I think that kind of just translated into a very angsty song. And the song was about someone who I used to be friends with, who I really don't fuck with. *laughs*
NOLAN: We have been there!
JANE: Yeah. So it was kind of just like… like angsty vibe, you know?
NATHAN: For sure. When did you record it?
JANE: Um, well I recorded a demo in July and August of last year that I put out on SoundCloud and then I recorded the real version… uh, like a month ago or something? Yeah, at Redfeather.
NATHAN: Nice. Was it just with your Slore buddies or did you get anyone special on the track? Or is it…
JANE: It's all me.
NATHAN: It's all you? That's crazy.
NOLAN: Wow.
JANE: Yeah, because I'm a control freak.
NATHAN: Of course.
NOLAN: A multitalented one.
JANE: And I always say, like… not to be that person, but if I could just clone myself and be in a band with myself, I'd love to do that. *laughs* Like that’d be so great. Like I love playing music with other people, but I think having full creative control over my recording is really nice, ‘cause I know there's nothing [where] I have to be like, “Oh man, actually, could you do that a little differently?” Like none of that awkwardness, aside from me just, doing a take over and over again and being like “FUCK! FUCK!”, and then, you know. So it's just me and Ben Goodman, who is the drummer of Slore. Um… yeah, he just helped me record stuff and I did all the playin’ and we were out of there in like four hours.
NOLAN: Oh wow, nice.
JANE: It was really not… not bad, yeah.
NOLAN: Y’know, it's industry people. *laughs* But going back to the theme and the angstiness and everything, I just personally love to know meanings of lyrics, meanings of titles, but… what particularly stood out to me was with what I assume to be the chorus section, with the specific lyrics being, “give me one quiet night alone, I can't take any more of this”.
JANE: *laughs*
NOLAN: I would love a deeper dive into that, as well as the title, just cause, like, “teeth”. *laughs*
JANE: Uh, yeah! I don't know… I think in art making, I'm very drawn to, like, very visceral, bodily things. I'm in painting right now and I've kind of been focusing on, like, figure painting and I've always loved doing makeup… I don't know, I think I'm just interested in the human form. *laughs* Um, I don't know… so “teeth” was kind of like, like there's a lyric that's like, “you crushed all my teeth”… it's just very visceral. I feel like it really connected to the emotional state I was in. It felt like this person just, like, punched me in the face repeatedly. And, yeah, the chorus… *laughs* Um, I was in this situation freshman year where I was dating this person, and… ugh, I don't know how to talk about this without, like, talking about who the person is.
*everybody laughs*
JANE: But basically, I never really had my own space in freshman year. Like, there was just a lot of anxiety throughout the day, and I never really knew if I was gonna be sleeping in my own room or in my (at the time) partner's room. So hence, just, like, “give me one quiet night alone.” Like, I just was starting to feel super stir crazy ‘cause not only was I super busy, but I didn't have anywhere to just, like, chill. I feel like in looking for housing spaces since freshman year… y’know, I'm in Eclectic, I work at ADP, I have all these places that I could live that are kind of more intertwined with social life on campus, but for me, I've just looked for, like, a room, a boring ass building, like… my own space. Like, I do not care, I don't really want anything else going on in the building. I just wanna be able to go to my fucking room, take off my pants, sit in bed, and just be alone. I love being, y’know, around other people, but I think that, at that time, I just really did not have any alone time, to the point where my therapist was like, “you need to carve out time in your day. Like, 20 minutes, sit alone in the library.” *laughs* Like, I was just so crowded by other people and stressful situations.
NATHAN: You mentioned in there that you do art, obviously, and you did the art for the song too, I saw.
JANE: Mhm!
NOLAN: Yes!
NATHAN: Does being a visual artist inform your musicianship, and/or vice versa?
JANE: Yeah, I think like [what] I was saying about bodily stuff, like, I don't know… I'm kind of shy about writing lyrics. I don't know, I'm much more of like a melody, instrumental person first, so I feel like, yeah, it's easier for me to write about very visceral, visual things, ‘cause that's kind of what I'm comfortable with, in, like, creating art and everything. I feel like my music taste definitely informs my style. I remember I started listening to, like, nu metal bands over the pandemic and I just started dressing like the members of, like, Kittie, like a mall goth, like… I don't know, I think those things inform each other a lot. Yeah.
