Kids At Midnight Survival Interview

Kids At Midnight Survival Interview

-Survival' is the stunning new single from Melbourne singer, songwriter and producer Jane Elizabeth Hanley, otherwise known as Kids At Midnight.

After its release last week -Survival' has collected over 3,000 plays on Soundcloud, has been featured on music websites all over the world, and has won the support of notable Australian radio stations, including Triple J.

https://soundcloud.com/kidsatmidnight/kids-at-midnight-survival

'Survival' began as a simple keyboard chord progression with an elegant feel. Jane began to refine this resonating idea by adding drums and a few arpeggios, panning, mixing and playing around with various techniques and creative sound designs. As she continued her work on a bunch of other song ideas, -Survival' stood out as one of the most honest and organic representations of the current Kids At Midnight sound.

Jane's sweet vocal carries the listener through delicate arrangements of echoing keys and smooth thudded beats, while its lulling production gives the sense of floating through the clouds in a state of happiness and satisfaction.

'When writing -Survival' I envisaged a documentary from the future where they'd found this girl who was stuck in the past, not being able to evolve like everyone else who was in this world of love. She never found love or was never able to be loved. It's quite a personal perspective I guess, translated through a storyline of anthropological research" - Jane Hanley

Interview with Jane Elizabeth Hanley

Question: How would you describe your music?

Jane Elizabeth Hanley: Describing your music is like describing what kind of person you are it's quite a tricky thing to do! I guess at it's most basic description it is story telling set to electronic music. But I like to think it's dreamy melodies and lush synth sounds, a smattering of twinkly rhythmic textures with emotionally layered vocal patterns. It's Indie Electronica with good old fashioned song writing. I hope!


Question: What was the main motivation of the song Survival?

Jane Elizabeth Hanley: I had two motivations with Survival. One was from a songwriting perspective and one was from a Production perspective. I'd started to teach myself to record and produced about two years ago and felt I was at the point wanted to produce something that when I showed it to people I could finally feel confidant that I was a decent producer. Not just a learning producer. You are always learning but I feel very proud of the sound of Survival. I don't hear it and wish I had've panned one thing more to the left or something (which is often the case haha) And songwriting wise I had been pondering the idea that there are some people who just don't get to be loved. It's not because they don't want to or try to it's just whatever they do people always seem to pass them and move on to happiness. And I'm a bit obsessed with anthropological documentaries so I sort put it in that arena. What if archeologists dug up this girl from 1000 years ago (now) and her stilted evolution wasn't a physical one it was an emotional one. That everyone had evolved to find love, and she had not. It became an emotional story for me.


Question: How does it feel to hear your song on the radio?

Jane Elizabeth Hanley: It feels amazing. I won't lie. It shouldn't be a validation of all the years of hard work, but it is. You get an enormous sense of connection to people. And also for a nerd making music on Ableton most of the day it feels really nice to get that pat on the back haha


Question: Do you write your own songs? What's your inspiration?

Jane Elizabeth Hanley: I write all my own songs. I bought a guitar when I was 16 and taught myself to play because I wanted to sing songs I had written. As a singer it was very empowering and I remembered that feeling and thinking 'Right, now I have the power I can sing whatever I want!' Inspirations come from everywhere. It's an art form just like sculpting or painting or writing a novel. For me I'm inspired by intense feelings or emotional responses to things or situations or even scenery. I try and recreate how I felt and translate it through lyrics and music. So if I'm desperately in love with someone I can't have I'll write about that. Where I grew up is very windswept and cinematic, giant cliffs and an expanse of ocean it's a very dramatic and inspiring surrounding so it's easy to imagine ancient lovers across seas from one another for example.


Question: What music/artists do you listen to when you are not playing your own?

