• Jenny Owen Youngs

• Jenny Owen Youngs

• Jenny Owen Youngs

• Jenny Owen Youngs

• Jenny Owen Youngs

• Jenny Owen Youngs

The title of Jenny Owen Youngs’ Tumblr blog page reads, “Oh hey, I didn’t see you there. Hello. My name is Jenny and I write songs, record stuff, go on tour, and have tons of girl-feelings…sometimes all at once. Whee.”

Sounds about right. Her first record, Batten The Hatches, was self-released in 2005 before Nettwerk re-released it in 2007. She has toured with Regina Spektor, released multiple digital EPs, has the side projects Bell Horses and The Robot Explosion, and semi-regularly takes part in video podcasts. When she’s not doing all of that, she tours some more. Her most recent full length, Transmitter Failure, was released in 2009. She is currently on the “Spring Break Forever Tour” with Bess Rogers and Allison Weiss. I recently emailed her some questions and she graciously emailed me back her answers. This is how it all went down.

A little birdie (Twitter) told me that you tour nonstop. What’s the most consecutive days you’ve played shows?
Hmm, consecutive shows, like, playing a show every night? The record for me is eight show nights in a row (but will go up to 12 in March). I know that doesn’t sound like a lot, but singing is a lot of work! Usually on a tour we’ll do three or four show nights and then a day off, which usually ends up just being a 12-hour drive day. But, if you mean the longest I’ve just been away from home on tour, I would say nine weeks. That was a long one.

What is your favorite place to play?
In the States, I love playing in Chicago (though New York City, which I guess is my hometown now, is also at the top of the list). In Europe, it’s a tie between Manchester and Stockholm. I hate picking just one of anything.

What do you do in your downtime, when you’re not touring or recording or doing any music-related stuff?
When I’m home, I’m always doing something music-related — writing or rehearsing or planning or doing the administrative paperwork-type stuff required to keep things tidy. When I’m not doing that, I go out to see my friends play (which is an option almost any night of the week), read a lot of books and graphic novels, and work on expanding my vegan pancake repertoire. I go to museums as much as possible (the American Museum of Natural History is my permanent favorite) and generally try to be a responsible New Yorker — you know, take advantage of all the rad stuff that’s so close.

Many people first heard you in an episode of the most-excellent television program Weeds – though I was introduced to you by a friend before I started watching the show. So when “Fuck Was I” started playing in that episode, I was wicked stoked to see that a should-be-better-known artist that I really like was getting some well-deserved exposure. Enough about me, though. How did that come about?
Hey, thanks! The Weeds thing is difficult to explain. At the time, I was in talks with Nettwerk (they were about to become my label) and Chrysalis (they were about to become my publisher) and working with Lynn Grossman at Secret Road (they work to get songs placed in TV and film). I’m not sure exactly who sent Gary Calamar (the Weeds music supervisor and KCRW DJ) my record and got him to listen to it, but I like to just give credit in every direction and be super thankful that it happened.

Did you watch Weeds before that or do you now? Do you have to watch it in accordance with a contract with Showtime? Does a Showtime executive sit you down to make sure you watch every episode?
Oh, heavens. I never watched season one because I never had cable, but the placement coincided with me moving into an apartment with some serious television capabilities, so I caught up before the season two premiere. It’s a great show! I’m a little behind right now — once again, no cable — but my mom keeps me updated on the general story arcs and I hope to catch up soon.

Were any of the songs on Transmitter Failure spillovers from the Batten the Hatches days?
“Secrets,” “Transmitter Failure,” and “If I Didn’t Know” were all at least partially written around the time we were making Batten the Hatches, but all three were being revised up until we started recording Transmitter Failure.

You worked with a lot of the same people on the first record as you did on this one. How have you all changed and grown in those years? How do you think those changes affected the new record?
Hoo boy. Batten the Hatches was a first record for both me and for Dan Romer. I’d say neither of us really knew what we were doing then. Between Batten the Hatches and Transmitter Failure, Dan made some other records and generally just expanded his skill set. I don’t know how the hell he does the things he does, or how he got from writing one string part at a time by ear, to arranging a quartet in his head and writing out score sheets for the players. His growth as an arranger dramatically affected the way the record turned out.

It’s tricky to say anything about how I’ve changed, but I’d say at the least, I’ve started to understand songs in a very different way than I did at the time of Batten; my focus has shifted from lyrics to melody. I’ve also been listening to less singer/songwriter-y stuff and more rock music and old country. To sum up: Dan and I have gotten better at stuff (we hope), which in theory led us to make a better record the second time around (we hope).

