NewTracks New Artist: Just Janie
NewTracks New Artist: Just Janie
The now Christchurch-based indie folk artist Just Janie recorded her recently released country/folk single Musings in the Breakfast Aisle at Saltbox Studios as part of Ōtautahi’s 2024 OMAP programme. A vocally rich and powerful lament of indecision, the song was part of the menu on NZ On Air‘s February 2025 New Tracks compilation.
What’s your given name, where do you hail from and what instruments do you play?
Janie Shaw. I was born and raised in central Otago, and currently reside in Ōtautahi, Christchurch. I play guitar and sing.
Any other projects that we might know you from?
Janie and Tim Shaw – music duo with my brother!
What’s the background story of how Just Janie came to be?
My brother and I were in a duo during my university years and eventually we started focusing on our own individual projects. When I began performing solo people would ask, ‘Is Tim playing tonight?’ and I’d respond, ‘No it’s just me, Just Janie’. And it felt like a nice progression towards the solo project it has become today.
At a live show, an audience member noted the use of the word ‘just’ (adjective) meaning ‘to act or behave morally right and fair’. She commented on the connection between this and the content within many of my more recent songs, which hone into the idea of justice and contemplate social and cultural moments in history. I really value when individuals connect with the art. It’s one of the most beautiful parts of making music.
How has your music evolved from your beginnings in songwriting to now?
I write music as a form of creative therapy, a way to release my thoughts and feelings into another place. My grandma Suey used to say that you should write your worries onto a piece of paper, then throw the paper in the bin. Writing songs is just another variation to that phrase.
I draw inspiration from the folk scene of the late ’60s and early ’70s. I have a slight case of nostalgia for the Laurel Canyon daydream. I remember borrowing Joni Mitchell’s ‘Morning Glory on the Vines: Early Songs and Drawings’ from the library and devouring it in one night! The book is a collection of her lyrics and artworks. Something inside me clicked, and the songs began flooding out. It was as if I had opened the floodgates. I had been writing before quite prolifically, but reading Joni’s lyrics helped me shift into the sound I’d been looking for. I stopped writing for a specific sound, I stopped trying to be ‘cool’ and fit a scene. I just started writing to write what I loved and shifted my perspective away from creating for others, to creating for myself. My main thought process was that if I loved my work, someone else might feel that love too.
Most recently I have begun delving more into poetry. I had a lot of half-written songs that just didn’t quite work in their current format. I decided to re-work these musings into poems and it snowballed from there. Now I have two drafted manuscripts full of writing. I fell in love with the cross over between my poems and lyrics and art. Some of the poems inspire new songs too. It’s been a really interesting way to write for me.
Aside from this release, what’s been some big highlights to date?
One of my highlights of 2024 was touring with Pōneke-based musician Sig Wilder for our double single release ‘Sylvia’. Playing with a full band at Vogelhorn was electric and I definitely want to work with more artists for future live shows. Maybe put together a band here in Christchurch.
I also released my first EP ‘Muse and Musician’ in 2024, and it gained significant success with over half a million streams by the end of the year. It is crazy to imagine so many people listening to the song, and it means a lot.
What makes Musings in the Breakfast Aisle stand out for you as a single?
Musings in the Breakfast Aisle always stood alone as a single for me. It’s a song about getting to know someone, wanting them to stay for lunch, maybe get dinner but they can’t even commit to breakfast. In essence, the track encompasses indecisiveness.
As a single it felt a little more rock and alternative, compared to other more gentle folk works of mine. It made sense to release this song on its own and create something new and exciting. I really enjoyed recording the song with a band, with electric and bass and more grunt.
What’s your favourite moment, musical or lyrical, of the single?
I think creating the harmonies in the bridge. We layered my vocal takes over one another and it almost felt like crying out, and reaching a crescendo.
Who did you record/produce the single with and where?
I wrote this song back in 2022. I was living in central Otago at the time and I spent a lot of my summer evenings at the Blue Lake in St Bathans. I was also reading The Odyssey, as referenced in the song lyrics, ‘I’ll read Homer by the lake, try to seem a little complicated, but I’m just busy losing my mind’. Hindsight is a beautiful thing, and while I no longer feel those complicated emotions I was experiencing at the time, it’s a really interesting thing to capture the emotional and physical space I was in, within a song. The first performance of Musings in the Breakfast Aisle was for two of my close friends in those clay cliffs at the lake.
The track was then selected to be recorded and produced as part of the OMAP programme in Ōtautahi, facilitated by Saltbox Studios alongside RDU 98.5FM and with the support of the Christchurch City Council.
Are there any musical endeavours you’re working on that we should keep an eye out for?
I actually have two exciting projects in the works for 2024, but as I’ve learnt good things take time. Two very cool passion projects that are already commencing.
Can you please name three other local tunes that would fit well on a playlist alongside your song.
• Neive Strang: Gather Round
• Molly Payton: 1972
• Adam Hattaway: Ain’t No Surprise
How can we find you on social media?
