Janna Marit: piano, guitar, vocals, ukelele
Simon Lynge: drums, melodica, ukelele, kalimba, guitar, slide whistle, vocals...
and a changing cast of other characters
Influences
Tom Waits, The Beatles, John Lennon, Elliott Smith, Bjork, music of the Gypsies, Billy Holiday, Edith Piaf, Sarah Vaughn, Fiona Apple, Nick Drake, Jon Brion, Madeleine Peyroux, Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, David Bowie, Rufus Wainwright, Radiohead, Phillip Glass, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, J.S.Bach, Beethoven, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, The Clash, The Kinks, Portishead, Nellie Mckay, The Squirrel Nut Zippers, Manu Chao, Celtic music, Cat Stevens, Johnny Cash, Middle Earth, e.e. cummings, Rumi, Tom Robbins, Alan Watts...
Some early film work of mine. It's a short clip, so don't blink!
In the beginning, before anyone knew what a beginning was-- there was now. In fact it's all there ever was. Now. So we could say, In the now there was now-- and it persisted.
Sweet undulating moments that dripped off the spoon of experience like warm honey. Never remembered, never expected -- only electric transitioning life.
Then arose the mind, who, being controlling by nature, began ordering sweet slippery life around.
In the frenetic chaos that insued, it came to be that Time was born...
-JM
November 25th. We are going back in the studio to resume recording my debut album after a hiatus. I look forward to having it finished in the next few months. Stay tuned!
a wee bio:
Janna Marit's music creates an atmosphere for the imagination to fill. Her songs feel like a vacation from the serious– even as the lyrics get around to serious stuff – sometimes sweetly hopeful, sometimes pointedly indicting the obtuse habits of humanity.
Janna traveled down many creative roads on her way to making music. Prior to embarking on song writing in 2003, Janna performed as a puppeteer, and as an actor in film and live sketch comedy. She is also a visual artist who draws, paints and makes jewelry. She wrote her first poem at the age of 6, and first musical composition at the age of 10. "It was a short classical avant-garde piano piece with some nice juicy dark parts and light happy moments that I was very proud of. I came across the only existing recording of it a few years ago but it was destroyed in a fire the following week. So, sadly I have no record of my first song. I still have that poem somewhere though."
As a songwriter she is inclined to look beyond the surface, picking up rocks to see what lies beneath– at the same time remaining joyfully buoyant.
"I think the darkness is very interesting, the things we're afraid to look at. We might benefit to travel down those murky alleys more often. I also celebrate the sun, the trees, the great potential of the human being. We are really more powerful than we generally know. We create our world, our reality all the time. Far too often we create and re-create what we say we don't want. It's much easier to do that than to clear a space in your mind for the mystery and the pure possibility of life to unfold within."
You moved. I did not know that. Someone was looking for an act for this Sunday and they way they described what they were looking for, brought you to mind right away..
Hello Janna, I met you back in the day when we shared the "stage" at Panera bread. I saw your name on a Simon Lynge photo just now and it rang a bell and I thought I'd stop by and say hello. Are you a photographer too? A woman of many talents ;)
Thank you! p.s. I was stubborn getting out too. 8 days late!! It just means the brain is developing more. Don't worry, you'll have a baby genius in no time!! :-)