The songs “First Person” and “Last Person.” I’m not going to ask a question; just tell me something about them.
Well, we wanted an introduction to the record that would look backward to “Batten” (hence the instrumentation and feel of “First Person”) while looking ahead (to track 10, “Last Person,” the complete song of which “First Person” is an excerpt). We also wanted to bookend the record between “First Person” and another song that was also sonically similar, bringing the record full circle to “Start + Stop.”

Your records have a good amount of instrumentation on them. How does that transfer to live shows?
Depending on the show and what we have to work with, parts may be covered as on the record, or performed by another instrument, or sacrificed altogether. It’s basically a matter of prioritizing, I guess. Luckily, I play with people who can do crazy things with their instruments — Chris Kuffner is to bass as God is to Adam’s rib…or something — and people who can play a ton of instruments (Dan is a beast). I think my crew gets a lot more music out of their instruments than seems possible. Lucky for me.

Working on any new material?
Absolutely! I’m on tour for the month of March, but after that it’s all about writing and plotting the next record.

You did a cover of Nelly’s “Hot in Here” a few years back. I’m from St. Louis — ”Nellyville” — so I was immediately amused that you were covering him. What made you choose to do a cover of that?
I just love the song.

Do you know if he knows about your cover?
I’m sure he’s busy with other things.

Do you perform covers live?
Sometimes, though not as much lately. I hate the idea of playing covers just to play them, when I don’t feel like I can bring the energy and love the songs deserve. A month ago we covered The Toadies’ “Possum Kingdom” and that felt pretty right.

Your initials, JOY, was that intentional?
Oh, yes indeed!

Okay, lightning round! First celebrity crush?
Link from Legend of Zelda or Jean Claude Van-Damme. I’m not sure which came first.

Biggest guilty pleasure?
Probably dairy. God give me the strength.

Favorite record of ‘09?
It’s so hard to pick just one. Also I’m about five to 15 years behind at any given time. I love St. Vincent’s Actor and Paramore’s Brand New Eyes. The records I love the most that I discovered this year are Tom Waits’ Swordfishtrombones and The White Stripes’ Elephant. Like I said, way behind.

Most loved comfort food?
Pizza? Wait did you say “comfort” or “drunkfort”?

Any phobias?
Spiders.

Got Milk?
I’m trying to not “Got Milk” as hard as I can.

In high school you were…?
Such a dork!

Was there a second shooter?
I think it was your mom?

Interview question you’ve been asked a painful amount of times?
“Do you write the lyrics or the music first?”

Favorite toy as a kid?
I was all about my stuffed animal collection.

What would you choose as your last meal if you were being executed?
My mom’s mac and cheese and Ben and Jerry’s Mint Chocolate Cookie ice cream.

Last words?
Pasta fagioli!

Verbicide Free Download: Click here to download “Thanks, Mesopotamia!” by Jenny Owen Youngs

A modern, digital age musical equivalent of that could be applied to the songwriting style of Bell Horses, a new project consisting of folk-pop singer/songwriter Jenny Owen Youngs and electronic artist Xian Hawkins. Instead of writing and throwing ideas off each other in the same room, Youngs and Hawkins were elsewhere geographically and shared their ideas by email. The results make up This Loves Last Time, a lush intertwine of their two sounds; two completely different styles of music that merge, mesh, and somehow work together. It brings out sounds of each artist that one might not notice by themselves. The album is further brought together with vocals by Alexander Ericson of the Northern Territories, percussion by Michael Lerner of The Antlers, and violin and viola by Eve Boltax.

How did this project come about? How do you and Jenny know each other?
I was listening to the radio when I heard Jenny’s “Voice On Tape.” I had just started work on another Sybarite record and was looking for vocalists to collaborate with. I felt she’d be a perfect fit and was fortunate that she was open to it. We exchanged some music, struck up a friendship, then met up in New York City for drinks and decided to try working together.

The album was created back and forth via email. Can you tell me more about how that worked?
I would upload sketches to Jenny and Alex for them to listen to, digest, and see if the music was a fit. In some cases it wasn’t and there were a couple instrumental tracks that were scrapped. In Jenny’s case she would work up vocal melodies and the lyrics would follow. It was a volley. She’d mail a rough take and then we’d often re-structure the song a bit around that — then I’d flesh it out until it was complete. I tried to keep things simple the first go round so they weren’t presented with something that felt confining or creatively too exact.

