Jahnah Camille - My Sunny Oath [LP]

For Jahnah Camille, there was never a backup plan. Overhearing her father's guitar lessons, she first picked up the instrument at four years old. By age ten, she was writing her own songs. Opportunities to open for artists like Clairo and Soccer Mommy led to Jahnah's burgeoning status as a keenly self-examining indie rocker in the Birmingham scene, otherwise saturated with punk and hardcore bands, with whom she played many of her early DIY shows alongside. Set in the pressure cooker of fresh adulthood, Camille's defiant new EP My sunny oath! Pairs the 20-year-old artist (pronounced "Hannah") with producer Alex Farrar (Wednesday, Indigo de Souza, MJ Lenderman). A guitar-based grab at self-acceptance, Camille's latest EP romps through alt-rock, lo-fi grit, and sardonic grunge with unflinching momentum. The six-song statement channels Jahnah's era-agnostic songwriting influences, from The Sundays and Liz Phair to Minnie Riperton and Japanese Breakfast. Her second release with label home Winspear (Slow Pulp, Barrie, Wishy), the new collection follows Jahnah's 2024 EP, i tried to freeze light, but only remember a girl. She wrote most of My sunny oath! #before a breakout year, including tours opening for Luna LI, Tops, and Blondshell. Set in stormy self-development, My sunny oath! Pushes through the muck of outgrown relationships, misogyny, and hometown anxiety. "The first year after I graduated high school was kind of horrifying," says Jahnah. "I had just basically broken up with most of my band. I wasn't going to college. I was seeing how everyone else that I had known growing up, their lives were changing. I knew that whatever happened in my life, it wasn't going to be that, and there wasn't really any proof that things were going in a positive direction."Wheels began turning as she drove from Alabama to Asheville, North Carolina last summer to record at Alex's Drop of Sun Studios. There, the duo envisioned an immersive, lyrically-focused direction for the new material. Dreamily layered vocals, modern shoegaze sheen, and keyboard lines accompany Jahnah's ear-worm guitar riffs and coyly detached tone. Those sounds arose from loose and experimental sessions where Alex and Jahnah dove deep on influences, from Kitty Craft to Fiona Apple, and honed in on sounds to accompany the singer's prodding lyrics and cathartic tell-offs. "Alex and I talked a lot about music that we like," says Jahnah. "I feel like he understood who I am as a listener and the type of shows that I go to. The songs lend themselves to that sound."Throughout her life, supportive coincidences have pushed Jahnah's creative tenacity. Her mother encouraged an elementary-aged Jahnah to perform for their apartment's maintenance man, who then gifted her a red Gibson SG and amplifier. At a hippie kids camp, she met a mentor who helped to champion her early crowdfunded recordings. These threads connect on EP opener "close to heaven," which Jahnah began writing at age 15. The final edition merges past and present: snarling guitars carry over from her upbringing in Birmingham's hardcore scene, while soft piano nods to a current obsession with Elliott Smith."My mom was always having me sing and play guitar for people," says Jahnah. "I've always had people who believed in me, and I feel like I've internalized that. That's been really beautiful."After returning home from a busy year of touring, she learned to balance the intensity of live performance with her long-established solitary songwriting practice. While creating the EP, she moved out of her childhood home and literally found her voice, overcoming a fear of being overheard singing by her roommates.