Janice Jo Lee - Here I Am

Janice Jo Lee’s art as a musician, poet, and playwright has always been as one with her activism, immersed in issues of gender empowerment, community, climate change, the environment, and antiracism. She offers “Here I Am,” a funky, empowering anthem, as the first advance single from her long anticipated song cycle album titled Ancestor Song, set for 2023 release. Drawing inspiration from her island-dwelling family roots in South Korea, Lee says that “these melodies access a musical spirit deep in my blood memory.

Melodies I feel have been passed down to me by my ancestors, who gave me the voice in my chest and my body as instrument.” The songs are folk in tradition, concerned with contemporary issues of the people and land. The melodies are rousingly thematic and supported by expansive jazz harmonies.

“I wanted to write a declaration song to open my live show,” she recalls. “I actually wrote ‘Here I Am’ the night before the album release for my last record Sing Hey. I wanted to start the show by clapping and getting everyone’s attention. Initially it was a repeat-after-me, which is a very folk song form. The intention was to bring everyone together through rhythm.

“When I came up as a singer-songwriter in Kitchener-Waterloo, there were a handful of other women and femme musicians of colour in my community. It was my dream to have them all back me up on this track like a girl gang. To bring us all together and say: move over, we are here. So I’m thrilled that we have Alysha Brilla, Elsa Jayne, Joni NehRita, Camila Diaz-Varela and Charlena Russell on this tune. These are individuals who have each inspired me and have witnessed my journey as a human being, so it’s a very big deal for me to have all our voices on this song together. We were able to have a recording day at the Kitchener Public Library Heffner Studio, and that was a real highlight - to dance and sing in those booths together when we all couldn’t do that for years during isolation times. This is the first time we’re all on a song together.
“The song features vocal unison, spoken word, and shout-singing to invoke the feeling of being at a demonstration, taking up public space, a sense of defiance.
“I’m obsessed with Stevie Wonder so you hear a lot of Wurlitzer, too, to bring out the funk. I want that groove to get in your body so you can’t help but throw down.
“I played trumpet in grade school and we always had the melody. This song functions as the opening tune on the album, so the trumpet is a herald, make way, make room, it’s about to go down. The outro features water cup percussion which were literally mugs from the studio kitchen. We’re just having fun, grabbing makeshift instruments and hitting the streets.”