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Janeway has a long history of singing, largely at his family’s church in Chelsea, Alabama. A born performer, he was invited to speak at services, where he learned how to read a crowd. “I took a lot of that away and use it now,” he says. He’s never had a drink or a smoke—hence the nickname “St. Paul,” given to him by his bandmates. 

If the church gave Janeway a voice, a string of hard luck in his early 20s may have burnished its soul—what he calls “the hurt.” A job loss during the recession led to eviction notices, and Janeway grudgingly moved into a cramped apartment with his father. “That wasn’t that long ago; that’s what’s so crazy about this whole thing,” he says. Enrolling in accounting at UAB offered a solid, practical path—a ticket to a career as a CPA.

Now, with St. Paul and the Broken Bones playing regular gigs, cutting their first album, and hiring a lawyer, manager, and publicist, his accounting coursework is coming in handy in a way he never anticipated. “You’re really only an artist when you’re on stage. The rest of the time, you’re a small-business owner,” he reflects. “And I can count the money a lot faster than the other guys.”