Rising Stars: Meet Kameron Jane of East Nashville

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kameron Jane

Hi Kameron, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I began a strong interest in music at about 12 years old, when I was made to watch The Phantom of The Opera (2004) for a school assignment. I’d grown up being introduced to great music by my parents; my father introducing me to bands like Skid Row and Counting Crows, my mother showing me the softer folk side of the industry, like John Denver and James Taylor, but I only showed interest in playing music myself after having viewed Phantom in class. From there, I began taking lessons under the Dayton, OH opera and worked through community theaters, up to the point I was regularly performing in Daytons professional theatre groups. This continued until I was 20 years old, and then covid struck. Forced to leave theatre, and having began my undergraduate studies, I ended up abandoning my passion for performing to pursue a more “practical” career. For 5 years, I was studying to pursue a Neurobiology degree, with the intent to eventually become an intravascular neurosurgeon. I completely abandoned all hopes of a musical future, while secretly practicing rock vocals in private, having discovered through high school that I had an unearthed love of hard rock music. In 2020, a local Dayton band, Needmore, announced their search for a new front person. I auditioned, and was rejected, but the guitarist of the group, Tony Day, took me under his wing and became a secret mentor for me, feeding my passion for rock that I had kept hidden. In 2023, I’d had enough. I was depressed, drinking, unhealthy, and working myself to the bone. Medical studies no longer interested me, and the university I was attending had taken all the excitement for my future away from me. I faced a harsh decision as I looked at the options for my future and weighed how miserable I was willing to be for the rest of my life.
For some reason, I had a sudden burst of spontaneity and motivation, and dropped everything. With the encouragement of Tony and my family, I left my studies behind and impulsively moved to Nashville in 2022, determined to make a name for myself in music. Unfortunately Tony passed away very shortly after the move, but his inspiration and words of encouragement stayed with me. Admittedly, the last two and a half years have been a blur, with friends and contacts coming and going, failed gigs, incredible opportunities, and absolute miracles from god. At this point going into 2025, I now front the original hard rock band “Jane and The Killer Queens” which is comprised of Anthony Foglia, Alex Shipley and Diego Vargas (who I lovingly refer to as my big brothers), I have a MainStage residency at Jon Bon Jovi’s club on Broadway, and I am supporting myself as a full time musician. It’s hard to sit back and try to define the exact moments that things came into play since I moved here, but somehow everything has “worked out” and God has placed me exactly where I need to be.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has not been a smooth road. While incredible opportunities have definitely found their way in front of me, I’ve had to fight pretty hard to be taken seriously in the industry here, especially in a genre as male defined as rock. Women in this genre have to work 10x harder to receive half the credit, and we’re constantly looked down on by men in the field. Unfortunately, you also run into women here that let insecurity get the best of them, and it’s heavily influenced how I move. I am extremely grateful for the incredible women I have surrounded myself with as I work in music, because I’ve experienced firsthand how badly it hurts to be betrayed by your own.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am the frontwoman for the hard rock band “Jane and The Killer Queens”. The band has only been formed for a year, but in that short amount of time, we’ve made waves in the local rock scene. We were recently named in the top 100 rock bands to come out of Tennessee by Global Rock Underground, and we’ve had incredible shows around town opening for beloved touring bands like The Criticals and Seven Year Witch. I am so proud of the work that the boys and I have put into this project, with the fruits of our labor finally being able to be presented in February of 2025, when our debut EP will be released. We’ve so thoroughly enjoyed building our fan base and seeing familiar faces at our shows, and we’re so excited to finally be able to give everyone what we’ve worked so hard on. This EP really feels like I’m releasing the inside of my heart to the world.

Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
That you are the only person that will show up for you 100% of the time. There are times in this line of work that you feel like you have nobody up to bat for you and honestly, it’s very true in a sense. While people may support you to your face, or praise you sometimes, you have to be your biggest motivator or you won’t get anywhere. If you rely on the praise and attention from others to stay motivated, you will burn out in a second.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.janeandthekillerqueens.com/
• Instagram: Jane_and_the_killer_queens