When Lia Riot sent a text to her popular music performance cohort proposing a rock album project, Jared Manasse was the first to respond. 

Since then, that text has grown into Janero, a collaborative rock band directed by vocalist Riot and guitarist Manasse, and featuring many of their pop performance classmates, who “ebb and flow” in the band. 

The duo started writing music together in October and debuted in February at Whisky a Go Go.

“I wanted our first debut to be somewhere that our image was really reflected in the audience,” said Riot, a freshman majoring in popular music performance. “It really was intentional, even if the rest of the gigs are frats or literally anywhere else. The first gig was somewhere where Mötley Crüe played and Def Leppard, somewhere that we could go back and be like, ‘This was our first gig.’” 

Manasse said having such a strong rock identity has been an asset to the band, as it sets them apart from the rest of the freshman pop performance cohort, most of whom he said avoid the genre. 

“In our cohort specifically, there’s three or four people who are pretty popular, on Spotify or online, but they all write R&B music,” said Manasse, also a freshman majoring in popular music performance. “We’re the only people, at least, who I met, who actually are … crossing the bridge between pop-rock ballads.”

Janero has performed for student audiences throughout the semester, mainly at fraternity houses such as Phi Delta Theta and Theta Xi. 

“We invite a lot of our friends, and then they invite their friends, and so it’s just people that genuinely wanted to be there,” Riot said. “[House shows are] a lot better way to start your fan base in college [than random venues], especially at USC, with the resources that we have.”

At their concerts, Janero covers songs that reflect their musical inspirations, such as Guns N’ Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle” — with an eerily similar recreation of Axl Rose’s intro scream by Manasse. Between covers, they pepper in some of their original music, written by both Riot and Manasse.

“They’re all my babies,” Riot said. “I recently went through a breakup, and so most of the songs that I have written are about … empowering women.”

Although most of their songs are born from meshing lyrics, guitar riffs and chords that Riot and Manasse have created, one song in particular, “Opposite to You,” was built from a song that Manasse had been writing before coming to USC.

“My favorite guitar song is ‘Opposite to You.’ That riff is really, really fun to play,” said Manasse. “With ‘Opposite to You’, I had a song that I’ve been writing for about a year now, and I’ve been refining it a lot along the way, and then I gave it to her … it totally just depends on what we each come with.”

Beyond writing the songs as a duo, Riot and Manasse have also collaborated with many of their cohort members for their live performances. Jacob Egan, a freshman majoring in pop performance, has played at many of the band’s concerts.

“For Janero, it’s more like, ‘Here’s our idea and here’s where it comes from. Here’s the music we’re thinking about when we made this idea. Now you, you help us flesh out this idea.’ And I do enjoy that,” Egan said. “I do really like playing with people, and it’s nice to play a different style.”

Both Riot and Manasse draw inspiration from multiple sources, including the theory training they’ve received at the Thornton School of Music and the music they grew up listening to. 

For the band name, Riot paid homage to her mother’s home city, Rio de Janeiro — but with the “i” removed, because she didn’t want Americans pronouncing it wrong.

“I’m super close with my mom, and she’s one of the biggest reasons why I’m in music and one of the biggest reasons why I am where I am today,” Riot said. “She was a dancer, so she understands all the creative stuff. She’s kind of a momager, but not in the obnoxious sense; she tells me what I need to improve, so I wanted to dedicate it to her.”

Janero is currently working with student producer Haziel Gonzalez, a freshman majoring in music production, to record their original song “Burn,” which is set to be finalized over the summer. 

“Once we actually solidify three additional members, I would like to, at some point, put out a full, 12-track album,” Manasse said. 

While figuring out their permanent band members, the two plan on continuing to perform at full throttle.

“I see us doing very big things in the future. We are very hardworking. We’re, at least this spring semester, very booked and busy … that’s not going to stop,” Riot said. “We’re very passionate about what we do, and we’re definitely going to make it.”