When did the two of you start sending ideas back and forth and how long did it take you to be ready to record them?
This record actually took kind of a long time (two to three years, somewhere in there) but mainly because it was very spread out. That was due to a number of different factors — moving, tours, work. On top of the life stuff, I’d been focused on a Sybarite record and the more we worked the more I realized this was something different — and I wanted it to be. So, from where it began to where it was complete, things changed between.

Did you and Jenny see each other at all throughout the writing process or not until you went to record?
The funny/interesting thing about this record is that we were never together while recording — ever. It’s a truly 21st century collaboration. Odd as it may sound, recording together in the same room seems daunting now. Jenny and I have had a shortage of face time though not for lack of want/trying. Our friendship has bloomed mainly by phone and emails. We’re both just really busy and I moved from New York to Western Massachusetts when we started working. Then she started touring more, so it’s been hard for schedules to meet up.

How did Alex, Michael, and Eve get involved?
I was turned on to Alex through a suggestion from Mark Van Hoen (Locust) who had seen him perform and later went on to produce his band Stjarna. Michael, who played some percussion on the record, is one of my best friends and has been for years. Eve is in school where I live, studies composition and performance. She’s a very flexible and competent player.

Who wrote the music? What instruments and equipment were used?
I wrote all the music with the exception of ‘Photograph’. Alex tracked some piano, organ, and guitar parts on that and I later re-worked the guitar parts. Though there are a fair amount of electronics on the record, most of the beginnings for the songs were guitar or bass. My first instrument is guitar so it’s what I often go back to when writing. We recorded Eve’s violin and viola parts in the church and Michael’s drum parts were tracked on my laptop in his Brooklyn apartment. I wanted to focus as much as possible on natural sounds mixed with the electronics. In addition to the guitars there’s piano, rhodes, a lot of percussion instruments, and a bunch of samples from around the house that were tweeked accordingly.

Who wrote the lyrics?
The lyrical content was left entirely up to Jenny and Alex — really no input from me. I contributed suggestions/approaches to a few things, but largely they were responses to the music.

Is there an overall theme or mood you were attempting to reach with the album?
When recording I was hoping to create a kind of sound-world, something that can be immersive — articulating that is difficult. I’m always after something emotive and creating a space to get into and inside of with the music. It’s meant to be subtle in it’s way (which is I guess the “ambient” aspect of it) but requires a bit of effort to get out everything that has gone in.

Are there other artists who inspired the sound of the album? What were you guys listening to while writing?
Jenny and I swapped some mixes in the beginning — Kate Bush, David Sylvian and Nine Horses, Broadcast, Lisa Germano, Fleetwood Mac, Siouxsie and The Banshees, Joni Mitchell. At one point we were talking about trying a cover. Jenny had a Fleetwood Mac song she liked (can’t remember which now) and I wanted to try a Joni Mitchell song called “Jungle Line” off of Hissing of Summer Lawns…a tall order. Needless to say, we never got to it. For me one of the things that’s great about this project is that our influences and approaches are really quite different — rather than detracting, I think the distinctions imbue the music with something unique.

The story behind the bell horses is really cool. Care to tell a bit about the album title?
The album title came from a song that I was writing/singing that I decided not to include on the record. Most of the songs are (unsurprisingly) about love in one form or another. So I was thinking about how relationships don’t really end and how they carry over. If you believe that life cycles and the same energy comes about again in a different form, I was envisioning the end of it, when it’s really over — not in any morbid sense, but just that everything has a conclusion.

Are Bell Horses going to tour or at least play a few shows?
This time around there are no plans to perform. Honestly, the work for this record was so studio-oriented I wasn’t really thinking about that while writing. As an afterthought, I wish I’d considered it more, as the response so far has been really positive and I’d love to be able to perform the songs. The hesitation to do so is mainly my own. Jenny is a master — she tours all the time, I am a novice — I need to hone my skills! I think with the next Bell Horses effort the emphasis will be on creating something that we can play and, when the time comes, probably re-working some of this material.

So there are plans for another Bell Horses record?
Yes. Trying to change up the writing process a bit so this time the songs will be developed with performing them in mind. Currently working on new stuff and headed for some recording once Michael is back from Antlers UK tour in December. For the immediate future there’s a remix record in the works, which I hope will see the light sometime early next year.