Jane explains that she always wanted to land a career in journalism, and that being a music journalist was her goal as a teenager.
“I was obsessed with music publications, and was buying them every week or month”.
That love of music journalism soon led her to pop-culture powerhouse Rolling Stone Australia, and she started writing music reviews and interviews for the publication.
Zines and local music magazines soon followed such as Beat and Forte, with Jane writing about niche, “mind binding genres,” including heavy metal.
“It was an era of many glossy magazines on newsstands; where titles were in abundance and specialist music mags were too”.
This was during the 1990s, an era in media Jane describes as being as “competitive and tough” as the environment today, but reminds us that “nothing easy is fun anyway”.
“When I started as a journalist there were no Google search engines. We went to libraries and researched the good old-fashioned way. There was no scrolling, just fact checking and cross checking. I’d like to see more fact checking take place these days”.
Following the death of her younger brother, Jane’s view and approach on journalism changed, and soon began freelancing and relocated to New York City for five years.
“I chased my dreams on my terms. Now more than two decades on I don’t think I’d say anything to my younger self other than you did what you did and it’s all worked out ok”.
“All aspects of my career and the jobs I’ve undertaken have taught me about resilience, getting the job done without letting too much emotion override the task at hand, that writing is a competitive game and to be successful in it, you need to hold tight and go for the ride which ever way it throws you”.
The introduction of new mediums in the media industry, such as podcasts, has allowed journalists such as Jane to delve deeper into topics and interviews that the written word cannot replicate.
“Now, with my podcast Some Of My Best Work via Mushroom, I get to enjoy a new medium – speaking to those about their passions and diving in a whole lot deeper than print articles can these days”.
Jane says that writing for Sunday Life has been a highlight in her career, and interviewing celebrities such as Sia, St. Vincent, Johnny Marr, Uncle Jack Charles, fashion designer Karen Webster, Kathy Valentine, and John Armatrading have been especially impactful and noteworthy.
When asked about what her favourite piece she has ever written, Jane mentions that interviewing Adam Goodes for Domain Review, The White Stripes in 2003 following their critically acclaimed album, Elephant, and most recently Kylie Minogue come to mind, but she ultimately believes that the best is yet to come.
“For me it’s more the stories I have helped tell that really resonate. When someone trusts you to tell theirs, it’s a privilege”.
“Email is best; exclusives work a charm”.