WHO’S HOT : Jane Child: Her Music Is as Offbeat as Her Looks

“Right away some people brand me as a weirdo, even when they don’t know me,” said pop-soul singer Jane Child, whose sprightly “Don’t Wanna Fall in Love” was a recent Top 5 single.

One reason Child may get more than the average number of double-takes is her extreme appearance. Like the ring embedded in her nostril and connected by a chain to one of her earrings. And like the long, blond braids snaking down nearly the full length of her slender frame.

Child, who’s admitted she’s in her early 20s but declined to reveal her exact age, explained that her look is a crazy-quilt mix of cultures--East Indian (nose ring and chain), African (braids) and plain old punk (spiked hair).

“I like those elements in these cultures,” she said. “I took what I liked and created my own look. People who look at me might think it’s weird, but to me those parts all seem to go together. I’ll tell you one thing: No one else looks like me.”

The danger in such a flashy image in pop is that people can stereotype you as some kind of marketing gimmick--someone who has little musical substance.

That would be a wrong impression in Child’s case because her Warner Bros. album--titled simply “Jane Child”--has been widely hailed as one of the most promising debuts of the year.

Some of her material--ranging from funky dance music to atmospheric, high-tech pop--is as offbeat as she is. And it’s virtually a one-woman show. Child not only sang on the record, but also wrote the songs and played all the instruments except the guitar. She even produced the record.

Because of all this creative control, this pop maverick has even compared to early Prince. She even shares, she says, some of his maverick instincts.

“I was born that way,” she noted proudly. “I was meant to be a loner, separate from the pack.”

Growing up in Toronto, Child thrived on being alone. “I had no friends,” she recalled. “That’s the way I wanted it. I learned to live within myself.”

Even in those days, she tended to dress and wear her hair in distinctive ways. “I didn’t get along with the other kids, so why should I dress like them?” she asked.

Musically though, she was a conservative through her early adolescence, immersing herself in classical music, singing with the Children’s Chorus of the Canadian Opera Company and studying piano at the Royal Conservatory of Music.

A turning point in her life was discovering R&B.; “When I was a youngster, I heard some R&B; music (on the radio in Florida),” said Child, who is relatively soft-spoken. “I hadn’t really heard R&B; (previously) because I was so into classical music. Besides, they didn’t play it in Canada. But suddenly I had to hear this music and make it part of my life. The first time I heard Stevie Wonder, I lost my mind.”

In the next few years, she also lost her passion to perform classical music. “In classical music, you interpret other composers’ music and there are so many limits,” said Child, who is still a classical fan. “In R&B; and pop music, there was musical freedom. After a while that’s what I needed--what I craved.”

Thoroughly smitten by pop and R&B;, Child went on the road in Canada as a keyboardist with an all-male band--at the age of 15. “My parents wouldn’t give their consent, so I went anyway,” she recalled. “My parents didn’t hear from me for six months.”

That kind of determination has marked her quest for autonomy in her recording career. “When I make records I have to be in charge, I have to be able to put across my vision,” said Child, who moved to Los Angeles three years ago in search of a record deal.

Her demo tape was so impressive that she was the prize in a record-label bidding war, eventually won by Warner Bros. The label guaranteed her total autonomy.

“I have to do just about everything on my album myself,” she explained. “I’m a crazed perfectionist. When I’m making a record, if I do something myself I’m sure it will be done the way I want it done.”