Good Things In Unlikely Places

The last two months have been strange for me. I got sick (like so many other people), and then veryy, veryyyy slowly, I got un-sick. The sick part was pretty rough, we all know how it goes…. You get sick, you watch too much TV, you drink soup, take too many vitamins, rinse and repeat until you feel better. The biggest thing that was different about this kind of sick was that for the first time in my life, I lost my ability to sing. Before this time, I don’t ever remember a time that I couldn’t just open my mouth and sing, without discomfort, without really trying all that hard, without warming up (like I should..), and honestly, without almost any effort. My voice just always showed up. What a bloody champ it was!

Good things in unlikely places.

A month passed after being sick and I figured that surely by now I’d be good to go! But nope. Another week passed, warming up, warming up some more, attempting to sing. Nothing. I was pretty frustrated now. My very short fuse of patience had been used up in the month before and I’d wanted it all to be back to normal. I’d cancelled too many gigs, postponed recordings (twice!) and just wanted to bloody sing. But, you guessed it, nothing changed.

Good things in unlikely places.

A few more weeks passed and my voice came back little by little. Still today it’s not what it was, but it’s not uncomfortable to sing, and for that I’m beyond happy about.

Good things in unlikely places.

Before the last two months, I don’t think I ever really considered the idea that something I enjoyed so very deeply, singing, wouldn’t be always available at my beck and call.

And now that I’m here. I’m surprisingly glad I got sick.

Good things in unlikely places.

I’m glad because it changed my mind about so many things. It changed my mind about my voice, about why I should exercise, about why I shouldn’t overfill my calendar (as much), why I record music and write songs and ultimately reminded me of all the things I find truly important.

Good things in unlikely places.

x HJ

Dear August,

Phew, just in the nick of time. It’s only a few days out until September dawns upon us and (fingers crossed) it’s the month of singing songs to faces (well, mask covered faces), and you can bet I’m gonna sing my little heart out.

I’ve spent the past couple of weeks working my retail day job, trying to write songs, failing to write songs, succeeding at writing one song (that has potential to be good), soaking in nature, going on walks and drinking way too much coffee. All and all it’s been quiet and not too shabby overall.

BUT! September is going to be a bloody good month (all things going to plan)! I’m playing a show at The Junk Bar in Ashgrove on the 10th, a festival called Neurum Creek Festival on the 12th, and I’m playing as part of Brisbane Festival (yep! you heard right!!! BRISBANE FESTIVAL) on the 24th! Jeeze Louize, I’m gonna be filled to the brim with all those singing endorphins!!

If you want to come along to any of my shows click HERE

I’m also going to be working on a brand new song that will be released towards the end of the year which I’m very excited for so keep your eyes and ears peeled!

Sending lots of goodness to you all,

x HJ

Dear July,

I can’t believe it’s half way through the year, it’s absolute madness.

You were meant to be a month that kicked off the first series of my ‘Friends of Folk’ tour. A real bummer there! It’s sad that we had to postpone the series for a time when life is a bit more settled with restrictions and general ease in life, but it’s given me a nice little rest to recover from a pretty busy first half of the year.

What was meant to be weekends full of driving and setting up shows, playing shows and meeting some new folk friends, instead has been spent unwinding, taking time to (try) relax and (secretly) enjoy not having any critical deadlines.

It’s also given me time to start some new adventures, singing some backing vocals for friends, learning to play the piano (eeep, haven’t played it in about 10 years), and I’ve been slowly planning out recording some new music.

That’s about it for the minute, just trying to take things slowly,

Hope whoever you are, reading this, you’re well and staying kind to yourself and those around you.

Until next time,

x HJ

new things

I think I have landed on the ground now.

It always takes me a little while after being swallowed by my music world before I feel like I’m human again. The past few months have been one big blob of things I never dreamt I’d be doing. I would bet you all the chocolate in the world that I would have never imagined organising a tour series, or releasing 3 songs in less than 3 months, or playing more gigs than all of last year combined. But it happened and just like that, I close off that chapter and I start to wedge open a new one.

The new chapter begins with a new song and it’s out today. It’s called ‘Something Else’ and it’s a project that is a really really long time coming.

This song is the final release from my first ever recording project. We recorded the song initially in a beautiful Farm Studio with Geoff McGahan with some of the best musicians I know, Bradley McCaw, Steele Chabau and Darran Muller. Two years later, I got in touch with Yanto Browning (who’s won awards for pretty much everything) and he helped me finish the song with the help of Danny Widdicombe who played electric guitar on the track.

