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Art & Life with Molly Camille Janusz

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Molly Camille Janusz.

Molly Camille, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I was born and raised in Newaygo, MI and ever since my mom found out she was pregnant, she constantly played classical music and swears that is the reason music runs through my veins. I started learning piano at the age of 3 and took lessons, classically, for 16 years. As I grew up, I joined the marching, jazz and concert bands at our local high school and played saxophone, vibraphone and marimba. As time went on, I learned guitar on the side and played at the local coffee shops to get some of my first pieces of original music out there. When I was a junior in high school, I was accepted and later attended the Interlochen Academy for the Arts and lived there my junior year of high school studying songwriting while being surrounded by a school that represented over 150 countries in attendance and an experience I could never forget.

At Interlochen, I was able to find a producer and release my first album called, Chasing Manhattan by CAMILLE. In the meantime, my arm had been getting injured from playing piano too much making myself go through a plethora of surgeries to try and find out what was wrong. It’s been 6 years and we are still in the diagnosis process but I have been diagnosed with a brain disorder called Dystonia. When this all came about this past year, I decided to move to Arizona and take up teaching. I got a wonderful opportunity to show my skills at Prestige Music Academy in Phoenix, Arizona and am attending Arizona State University on the side. Prestige has opened up a window of opportunity for one who has a disability to play fully and can put music into other people’s lives.

I have an incredible passion for music and the people around me who enjoy it. Teaching each and every child and
adult gives me a joy that lasts just as much as the songwriting I am able to do, when I’m able to do it. Prestige allows me to use all of talents, ideas and abilities to expand the learning range with every student when it comes to piano and vocal methods as well as teaching many of my students to write their own songs.

Can you give our readers some background on your art?
I am a singer/songwriter and I am constantly writing music as much as I can while coping with the brain disease I got diagnosed with that limits my playing. I still find myself constantly humming a new tune or writing down a new line of lyrics I think could go well in a song.

I continue to strive to be a songwriter mostly because of the people around me and students that I teach at Prestige Music Academy; to see their faces light up when they listen to my music and say “I want to write a song like that!” it makes me want to write more and more and to get better at my own unique craft of songwriting.

For my specific songwriting, I hope that people can take away a sense of feeling like they are a part of something. I have always made my music as personal as I possibly can because I want everyone to feel like they can relate and take these songs as means to help them through times. I take my own emotional feelings with songs and how they make me feel and put them into my own writings.

Because of my busy schedule teaching at Prestige, I now share my love of songwriting with my students and am constantly working on new tunes with them. This gives them a whole new sense of creativity and meaning when it comes to their individual playing and mastery at their instrument.

Any advice for aspiring or new artists?
My advice for other artists is to really go with your gut on what you want to do. A lot of my songs and general ideas in life that I have had have been shut down by various people in my life only to find that when I put them into action, they worked and succeeded with more success than I could have imagined. You really have to stick to your true inner being and who you are and what you want in life when it comes to your own (curated, artistic) ideas, songwriting and choices through life.

Sometimes I wished I would have been bolder in some of the decisions I made or the decisions I let people take over for me. I guess this goes with the above statement that we need to be bold and brave in our decisions no matter what.

What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
I work at Prestige Music Academy located on Camelback and 7th St. I am always looking to work with new students when it comes to regular instrument lessons as well as songwriting.

My album, Chasing Manhattan by CAMILLE is available on all platforms including Apple Music, Spotify, Google Play, etc. I also have my album for sale on my website at camilleofficialmusic.com

Contact Info:

Image Credit:
Molly Camille Janusz, Syd Robinson

Getting in touch: VoyagePhoenix is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

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