Jana Mashonee's New Moon Born
American First Nations Singer's Latest Looks to the Future
Nov 5, 2009
A mix of Lumbee and Tuscarora heritage, the Robeson County, North Carolina native was discovered by producer/songwriter Rodney Shelton. At the time, Mashonee was singing funk in a band called Peace 'N' Love. Her first releases were aimed squarely at clubs, and included covers of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" and Meatloaf's "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad". She released her debut full-length, Flash of a Firefly, in 2005.
But it was with the recording of her 2006 release of American Indian Story that Mashonee really stretched as an artist. The Grammy-nominated album was a concept piece about the Native American way of life before the Europeans came.
American Indian Story
"It's kind of loosely based on the historical facts about the first peoples who came to the Americas, who traveled over the bridge and came to the New World," says Mashonee in a phone interview during a promotional stop in Vancouver.
"I didn't want to make a record about, okay, this is what happened. We know the things that happened when the Europeans came over, we know about the atrocities. I wanted to touch on the positive things, like the beauty of the land, how things were for great for natives thousands of years ago."
New Moon Born
New Moon Born continues in this spirit, although the only concept might be one of overwhelming positivity. A mainstream pop affair, the record includes positive-message songs like the smooth, R 'n' B flavoured first single, "Solid Ground".
"It's a feel-good record," agrees the singer. "I think there's a song for everyone, any colour, any age. It's about relationships, not just with other people, but with yourself. New Moon Born is a change for me, and it's about not always having answers in your life, and not having expectations. It's saying here's what I am, let's make things as best as we can make them."
Raptor Ranch
Mashonee also has acting ambitions. She says these days performers need to be "quadruple threats"—even if that means acting alongside computer-generated dinosaurs.
At the time of our conversation, she'd just wrapped up filming a movie called Raptor Ranch, now in post-production. "It’s basically a horror comedy, a campy horror movie," she says. "I’m like this Angelina Jolie-Tomb Raider type character but I’m fighting dinosaurs with a bow and arrows in Texas."
Nightclubbing Lady Gaga Style
From all this, one might get the impression that Mashonee's club days are over. Not so, says the musician.
"We're working on remixes of the songs on the album," she says. "That's my alter ego, the Lady Gaga-style club gigs, which I've been doing for many years. They're not over."
Top 40 Pop
Dinosaur movies and club remixes aside, Mashonee is poised to take her singing career to the next level. We can only hope she continues to draw on what makes her unique even as her music reaches further into the pop mainstream.
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