Jana Losey may be from the tiny town of Lawrenceville, Penn., but she has the familiarity and warmth of a seasoned Ithaca local. A popular act on the local music circuit, Losey offers up a refreshing alternative to the typical female singer-songwriter type. She can be found playing with either her full backing band or a simple pared-down duo with band member Melanie Peters. Losey name checks female singer-songwriters Natalie Merchant and Lisa Loeb as influences as well as classic pop acts the Beatles, James Taylor and Cat Stevens. Losey listens to equal amounts of local musicians such as Kathy Ziegler, The Splendors and The Sutras and world music such as Nordic pop and opera. All of these influences come to fruition on her CD release Bittersweet.
After a life in avant-garde performance art and theatre, Losey fully embraces the traditional, comforting structure of a simple pop song, while still maintaining a potent performative aspect to her live shows. "I never really wrote pop songs before I met Melanie," Losey explains. "But she's so good at writing hooks and she's so familiar with pop structures, that I started and I couldn't really stop.
"I never thought I would appreciate having a format like that but I really do," Losey says. "I think I've grown as an artist because of it, this form that I've grown to use. Structurally, even though it seems so simple, I don't think I'm sacrificing my artistic integrity at all; when you know the formula, you can mix it up and make something new and great."
Losey understands the problems of breaking into the music industry. "NYC is a really saturated market, and I think Ithaca is too," Losey says. "There's so much music and people have so many choices. It dilutes everything quite a bit and you have to be a really big show to make anybody take notice."
Fortunately, Losey's keen business sense (she handles her own promotion), open-minded outlook, and tight network of friends and musicians have helped her tackle the overwhelming music industry. "We're grown our own little community," Losey says. "So wherever you are, you have somebody in the city... that makes the world a little smaller. It makes you be really creative in your strategies in how you do things."
Losey hopes that Ithacans will be receptive to her upbeat, sassy pop tunes. "We're not quite as rootsy as everyone would like us to be," Losey laughs. "But there are so many good listeners to pull from, so we'll just keep plugging away. We've played shows in front of thousands of people and no one listened at all. I'd rather have ten people listening really intently."
Losey will play ABC Cafe Sat., 10 p.m.
Natasha Li Pickowicz - Ithaca Times (Oct 18, 2006)