NOLAN: In, say, a similar vein in that question, ‘cause I mean, you know, real recognize real, two musicians here…
JANE: Yessss!
NOLAN: Yeah… also being a visual artist, I know how that impacts your work, but… being at Wesleyan and being heavily involved in the Wesleyan music scene has also greatly impacted my work, just by being in that collective environment. Would you say that's been the same for you? Like, had you not come to Wesleyan, would we still have “teeth” in the world?
JANE: Ooooooh. I feel like, I would wanna say hopefully? But I think that, like, there's so much usually called-for confidence — sometimes uncalled-for confidence — coming from people in the music scene… *laughs* But, in a way, that's really inspiring. It was really cool to come to Wesleyan when we did as freshmen, ‘cause there were just some incredible musicians. Like, no shade to the lower grades, but specifically that year’s seniors, like, Nat Catalan on the bass. Tyler Jenkins on the fuckin’ drums. Dachelle.
NOLAN: Dachelle! Yes. *laughs*
JANE: Like, holy shit. It was just a musical renaissance at Wesleyan, as far as I can tell. I mean, it was just really amazing and really inspiring to see those people and like, they were so humble, and very approachable, and were really friendly, and especially, like, Bella and Alicia who were sophomores when we were freshmen, they really kind of took me under their wing and kind of showed me the ropes of the music scene. And I feel like, I don't know, just having that community and support really encouraged me to do things that I was maybe frankly just too anxious to do without that.
NATHAN: You were talking about your taste influenced the song…
JANE: I mean, I made, like, a playlist. So my friend Andy from Jersey back home, who I've grown up doing music with, he mixed the song for me, and then my friend Nate, who I also did music with in high school, mastered it. So I sent them both a playlist of inspiration for the production and kind of the sound I wanted. And a lot of it was very similar, like Toner, and yeule, and I forgot if I put Mannequin Pussy on there…
NATHAN: I’m looking at it right now, you didn’t.
NOLAN: Damn, that’s shocking for you! *laughs*
JANE: Yeah, I don't think I did! But stuff like that, I really wanted to capture that, like, fuzzed out… what did I say in the caption? Like “fuzzy, but not fuzzed out”. Like “slay and cunt” or something.
NATHAN: That is- that’s exactly what you said.
NOLAN: *laughs*
JANE: Yeah, exactly. So yeah, that's what I was going for! *laughs*
NATHAN: Yeah, I listened to the whole playlist and I can definitely see it, for sure.
JANE: Oh, cool!
NOLAN: My question is more of a conclusion type one, but I always, you know… now that you're officially out, solo artist… what's next? We're getting more, right? Like… *laughs*
JANE: Yay, I'm out! *laughs* Um, yeah, I mean, I'm going abroad in the spring…
NATHAN: Oh shit.
NOLAN: Uh oh.
JANE: …which is like freaking me out, cause it's like… we have, like, a month left of school and then I'm leaving!
NOLAN: When are you going?
My term starts January 11th, so I'm like, fuck, like it's crazy.
NOLAN: Oh, wow. *laughs*
NATHAN: Where are you going?
JANE: I'm going to Queen Mary in London.
NOLAN & NATHAN: Ooooh.
JANE: Yeah, I'm really excited. I've never been to Europe, so it's gonna be, like, a whole new experience.
NOLAN: Yeah, when you do music there, that's gonna be craaaaazy.
JANE: Yeah, I really hope that there's music stuff there! I mean, I know Alicia did the same program and they said there's a great music society on campus. So, like, hopefully I can keep up with that. But ideally, if I had time… I guess I'll have to make time in the next couple of weeks. I'd love to record, maybe, some stuff with Slore. Or maybe another single, if I have it in me. Um… but I feel like I work quite slowly, so we'll see. I feel like it's all gotta just, like, come out at once. Um… but yeah, I definitely don't want to be a one-hit wonder, y’know.
NOLAN: No, of course. *laughs*
JANE: *laughs* I would love to keep putting out stuff, hopefully… I don't know, I think maybe a goal before I graduate [is] an EP, or an album… probably just an EP, realistically.
