In this interview spotlight, I speak with Tom Vickers and Jesse Jensen of Jane In Space about the latest project, motivations, challenges and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
Tom: We are based in Brooklyn, New York and our music amalgamates industrial, electronic rock, darkwave, and synth-pop. We’ve heard some colorful descriptions for our songs, like “industrial Beck,” “two dinosaurs seducing each other then killing each other,” and “Bowie or Damon Albarn singing over Deftones.”
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to stay the course?
Jesse: Honestly, hearing Nine Inch Nails’ double-album “The Fragile” pushed me down this path. So getting the chance to work with one of the architects of that album, Keith Hillebrandt, has been surreal. As for staying the course, I couldn’t stop making music if I tried; there’s just too much to learn, be it compositional approaches or synthesis techniques.
How is your new release different than previous ones? Did you set out to accomplish anything specific?
Tom: The new release is more direct and aggressive than our first album. The first album was methodically tweaked over two years, while we deliberately made this record more immediate.
Jesse: I really wanted this record to sound like the imminence of violence, but not the actual violence itself. I was very inspired by acts like Ben Frost and HEALTH, who make such powerful dissonance that listening makes you feel like you’re actually getting cut open. But I wanted to try and evoke the slightly different feeling of hearing the chainsaw revving up and knowing what’s coming… before you get sliced: fewer vocal takes, more frayed edges.
Do you face any challenges as an indie musician in a digital age? On the flip side, how has technology helped you (if it has)?
Tom: In the digital age music is at your fingertips all the time. It’s amazing that our music is so accessible to people all around the world even though we’re indie. The flipside is that it is easy to ignore music — you can hear ten seconds of a track and if it doesn’t immediately grab you you can skip it, even though it might have ended up your favorite if you’d listened to the rest of it.
Jesse: The way we work and the music we make are not possible without technology. But at the same time, yeah — everything is so disposable now.
Where can we follow you online and hear more music?
Tom: Follow us at facebook.com/listentojaneinspace. You can hear our music anywhere and everywhere: Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, Google Play, SoundCloud, YouTube, etc.
Anything else before we sign off?
Tom: Thanks for having us. “Gorerunner” came out on July 13.
Jesse: The songs really take on a new life live, so make it out if you can!
