Jana Mila: The Bitter End 2024

Making her way from Amsterdam to Nashville to record with Kacey Musgraves' producer Todd Lombardo, Jana Mila (pronounced yah-nuh mee-law), released her debut album, Chameleon, at the end of August on New West Records. The title describes Mila's mutable approach to her own music, shapeshifting from track to track, between Americana, gritty rockers, sweetened country, and classic California folk that trundles down Laurel Canyon byways. 

Mila brought along bandmates Matthijs van Duijvenbode (keys) and Gerben van der Mooren (guitar) for an intimate set at The Bitter End for Marquee Members this summer, previewing Chameleon.

The Dutch musician was raised in a family of musicians, including her father, mother and brother, and she began playing guitar as a teenager. The songs she chose for Chameleon are split between those she worked on for a while in Amsterdam — and some that she wrote in Nashville. But that transatlantic duality is an apt metaphor for Mila's evolving identity as an artist.

Watch videos of Jana and her bandmates performing "Like Only Lovers Could," "Somebody New," and "I Wasn't Gonna" below.

[Recorded 7/31/24; Engineered by Jim O'Hara; produced by Meghan Offtermatt; hosted by Sam Sumpter; videographers: Anna Fahy, Bella Lipayon, Adithi Vimalanathan, and Olivia Iannaccone.]