One more step to 100%

Janine tells George Fenwick about making it in the States and coming home

JANINE HAS been waiting for this moment for a long time. It’s been two years since the Kiwi singer, songwriter and producer finished 99, her debut album, and almost 20 since the year it’s named after. After attracting buzz since 2013 with her singles, EPs and mixtapes — especially Hold Me, her breakthrough single featuring Pusha T — Janine says finally releasing her first full-length almost feels like “fantasy”.

“It was meant to come out the year before last, and then it was meant to come out the beginning of last year, then late last year,” says Janine. “It got stuck in one of those situations where [Atlantic Records] were like, ‘We want to build your buzz,’ and then I’m like, ‘Well, I need new music to build the buzz.’”

But Janine’s not frustrated with her label; quite the opposite. “With major labels, there are pros and cons,” she says. “But I also think as artists, it’s easy for us to mope sometimes and not take responsibility. The thing that was hard [is that] no one said it was going to be two years until it comes out. I was just waiting and waiting. But I could have put out a bunch of mixtapes and songs and then do things on my own; I didn’t do that.

“So, like I said, as artists, as much as it’s really really difficult and frustrating, I don’t think you can ever fully rely on anyone else, you’ve got to make sure you make your own plans and keep pushing regardless of what the label does.”

99 is the genesis of a new Janine. Her moniker used to be Janine and the Mixtape; a name she changed as she saw herself poised to have more power as an artist. “When I first came up with it I was still living in New Zealand . . . and now I think, once I put this album out, I feel like I’m big enough as I am, and I want something moving forward that I can connect with when I’m a lot older.”

As for the album’s title, it pays homage to the innovators of her genre and takes aim at the sky. “99, and around the late 90s/early 2000s, I became very conscious of the music that I like, and a lot of the music around that sound influenced the album,” she says. “Mariah Carey was one of my main influences. Then there was so much like Aaliyah, Craig David, Usher . . . a lot of Monica, Brandy, Ashanti, Janet Jackson. I also listened to Celine Dion so there was that pop influence.

“And then also, 99‘ s one step away from being complete. I feel like this process has just been me being one step away from reaching where I want to be.”

The fingerprints of those artists are stamped all over 99, but it’s Janine’s ability to blend these elements with her intoxicating vocals (ranging from breathy and ethereal to anthemic and soulful) and cutting-edge production that enables her to find her unique identity within the genres of RnB, indie and pop.

It’s a dynamic introduction to a rare kind of Kiwi singer — one who has found greater success in the US before building a fanbase back home. Janine moved to Brooklyn in 2012, when she began her professional music career, and signed with Atlantic Records in 2014. And now, fresh off the back of her first headlining tour, Janine says her US fans offer a generosity like none other.

“Fans over here are absolutely amazing. I can’t express how they’re just the best people,” she says. “I’ve got such a huge mixture of people and they go nuts. I have people who wait so many hours before door, and I meet all my fans after shows and that can go on for, like, an hour.”

As for fans in her homeland, watch this space. “Right now it’s hard for me to foresee what’s coming but I definitely am talking about that. When I come back I want to do everywhere in New Zealand.” LAST WEEK, CHVRCHES singer Lauren Mayberry posted a lengthy response to an early Stereogum review of their new album, Love Is Dead. In the review, writer Chris DeVille calls the record a “stumble”, saying the more political songs “function well enough as fight songs for #TheResistance”.

Mayberry slammed the review as “bullshit”, saying: “Don’t minimise the ‘resistance’ as a comical joke… at least I give a f****** s***.”

What Mayberry failed to recognise in her response is that CHVRCHES’ music doesn’t exist in a vacuum. As a commercially successful band that is hoping to sell records, they’re essentially turning politicism into an artistic commodity — particularly on Love is Dead, on which they reach for the most top-40 friendly music of their career so far, and have teed up with a Grammy-winning producer for the first time in Greg Kurstin (Adele, Sia).

That alone invites criticisms such as Stereogum’s, which, in every sense, was a soundly-argued review.

What DeVille nails is that CHVRCHES needed to work out how to establish longevity after they met the zeitgeist head-on with their debut, The Bones of What You Believe. Love Is Dead fails them in that regard. The record starts strong; Graffiti flaunts the band’s ability to write fantastic hooks, while early singles Get Out and My Enemy (featuring The National’s Matt Berninger) balance pop indulgence with the measured allure of mystery that made their first two albums so enticing.

After that, the record largely bottoms out with lazy production and poor songwriting. A number of songs sound confusingly similar; the melody of Forever’s pre-chorus matches the chorus of My Enemy, the song it immediately follows. Identical layered synths and hand claps turn up on three songs; first on Get Out, then, to lacklustre effect, on Never Say Die and Miracle (which features a cringe-worthy vocal effect last heard in 2007 poppunk music).

It’s not all bad, though. Graves, which takes on political apathy in the face of suffering, is an intelligently catchy track, as is the mid-tempo burner Deliverance. There’s enough fun to be had here to make the album an enjoyable listen, but it’s a considerable step down from the layered genius of their early work. As the title — and terrible artwork — alludes to, CHVRCHES are trying to tackle our world’s fading empathy — but they sound rather empty in the process.

George Fenwick