Jhane P

ek verlag : the line between fantasy and naked reality is very blurry for your work, to the point where i can never tell which is which. how did this come about?

jhane p. : The majority of my lyrics are from my journal writing which much of it starts off as a form of automatic writing. Also, without getting too heavy into it, there are three places my writing is coming from. Splintered parts of me and the experiences of my colourful life. A hurt child, an angry vengeful teen, and the one closest to me now, who is more of a narrator, emotionally involved but trying to stand on the outside. Maybe she is most healed, but still understanding the importance of exorcising the past. I can tell exactly which alter comes out for each song. Sometimes with the False Maria stuff, Tommy will give me a few lines and I will weave her lines together with mine.

ek verlag : at what point did you decide that you needed to make noise?

jhane p. : I think mostly I just wanted to write. I love to write and it’s always been easier for me to express myself publicly than in intimate situations. Also, I just want to be able to have it all out before me. To remove it all from my experience, my mind, and see it as events and stories instead of memories that pulsed and streamed in my veins and behind my eyes. Sometimes you can see clearer to forgiving and making sense of things when they are out of you. Put it in a song or a movie and now I can cry to it. I can detach from it, begin to heal it. A friend once told me I had the saddest soul but also the most beautiful and the most free. Maybe we are all these things we just need someone to see it. I’m trying to show myself these things. Tommy is the real noise maker in our band. I write and record sounds. I have a very strange relationship with sounds. I’m hyper sensitive for better or worse. I am always engaging with and isolating sounds in my world. The sounds I generally like are not usual and the manipulation of sounds is something that truly excites me! I completely lose myself when I’m recording and mixing. Tommy and I work well together. Even if she and I don’t create in the same room, our parts when we bring them together, marry instantly.

ek verlag : what do you want to hear / feel when you listen to your work? when have you been the most successful in achieving that?

jhane p. : i want to hear that i forgive. whether that is myself or someone else. whether it’s through lust, pain, fear, or anger. i feel successful when my manipulation of sounds work as a soundtrack to help tell my story and facilitates my being able to examine my life, which i often feel distanced from.

ek verlag : how do you stay safe? knowing what you know now, how do you know when its worth taking any risk for the sake of pleasure, wisdom, love, feeling anything, etc?

jhane p. : i suppose i’m a bit fractured so parts of me will be able to take risks, yet parts of me will always remain hidden. to me the most attractive quality in people is vulnerability, it is the biggest gift you can give to someone maybe because it is so hard; requires so much trust. there is a lot of that in a real bdsm relationship and i truly support that. it has nothing to do with the length of time of knowing someone or the normal commonalities of relations but rather an innate trust. a trust in the dominance and submissive aspects as well as allowing one another to express parts of themselves that they otherwise may be suppressing. i like to not suppress things and i fully encourage that in others. so, for me, special people only need apply. ultimately there is no guaranteed safety. experiences pock and mar us all. i’m not looking to be buried unscathed.

ek verlag : are you a spiritual woman? how does catholicism, alchemy, the occult, astrology, etc inform your life and your art?

jhane p. : i am spiritual. more spiritual than terrestrial. i have a pedagogic fascination and interest in high magick and ritual magick and its symbols. from a young age i studied all religions in depth as well as the occult and different esoteric sects, but to me, all this was only something to study and feed my monstrous desire for knowledge. the magick that came easy and natural to me, (born into me) and that which i honed, was a natural coalescence of my early catholic upbringing which holds reverence to saints and their particular significance which i combined with my predilection for natural energies, herbs, roots, fauna and a deep understanding of the unveiling of the spirit world. i never put a name on this and it isn’t a religion or practice as much as just who i am. i suppose the closest thing to it would be the voudou religion or hoodou practices along with a heavy understanding and respect for death and its mysteries. it’s never a part of me that should be regarded, but rather something that one finds out about me if i care about them and am letting them see who i am. someone like you; a loved one. i suppose i may make reference to things magickal in my art at times as it is just an expression of myself and all my art is really an expression of me as opposed to make believe. altho, i keep promising myself, i will one day write a sci fi novel! astrology is something i pay attention to, but it is only a rough guide. i wouldn’t let it be the deciding factor on a decision, more of just a concept that i often find significance in.

ek verlag : do you perform any rituals on a regular basis? what intentions are you setting with them?

jhane p. : i actually am not one who performs rituals. i respect and give power to things like sigils and herbs, things in nature and have great respect for magick and its workings, but no, i don’t perform rituals so to speak. i actually am not performing at all, it is more just in how i do everything. my life is focused on intention and appreciation of instincts and being in-tune with life’s messages and a guidance that i really don’t know how to explain because i have never tried to create it. powders, potions and the like are really just an earthly way to bring people to a spirit but if you already feel that within, the other stuff is just beautification thru art really. but sometimes people need that tangible link. sometimes even i do. life is always evolving. we are so fluid.

ek verlag : what makes you feel beautiful?

jhane p. : i can’t answer this yet. i’m not there maybe. i can tell you what makes me feel sexy. wearing latex clothes tightly smoothed over my body and water on my naked skin. yes, definitely being in water. also, katoptronophilia.