Janice WhaleyJanice Whaley is an American and experimental a cappella singer and songwriter from San Jose, California.[1][2] Whaley's music is a combination of pop and indie pop. She is most well known for her 2010 multi-album solo work The Smiths Project, consisting of a capella covers of every song by British alt-rock band The Smiths.[3][4] Early lifeWhaley was born and raised in Joshua Tree, California. Her father was a Baptist minister. She learned to play piano as a child, and was a member of her high school marching, symphonic and jazz bands. After high school, she studied electronic music at San Francisco State University.[1] Musical careerIn 2010, Janice Whaley released The Smiths Project, a reimagining of the entire catalog of Smiths songs. The Smiths Project was meticulously constructed over the course of a year by Whaley on her own, building up each song in 20 or 30 layers of vocals, entirely a capella, taking up to 30 hours per song. Stephen Kelly of British newspaper The Guardian called The Smiths Project a "testament to just how charming, creative and arduous the modern tribute can be", and praised it as a sincere, heartfelt reinterpretation of the original Smiths catalog, saying that her "greatest achievement has been to highlight and detach the art from the artist."[3] Music journalist Sam Taylor also praised Whaley's cover of "How Soon Is Now?" as "one of the song's more successful heirs", saying that Whaley's "a cappella harmonies capture the original's eeriness."[5] DiscographyAlbums
Stand-alone cover versions and collaborations
References
External links |
