Jenny lewis
FOR JENNY LEWIS, MUSIC IS A LIFE RAFT.
If you’re currently dealing with some serious imposter syndrome, it might reassure you to know that Jenny Lewis – the singer-songwriter and musician who’s spent more than two decades making music – feels much the same way. For critics and fans, the 43-year-old indie idol has done more than enough to confidently claim her space in music. But she’s quick to point out that feeling comfortable in your own skin is a constant process for many women, especially in maledominated industries. “I feel weird on most days – like a fraud a lot of the time,” she says. “But what do we do? We keep it honest, we lean on our friends, our girlfriends, co-workers and just keep going on. It’s about not letting your self-destructive tendencies come to the forefront.”
During the making of her fourth solo album, On the Line, Jenny found herself taking shelter with a community of musical dames in New York. Her 12-year relationship had broken down, and she needed a clean break from her native Los Angeles. Trying to regain a sense of self, she started a punk-rock band, NICE AS FUCK, with her friends Tennessee Thomas and Erika Forster, creating new routines and experiences in Nashville, Jamaica and Haiti. Eventually, she landed back in LA, bringing a line of her own lyrics to life: “No matter how cruel I’ve been / LA, you always let me back in.” For her last record, 2014’s The Voyager, Jenny donned a rainbow suit on stage every night, performing deeply personal songs that traced her band Rilo Kiley’s break-up and the recent death of her father. The visuals were an antidote to the overwhelming theme of sadness that permeated the album. At the time, she said it was about the hardest period of her life, but looking back, she sees things differently – every period is the hardest part of someone’s life. “You have no idea what to expect until you’re in the midst of a break-up or rebound relationship, sickness or death of a parent,” she says. “Whatever it is, life is difficult for all of us.”
Songwriting has always been a lifesaver for Jenny – a “raft out in the sea”. Parts of On the Line were written in and out of hospital, singing along with her mum, who was deeply unwell. (She sadly passed away while the album was being recorded.) Though it covers devastating emotional ground, there’s no rainbow suit this time round. “I hope people listen to this album with an open heart and know that this is music from my heart,” Jenny says. “It’s raw.”
Recording took place at the legendary Capitol Records – she sang in a vocal booth built for Frank Sinatra, and Ringo Starr played on a number of tracks. (“If you’d told me as a little kid actor in a Jell-o commercial that one day I’d be playing with Ringo, I wouldn’t have believed you.”) For the first time, Jenny felt like a bona fide professional musician. “I come from a DIY background,” she explains. “I started out making songs on my cassette player, then a 4-track at home in my bedroom, then with Rilo Kiley, on a computer in our living room. We hand-printed our t-shirts! Cut to 2017 and I’m in my little car, pulling up to the gates at Capitol Records. I pull in and they say, ‘Oh, Miss Lewis, right this way, here’s your parking spot.’”
As for what comes next, Jenny says she doesn’t set goals – she’d prefer to live in the now. Even so, she never wants to feel like she’s ‘made it’. “There’s danger in feeling like you’ve arrived somewhere,” she says. “You always have to look out at the lighthouse, and try to get out to the buoy to find yourself. Maybe when you do, that’ll be when you go to the next level.”