Sarah
Jane
Western Sydney artist Sarah Jane is the answer to the grunge, alternative-rock community's needs. In just two years, Sarah Jane has released the same amount of albums in addition to releasing music with her band The Violet Stones. Her brand new album Tainted Timeline is a unique yet familiar compilation of songs that scream Radiohead and Fugazi, with a heavy amount of yearning and emotion to serve up an album that vibes with your very being.
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I had a chat with Sarah about her second album Tainted Timeline about all things Dave Grohl, juggling two projects at once, and lightning storms.
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Two albums in two years, that's quite an achievement!
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(Laughter) Yep!
Pretty insane! Talk me through that process.
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When I was like 14 or 15, I had all these songs and it was only until recently that I learnt how to record them. So it's just kind of me releasing them all at once. The first album was acoustic which I guess was me learning all the simple stuff [about producing], and then for this album I learnt how to record other instruments so it's a bigger production. I wanted to step it up a bit and mix it professionally.
So did you record all the instruments yourself then?
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Well, so with Tainted Timeline I recorded majority of the instruments except for a few songs where I got my dad to play drums, my partner played on two songs and then also the old drummer of The Violet Stones played on one. I wanted to do a Dave Grohl thing - one the first Foo Fighters album he played all the instruments, and that's something I've always wanted to do.
Well now you have, so that's cool! Getting to "Dave Grohl" an album.
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(Laughter) Yeah.
So, what's been the journey of going from a fully acoustic album to a full grunge rock band style one?
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It was the natural next step I guess. A lot of the songs wouldn't work acoustically, and I always set out to make it a full band kind of thing. Some of the songs were actually only meant to be acoustic - Rest and Suffocate - but as I was recording I started layering tracks on and they worked well with the rest of the grunge album. It was really fun.
When you write a song, how do you know if it's a solo song or one for The Violet Stones?
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When I write a song I categorise it in my head, so all of these songs were written with the intention of just being solo. And then there's some songs that I know would work in a band setting. I write different styles I guess, they have different sounds in my brain.
Do the two have different conceptual meanings as well or more about the sound?
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I think more about the sound, but then again some songs of this album are kind of personal and I'd feel weird playing them with my band.
So when it comes to gigging, would you have a different band for your solo act than The Violet Stones?
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Yeah! I have a band for my solo stuff, we actually had a gig booked which got postponed but then cancelled. So I have a band ready.
Well that's good because you can separate the two acts.
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Yeah, and the bass player of The Violet Stones is actually in my solo band as well, so some cross over.
I mean, a good bass player is a good bass player!
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Yeah!
So with that, how is juggling your own solo music and being in a band at the same time?
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It's a bit hard. I recently filmed my music video, then the next day I filmed my band's music video, then I went back to editing my solo video. All in the same week as the album release as well. Then there'll be another single and album coming for The Violet Stones which we're planning to announce soon. I didn't plan this very well to release all at the same time, but oh well.
I mean, if it all comes out at the same time it's just more for people to listen to!
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Yeah! I'm also the sole manager for both and do all the social media for both. It's a bit hard to juggle but I'm used to it now.
Most people hear that someone will start in a band then venture out on their own, then maybe go back to the band. But I don't see why you cant do both!
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Yeah, I mean I work part time and I have half days to work on music stuff, so I understand it would be hard if you worked full time or juggled multiple projects.
So back to your music vs. The Violet Stones... What would you say the differences are in sound?
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So I have more control over my solo stuff. So that's inspired by lighter sort of artists like Jeff Buckley or Radiohead vibes come through. But with the band, their influences are also added, so bands like System of a Down and Korn come through with the band's music. It all depends if the song I'm writing is heavier or lighter.
When you do gigs, which songs are you most looking forward to performing?
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I think Marry. When we were rehearsing it we just got goose bumps, plus its my drummer's favourite song to play. It gives off such great vibes.
Do the band collaborate on song writing?
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Yeah, definitely. I usually come to the band with an already structured and written song and then they add on their parts. Then if we think of something we want to change then we change it!
More about Tainted Timeline now, would you say you have a favourite song on album?
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I do actually! Suffocate is my favourite - the one with the old Violet Stones drummer. I've always really liked that song. There's this song someday by mimi and it has this really cool vibe about it and I've always wanted to write a song like that. Then when I added on other instruments it became even better, and it has my favourite drummer on it too!
Awesome! So then would you have a favourite lyric off the album too?
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Oh, I don't know! I don't know if I can remember any... I mean in the zines I made for Tainted Timeline there's a bunch of lyrics and song meanings so they're all in there.
The merch is so great!
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I tried to do as much DIY as possible to cut the costing, and I wanted to make things more personal too. I have the chords in there as well because people are always asking what the chords are. I've got some shirts, stickers, posters, CDs and individual lyric sheets as well.
And you have a Patreon page people can subscribe to as well?
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Yeah! I've been doing that for the past year and from $1/month I do exclusive announcements and content and everything. Then from $5 or more a month I give people the new songs a week early. It's just for now until after I stop releases but it's a great platform to be on.
Honestly, I'm getting so many good vibes off this album. It's the perfect time of year for a good grunge album... You just wanna let loose, you know?
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Yeah! For sure. The songs on the album just came together really easily, I really love the order of it as well.
Finally, if you could have your listeners listen to your album for the first time in any way, how would you like them to do it?
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In a dark room! (Laughter) I'd say listen to the whole thing back to front. I drove to a lookout spot at night time and it started storming during while I was listening, so that really worked. It looked nice as well with the sky.
The aesthetics of lightning strikes with heavy grunge playing is a vibe.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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