Menu Close

Janna Pelle

Janna Pelle
Janna Pelle

Janna Pelle

Drummer, Composer

Janna Pelle is a keyboardist, singer, drummer, guitarist and producer from Miami, Florida. After a pandemic move from Brooklyn to Sullivan County, NY, Janna has set up roots and established her home studio in the woods. She has released 4 full-length albums to date, and has arrived at her own brand of genre-defying psychedelic pop with her most recent album, “ECHOLOCATION” – her first fully self-produced and most comprehensive work to date. It is an exploration of the unseen and the unknown through the hope that sound can travel beyond this world, reaching those who have moved onto the next. Pelle is most heavily influenced by Tame Impala and Lady Gaga (calling herself 'Fame Impala' as an homage), her mission to avenge Karen Carpenter’s death as a fellow singing drummer. A classically trained pianist, Janna began her musical education at a young age due to an anatomical abnormality in her hands (hyperextension of the inter-phalangeal joint). Her fingers bent backwards in a way that was not typical, and her parents wanted her to be able to exercise her hands while having fun at the same time. Janna fell in love with the piano and began figuring out countless songs by ear. She soon realized that music came more easily to her than anything else – and already knew that it would be more than just an extra-curricular activity. She attended Coral Reef Senior High’s piano magnet program and studied advertising at the University of Florida, while her band, Janna Pelle & the Half-Steps, was the house band at a variety of campus events from Parents’ Weekend to dorm-sponsored parties. Her senior year of college, she recorded her first solo album, “Shameless Self-Promotion,” a collection of 8-bit-esque pop earworms and a nod to her passion for both music and marketing, and moved to Brooklyn, NY as soon as she graduated to continue her musical pursuits. Shortly after moving to the big city, her father was diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer (myelodysplastic syndrome, also known as pre-leukemia). She released an EP inspired by his diagnosis entitled, “The Show Must Go On,” donating all proceeds to the MDS Foundation towards research. Nearly one year later, in the midst of recording her next full-length album, “Key Change,” her father passed away from complications of the bone-marrow transplant that was intended to save his life. Although the concept of the album was originally inspired by David Byrne’s book, “How Music Works,” and how music and instruments themselves have evolved based on the spaces in which they were designed to be performed, the impact of her father’s life (and death) is ever-present throughout this work in songs like “One Day at a Time,” and “Memory Lane.” With each track of the album featuring a different keyboard instrument, the listener is taken on a journey from past to present, following the timeline of the evolution of the piano – beginning with a harp, and ending with a MacBook keyboard. Just one year after that, Pelle’s lifelong friend, bassist and former partner, Patrick Wanninkhof, was struck and killed by a distracted driver while on a cross-country bike tour with the organization Bike and Build. Janna partnered with anti-texting and driving organization We Save Lives, a subsidiary of MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving), to raise awareness with her album “Voice Memo,” incorporating cell phone and driving-related imagery with songs like, “Hit and Run,” “Autopilot,” and the album’s most-streamed single, “Died Trying.” It’s no secret that loss has been a pervading theme in Pelle’s work, but the result is far from the overly-melancholic piano ballads one might expect; instead, Janna creates explosive and evocative soundscapes, combining organic and electronic elements for a truly other-worldly sonic footprint. Her latest album, “ECHOLOCATION,” is proof that there is no limit to how deep one can go into their own artistry when working alone. Playing and recording all instruments on the album herself, the album spans the life cycle: from birth to death, and everything in between. “A tale of human fragility, ‘ECHOLOCATION’ seeks to enhance the various stages of life, presenting the listeners with a complex, intense and kaleidoscopic journey through challenges, achievement, conflicts and love.” – Mesmerized.io