All the way from the vibrant city of Cologne, Germany, Jana Leona forged her own path, studying Creative Musicianship Vocals at BIMM in Berlin and Audio Engineering at SAE in Cologne. Jana wanted to shape her songs in more ways than just vocals and guitar so that her storytelling could evolve beyond the lyrics and create a sonic world.
Her artistic breakthrough came when she began busking through coastal European towns with her trademark mint-colored Gretsch guitar.
The first thing you hear when listening to this track is the neighbourhood. We asked Jana where the mic sat and what part of the city we could hear in the recording.
"For ‘while losing my mind’, I created the neighbourhood atmosphere from a mix of my own recordings and carefully selected sound library material. I wrote the song as part of my bachelor project in audio engineering, so I had to work within time and production limits, but I still wanted the world around the song to feel emotional and real. I wasn’t trying to document one specific street perfectly. I wanted to capture the feeling of familiar everyday noise like passing cars, bicycles, dogs, little street details. Those sounds sit around the song almost like a memory: you’re still in the place you know, but emotionally you’re already leaving. What made me keep certain sounds was usually their imperfection. If something felt too clean, it didn’t belong. The song needed that slightly restless, raw, lived-in texture."
After all the recording edits and the song was released, we learned that Jana relied on something a little unusual to keep her going through the long hours in the studio.
"Honestly, banana bread baked with cinnamon protein powder. I needed something sweet, but also healthy and filling enough to get me through long editing days. I could bake it in advance, and that little bit of meal prep genuinely helped me stay somewhat organised during my schedule and the project. But I also always need some chocolate to calm my nerves. Especially when I’m deep in tiny edits and starting to question every decision I’ve ever made. As far as I know, no crumbs ended up on the vocal pop filter. But emotionally? Probably yes."
We asked Jana about the outro line, "But I’ll be alright," how it originated, and whether it was a wish or a promise?
"The line ‘but I’ll be alright’ showed up quite naturally while writing, almost like something I was trying to convince myself of long before I fully believed it. In the beginning of the writing process, it felt more like a hopeful wish, like a sentence you repeat because you need it to be true. In the studio, it changed because of the arrangement that opened up the outro. As the track grows and becomes bigger, the sentence stops feeling like a buried wish and starts feeling like movement towards a new chapter. It’s still vulnerable, but there’s more foundation underneath it. By the end, it doesn’t sound like I have everything figured out but it sounds like I’m finally choosing to trust that I’ll be alright. Eventually."
"The outro repeats ‘but I’ll be alright,’ and I did not want that line to suddenly feel overly triumphant. It still needed to stay vulnerable. The growing arrangement with electric guitars and vocal layers gives the ending more weight and movement, but the tongue drum added something softer and more hopeful on top of that. It made the last section feel like the song was not only getting bigger, but also opening up emotionally. As if the sentence was slowly becoming true."
"One tiny detail that gave the outro its final positive touch was a steel tongue drum. Some friends had given it to me as a birthday present shortly before, so it already carried a very warm and comforting meaning for me. It is probably one of those small details that most listeners would not consciously notice, but for me it changed the emotional colour of the ending.
Jana Leona's upcoming EP "bloom" creates a virtual map, where the theme of the tracks move from streets to sea. Jana says, "The route clicked for me when I realised that the songs were not just about leaving a place, but about moving towards somewhere I could finally breathe again. The ocean has always been that place for me. It is where my mind gets quieter, where I feel calm, safe, and somehow at home. So it made sense that the EP should not just move away from something, it should move towards the sea.
"‘while losing my mind’ embodies the final decision to leave, still surrounded by familiar streets, old rooms and the feeling of being stuck in your own head but knowing you want something more from life. From there, the songs slowly open up into more space, more air, more nature and eventually the ocean. I wanted the EP to feel like that emotional shift from noise to calm. Some tracks forced me to rethink the map, because healing never happens in a perfectly straight line. There were songs I first imagined as being further along in the route regarding the emotion of the protagonist, but they still carried a lot of uncertainty. So instead of making the EP feel like a clean transformation, I tried to let it stay honest, you can be moving towards peace and still be carrying the old restlessness and baggage with you."
We asked Jana to ouline some of her musical inspiration.
"From boygenius, I learned how powerful it can be when a song feels emotionally raw but still carefully arranged. I love the way their songs can hold tenderness and intensity at the same time, and I tried to bring some of that contrast into this track. And I just love their harmonies, and I always do tons of them myself. From Lizzy McAlpine, I took inspiration from the intimacy of her vocals that feel close and almost conversational, without needing to be overperformed. I wanted parts of ‘while losing my mind’ to feel like I was admitting something quietly, rather than presenting it. From Noah Kahan, I think I learned about movement and storytelling. His songs often feel rooted in place, but emotionally they’re always travelling somewhere. That really connected with my track, because it’s so much about familiar streets, leaving, and trying to find a way forward."
So, what is next for Jana Leona?
"‘while losing my mind’ is the first chapter of a bigger project, so fans can expect more songs very soon. My upcoming EP bloom follows an emotional route from hometown streets to the ocean, from feeling stuck and overwhelmed to slowly finding more home and trust in yourself again. People can also follow not only the story within the EP but also the real-life route behind it: writing, travelling and living on the road in my converted van. I share a lot of that on Instagram and TikTok, from behind-the-scenes moments to little pieces of the places that inspire the songs.
"The best way to keep in touch is to follow me on streaming platforms and social media under Jana Leona / @janaleonamusic and to stay around for the next chapter of bloom, "field of daisies" out July 24th."
Learn more about Jana Leona on Local Sounds
https://localsounds.com.au/artist/jana-leona
SoundVerge Editorial
Independent music journalism
