JANEE

Whether its on stage, on the catwalk, or even in a lecture, Janee is turning heads everywhere she goes. Rajveer Kathwadia joins her in the studio to talk music and modelling.

"Shes good innit", Bless Beats underwhelmingly states when asked why hes working with new songstress Janee. But to be honest, his succinct analysis as to why hes joining a growing list of people wanting to collaborate with the Manchester chick is pretty much spot on. She appears on forthcoming singles from Bless Beats and Presidential Sounds, as well as having already recorded with Wiley and featured on the lead single from Roll Deep’s latest album. But all that is just the sprinkling on the Knickerbocker Glory of a career that has already included walking the catwalk for DKNY in Milan, recording as part of a West End cast at the infamous Abbey Road studios and even performing at Buckingham Palace for Prince Edward

It all started for Janee at the tender age of eight when she began attending a local dance academy before joining the North Cheshire Theatre School, getting her first experience of singing and acting. "I was one of those proper stage show kids," grins the girl herself. Parts in theatre, commercials and even a film soon followed, and she caught the trained eyes and ears of Andrew Lloyd Webbers National Youth Music Theatre. The rubber-faced composer and his school took the young Janee to the Edinburgh Festival and allowed her to sing as part of the Bugsy Malone cast at Abbey Road as well as in front of monarchy.

Aside from acting, singing and dancing, the talented Mancunian has also tried her hand (as well as the rest of her body) at modelling after an agency in Milan asked for Janee to fly over to Italy to run her leggy frame down the catwalk. A few months of going back and forth and living out of a suitcase and Janee has adorned garms from the likes of DKNY, Vivienne Westwood and saucy lingerie label Agent Provocateur. “I just used to wing it,” she nonchalantly shrugs her shoulders of strutting her stuff. “Watch a bit of Fashion TV and copy that. You’ll get the walk, the swagger and then you’re gone.”

Janee’s not just a pretty face though, as she stuck to her education and is now the proud owner of a BA Honours Degree in Music Industry Management and Marketing, “I learned about the legal side of the industry and marketing, PR, that sort of thing, so nobody can spin me over,” she reveals. “Don’t mess with me!” She draws on her modelling experience during the photoshoot for this very article before her and Bless Beats whisk us away to their east London studio where Janee really feels at home; singing and song-writing.

“I don’t mind doing a bit of acting or modelling on the side, but music is what my heart is really in,” she reveals as Bless gives us exclusive plays of tracks from her forthcoming album due next year. As well as a demo version of another funky electro number entitled Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Janee shows her diversity with the acoustic audio treat Billy Ray and a duet with fellow up-and-coming crooner Charlie Brown called Apologise. The album will follow on from singles Sex In The City with Tinchy and Bless, and Presidential Sounds’ Touch My, a track where Janee gets her Sasha Fierce on to reveal a racier Beyoncé-like doppelganger. “It’s a bit rude,” she admits. “But it's just my alter-ego!"

Unlike many vocal fronts, Janee writes all of her music and has even penned tracks she thinks a guitar girl could jump on. "Some of my writing is poppier, but I've also done rockier stuff, which wouldnt necessarily suit me but Id like to give it to someone else, a cool edgy kind of chick." So aside from music, is there anything else around the corner for the talented PYT? "Id like to go back and do a little stint in the West End I think," she reveals of her ambitious plans. "Performing on stage takes a certain amount of discipline so its good training, and I also wanna start up the dancing again - burlesque maybe - itll help with the live show. Im not trying to be sexy or anything, but I just wanna have fun."