Jane Elizabeth Hanley: Because I DJ I listen to a lot of disco and house, I teach dance too so a lot of music for Tap, Jazz, Musical Theatre classes, 50s/60s/70s lounge style which is awesome to Tap to) but if I'm chilling out I'm going to put on Fleetwood Mac. Oasis. Air. Phoenix. Kate Bush. Peter Gabriel. All amazing aural artists that take me away to a dream world :)


Question: What's next? Tour/Album/Single?

Jane Elizabeth Hanley: I'm working on the next single at the moment. I'm always working on about 5 demos at once because I have a short attention span and get excited by new things. So technically I'm also working on an album. But I'm really itching to play live again. So hopefully I can play some live shows supporting Survival and the next couple of tracks, that is exciting to me and what I'm really focusing on for 2015 so hopefully I can create some shows!


Question: Was there a moment you contemplated throwing in the towel?

Jane Elizabeth Hanley: At least once a week for the last 20 years haha You're constantly told as an artist, "Don't be an artist. There is no money in Music (read: Film, Art, Acting, Writing…)" And when you get older you reconcile working your paid jobs while you're learning your craft, playing tiny gigs, making demos and your friends are getting married and becoming Lawyers and Psychologists and every now and then you can let the thought creep in "What am I doing with my life?" But it lasts one sixteenth of a second before you realise that even if you gave up and threw in the towel, just worked to make some money…you would come home and make your art anyway! Because that's what makes you happy! Once you realise that life without the one thing you're made to do would be very very sad you stop thinking in terms of money or success and start thinking in terms of a happy life. I love making music. I will do it whether I'm successful or not because there is no greater joy to me than creating. And what is life without joy? Blurgk. No thanks. But I'm a bit of a drama queen so yes. There were lots of moments where I thought about throwing in the towel haha My hard drive died almost two years ago and I lost, without exaggeration, every single thing I had ever created. That was devastating and it was hard to see how I would ever get back to where I had a catalogue of songs, or I couldn't imagine how long it would take it was life changing. But the only other option was to stop. And that's really not an option for me.

Question: Do you prefer performing live or recording?

Jane Elizabeth Hanley: I love both. They feed two different desires I think. With recording I can play and twiddle and work through ideas and it's this wonderful journey through a musical forrest where I don't know WHERE I'm going to end up but I have the freedom to retrace my steps and take a different direction if I want. That experience is rewarding for the creator in me. And then performing live boom that's that instant connection where you know if you've done something good or not, it feeds your happy sensors instantly! Mostly (especially as a solo producer) I'm spending a lot of time alone, battling the musical decisions in my head just having conversation after conversation with myself and I'm my worst critic! But when you're with actual people, and an audience appreciate what you do and you see their faces and you think "wow, they really like me" it's a beautiful feeling to think that the stories you create yourself can then go out and find connection with strangers. That strangers can become attached or find meaning in your music is one of the most awesome things about it for me. It blows my mind. r


Question: What/who was your inspiration to go into the music industry?

Jane Elizabeth Hanley: I don't know if there's one single inspiration. It just seemed like the thing I always wanted to do. I grew up when Madonna and Michael Jackson were the worlds biggest stars and they were very far far away and untouchable. There was no Instagram or Twitter, no format where you saw them in 'normal life' there was no possible way you could ever think or hope to talk to them. If you were little then it just seemed like the most awesome singing and dancing fantasy world. I used to watch The Making Of Thriller at my Nans house and there was a clip from Michaels performance of Billie Jean at the Motown 25 anniversary show. It was the first time he ever did the Moonwalk and the crowd just realise they've seen something tectonic plate-shifting! He talks about how after that performance Fred Astaire called him and said he was an amazing dancer. That to me made it official because as a dancer I loved Fred Astaire and it was sort of like a tick of approval, it's cool to do this. I kept going to dance school and then when I was a teen I discovered The Beatles and then Oasis and I was completely swept away by the bravado of Britpop. It was this really exiting vibrant time in music again! I just wanted to do it to. So I watched Oasis concert videos and copied Noels fingers on the guitar and taught myself to play, then I used the chords I knew to start writing songs. So I guess it's a combination of Fred Astaire/Michael Jackson/Noel Gallager haha


Question: What is the biggest challenge you have faced along the way to your musical success?

