In Conversation with Intense Nick – Janey Summer

Intense Nick – When, where and how did you get into your singing?

As for getting specific about the when, where and how – I’d have to say “When” – around 1986, “Where” – in my bedroom at my parents house in Shepton Mallet, that well known centre of the Rock Universe ;o) *

“How” – ‘discovering’ the likes of Rainbow, Dio, Free, Whitesnake, Iron Maiden, and being blown away and inspired by the quality and power of those guys voices. That’s when the dream of being a rock singer first emerged, with the help of my hairbrush ;o)

But yeah, it wasn’t until I was living in Australia a few years back, that I decided to really ‘go for it’. You’re seen as a dreamer if you imagine you can make a career out of any kind of art form, plus I’d had the stuffing knocked out of me on more than one occasion. So even though I was writing a lot and playing in different bands I never gave myself the chance (or had the confidence) to imagine that it would develop into anything more. I guess moving to another country snapped me out of it – helped me shake off my reservations. I became determined to push myself more and more and develop as a rock vocalist and songwriter. And I’ve never looked back!

Intense Nick – How did you get your great band together?

Well, basically, after getting the album done, I wanted to do bigger live shows. So, getting a backing band became a necessity for me. Out of the blue I got an email from Rob, who had just bought the album, and wanted to know if I’d be interested in doing any of his songs. I liked his material, and I mentioned that I was looking to team up with a guitarist/songwriter, and so we met up try each other’s songs out. It worked really well, so we decided to recruit a bassist and drummer to complete the line up – Matt and Jay were both an instant hit, and so we formed with the aim of doing a series of gigs during 2009 to promote my album and see what happens from there. So far so good!

Intense Nick – You have played at a wide variety of pubs and clubs, could you tell us about any high’s and lows from this experience?

Oh, man, what a variety! The highs and lows most often come from the atmosphere in the crowd, assuming there is one there in the first place. I really love it when the audience gets into it – creates such a great vibe that everyone feeds off. It’s awesome. I can’t decide what’s worse – playing to no-one or playing to a bunch of people that aren’t into the music – both very disheartening. I did a gig in Bristol once where I played to my boyfriend, the promoter, and the sound man and his girlfriend who were necking all night. What made it worse was that the ‘support’ was some god awful folk sing-songwriter that I had to sit through. Fuck me! I should have left before it started! I did sell a CD though, so not all bad!

Some of my best highs and lows were with Rock Godz, who I was proud to front for a couple years. We pretty much cleared a place once. I knew we were on to a bad thing when we setting up – a girl came up to us and asked ‘Do you do any Madonna?’ I said “Not really, love, have you ever heard of Saxon?” “No”, was the answer, and oh my heart sank! But on the up side, in the same gig, a bunch of guys came in dressed up as nurses with fishnet stockings and whatnot – one of them came up to me half way through the gig, lifted his dress up to reveal his posing pouch which he gracefully waggled in my direction, just as I was getting into the chorus of “Can’t get enough” Hilarious! I don’t know who the guy was, but I hope for his sake he was just cold that night ;o)

Intense Nick – What size and type of venue is your ideal dream, a hall of say 5000 capacity or 50,000 arena stadium?

Well of course I’m going to say a 50,000 arena! Or the main stage at Download Festival? In reality the atmosphere in the crowd matters more. Some of the best gigs if I’ve been to have been pretty small, really – like Saxon in the Coal Exchange in Cardiff, probably only about 400 people there, but man, what a gig! If I had to pick my dream venue though, I’d say either the Colston Hall or Ashton Gate stadium in Bristol.

Intense Nick – Given the choice of any, which Rock band or Deity would you most like to team up with for a double act, also why?

Deity? Does that include God? I’d do a double act with him, that’d be awesome! As for teaming up with a ‘rock god’ for a gig, top of the tree would have to be Ronnie James Dio – his contribution to rock and metal is immense, and he is an ongoing inspiration to me. I’d love to share a stage with Paul Rodgers and do some old Free and Bad company classics too, that’d be very cool.

Intense Nick – What advice would you give to any budding vocalists out there at the moment?

Your voice is your instrument, so you have to be prepared to invest in it. Practise, develop your range, tone and projection, and don’t be afraid to experiment with different singing techniques to find your ‘real’ voice. Sometimes people are too fixated on sounding like a certain person that they don’t set their own voice free. Find a good vocal coach and look after your voice.

Intense Nick – Which of your own songs are personal favourites and again, why?

‘Sometimes’ is probably my personal favourite to listen to. It has a lot of meaning for me, being about the loss of my brother, and how I would have given my life to save his. I’m sure many people feel the same when they lose someone so close. But Sometimes is my favourite for other reasons too – the process of recording and producing the song was awesome! Hearing it develop from the ‘demo’ version I’d done at home, to the glorious production that’s on the album was great fun and very rewarding – it is how I’d always imagined it sounding, and I absolutely love it. Big thanks go to Mark and Shane for their input to the track. I also love ‘You Rock (My Chemistry) – again it has personal meaning as it is the first song I wrote for my boyfriend, but aside from that it is a great song to perform, and catchy crowd-pleaser!

Intense Nick – Where would you like to see yourself in say 5-10 years?

Ooh, on a yacht floating on the Indian Ocean off the coast of Western Australia drinking Boag’s Draft out of a frosty glass – yeah that’d be very groovy. Seriously, though, for me the future is simply about being 100% committed to continuing along this path – as long as my voice is healthy I want to carrying on recording and doing live shows until I fall of my perch! What ever else comes along on the back of that – eg yachts, or being able to invite Dio or James Hetfield around for a morning cuppa, well, that’d be a blessing and a bonus.

http://www.myspace.com/summerock
http://www.janeysummer.com/

* Shepton Mallet is a small market town in the county of Somerset, United Kingdom.