"I definitely trust chaos more. It’s hard to have strong emotions when everything is in control. I need the highs and lows of life to get inspired."
The kind of artist who doesn’t rush to be understood, which, ironically, makes you want to understand him more. His work doesn’t feel over-explained or over-produced. It feels like something you weren’t supposed to hear yet.
“Frostbite” sits in that space, restrained but not distant, emotional but never spilling over. It’s as if he’s figured out how to hold onto a feeling without letting it collapse into noise.
And that’s the thing about J’anaz. He’s not trying to prove anything just yet.
He’s still watching, still experimenting, still building a language for himself before translating it for everyone else.
There’s no performance of success here, no forced identity. Just fragments of thoughts, of moods, of something forming in real time.
And maybe that’s what makes it interesting.
Not what he is now, but how clearly you can sense that he’s becoming something.
in conversation with J’anaz
UNFILTERED
When you look at something ordinary
a street, a conversation, a random moment
what makes it feel like material for a song?
J’ANAZ
If something makes me think about a message or a story I want to share with the world, it can definitely serve as material—or even direct lyrics—for a song. The “small talk and whiskey” line in “FROSTBITE” is a great example of that, I’d say.
UNFILTERED
Do you feel like you’re documenting your life, or rewriting it when you create?
J’ANAZ
It varies from song to song. When writing, I usually just exaggerate what has already happened to make it seem more grand and impactful than it actually was. I feel like it highlights how the little things in life can leave such big impressions on the human mind. So I would say it’s documenting, but with a lot of extra dazzle.
UNFILTERED
What kind of emotions are the hardest for you to translate into sound?
J’ANAZ
Ones directed towards one specific person. My biggest fear is getting a text from someone saying, “Is this song about me?” Like, nooo, please leave me alone.
UNFILTERED
Do you create more from clarity or confusion?
J’ANAZ
Neither. I would say I create from vision. The second I finish writing one lyric, I already have an exact visual concept for how I want the entire song or era to look. That’s the backbone of my creation process.
UNFILTERED
What does your creative process look like on a day when nothing is working?
J’ANAZ
Previously, for “FROSTBITE,” for example, it was just simply humming gibberish melodies into a microphone until I came up with something I liked. But I recently started journaling everything in my life, so now it’s looking through the journal and coming up with lyrics based on how I felt in the moment when things happened. That was how I wrote upcoming songs such as “Little Miss Nicotine.”
UNFILTERED
Is there something you understand through music that you can’t explain in real life?
J’ANAZ
I think sound translates emotions better than words. The choice of instruments, synths, and whatnot actually shows how you felt about something. A simple lyric like “I miss you” could show so many versions of longing depending on what instrumental is chosen to accompany it.
UNFILTERED
Are you more focused on how something sounds, or how it feels when you’re making it?
J’ANAZ
I definitely focus more on how making a song feels rather than how it sounds. Because when recording the final track, I work with producers who can help me work on the sound and technical parts of the song, but the feeling, spirit, and concept of the song are things that cannot be changed or fixed, so that’s where I try to shine.
UNFILTERED
Do you ever hold back in your writing, or is everything fair game once it becomes art?
J’ANAZ
I don’t at all. I try to go all out with lyrics and make everything as grand and severe as possible. That’s one of my favourite things in art and music in general: you can make the most minor inconvenience seem like the end of the world to show how strongly you felt about it.
UNFILTERED
What’s something small that has influenced your music more than it should have?
J’ANAZ
Nicotine.
UNFILTERED
Do you think your taste defines you more than your talent does?
J’ANAZ
For sure. I feel like that is the difference between an artist and a vocalist. There are thousands of amazing singers and vocalists out there that can do amazing runs, have spectacular range, tone, and so on, but to be an artist you need to have the vision to create strong concepts, stories, and show that in your writing and performance, otherwise people will not connect with your work. You kind of have to be your own creative director.
UNFILTERED
When you’re creating, are you trying to be honest or trying to be understood?
J’ANAZ
I definitely try to be honest. I mean, it is my story that I’m sharing. If you relate, you relate; if you don’t, you don’t. Being perceived or understood was never one of my goals.
UNFILTERED
What kind of world are you building through your music ?
J’ANAZ
One where current pop boys are hopefully relevant.
UNFILTERED
When you sit down to write, what actually comes first -- a feeling, a line, or just noise -- you’re trying to make sense of?
J’ANAZ
It’s different every time. When writing “FROSTBITE,” the melody for the chorus was the first thing I came up with by simply humming to drums. For “Little Miss Nicotine,” it was actually the title. I had this encounter with a woman I really wanted to write about but didn’t know where to start. So we were just walking around at a poster store with a friend of mine and I asked to go out for a smoke break and his response was “okay little miss nicotine” and I quickly just stopped and said “wait that’s it, that’s the title of the song it sounds so cool”.