Funny story about Danny Widdicombe (who if you don’t know, go listen to him, he’s great) during my studies we had one-on-one songwriting workshops in the final year and Danny was my tutor (this was a good four years ago). For the class we had to write a song a week, and funnily enough ‘Something Else’ was one of them. So it was a full circle when Danny agreed to play on the track, super stoked about that!

Anywho, enough from me. If you get a chance to listen to the song, let me know what you think.

Here’s the link,

Until next time,

x HJ

three shows in

I have just completed the first little part of my ‘Songwriter’s Summer Series’ tour in Southern Queensland. Yay! It was three days, which seems so small but felt so big. We drove from Brisbane to Stanthorpe, Stanthorpe to Goondiwindi, then to Toowoomba, and now home again. It was everything exciting, wholesome, stressful, demanding, and exhausting, all bundled with a whole lot of learning about touring, performing, being a friend, professionalism, speaking your mind and so many other things.

So if you’re interested, here are some things I’ve learnt so far:

1. Being your own sound person is quite difficult and exhausting.

   You have to set up all your equipment (it’s all so friggen heavy), you have to know how it fix something when it’s making strange sounds, and in the end, you can only pray to the good people upstairs that the sound is enjoyable for those listening.

2. Planning and preparing is wonderful, but you need flex.

   I planned everything, I had snacks, I had water, I made lists, I had FULL car insurance (nothing’s going wrong on these three days I would tell myself)…. until it did….Sunday night comes and we couldn’t drive home due to flash flooding …. so I eventually flex up. We stay put, I book us a motel that hopefully doesn’t smell like old people (it did smell like old people) and we ate KFC, drank tea, watched trash TV, played UNO and laughed at the inconvenience of the uncontrollable weather.

1. Taking risks is everything

   I have realised that I feel most alive when I am moving at a rate just slow enough to not trip over my own two feet, and just fast enough that I’m on the cusp of spilling over. It’s the perfect balancing act. This tour might not look like a risk from someone looking on, but for me it’s a big giant leap into a world that I have no idea about (and because I’m a perfectionist that’s bloody terrifying!). So in planning and playing out this series of shows (which is something I’m super proud of), it’s a big risk. A big juicy risk with great chance to fail and succeed in equal measure.

So far we have succeeded in many ways, and failed in a few as well. It’s a great lesson for me that failures don’t always knock the wind out of you, sometimes they are quiet and can float on without being made into giant mountains of sucky-ness.

We head off on Friday for another weekend of show on the ‘Songwriter’s Summer Series’ and I can’t wait!

After our show in Stanthorpe at Little Theatre Co.

(Our exhaustion and exhilaration captured beautifully) feat. Erin Ellis, Mia Amrisyanda & me. Taken by one of our fav people we met on our adventures, Kathryn (from Kathryn the Band)

'Good Things Take Time'

26.02.21

‘Home’

Maisy Taylor & Hello Jane

I released a new song in collaboration with singer/songwriter Maisy Taylor, it’s called ‘Home’ and you can listen to it HERE, or on your fav music spots…

We wrote the song about a year ago on my kitchen table. We were drinking tea and chit-chatting about nothing in particular and I suggested we should try write a song, it was quite random really but I thought, heck, why not! So we got a piece of chart paper, a pen and a guitar, and we got writing.

I set my alarm for five to eight, so I can stay in bed a little longer

I tried to ignore what’s at my front, my eyes begin to wonder

It only took us about an hour if I can remember correctly, and that was it.

out to the mountains, out to the sea

if I could remember how it felt to be

out in the mountains, out in the sea

in the middle of somewhere, just one guarantee

We played (& loved) the song at any live show we did together and then figured we should record a live(ish) version so we can release it together. We recorded the song with Brisbane Producer/Engineer Jon Marsden and kept it for a little while before we kicked ourselves in the bums and set a release date.

A friend of Maisy’s did the artwork, Monte. Check out his work HERE. And we sent a few emails to try get some local write-ups (insert mostly cricket sounds) but we got some lovely comments about the song (see below). Well worth it I think!

‘one of the nicest songs I’ve heard in a long time’

‘greatest breath of fresh air, I know i’ll be listening all day’

‘I’ve played it four times already, I love, love, love it’ (thanks mum)

x HJ