www.myspace.com/janegilmore
1 What inspired you to start writing your own songs?
Jane: Bob Dylan, hard to pin-point
2 What are your favourite albums?
Jane: That’s tough. Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? by Of Montreal (going to a concert for them Nov. 1st!), definitely Graceland by Paul Simon, Odelay by Beck, and I’m going to cut myself off at Transatlanticism by Death Cab for Cutie
3 What instruments do you play?
Jane: I play the guitar technically, but my vocal skills far surpass anything I do on that.
4 If you could be an inanimate object for a day what would you be?
Jane: Um… probably a book or a camera, but I’d have to be a high quality book or camera.
5 How do you feel about your last record (“Knowledge Is Dangerous” free to download at our store)?
Jane: Mixed feelings. When you’re recording with a crappy $30 mic, it’s not like it’s easy to get the exact sound you’re looking for, that said, you always have a few songs that you’re thinking, “Man, I killed that one! (in the good way)”
6 What’s the first word that comes into your head?
Jane: Pineapple (I’m making Pineapple-coconut loaf cake next week)
7 Who are your biggest musical influences?
Jane: Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, Martha and the Vandellas (the first kind of really good music I ever got into was Motown in about the sixth or seventh grade on a family trip to the Grand Canyon), Neutral Milk Hotel, and probably more recently several female (usually)acoustic artists (Mirah, New Buffalo, Kate Nash, etc.)
8 How does it feel to be a “voice for hire”?
Jane: First of all, that implies I’m getting paid. I have mixed feelings like I’m not wholly involved in the record enterprises and all the creative juices, but hopefully that will be amended in the near future.
9 What’s the story with mollusks vs philosophy?
Jane: They’re both great, but biologists I have found are often quite pretentious and have their minds set on “proving” things that are really inferred so recently I have been getting into more theoretical methods of discovering truth. So right now, I’m double majoring in both, but it might just be a matter of time before I dump mollusks. I haven’t really, REALLY decided yet.
10 What are your favourite films?
Jane: Anything Wes Anderson, especially The Royal Tenenbaums. Anything Jeunet, especially Amelie, quite the inspiration for my life. I guess V for Vendetta even though it’s pro-terrorism, it was well done and pretty libertarian.
11 Who are you voting for in the US election?
Jane: Why must we mingle things as pure as music with things as dirty as politics? I’m writing in Ron Paul
12 What makes you happy on a shitty day?
Jane: Plato, Emilyn Brodsky, Mark Twain, Dr. Nina Mikhalevsky
13 If you could be someone else for a day who would you be?
Jane: Probably Dr. Nina Mikhalevsky IF I had to. I’m perfectly content with me
14 Flying kites or building sandcastles?
Jane: Definitely the former. For a budding marine biologist, I really hate the beach. I mean, the water’s cold, sand gets blown really hard against your body, and you get burned… always.
15 If you weren’t a legendary singer/songwriter what would you be?
Jane: I think your premise is wrong. First of all, I am not a legendary singer/songwriter, nor is it my main desire to be so. I will end up in the end as a 1. Malacologist, 2. Philosophy professor, 3. Entrepenuer
16 What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
Jane: Live the philosophical life with integrity (arete) and examination (paraphrased) from Dr. Nina Mikhalevsky
17 What was the last gig you went to?
Jane: Um, if you mean for me, that would be never, at least really. I did perform Ben Kweller’s “Lizzy” at a talent show in 12th grade which started one of the most disastrous romances of my life. Otherwise, I went to an Islands concert in DC in May.
18 How would you describe your music to anyone who hasn’t heard it before?
Jane: Acoustic Cynicism, Vulcan Sterility
19 Who’s your favourite Beatle?
Jane: N/A! I don’t really like any of them. If I really, really, really had to choose, I would say George Harrison because he seemed to be most down to earth, however, I refuse to evaluate the actual truth value of that statement.
20 What next for Jane Gilmore?
Jane: Open a bakery in the mid-west because college is a waste of time and application is more important than multiple guess and because baking is so satisfying. But before that, I will live the Thoreau/Walden lifestyle at some point. I will never cease, hopefully, to evaluate myself, reasonably and objectively (of course, how can we count on that?)
I’m sorry to report that no one lives in the Midwest anymore. There are literally three of us out here. Everyone else left for he coast, with the exception of Katrina refugees, who are still riding it out until tornado season. Although it would be nice to have some bread in these parts. When thinking about moving to the Midwest, you must ask yourself two questions: 1. Do you like drinking? 2. Are you prepared to be married? Single people don’t survive out here. Anyone close to the age of thirty and unmarried is either divorced and damaged goods or gay.
And Kate Nash is the shit.