Wellington City Libraries

Te Matapihi Ki Te Ao Nui

Search options

Janina

People:

Decade(s) active:

Elsewhere online:

On our catalogue:

Music we hold — on our catalogue

The majority of our Wellington CD collection is available from our Te Awe Branch in Brandon St, or able to be reserved for free from our Distribution Centre in Johnsonville.

We say:

Pop, rock and folk with tinges of electronic and classical elements. Janina Hanify sings and plays guitar, clarinet and saxophone adding Theremin to create organic electronic beats, fusing the old with the new.

Since completing her Bachelor of Music and English Literature degree at Victoria University, Janina released her EP ‘Mercy’ in 2004 with cellist Francesca Mountfort. Following her stint as a reporter at Capital Times, she headed to America. In San Francisco, Janina played live to air on ‘beat poet’ Diamond Dave’s show after he heard her perform at an open mic evening, then she moved to London, where she lived for four years working for Trinity College of Music and Classic FM. Janina gigged regularly with London-based Kiwi cellist Rebecca Turner before deciding to take herself home to produce her own album

She moved back home to Wellington from London in 2008 to record and produce her album ‘The Original Ending’, engineering and producing the album herself, alongside brother/musician Stevie Starr, with mixing and mastering by Auckland based producer and VNZMA 2009 Tui Best Engineer Andrew Buckton (Midnight Youth, The Dukes). First single and music video ‘Intentions of a Reluctant Artist’ in the shop window of fashion store Rex Royale on Cuba Street. Surrounded by cupcakes, mannequins and TVs, Janina sang about the precarious relationship an artist can have with following their musical intentions within a musical industry which can at times feel like it takes more interest in the marketing surrounding an artist rather than the music itself.

‘Janina’s voice is beautiful, moving, and wonderfully rich in colour. She has a voice that the ear loves, and she can do that very rare thing, sing something and make you feel it in a special way…highly imaginative and creative writing, and just great music.’
NZ composer John Psathas on ‘The Original Ending’, 2011.

Cover image

JANINA: The Original Ending – New Zealand Musician, June/July 2011.

Cover sourced from Bandcamp. Text sourced from Amplifier. Used with permission.

From the Blog:


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *