Oregon native Janell Marie embraced her desire to sing at an early age. Her love for performance began with 8-track recordings and experiments with a mini microphone and a cassette recorder at home. Janell spent hours writing performances to perform for friends and family. By the age of seven she had seen her first rock concert and knew that she would one day do the exact same thing.Her father, that old 8-track player, and long camping trips with a walkman influenced her love of classic rock music. She grew up listening to the sounds of Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and whatever else she raided from the collection of albums leftover from her parents 60s record collection. She expiremented with a collection of random instruments, finally committing to the one that was most portable, her voice.By middle school, Janell was performing at school both alone and in groups. In high school she performed even more as a soloist and discovered a love for jazz as well. It was then that she began to dedicate much of her free time to studying voice with a private teacher. During this period she was introduced to classical and musical theatre. Throughout college, Janell experimented with many mediums of art expression. She sang in three types of choral groups, studied four different dance mediums, joined the university theatre program, which encompassed the entire spectrum of a stage show, and studied the French language.With some encouragement and guidance, she turned her written collection of thought and reflection into lyrics, and so her songwriting began. She moved to Los Angeles and began recording her freshman album with her producer, TOMI, who has produced such artists as Patti Labelle and the Backstreet Boys. After a year in California, an amazing opportunity presented itself allowing Janell to finish her album in Chicago; so, she returned. Now, almost a year later, Janell has two songs featured in the independent film American Standard, and an album nearly completed. Â
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