About

Years to Burn is an Indie Synth Pop music collaboration between producer and singer-songwriter Janessa van Koppen & electronic music artist Keaton Mason (Jakean). The independent, small town artist’s musical style explores 80’s retro inspired synths with a modern indie flair. Dreamy reverb instrumentals paired with darker lyrics influenced by a range of artists such as Caribou, Coldplay, City & Colour, Daft Punk, Death From Above 1979, Metric, Porter Robinson, Pearly Drops, Sufjan Stevens, Thom Yorke, Yeah Yeah Yeahs & many more.

Together they performed their first public event as the newly formed “Years to Burn” duo at Arts Hub in Historic Downtown Brockville (June 23 2023), at Wàskonenindamàwin: A lighted journey Gee Gee’s Rugby Halftime Show in Ottawa (September 24 2023), and at Songs From The Shed on Spark Street in Ottawa (October 15 2023). Years to Burn’s unreleased track “As Good As it Gets” was previewed on the Friday Morning Special Blend in July to promote Jakean’s collaborative performance with visual artist Annie Socoria at Mirror Mountain Film Festival and is set to release officially on April 5, 2024.

The name ‘Years to Burn’ represents the feeling of looking back at the past with nostalgia and melancholy, the sort of polarising emotion that comes with looking through old photos. The times that have changed, the people that are no longer here, but with gratitude for each moment that happened.

The visuals for “As Good As It Gets”, is a polaroid photo taken using a dysfunctional vintage camera purchased at a local furniture store that no longer exists. The image that came out was altered in colour, and had burn like marks from the roller pushing too hard against the film as it exposed. The polaroid represents the distorted and fleeting image we get when looking back on the past.