Interview: Jangus Kangus tells us about her latest album ‘Echeveria Doorstop’
WORDS BY ZEE AHMED
IG: @zeelikeacookie
INTERVIEW BY NAZ TOORABALLY
T: @NAZTOORABALLY // IG: @NAZTOORABALLY
Los Angeles-based self-proclaimed “synthrock pilgrim” Jangus Kangus has ventured into the wavy world of synth with her new album, ‘Echeveria Doorstop’, released last month. Jasmine Sankaran - the face and personality behind Jangus Kangus - was born in Ventura County, California to Indian and Vietnamese professors, and started writing music as a teenager.
Jangus Kangus’ journey is guided by a DIY ethos, masterminding the writing, recording, and mixing process. She has developed a reputation within the LA underground scene for writing feminist punk rock bangers, sprinkled with elements of her Indo-Vietnamese heritage in a melting pot of indie synthpop and oddly specific lyrics. Her sound is similar to the likes of St. Vincent and Robyn, and tracks ‘Janakita’ and ‘Sunrise’ from the new album are accompanied by quirky, flashy music videos, capturing Jangus’ experimental persona.
We caught up with Jasmine to catch up about her new album - celebrating identity, confidence and girl power, and her fierce and fun venture into the synth side of music. With roots in brit pop, surf rock and experimental synth-pop, the half covers, half originals album is composed of dancey, pop-ified country ballads and soaring and electronically infused originals, capturing a personal side of the artist.
In our interview, Jasmine talks about her experiences of growing up as an artist in a South-South East Asian household, finding kinship within artistic communities, and her future touring and filmmaking plans.
For people who don’t know about you or your music, can you describe your sound and who inspires you?
Broadly speaking, it’s indie. It’s a little punk. It sort of surprised me hearing people describe my band Sankaran’s album ‘Interesting Times’ as pop punk, because in my head it’s equal parts Radiohead and riot grrrl, but I won’t knock the pop punk label either. As a kid I always wrote poetry and loved poets and made up little songs. At an impressionable age I watched a documentary where I heard Jim Morrison describe himself as a poet and thought, “That. That’s me.” I grew up on indie bands like The Killers, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and The Joy Formidable; punk rock angst like The Clash and The Cramps; and growing up in Ventura County, a good amount of surfy stuff like The Beach Boys and Best Coast.
You said you’ve taken a new direction with your music with this new release being more synth-led than punk rock-led – what inspired this change in sound?
Equal parts desire and necessity—I was feeling limited by the guitar-band format for a while, and I’ve always admired electronic artists like Tokimonsta and Gold Panda. I’m also the kind of person who doesn’t like doing the same thing twice. So when the pandemic hit the brakes on band practice, it organically evolved into playing with new sonic palettes at home, getting to know my microKORG synthesizer as well as MIDI and looping. Things took a classical turn when I scored a short film called The Couple Upstairs, which was inspired by sci-fi and horror like John Carpenter. The ‘Hummingbird House’ songs are drafts from that project.
Your upcoming album ‘Echeveria Doorstop’ is about identity and confidence – can you give us some hints into what else we can expect from the album?
I came very close to calling this album Music a Girl Can Make. It’s pop music through my lens, with all its associations with femininity and moon energy via synthetic sounds—arpeggiators, saw synths, glittery melodies. It’s half originals, half covers; I think I had something in my head about how a lot of classic country albums are covers-heavy. The originals are ideas I’ve held onto for a while, and Echeveria Doorstop became the conduit for communicating this other mode of creation. I wanted to make something evoking “girl power” that doesn’t make this punk roll her eyes.
Your new single ‘Janakita’ is about being a brown girl in the white suburbs. Tell us more about being a brown girl in the white suburbs and how that inspired this song?
My dad is from Kerala, my mom is from Saigon, and the suburbs I grew up in were predominantly white, so I never had anywhere I felt like I fully belonged. I related to my Indian heritage through food, religion, and Bharatanatyam dancing, which I did from ages 9 to 13. It was somewhere I felt pretty being a brown girl. My dance teacher brought tapes from India and would copy the tapes for us to practice, so I never thought I’d find the song which is sampled in “Janakita” again. But bless the age of Spotify, I found the specific performance that stuck in my mind all these years. Looking back at that period of my life, I see the forms of alienation and horror that quietly polluted the lives of the girls I grew up with, and I wanted to write about that, coming full circle with the storytelling aspects of Indian music.
I love that you have covered some classics like ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’ and Neil Young’s ‘Harvest Moon’ in your own style – great song choices! What made you choose these tracks?
I’ll do a cover if I have an idea of how I want to recontextualise a song. My friend NJM mentioned that she wanted to cover ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’ and I was like, what if we did a super clubby, Robyn-esque take on the song? Embracing the idea of it and having a bit of shameless fun. ‘Harvest Moon’ and ‘Someday Soon’ are impeccably written country songs that spoke to me at one time or another, so I saw an opportunity for taking structured writing and turning it into modern pop, which also tends to be very structured. For me, the covers on ‘Echeveria Doorstop’ are sonic playgrounds that coalesced into album material.
You said you believe in a DIY ethos and wrote, recorded and mixed these tracks yourself, which sound great by the way. How long have you been working this way? Do you have a home studio?
Thank you! As a teenager I learned basic multitrack recording by laying down songs I’d written, just guitar and vocals. In college I co-wrote a punk album called ‘Peace, Love, Gentrification’ and I observed my friend Danny’s method of recording and mixing which was very mobile and DIY. I also learned production by working with and studying a variety of producers and engineers. Controlling the recording from end-to-end is freeing and leaves ample room for experimentation—what producer would’ve suggested that I jam with the hummingbirds out my window for ‘Hummingbird House’! I record from home and occasionally out of my rehearsal space.
Many South Asian people have the experience of our families not being supportive of artistic careers like being in music. Is this something you relate to?
Absolutely. In some ways they’re in denial about what I’ve dedicated my life to. They still foster the delusion that I’m on the precipice of law school or med school. Or writing a novel. Or marrying an Indian doctor. It hurts sometimes, especially when I hear from my peers that their families actively or passively support their artistic ventures. My parents’ love of art was my gateway into music, but they have a hard time understanding exactly what it is I’m trying to do. The concrete paths through life that were typical for their generation are all but gone for mine, and I’m learning to be okay with that disconnect. My partner and friends are all very artistically inclined, so I find kinship in other ways.
What’s next for you?
I’m definitely not through with guitar music, nor am I married to the idea of being DIY forever. I have ideas for an EP and another album of songs I want to create, perhaps in a studio. Scaling up. More collaborating. Touring has been a goal of mine for a long time, and I’d love to take my act on the road. Thanks to my partner I’ve also caught the film bug and I’m beginning to embrace a variety of artistic skill sets, producing short films and making more scores. Continuing to chase down the spaces where my creativity feels most free.
‘Echeveria Doorstop’ by Jangus Kangus is out now on all streaming platforms. Support the album via Bandcamp and follow her journey on Instagram.
ABOUT ZEE
Zee Ahmed is a drummer who enjoys exploring the underground music scene and particularly loves all things punk and electronic. She currently live in Toronto, Canada where they work as a research consultant. Zee is passionate about diversity and inclusion in all spheres and is learning to play bass guitar.