Jannah Beth recently released her latest work Orbits and Echoes, so we sat down for a bit of a chat about her journey to this point and the creative process behind this album.
It’s impossible to chat with Jannah Beth without being immediately struck by her considered approach to everything. She provides thoughtful reflective responses to my questions for one, but beyond that, as she shares her journey with this album you can see that every step she takes in life is with intent – intent to create a better world, or to truly honour herself in what she is producing.
Orbits and Echoes represents a return to writing music for Jannah after some time away working on other projects and I was keen to know a little more about how that return felt. Jannah shares:
“the process went from imaginary, something dreamed, something i wanted, something I aspired to – to then self doubt & fear – to then finally arrival. The right people, the right time, right space & a quiet confidence and remembering of OH YEAH THIS IS WHO I AM.”
Orbits and Echoes is a beautiful album and a project Jannah is ultimately incredibly proud of. Yet as you can hear in her words, it wasn’t a seamless journey. Despite the time away Jannah still struggled with her relationship with herself and it took the completion of this project for her to truly realise she didn’t need to prove anything to anyone (herself included).
Jannah shares that the album came about largely through channeling or freestyle to create each track, and this was very much a return to the roots of how she has always instinctively made music:
“The channeling freestyle way of making music really started when I was younger, in my bedroom just flowing with whatever came. And it was healing!
I often would be in jam circles, nights or just with myself and sharing this, I used to imagine I was an antenna and this energy was just coming through me, funnily enough I read this years later in Rick Rubin’s book, that was affirming”
However, despite this feeling like a natural process for her, Jannah admitted that this isn’t something she’d experienced in a studio before and that it came about almost by chance for Orbits and Echoes:
“I initially took some unfinished demos, thinking we’d work on those but when I arrived to the studio, we decided to utilise this new creative energy out there and see what happens.” She credits Producer Andrew Meyer as a key factor in shaping this element of the project, recognising Andrew’s ability to create the space needed for it to flourish.
She continues:
“Flow state opened up and we wrote 10 songs in about 7 sessions. We used the last few to record some vocals, some of these are the final vocals you hear on the tracks recorded by Maude over at Bigpop. But some of the vocals like all that’s left of me, are truly that one take at 2am – the freestyle that just came out.”
Jannah seems incredibly comfortable in trusting the creative process and seeing what happens. Later in our chat, she shares how she regrets putting on hold some of the other tracks she’d initially worked on, but then added “very much like getting a tattoo – you commit and honour the decision once it’s made.” I confided that both “trust the universe” and “done not perfect” have been my mottos of this year and find out that her most recent ONE OFF TRAKS (a female, trans and non-binary writing camp led by Jannah) participants shared similar sentiments in a conversation about their hopes for the future of the music industry.
As we discuss Orbits and Echoes further, I was keen to know more about where Jannah draws her inspirations from musically. I find Jannah’s music often sits outside a specific genre, so I was also curious to know if she felt the same way. Jannah agreed that while she often has a sound in mind she’s going for (and emphasised her ‘natural wavelength’ with collaborators Andrew & Jeauneil in helping to achieve this) she’s not seeking to create within a particular genre when she sets down to work on a track. She adds:
“In terms of influences, there are artists that have all really stayed with me, just from how deeply I emotionally connect to their music (Sampha, SBTRKT, Frank Ocean, Mac Miller, Little Simz, Little Dragon to Pink Floyd & Dire Straits and countless more). In terms of genres – I’m a drifter, I’m a dreamer, and I know what I connect with. I’m usually drawn to music that feels honest, soulful, textured, and emotionally real, more than anything that sits neatly in one genre. Something to soundtrack my life.”
She’s also deeply influenced by her heritage and as the first in her family to grow up in Australia she’s recently made a more deliberate effort to connect with her Irish ancestry:
“Over the past year I’ve really been studying and reconnecting with my Irish culture through language, poems, decolonial works by Manchán Magan and more. It’s honestly been ground-breaking for me, and I know it will 100% make its way into the music, the rhythms and the influences. I think that kind of connection shapes you even when you don’t fully realise it yet, but doing it consciously now has felt really powerful.”
As we round off the interview, we return to the notion of intent as I ask a little more about Jannah’s projects, the aforementioned ONE OFF TRAKS and Offbeat Collective, the artist-led studio hub she founded.
“Offbeat Collective & ONE OFF TRAKS both came from a deep desire to create the kinds of spaces & opportunities that I was craving myself. Spaces that feel human, community led & expansive. We founded offbeat back in 2021, recently turning 5! It’s been an amazing journey, something to see the vision unfold over time. Both Offbeat & ONE OFF TRAKS were motivated by care, by vision, and probably also by rebellion lol. Just seeing gaps and thinking, why not build the thing we wish existed?”
You can stream Orbits and Echoes here.
Or grab a copy on vinyl here.
Jannah will be performing the work live at her upcoming intimate show on 9th May at Offbeat Collective in Sydney. Tickets here.