Musician Carlyn Bezic (Jane Inc.) on managing creative highs and lows - The Creative Independent

""I did have some idea of who she was, because she would come out on stage when I was performing. It was a version of myself that was more liberated; more comfortable taking up space, being loud or intimidating or overtly sexy. Jane was an aspirational idea for me-an aspect of myself that I wanted to express, but I had to do it in this rarefied, specific way, while playing music.""

""The record is about this feeling that she was able to be liberated and unleashed even more. She and I became more enmeshed because the things in my life that were holding me back from being fully Jane-if I even am-shattered in the wake of these heavy things happening to me. I was able to let go of a lot of insecurity and uncertainty. It was suddenly like, "I have one life, and I can choose however I want it to be." There's a real "why not" energy.""

""So I played a show that night, and it was the most liberated I've ever felt. In the shadow of what had happened that morning, the things that are scary about playing a show just didn't matter. It was like, "I'm alive, you're all alive, we're all here. This is so beautiful and crazy that we get to stand around, and I get to express this thing to you. What a joy." And because I was probably traumatized, I had a kind of fearless abandon. Like, they can do whatever they want to me, and I'm going to be safe because I'm here and I'm alive, and I know what scary is.""

Jane functions as an aspirational alter ego, a liberated version that emerges during performances. She embodies comfort taking up space, loudness, intimidation, and overt sexuality that the primary self previously expressed only in specific musical contexts. The record captures a deepening of Jane's presence as life events dismantled barriers that limited full embodiment of that persona. A car accident and its immediate aftermath catalyzed fearless abandon, dissolving anxieties about performing. The experience produced a "why not" energy and a renewed sense of life's singularity and choice. The resulting artistic expression emphasizes joy, liberation, and relinquishment of insecurity.

Read at Thecreativeindependent