Have we got a jam packed, treat of a staff spotlight for you! Today we are introducing all round wonder woman, Jane Caley – Student Support Tutor.
Jane originally grew up in Watford, before moving to her current residence in St Leonards on Sea, via a long stint living and working in London. Not initially confident enough to share her creative flair, Jane pursued other routes and studied Biology at Kingston Uni, creating a really “interesting” dissertation about slugs. Graduating from university, Jane bagged herself a job at Kings College London, alongside some charity work. As time passed and life changes came along, Jane decided that life is too short not to to do things you absolutely love and came out of her shell, embracing her creative-genius side! With all this flair, flamboyance and fun it seemed only natural that she should end up working at Dv8!
Having a love for music, our Student Support tutor threw herself into the music scene by forming a band called ‘Strange Fruit’. “Trip hoppy bluesy stuff” is a pretty good way to sum up the sound. Off the back of being at a London club wearing a top to toe leopard print ensemble and looking very much like “a band”, Strange Fruit were invited to play a gig (Jane’s first ever live performance!) before they’d even finished writing their first song. Thrown into the fire, they frantically put together a set list, and managed to fit in a small amount of rehearsal time. How did it go you ask? …badly. No sound check, on stage mic problems, and the laptop providing the backing track crashed during the first song. Still smarting from this disaster, Jane vowed NEVER to get on stage again. But as the dust settled she realised it wouldn’t be fair to deny the world her unique talents and she quickly got back on the literal bandwagon, the performing bug had thoroughly bitten. From Strange Fruit to her second (and current!) band, Vile Electrodes, Jane sings and play synths alongside Martin Swan (another Dv8 tutor!).
Click here to watch and listen to all of Jane (and Martin’s) musical doings!
Viles have released six EPs and one album, plus their tracks have featured on numerous compilation CDs. The music duo’s songs have been played on radio stations around the world, including the BBC. Jane and Martin have even played gigs with Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (they did a 5-night tour of Germany with them), John Foxx & The Maths (i.e. John Foxx from Ultravox), Michael Rother (formerly of Neu!), and The BBC Radiophonic Workshop (of Dr Who theme fame) amongst others.
Being the geniuses they are, Jane and Martin have won awards for their music; The Schallwelle Awards – an award in Germany within the alternative electronic music scene. They won “Best International Album” for their album The Future Through a Lens and also “Best International Artist”.
We all know having merchandise to help promote your band is essential, and Jane likes nothing more than a bit of DIY making. You can see some of Jane and Martin’s work in the images below. You can also see a little time lapse video of Jane making some CD cases for their most recent EP here.
Vile Electrodes put together all their official music videos themselves too. You can watch the official video for Captive In Symmetry here.
Outside of VE, Jane has written bespoke soundtrack pieces for BBC radio programmes. You can listen to one of them here, and another one here!
In addition to being one of our amazing Student Support tutors, Jane works for an alternative women’s clothing designer in London, as well as occasionally for SusⒶn DiⒶmond, an alternative clothing shop in St Leonards. If you haven’t guessed from all the hat pictures, she’s also a milliner, and an artistic screenprinter! Her screenprints were exhibited as part of Coastal Currents Visual Arts Festival in 2014, and her hats have been on show as part of an event called Hastings Hatters.
So there you have it. An amazing woman and an amazing journey. We love you Jane!