UNFILTERED
Your music feels like it lives somewhere between control and chaos. Which one do you trust more?
J’ANAZ
I definitely trust chaos more. It’s hard to have strong emotions when everything is in control. I need the highs and lows of life to get inspired.
UNFILTERED
Do you write to understand what you feel, or to escape it?
J’ANAZ
Neither, it’s more of a reflection on how I felt about things, and I try to write it as if I’m sharing it with a friend.
UNFILTERED
Do you feel like your music reflects reality, or the way you wish reality felt?
J’ANAZ
I mean, currently I only have “FROSTBITE” out, and “Little Miss Nicotine” is the upcoming song, but both are mainly my interpretations and feelings regarding real events. I would say they’re somewhere in between?
UNFILTERED
What role does silence play in what you make?
J’ANAZ
A primary one. I can’t write in public spaces or areas with a lot of noise. I need peace and quiet to be able to create.
UNFILTERED
When did you first realize that creating wasn’t just something you liked, but something you needed
J’ANAZ
When people started telling me it’s unrealistic or that I can’t do it.
UNFILTERED
What does a song need to have for you to believe in it?
J’ANAZ
Meaning and intention. I could listen to construction noises if I knew there was a message behind it.
UNFILTERED
“Frostbite” sounds cold, but not empty. What kind of emotion were you trying to preserve instead of lose?
J’ANAZ
Accountability and acknowledgement that it is my fear that is holding me back from moving to new levels in relationships with people.
UNFILTERED
How much of what you write is intentional, and how much just… slips out?
J’ANAZ
Most of it is intentional, but every now and then you have to just throw some words out for the sake of rhyming and an “artistic effect,” but I still try to have intention and meaning behind it.
UNFILTERED
When you listen back to your own music, do you hear who you are now or who you were when you wrote it?
J’ANAZ
When I listen back to both released and unreleased music of mine, I hear who I was before and how much I’ve grown since, in terms of both emotion and musical skills.
UNFILTERED
Do you think your environment shapes your sound, or are you trying to build something that exists outside of it?
J’ANAZ
I’m definitely trying to build something that exists outside of my environment with my music. My environment inspires me and gives me the message I want to share, but the way I deliver it is foreign. I mean, I was born and raised in Armenia; when I tell people I sing, they think I’m from a church choir.
UNFILTERED
What do you notice about the world that other people seem to ignore?
J’ANAZ
That literally nothing matters and that all of us are insignificant on a larger scale. Every now and then, I see someone who wants to do something but is scared of what others might think. In those moments, I just think to myself, “Wow, that ideology is just so foreign to me.”
UNFILTERED
Are you more inspired by moments or by people?
J’ANAZ
Moments shaped by people. The capabilities we have as humans are so surreal to me.
UNFILTERED
What’s harder for you, starting a song or knowing when it’s finished?
J’ANAZ
Knowing when it’s finished. Every time I listen to “FROSTBITE,” I think, “I should’ve added this adlib or that harmony,” but the truth is you could always add more and more to a song. Sometimes you just have to release it and move on before it starts taking away from the potential of other songs.
UNFILTERED
If someone really listened to your music
like really listened
what would they under-
stand about you that you don’t say out loud?
J’ANAZ
Well, I have one song out right now, and the next one is coming soon, so at the moment, not much. However, when I release the entire project that both “FROSTBITE” and “Little Miss Nicotine” are in, I think they would understand exactly what it is that makes me an artist.
UNFILTERED
Do you ever feel like you’re writing the same idea over and over, just in different forms?
J’ANAZ
Not really, especially for this project I’m trying to cover various emotions we have as
people. “FROSTBITE” was inspired by fear and avoidance, “Little Miss Nicotine” delves into themes of lust and desire, and the other songs in the project cover other emo-tions. I’m trying to be as versatile as I can, both emotionally and sonically, since I’m also trying to find the sound that works best for me as an artist.
UNFILTERED
What kind of silence do you need to create?
J’ANAZ
A total one. I need to be alone in my bedroom to let the ideas pour out of me. I’ve tried writing in the studio, but it just doesn’t work as well for me at the moment.
UNFILTERED
Right now, are you making music for your-self, or for the version of you that you’re trying to become?
J’ANAZ
Right now I write music for myself with the hopes of it turning me into the version of myself I’m trying to become. I feel like it’s working. With every song I write, I get closer to turning from Arman into J’ANAZ.
