Jane Yee isn’t obsessed with music, just very very very passionate.
“Obsessed might be a bit strong, it’s kind of got maniacal leanings!” she says with a laugh.
“But that’s probably true. Passionate, I’d say that’s a better word, doesn’t make me out to be such a freak. Yeah, obsessed, passionate, totally!”
That’s a good way to be when you’re a presenter at a music television station, even if the boxes and boxes of music mags you’ve stored at your mum’s place do drive her a little mad!
Jane has recently started at C4, filling the formidable shoes of Jacqui Brown and it has been all go since then.
“There’s no such thing as a typical day and I’ve learnt that quickly!” says Jane, who has been busy with media interviews promoting her new role as well as doing the interviews herself.
“I’m meeting with producers all the time and with Clarke [Gayford], just prepping for the shows, interviewing artists, recording shows and travelling and stuff.”
Jane’s no stranger to the world of music TV. After completing a bachelor of communications degree with a radio major she rocked the airwaves for a while before becoming a presenter on M2 at its inception and hosting NZ music show Squeeze.
Although she’s only been with C4 a short time, Jane’s already had one career highlight with a trip to the MTV awards in Australia.
“That was awesome,” she says – her face lighting up.
“The MTV awards were crazy, we didn’t sleep for 24 hours and we were only there for a day so we didn’t sleep the entire time. We were based on the red carpet and Sydney being Sydney the sky just opened up and there were thunder storms and lightening and it just poured!
"Clarke and I had been dressed in designer outfits and all the Australian crews were there and they all had their umbrellas and we were just clueless and we got absolutely drenched.”
Jane says it was totally worth feeling a bit soggy and she was thrilled to attend the after-party.
“It was kind of strange cause there was a VIP area upstairs and that was for like the proper VIPs and then there were the fringe VIPs, which was everyone else, including us, downstairs so we were just looking up at where all the really cool people were.”
Cool people who included stars like the Osbourne family, Carmen Electra, Green Day, Natalie Imbruglia and Anna Nicole Smith to name a few.
“It was my first time at a really glitzy event and it wasn’t as glamorous and glitzy as you might expect, but it was still really cool.” Glitz and glamour are something you assume go part and parcel with a career in the TV industry so you might be surprised to learn the clothes you see Jane wearing on your screen are from her own wardrobe.
"I’m not very fashion-y, I’m not that kind of girl. I don’t even enjoy shopping that much, I think because I find it frustrating,” she says, sticking out a leg clad in jeans and finished with Chuck Taylors, to illustrate her lack of girlyness.
“I’m a total midget. I’m 5”2 and I’ve got short legs for my height so I have such trouble finding clothes that fit. The top half is fine, but jeans and pants and skirts, they’re always made for people who are much taller than I am. So pretty much if it fits, I’ll buy it, then I’ll wear it.”
Despite her fashion issues (oh, we all have them!) we think Jane always looks very cool onscreen, but she says she has no affinity with any label in particular.
“I just prefer to mix and match, I don’t have any particular favourites I guess. There are my favourite stores that I’ll go along to but designer-wise, at this stage I don’t have any.”
As for her exotic look, that can be attributed to Jane’s father, who is Chinese.
Jane says she’d love to go to China with her dad and learn more about that side of her heritage. Aside from a bit of travel around New Zealand and popping over the Tasman for work, Jane hasn’t seen a lot of the world yet, but she does hope to.
“I definitely want to travel but I don’t want to do the backpack OE styles, because I think I’m too old now!
“I think I’ve missed the opportunity I’ve always wanted to go overseas but money’s such a big thing. I’ve got a huge student loan and I’ve got other priorities money wise, and I think I’ve also had jobs where it’s been hard to take the time off and they’ve been such good jobs that I haven’t wanted to leave them. But it’s definitely something that’s on the horizon.”
Aside from China, Jane’s keen to head to the UK to explore her Brit pop obsession (there’s that “o” word again).
It was Brit pop that awakened Jane’s love of music and sent her on the career trajectory that saw her wind up at C4.
“I’ve been through all sorts of phases of wanting to be a check-out operator and teacher and stuff as little girls do, then I had a friend who was really into Brit pop when I was a teenager and she introduced me to Blur and Pulp and Oasis, Manic Street Preachers and Suede and all those sort of clichéd Brit pop bands and I loved it and I totally immersed myself in it and I was going to marry Damon Albarn from Blur and that sort of thing!” says Jane, in one breathless sentence and it’s so clear that music is where her passion lies.
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very very passionate.
Jane’s no stranger to the world of music TV. After completing a bachelor of communications degree with a radio major she rocked the airwaves for a while before becoming a presenter on M2 at its inception and hosting NZ music show Squeeze.
“It was my first time at a really glitzy event and it wasn’t as glamorous and glitzy as you might expect, but it was still really cool.” 
“I think I’ve missed the opportunity I’ve always wanted to go overseas but money’s such a big thing. I’ve got a huge student loan and I’ve got other priorities money wise, and I think I’ve also had jobs where it’s been hard to take the time off and they’ve been such good jobs that I haven’t wanted to leave them. But it’s definitely something that’s on the horizon.”