''In 1967, I started playing in folk clubs,'' Janie said. ''Many people don’t know I did that. I was born in Sydney and moved to Melbourne at about six years old and my extended family were all musical. My cousin was a folk singer on who played on Bandstand and inspired me to play guitar. The first time I plucked a guitar string, I fell in love with it and started pestering my parents for a guitar. I was taught to play classical guitar by Susan May – the daughter of the creator of Maton guitars. I learned by watching, practicing and memorising pieces and never learned to read the music. Then I was asked to be in folk groups at school - and I could sing moderately well - so it was a natural progression into the folk
world.''
Janie Myriad and her husband Carrl were a popular husband & wife duo on the Melbourne circuit in the early 70's who went on to form one of our first country/folk/rock bands, the self-named Myriad. They released one album 'Of All The Wounded People'. Carrl & Janie made several appearances on Happening '72 to promote the album when it was released. Some of the players in that band reads like a who's who of Oz rock & included several future members of The Sports including guitarists Andrew Pendlebury & Ed Bates & bassist Rob Glover. Other members of note include Mark Ferrie of The Models & now part of the RokWiz Orchestra, plus Chris Wilson who was in Buster Brown & has played with Broderick Smith for many years. For a long time the band held a residency at the famed Station Hotel in Prahran & even had three tracks appear on the 'Live At The Station' multi-artist album which came out in 1976.
By that time Carrl & Janie had separated and Janie reverted to her maiden name Janie Conway, helping to form, with Jane Clifton, another popular band of the late 1970's, Stiletto. In 1984 she released her debut album 'Temptation' on the Powderworks. Janie is also the sister of Mic & Jim Conway of Captain Matchbox/Backsliders fame. Quite a talented family indeed. After turning to study, Janie graduated with BA and Masters degrees from the University of Technology, Sydney and went on to gain her doctorate in Creative Writing from Western Sydney University. With that momentum, Janie spent the next fifteen years, teaching, mentoring students and coordinating the Creative Writing Program at Southern Cross University in the northern rivers area of NSW.
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