Following the release of Janet Blackwell's latest single 'Signs Of A Storm', we caught up with her to gain some insight into the influences that make up her eclectic sound. If you like her choices, be sure to check 'Signs Of. A Storm' out at the end of this article.
1. WEYES BLOOD — WILD TIME
"I love this artist and this song, because to me she perfectly encapsulates the millennial/gen-z pull towards what our parents got to make of their youth -that we’re facing the aftermath of.
Everything she writes is very poetic and pointed, and it reminds me of Joan Baez and Joni
Mitchell’s lyricism. It’s all very nostalgic and artistically dated, and definitely pushes me to
experiment in the studio."
2. Diana Ross - Ain’t No Mountain High Enough
"This is my absolute favorite song until the end of time, and I will always put it on if I need a
mood lift. Arguably one of the best renditions of the original. I just love how much joy and
emotion Diana Ross can put into anything, and it’s so beautiful that you can especially feel the booming love in the last 2 minutes of the song. I’m a sucker for “it worked out in the end” love stories, and even the saddest songs I write I think have that tinge of optimism weaved in there because of Ms. Diana."
3. Journey - Faithfully
"Signs of a Storm’s guitar part was directly inspired by this track and the effects the engineer put on the guitar for it. I asked Doug Pohorski if he’d be willing to extend on a melody I wrote for the song to make it more “rock”, and we had a lot of fun playing Faithfully on repeat to figure out how we were going to make the guitar part take a lead but also complement the arrangement of everything else we’d already tracked. Journey is also just an iconic band and I’m a wimp for this song after even a single glass of wine."
4. Wolf Alice - How Can I Make It Ok?
"I LOVE this song and this band. To me, they sound like if you gave Enya a distortion pedal and a bit more attitude, which is everything I want to make songs I’m currently writing sound like. I also just love that there’s only two chords used for the entirety of this song, because it makes the experience feel like a conclusion yet to be discovered. You’re waiting for that home note to sound, and then hits you- “Oh. They’re doing that on purpose. Because she’s singing, ‘How can I make it ok?’ She hasn’t figured that out yet.” It’s just really smart writing all around. Wolf Alice expresses human emotion in their songs the way I’m still trying to figure out."
5. Phoebe Bridgers - I Know The End
"This is another track that just feels like genius writing to me all around. Having listened to
Phoebe Bridgers’ music for a few years now, I feel like I pay so much more attention to the way I accentuate certain words and how I can make a weird synth sound or melody emphasize the words I’m singing. This song in particular feels like such a whole body experience as it gears up towards the last few minutes. I need to rewind the lyrics “A haunted house with a picket fence/To float around and ghost my friends” so many times. She writes about the melancholic search for -and let go of- self so honestly."
Listen To Janet Blackwell 'Signs Of A Storm'
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