Jahnah Camille Shares 'What Do You Do?' Video From Newly Announced EP

Birmingham songwriter Jahnah Camille has announced her EP and shared lead single “what do you do?,” a headturning statement of intent packed with memorable hooks and a vocal performance that sets the 20-year-old singer apart from her contemporaries. "I wrote this while trying to understand the feeling of losing control,” she shares, “I was paralyzed by a need to control how other people saw me and needed to write about it." In today’s feature, Alt Press said she “collages alt-rock, grunge, and shoegaze into swirling noise.”

Her second EP for label home Winspear (Slow Pulp, Barrie, Wishy), My sunny oath! is due out June 13th. The release comes on the heels of a run of tour dates with Blondshell, and previous shows supporting TOPS, Soccer Mommy, and Clairo after the success of her 2024 EP i tried to freeze light, but only remember a girl, which established Jahnah as one of the most promising new voices in indie music. 

Recorded with producer Alex Farrar (Wednesday, Indigo De Souza, MJ Lenderman), the new EP is set in the pressure cooker of fresh adulthood, a defiant collection of alt-rock, lo-fi grit, and sardonic grunge that channels Jahnah’s era-agnostic songwriting influences, from The Sundays and Liz Phair to Minnie Riperton and Japanese Breakfast. Watch the video for “what do you do?” below.

For Jahnah Camille, there was never a backup plan. Overhearing her father’s guitar lessons, she first picked up the instrument at four years old, and by age ten was writing her own songs. Opportunities to open for artists like Clairo and Soccer Mommy led to Jahnah’s burgeoning status as a keenly self-examining indie rocker in the Birmingham scene, otherwise saturated with punk and hardcore bands, with whom she played many of her early DIY shows.

“The first year after I graduated high school was kind of horrifying,” says Jahnah. “I had just basically broken up with most of my band. I wasn't going to college. I was seeing how everyone else that I had known growing up, their lives were changing. I knew that whatever happened in my life, it wasn't going to be that, and there wasn't really any proof that things were going in a positive direction.”

Throughout her life, supportive coincidences have pushed Jahnah’s creative tenacity. Her mother encouraged an elementary-aged Jahnah to perform for their apartment’s maintenance man, who then gifted her a red Gibson SG and amplifier. At a hippie kids camp, she met a mentor who helped to champion her early crowdfunded recordings. These threads connect on EP opener “close to heaven,” which Jahnah began writing at age 15. The final edition merges past and present: snarling guitars carry over from her upbringing in Birmingham’s hardcore scene, while soft piano nods to a current obsession with Elliott Smith.

“My mom was always having me sing and play guitar for people,” says Jahnah. “I've always had people who believed in me, and I feel like I've internalized that. That's been really beautiful.”

Jahnah will hit the road this Summer opening up for Blondshell, kicking off in Solana Beach before heading through Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, SLC, Denver and ending at Dog Days Festival in Savannah. 

Tour Dates

May 28 - Solana Beach, CA @ Belly Up Tavern *

May 30 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda *

May 31 - San Francisco, CA @ August Hall *

June 2 - Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom *

June 3 - Seattle, WA @ The Showbox *

June 6 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Soundwell *

June 8 - Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theatre *

June 14 - Savannah, GA @ Dog Days Festival ^

* supporting Blondshell 

^ w/ Mannequin Pussy, Lip Critic, & more

Photo credit: Elizabeth Marsh

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