The chemistry between band members is often what causes artists to stand out amongst others. When artists understand each other emotionally, and musically it can create something extraordinary. That is the case for LA-based pop-rock bank Stereo Jane. Formed of two sisters, Sydney and Mia, the duo creates music that spans many genres and highlights their variety of inspirations. They aim to take this to the next level with an upcoming collaboration with R3hab, as he remixes their new hit single “I Don’t Wanna Talk About Me,” releasing September 18th.
What inspired you to make the big move over to Los Angeles to focus on music?
We’ve wanted to move to California since we were kids! We finally moved because we signed to Atlantic Records when we were in high school. Once we graduated, we knew we needed to be where all of the action was happening, so we moved the summer of 2016!
When did you first start playing music together?
We started playing instruments around age 4-5 and formed our band at age 8!
Who are some of your biggest female rock inspirations?
Do you feel women are represented enough in the genre? We would definitely love to see more women in the industry. It’s not very often that we meet a female A&R and wed love to see more of it. We’ve come across a lot of really sick female musicians here in LA too and it’s so inspiring! Our biggest inspirations when we were young were Sheryl Crow, Aretha Franklin, and Hayley Williams!
How did you achieve your first ‘big break’?
When we were around the age of 12 we played DTE Music Theater in Detroit and we warmed up for the 4 tops! That was one of the coolest things we ever did!
What led to you to listen to such a wide variety of music and how do you feel it has influenced your sound?
When we were kids we would always listen to whatever our dad had playing. We were up on a big rock background listening to everything from Led Zepplin to STP to Aretha Franklin. We’ve had so many different sounds over the years, it’s kind of crazy remembering all of the phases we’ve gone through. When you’ve been doing it for so long you realize your sound is always changing!
Do you feel being sisters and having so much in common makes the collaboration process a lot easier? How else has it been influential?
Obviously working with family has its ups and downs, but for us, it makes it easier to be honest and straight-up about how we’re feeling and what we’re liking.
What is the story behind “I Don’t Wanna Talk About Me”?
We wrote it during one of the first sessions after leaving our Label. The producer started playing these dreamy chords and we loved them. We wanted to go from there and try to do something super out of the box for the chorus. We brought in a funky beat and started playing some chords on top. We loved the idea of the contrasting production so we decided to make the lyrics do the same! We wanted to showcase our 2 opposite moods. The verse is when we’re feeling super emotional and sad and the chorus is when we couldn’t care less and want to ignore all of our feelings.
What led to the collaboration with R3hab? How do you think EDM/Dance audiences will respond?
We got an email from our management telling us R3hab was going to do a remix and we were so stoked! We think his audience will really love what he came up with. It’s darker than what he normally does but it sounds so cool!
Are you excited to get out and start playing shows once that becomes possible in the current climate?
YES YES YES. We miss it so much. We’ve been dying not being able to play in front of a crowd. It’s just not the same on live stream!
Has being in a more restricted situation helped your creatives processes or hindered them?
We have our good days and our bad days. Some days were feeling super creative and others we’re completely lost. This pandemic has been rough on not just us but a lot of people in the industry. We do really well collaborating with other people so that’s been really difficult too!
With the release of more and more songs, will we be seeing an EP release anytime soon?
We’re working towards releasing an album! We have a bunch of other songs we’ve been wanting to release for a while now. We also have another single coming out after the remix!