CATCHING UP WITH By Ian Smith
CANEN
U
nder the alias Canen, Jo Strogatz (A’24) has released a handful of jazzy, alt-RnB songs over the course of last semester, including singles and covers on her Instagram, @canen.mp3. Her latest single “He Sleeps Lightly” was released in January and is her most personal song to date, telling the tale of her sexual assault with refreshing clarity. I sat down with Canen to discuss her inspirations, songwriting process, brushes with fame, and community.
Interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Can you talk about what artists you listened to as a child? And do you think those influenced you and your music now? I grew up on strictly The Beatles. That was all that was playing in my house. But I feel like most of where I take inspiration from is jazz singers. Ella Fitzgerald, Sara Vaughn, all the greats. I actually didn’t grow up with any jazz in the house, but I just heard them in movies, I would hear them in the background, and I would spend the rest of the day singing those songs. And I would, like, make up jazz songs while doing my homework until I was old enough to actually look stuff up and listen to it on my own.
Do you find yourself taking inspiration from movies or nature or anything else around you that’s not necessarily music? I’ve kind of started to experiment with drawing inspiration from mythology, because that’s where my artist’s name comes from. So I’ve kind of started to explore incorporating some elements of that without being too explicit, but it’s definitely a work in progress.
