Pop trio January Jane is as New York City-esque as they come: the two members, Mitch Mitchell and Pat Via, first met by chance at an art gallery in the city. They later picked up third member Peter Scallia after hearing him playing the piano at a loft party. The city is intertwined in both the band’s origin story and sound, and their debut EP Your Drug—now available on all streaming platforms, truly encapsulates the city’s energy that never sleeps.
I got to hop on a quick Zoom call with Mitch and Pat to talk about this exciting time for the band and to hear about how they’re navigating their music careers during these times. Mitch joins the call, and I immediately comment on his picturesque background: he’s sitting in front of a window showing the span of New York City. Pat logs on soon after, and we dive into an easy-going conversation.
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BRIGID YOUNG: To start off— how are you guys feeling about everything? How are you feeling about this release?
PAT VIA: We feel super lucky that we get the opportunity to release new music, especially with what’s going on in the world. We’re very happy.
MITCH MITCHELL: We’re just thrilled, to put it simply. We can’t wait for the whole EP to come out and have people enjoy it. It’s been a long time coming.
PAT: That’s right.
BRIGID: How does anticipating the release of a full body of work compare to the anticipation of releasing singles?
MITCH: It’s five times more exciting because it’s five songs!
PAT: It’s great to be able to release something that’s an extensive body of work rather than just a single or something. Five times the fun!
BRIGID: Totally. I wanted to talk a bit about the band’s formation because you guys have a pretty unique origin story. You two met first, then met Peter, later on, right?
PAT: Yeah. Mitch and I actually met at an art gallery because a friend was putting on an exhibition. I was there to film, and Mitch was there for the open bar (they both laugh).
MITCH: Free drinks!
PAT: Someone introduced us, and we decided to get together and jam. When we met up a few days later, we wrote a song in ten minutes.
BRIGID: Wow!
PAT: Yeah, that honestly doesn’t happen all the time. It was definitely a unique experience. Ever since then…
MITCH: We’re still riding that wave. It’s unbelievable; it’s been quite the journey.
BRIGID: A lot of people struggle to find those genuine connections and friendships in this industry, so it’s cool that you had that instant click. That’s hard to find.
MITCH: It’s one of those things that’s like when you have it, you don’t think about it. You don’t think about it until you’re asked questions about it— thank you for doing that. When things are going smoothly, you don’t notice anything until you hit turbulence. So far, we haven’t hit any turbulence.
BRIGID: When you guys met and connected with Peter, was it a similar situation where there was instant chemistry? Musically and friendship-wise?
MITCH: Absolutely— 100%. It’s one of those things where Pat and I, from the beginning, had this ethos of just saying yes to every opportunity. Every show, every after party. We said yes to all of these things. In New York City, there [are] a lot of opportunities, as it’s the city that never sleeps, so you say yes to a lot of [those] opportunities, and something is bound to happen. One night we were performing the song that Pat mentioned earlier—that we wrote in 10 minutes—and someone in the audience asked us to come with them up to the Meat Packing District. There, Peter was playing piano at a party, and we just instantly hit it off. The rest is history.
PAT: Everything definitely came together; I don’t think it could’ve happened any other way. It really was fate.
MITCH: It’s a great New York story.
BRIGID: Do you guys feel like NYC has played a big role in your sound?
PAT: Definitely. You can really hear the streets. In some of the songs you can literally hear the streets. Everything we’ve experienced as a band has been here [in NYC]. I feel like even with everything going on, the city always has something to give and something to take.
MITCH: It’s always testing you. You can’t sleep on the city… maybe that’s why it’s called the city that never sleeps— because if you sleep, it eats you up. It keeps you on your toes, keeps you sharp. As Pat alluded to, we have our studio in Manhattan here, and we would take turns literally hanging out of the window in our studio with microphones to capture the sounds of the city. The sound of the city is literally in our music.
BRIGID: That’s so sick. I wanted to ask a bit about your writing process and the roles that both of you play in terms of creating your songs. Do you bounce off of each other in terms of ideas?
PAT: It’s different for every song. Like, a song could start with a bag of Mcdonald’s. It can start with anything. It all depends. We all bring ideas. Someone could bring a riff or bassline or even a drumbeat. It could be that it’s raining outside, and we thought of something cool. We try to pull songs out of the atmosphere and hopefully write them down.
MITCH: Exactly, there’s no rhyme or reason to the process. Who knows where the ideas come from. Once something starts flowing, you just go with it. You’re just along for the ride. It just feels like we’re along for the ride. It’s fun.
BRIGID: Did you record this entire EP in New York, or was it made in different locations?
PAT: I can’t even remember! Some in our studio, some in Brooklyn, I think.
MITCH: We recorded a whole album in LA. It’s hard to remember. Especially when we were working remotely, we have it all documented somewhere. Each song is different.
BRIGID: Has this EP been a long time in the making?
PAT: Some of these songs are from a couple [of] years back. Music is timeless, you can record something from years ago, and it has the same effect.
MITCH: BMG [has] the first song we ever wrote actually come out on the next EP. Talk about full circle. We still love that song.
BRIGID: Could you speak a bit about getting signed to BMG? That must’ve been a pretty big moment; how has it impacted you?
PAT: It’s been awesome, definitely a blessing. During lockdown, we all just kept working.
MITCH: When we weren’t able to be together in person, we could still work on music thanks to current technology. In March 2020, a show of ours got canceled, and we were going to make some big announcements. I remember we just decided to double down on writing. Then, we ended up signing with BMG over that summer, in the middle of the lockdown. We couldn’t even get together.
PAT: Everything happens for a reason. The timing of it was extraordinary.
MITCH: We just never took time off because we were doing what we love.
BRIGID: For sure. I was going to ask how you thought the pandemic impacted your band. Do you feel that the time away from live shows was a blessing in disguise?
MITCH: It’s tough because it was such a hard time for a lot of people.
PAT: We’ve always been the type of band to just push forward no matter what. We turned it into a positive the best we could. We just worked on our craft, and we got stronger as time went on.
MITCH: We got asked to do some acoustic Zoom performances. I kind of love that stuff now, and that never would’ve happened if not for the pandemic.
BRIGID: I feel like that was the case for a lot of musicians— where they were forced to step back. A lot of people just took that time to write and take a breather.
MITCH: Exactly. Instead of doing nightly whiskey tastings, we were writing. I mean, there was probably some whiskey.
PAT: A lot less whiskey. [As] we said, it was all about trying to move forward and be the best band we can be during these crazy times.
BRIGID: I also wanted to talk a bit about your musical influences. You guys have that awesome Hall & Oates cover; who else inspires your sound?
PAT: It ranges from so many artists and bands. Everything from Van Halen to Michael Jackson…
PAT AND MITCH (in unison): Depeche Mode!
PAT: We all love a lot of the same artists.
MITCH: You see how we said Depeche Mode at the same time? That’s representative of our entire journey— just the serendipity.
BRIGID: Yeah, you guys are just in sync all the time! To wrap up here, I must know— is there a story behind the name January Jane, or is it just a cool alliteration thing?
MITCH: We have three different versions of this answer. Pat, do you want to pick one of them?
PAT: Sure! It’s kind of a funny story. Mitch and I realized we were dating the same girl, and she became “january jane”. She kind of just vanished; it’s mysterious.
MITCH: It brought us together!
BRIGID: Is there anything else you want to share about the release or touch on before we wrap up?
PAT: The EP is definitely our wild ride through New York City, and we hope you enjoy it. We can’t wait to share these songs.
