Have You Heard
Gets Big TV Break JANA’s
Small-town PA Girl
S songs?
he sat at the café table, a collage of
color: bright-purple hoodie, boldly pat-
terned blue scarf, and the pink cheeks
that the Twin Tiers’ chilly spring air
requires everyone to wear in late March. The warm
expression in her kind brown eyes belied the cold and
welcomed me to her table. Singer/songwriter Jana
Losey proved to be as engaging face-to-face as she is
in her soulful music, as she shed light on her upcoming
projects, including a new album, her own reality/variety
show, and a new performance series held by her record
company, Posey Tunes.
Having grown up in Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania,
Losey understands what it is to be a small-town person
with big dreams. She started exploring her musical
talents when she was eight years old and continued to
study seriously at Ithaca College. Leaving college early to
join Squok Opera, an avant-garde troupe, Losey spent
five years touring and ultimately went to Broadway.
Burned out and needing time for herself, she took a
sabbatical from music and moved to California to work
in wardrobe at the La Jolla Playhouse and later became
a licensed masseuse with her own practice. During this
time, Losey recovered some of her drive to create and
“music started creep back in.” She joined a cover band
and started writing again with band mate, Melanie Pe-
ters. Now her business and life partner, Peters played an
integral role in helping Losey rediscover her voice.
“That really restarted my joy in music,” says Losey.
“Slowly Melanie and I started saving some of the songs
we wrote for ourselves with the idea that we might sell
them to other artists.” Fate had other plans, however,
and soon her first album, Bittersweet, was given life. Peters
used some forty hours of studio timed owed to her to
record their songs. “Soon we were writing a song a week
and then going in to record it,” says Losey with a hint of
awe in her voice. “We still think of Bittersweet as a bit of
a miracle; a kind of really wonderful mistake.”
From there, Losey decided to become a full-time
musician, touring the country and getting airtime for
some of her songs, including “London Holiday,” which
was a local favorite on radio stations across the Twin
Tiers in 2006. They moved to Losey’s childhood home,
a Lawrenceville farm, and started touring, first with a
band and then as a duo. “Right now, it’s basically me and
Melanie touring in a little hybrid car and doing acoustic
sets,” explained Losey.
This is one of the many things Losey speaks on when
she visits area high school in hopes of raising awareness
of her upcoming album, Blocks, her reality/variety show,
The Song You Heard, and her desire to get kids involved
and confident about their talents. “Being from a small
area, I think some of the kids here have a general lack
of confidence that they can do whatever they want in
life,” said Losey. “City kids might have more exposure to
theater and music but it’s so important for kids here to
page 16
By Dara Riegel
know that there’s no reason why they can’t do it just
because they’re from here. I want to do everything I can
to help them understand that.”
One way she hopes to get that through to kids is
through The Song You Heard, which first aired in March
on Big Fox stations from Wellsboro to Rochester. Each
monthly episode features Losey’s travels and the artists
she meets along the way in cities big or small. The epi-
sodes will then run weekly until a new one airs.
“It’s cool for people to see familiar places and people
on TV,” said Losey. “It might make performing seem
more accessible to kids if they see their hometown or
someone from it on a real TV show.” She also sees this
opportunity as a way to bring more attention to some of
the lesser-known artists she encounters along the way.
Each show will show the highs and lows of touring, but
will also showcase interviews of and performances by
different artists, as well as live music by Losey.
Part of one of the upcoming episodes will be shot
at Losey’s April 4 concerts/album-release parties at
Elmira’s Clemens Center. At the schools she has visited,
Losey made sure to offer all students half-price tickets
to the shows, acknowledging the importance of get-
ting teens involved with music, as well as her show. “It
should be a nice tie-in,” said Losey. “This episode of
MOUNTaiN HOME
JANA LOSEY
Big FOX TV: Check local listings for The Song
You Heard
Clemens Center performances: 7 and 9 p.m.
April 4; tickets $20 (half price with student
ID; must call ahead)
Information: www.janalosey.com or (570 )
504-5589. Search MTV’s Web site to vote for
Losey’s music video
show will include part of the concert, backstage shots,
and some of the music from our new CD, Blocks.
More structured and thought-out than Bittersweet,
Blocks was a “very fulfilling album to make,” with Losey
and Peters taking the opportunity to set out to make a
whole album, while paying attention to “the moods of
each song” as they pertained to the whole. “To me, the
whole album is much more important than making a
few hit singles,” explained Losey. “I feel like people are
getting tired of the whole ‘hits culture’ and are ready, as
a society, to go back to more of a grass roots approach
and really listen to each song.”
In that same vein, Losey hopes to invigorate the
region’s interest in new talents through a concert series
she will host at Corning’s Radisson Hotel. From May
through October, 2008, Losey and Peter’s record com-
pany, Posey Tunes, will bring a new act to the Radisson
each month, featuring artists from all over the country,
including those from New York, Buffalo and California.
“We want to bring in artists who are on the cusp
of great success, and introduce them to the region,
in hopes of gaining them attention and bringing new
sounds to the region,” said Losey. She is also hoping to
bring a few teenage artists from other areas to both per-
form and visit the schools with her to further reinforce
her point that “you don’t have to be from a big city to
be a great artist.”
Dara Riegel is a frequent contributor to Mountain Home magazine.
april 2008