When the Amsterdam singer-songwriter Jana Mila (pronounced Yah-nuh MEE-lah) began writing a song called “Chameleon,” she thought she was writing about someone else—a friend who seemed to be changing her colors to please other people. “But the more I lived with the song, the more I felt like I was writing about myself,” she admits. “Doesn’t everybody try to reflect other people? Don’t I change my own colors in order to be accepted? Especially when you’re young, you can lose yourself in other people if you don’t know who you are.” That is the central idea behind her debut album, which introduces Mila as an artist deeply committed to self-reckoning and self-possession. “The album is a conversation with myself, a way of getting to know myself better. There are little fears woven into every lyric, but there’s also advice to myself. I’m writing to find a part of myself that has some wisdom.” Musically, you’ll hear influences of Laurel Canyon folk, Nashville country, and 70’s rock, with a definitively modern sound.
Thursday 11/21: Jana Mila – Chameleon