Jane Elizabeth Hanley: Myself if I'm being honest. If you're a shy person it's extremely hard to compete with the massive egos that you have to have to network and sell yourself and meet people etc. I was never very good at that. My friends would always say "she can do this! and She can do that!"and I'd always keep quiet about what I could do. Which, in Music Industry 101, is a massive no-no haha but, that's just not me. You have to find a way to connect with people and meet people though so I've got better at it. It's not being 'up yourself' to know your skill set. In fact, in any other industry you're expected to know your skill set. I can't imagine being praised in a corporate situation for filling out a self-evaluation form with 'um, I'm ok I guess' FIRED!


Question: What's a typical day like?

Jane Elizabeth Hanley: It can vary. I'm lucky I spent half my time in Melbourne and half my time down the coast so if its a Monday/Tuesday and I'm down the coast teaching dance I'll get all my dance music ready, drink lots of coffee, try and go for a walk down the beach to get some fresh air in the lungs (defuzz the computer brain!) and then into the dance studio to teach! Then if it's a Melbourne day I'll get up and take my laptop down to the cafe to abuse the free wifi and check the Kids At Midnight Soundcloud/emails/Facebook/Twitter! If I'm DJing that week I'll check all my playlists in Rekordbox and make sure I'm loving all the tracks, I'll listen to Soundcloud, check my promos and see if there are any cool new tracks I love or disco edits that have snuck out that I haven't seen! I usually work late into the night when I'm producing, or DJing, or seeing mates DJ sets so I get up a bit later but I'll try and get all little bits of music business or bills out of the way at the start of the day. I like knowing that once I sit down to Ableton that's it, I don't have anything else to do that day I can just focus on the white whale that is producing! And then the rest of the day is usually playing with chords on the keyboard or trying to record the perfect clap in the bathroom, improvising vocals and seeing what comes out… with decent amounts of procrastinating and coffee. (Today I did all that PLUS I dropped into an op shop here in Brunswick and got the most amazing pair of gold woven italian loafers and now I'm in answering questions it's been a pretty sweet day!) And once I eventually hit the sack I chill out watching British history documentaries in bed haha because I'm a nerd.


Question: What has been your favourite part of becoming a music artist?
Jane Elizabeth Hanley: It's all awesome. It's a long and winding road, to use a Paul McCartney lyric, I haven't had one exact moment yet that is my favourite I enjoy it all. A really special part is when you take your tiny little song to the world and they tell you that they really love this little thing you created. That's pretty cool. The connection for me is the thing.


Question: If you could collaborate with another artist, who would it be?

Jane Elizabeth Hanley: Hmm Producer wise, Mark Ronson. He's brilliant. Artist? Peter Gabriel. It's not a modern or hip answer but what he can do with his voice, he can create a universe and all the characters in it with his lyrics and melodies he's a true storyteller. If I had to pick a modern artist it'd be Robyn. She is so cool. I love her. I love everything about her now and her past and her journey, she's a completely brilliant songwriter and vocalist.


Question: Do you have a website fans can visit?

Jane Elizabeth Hanley: Sure do! www.kidsatmidnight.com come and say hello :)


Question: What message would you like your music to say to your fans?

Jane Elizabeth Hanley: I would hope that the general message is that feeling is awesome. Whether it is soaring bliss, seething discontent, or an unrequited love induced sorrow the amazing thing about humans is the scope of our emotions and that it is a wonderful and lucky journey to fully experience them.


Question: What is the story behind the name, Kids At Midnight?

Jane Elizabeth Hanley: Well, I stay up very late. And I am very childish. haha It's sort of linked in to the experience of music at a concert or club, when you get to that point where you've lost your inhibitions and you're letting yourself purely enjoy the music and you feel free, like a child.


Interview by Brooke Hunter