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Meet Jahnah Camille, your new favorite indie rock artist hailing from Birmingham, Alabama. Her second EP My sunny oath! combines complex emotion with raw musicality, emerging with a perspective that’s extremely personal and honest. Before embarking on a run of shows supporting indie darling Blondshell, we chatted with Jahnah about her new music, biggest inspirations, and her vulnerable songwriting process. 

OnesToWatch: The title of your EP is so eye-catching and unique. Where does My sunny oath! come from? 

Jahnah Camille: One of my favorite tracks on the project is called “rocket” and it’s a great example of why I chose the name of the EP. I just thought it sounded really ironic, because a lot of the project is about my anxiety but when you listen to the instrumental, it’s the opposite of what you’d expect lyrically. I thought it sounded nice. 

The EP starts with “close to heaven”, a dreamy track with an intense ending. Tell me about this track and the decision to put it first. 

So, I’ve wanted this track to be the first track of something for almost four years now. I wrote it when I was in high school. It’s about the lifespan of a relationship. I’ve been planning it at shows the whole time and it just has a certain energy about it that just feels like an opener. 

How was the process of making it over that long period of time? 

I've had the song itself for around four years. But in the studio, it only took a day or so. I was really inspired by Elliot Smith and “Everything Means Nothing To Me”. Because I'd recorded this song a couple times before, I was looking for an approach to the production that did it justice. I just knew it needed some piano and it needed to explode. 

“what do you do?" the lead single, has been on repeat for me. How did you decide to make it the first introduction to the EP?

I don't have a lot of songs with happy, positive energy and this is as close as I've ever gotten. I thought, “I haven’t released music in a while. Let’s give the kids something sweet to start.” 

“rocket” is also one of my favorites. Tell me about making this song and what it means to you. 

When I wrote that song, I was preparing to make the whole project about my current experience with misogyny. I felt like the way the world was viewing me was changing so rapidly. I'm sure something happened with a man the day I wrote it and I just needed to talk about it. 

The instrumental of “summer’s scorch” is so gorgeous. How did you write this song? 

I wrote “summer’s scorch” in the middle of the process of making this project. The songs that I brought to the studio just weren't doing it for me. I was thinking about a little crush I had at the time and I got to work. I wrote that song, and the last track, at 5 AM before I had to go into the studio at 10 AM. I was really anxious about leaving and coming out of that week without the music that I wanted, so I was waking up early in the morning, anxious to write. This is one of the songs that came from that. This one was also inspired by Elliot Smith. I needed a different angle to write from so I wondered, “What tunings does he play?”

This project explores your anxiety, do you feel like it inspires you to write? Channeling your anxiety into music? 

My body naturally exists in an anxious state more than a regulated state. Growing up, I was really, really uncomfortable and anxious. That's where the foundation for me as a songwriter was laid. So it totally makes sense that I could do my best in a situation like that. 

You open “sit with you (pain)” with the lyric, “You like it when I'm real, until I'm real with you.” That stopped me in my tracks. Tell me about this song. 

The song is about having a really complicated relationship with someone, but still having empathy for them and trying to make peace with it. I was definitely fully in tears, in a bad place when writing it and I think it shows. 

The final track is “away, again." Why did you decide to close with this track and what do you think listeners will take away from the EP?

This song is different from the rest of my discography, for sure. The day I wrote it, I just woke up and thought, “This is what I want to do today.” I think that's what people can expect from me as an artist. What you’re going to hear is dependent on how I’m feeling at that exact moment. I knew that “away, again” felt like an interlude or a closer, similar to how “close to heaven” just felt like an opener. The song ends with “away, again” repeated, so it felt like a farewell.

You’re about to tour with Blondshell, which is so exciting. What have you learned from touring in the past that you're going to bring with you? 

People really just want to see you have fun every night. So just focus on having fun because it's a really short period of time until you have to come back to real life. That's the best way to get through every night. Especially when you're playing to crowds that might not be familiar with the music yet. If you're having fun, they're gonna have fun. I just start doing some sort of standup routine. I also start flirting a lot, I can't help it. Having people look at me makes me want to do both of those things.

Do you have a favorite Blondshell song?

“Kiss City” is such a classic. It was in my top 5 songs last year. It's just so raunchy and sweet. I love it. 

I saw that Liz Phair is one of your influences and of course, Elliot Smith. But is there anything else that inspired My sunny oath? 

I didn't really expect it to be grungy as it was. “Whip-Smart” by Liz Phair was my biggest inspiration at the time…and probably ever. I also wanted to take inspiration from Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions and Sade, but find a new sound. I actually ended up just abandoning it and doing what felt appropriate for each song.

My last question is of course, who are your OnesToWatch? Who are you listening to? 

They Are Gutting a Body of Water, for sure. Also mood room, Laveda, and I really like the rapper Mercury. 

Listen to My sunny oath! by Jahnah Camille now: