Janell Crampton

"I am a singer/songwriter. I sing/play guitar and I write my own songs that stem from real life. Some are based on actual situations I’ve experienced and others voice my opinion about the things I feel powerless to control. When I go through something really hard or even really amazing, I write so I can process and move forward. Writing music is basically the healthiest way I know how to deal with this thing we call life.

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I wrote one of my songs “The 49” in 2016 after the shooting at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, FL. When I heard the news, I was beside myself. I was so heartbroken to know that someone decided they had the right to take the lives of 49 people. I had no idea how to cope and so I picked up my guitar. I started trying to write about the event specifically but it never felt authentic. I finally started to write it in my perspective and it became a declaration to not live in fear. I needed to thank the people in my life who taught me to be unconditionally myself, no matter what sexuality and I needed to voice that this shooting was wrong. This is not what humans are supposed to do here on this earth. We were not put here to decide how other people live.

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The message I hope to give to anyone listening to my music is that we have to start feeling again. I’m afraid that due to the growth of technology, many people have become numb to the things around them- it’s extremely easy to stay distracted these days. My hope is that when I play my music I can create an experience that makes people wake up even if just for a moment. Music for me has always been about how it makes you feel and so I ultimately strive to convey that we are in this together. We have to be"

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-Janell Crampton

(VoyageLA Magazine 2019)