Liz Janes
Liz Janes came of age in the Olympia,WA punk-improv scene. Her songwriting practice sprung from the empowerment of collaborative noise improvisation and combined her unusual experimentalism with her love of 1950’s pop music, 1960’s singer-songwriters, and early American blues, gospel and folk musicians via the field recordings of John and Alan Lomax.
Though she initially kept her songwriting private, her lo-fi demos were discovered by composer/producer Sufjan Stevens, leading to her deb...
Liz Janes came of age in the Olympia,WA punk-improv scene. Her songwriting practice sprung from the empowerment of collaborative noise improvisation and combined her unusual experimentalism with her love of 1950’s pop music, 1960’s singer-songwriters, and early American blues, gospel and folk musicians via the field recordings of John and Alan Lomax.
Though she initially kept her songwriting private, her lo-fi demos were discovered by composer/producer Sufjan Stevens, leading to her debut album Done Gone Fire (2001 Asthmatic Kitty). Liz toured supporting Sufjan as an opener and Illinoisemaker in 2005. Her follow up releases were successively; Poison & Snakes (2004), Liz Janes & Create(!) (2005), Say Goodbye (2010), an incredible selection of artists covering her songs on Time & Space (2011), and Slow City (2016) Liz has collaborated with artists including Arrington De Dionyso, Castanets, Chris Schlarb and Create(!), The Blackheart Procession, Jandek, RAFTER, and Therefore.
After the completion of Slow City (2016) Liz took a hiatus from her personal songwriting practice and has returned to music via collaboration with Wayne Feldman (Therefore) contributing vocals to the songs Wayne wrote for his album Everasting andZilla No.1 (2024).
Her current music practice has returned to collaborative drone-noise-experimentalism. She is a student of Pauline Oliveros’ legacy of Deep Listening and truly believes that Music is Everything.
Liz is living and working in Indianapolis, IN