Jane Deezy is rapidly becoming one of the NZ music scenes most followed females. For good reason; she has awesome style, incredible stage prescene and her music kicks ass. We caught up with her to chat about AmmoNation, growing up in Hamilton and her creative process.
You’re based down in the Tron, and have found some of your people in AmmoNation, alongside the likes of Raiza Biza. First and foremost, how’s it popping in Hamilton?
Hamilton scene is pretty chill. We've got an extended semi dysfunctional creative family outside of AMMO out here and we get together and jam/eat and drink and support each other at local shows. It's a nice city to come home to after debaucherous shows in other cities.
What does AmmoNation mean to you, and what’s it like being part of such a strongly talented collective?
AMMO is family, its part of who I am. It existed before I started making music as a 10 year old back in South Africa watching my brother and his friends cypher, with the strength of him (Raiza), it has evolved into what it is today; a collective of uniquely individual creatives. I don't know a creative existence before it.
How did you find your sound, and what would you define it as?
My sound evolved as I did; I started off making the same type of music I liked listening to at like, 14, then as the angst set in and I was more aware of my “role” as a young African woman I rebelled and that was reflected in my music, saying provocative things and ‘doing too much’ so when I eventually calmed down I figured nothing I could say or do would shock anymore; creating space for leniency for my future self I guess.
I entered the crucial emotional development stage teen girls go through at 14, 15, 16 at about 18 or 19 after escaping some co-dependant shit and I started hanging out with people like me for the first time in my adult life, that's when I started pulling from their stories and writing shit based on the experiences I experienced vicariously through them.
Finally, at this stage there's nothing really I'm afraid to write about, I'm not scared about writing about personal experiences. It’s all sonically had similar flavour I think, dope beat selection, harmony heavy, tongue in cheek and feel inducing.
Your lyricism is a unique form of storytelling - your bars mean something. What headspace do you get in to write, and where do you draw inspiration from?
Ha I over answered the last question and kinda answered this one too. In terms of headspace I get into as I sit down to write (as opposed to time in my life) and it’s random af, I often listen back and think where tf did that come from/how did it happen so fast/was i possessed? I know I can't force it, I never “plan” to write which is why I can never plan studio sessions with non squad members, element of pressure clouds everything. Melodies and bars happen in random places and I’ll record them on my phone. I'll be in a doctors appointment, excuse myself then duck into the bathroom and record on my phone, then return to letting em check my boobs, random. The rest is a blur.
On that note, as a rapper, you’re a unicorn in the current musical landscape as a woman. Do you think this has had any impact on the way you’ve gone about doing things?
It doesn’t impact how I go about doing things, I’ve only ever done things as a woman. I have sometimes thought it impacts how others deal with me but I'm reminded time and time again my gender is the last thing that would have an impact on how I’m ‘handled’, I’ve got many other caution signs plastered all over my forehead. Like a wise man once said, at the end of the day “it's about who's whack and tight”!
What’s your daily playlist looking like at present?
Random af. Cat Stevens, Tory Lanez, Neil Diamond, Radiohead, Kendrick OBVIOUSLY, Simon & Garfunkel.. My cultural music. Loads of instrumentals, far more than not actually. I play the same songs from the same people for months on end and then pick a new lot to abuse. I would never accept the aux chord, would never wanna subject any of my friends to that cluster fuck.
If you haven't for some reason listened to Jane Deezy's music, check it out over on her Sound Cloud.