By Mike Romero, with Julia Brunette
Beeson’s performance in the final night of the Winter 2022 Battle of the Bands was nothing short of breathtaking. Her disarming smile and innocent demeanor on stage almost acted as subterfuge, perfectly concealing the powerhouse vocalist that she is. But when Jane Beeson opened her mouth, our reporter covering that night wrote that she “wowed the audience, prompting several jaw-dropping sequences.”
“I have made a lot of progress with my voice since we competed last year,” she says humbly. This was Beeson’s second time in the finals, having made the cut the year prior. I was present for her performance in 2021, and was blown away by her vocal performance then. The progress her and her band have made since then is a testament to how seriously they take their craft, and just how gifted each musician on stage truly is. They really took things to the next level.
So. What now?
Winning Velour’s Battle of the Bands is no small feat. After 17 years in operation, many now-prominent national acts have cut their teeth in this same competition before going on to play Late Night With Seth Myers (like The Aces) or Jimmy Kimmel Live! (like The Backseat Lovers). And you can’t set foot in Velour without standing in the long shadow of Neon Trees and Imagine Dragons. Still, a win doesn’t guarantee that level of success.
Luckily, beeson has the kind of raw talent that translates well across all mediums. In addition to wowing live audiences with her songwriting and vocal prowess, she’s found considerable traction on TikTok with over 20k followers. And I’m 99% certain that her two singles, “syrup” and “Pink Light” have both been certified as bops by the National Board of Bop Certifiers, with over 100k Spotify streams between the two. It’s no surprise, then, that Beeson has started getting some attention beyond Provo city limits.
“I’ve gotten a lot of cool opportunities since winning, including some management and label attention,” she says. “I’m probably going to stay indie for a while, but I’m excited to use the recording time I won at Battle of the Bands to finish some new songs.” She just started working with a new producer in New York City, and is hoping to get her first EP out soon, with a new single dropping in February 2023. Her band hopes to tour this year in support of the new material.
Beeson told Julia Brunette, the Rexburg correspondent for Provo Music Magazine, that her singing journey started at a young age. Like, car-seat young. She started writing her own music around the age of fifteen with her music teacher. When she moved to Provo, she began her career as a solo performer.
About her first single, Beeson told Julia, “I released ‘syrup’ on my 20th birthday. It’s a song about needing validation that you’re not getting in a relationship. Just needing people to tell you what you’re worth to them and not getting it.”
The concept for “syrup” was something that Beeson started working on in 2020, and the single was eventually released in 2021. She says the process of releasing her first single was long and hard the first time, but she has since gotten the hang of it. She released her followup single “Pink Light” this past May. “Pink Light” is about having a vulnerability hangover, and about deciding to let someone go.
Beeson explained to Julia that the inspiration for the song comes from a moment she had with a pink-tinted window in the historic Provo home that she lives in.
“In the upstairs bathroom, sometimes the light coming through looks kind of pinkish during the sunset,” says Beeson. “I was in the shower, I was trying to get over someone and I was like, ‘Here I am. I’m in the moment. I’m done. This is the last time I’m gonna be sad about this and I’m moving on.’ And so the song is kind of both turbulent and reflective. It’s kind of celebrating both, like how you can be really sad about something and decide to let it go. And they can coexist.”
Although Beeson plans to graduate in political science, she says that music is her main pursuit and passion. She feels very passionate about issues and believes she can help shine a light on those issues through her music. She hopes to ignite activism with the messages of her music, just as she would if she were to become a lobbyist.
“I really want my music to celebrate the female experience,” she told Julia. “And I think that the female experience is really beautiful and sacred. I really hope to convey a lot of vulnerability and rawness in my music that I feel like a lot of girls relate to but might not get in music sometimes. I love catchy music, but I also love music that has a raw message.”
Winning Velour’s Battle of the Bands makes beeson only the 5th female/female fronted act to win the semi-annual competition in 17 years.
“I’d love to see more female-fronted bands compete in Battle of the Bands and participate in the scene in general,” she says. “The Provo music scene is a bit of a boys club and I hope that my win encourages more female musicians to play shows here!”
Despite the lopsided demographic, Beeson has found a helpful and supportive community of female artists in Provo. “I love having so many talented people close by to learn from and collaborate with. I just called Janessa Smith of Goldmyth to ask for advice on some music stuff today! Mindy Gledhill is always so supportive as well.”
With a tour, a new single, a new EP, plus graduation on the horizon, Beeson’s going to have some busy times ahead. Regardless of what the future holds, she has a pure underlying vision that motivates her to keep doing what she does: “I’d love to see my music allow people to become more connected with one another.”