With ‘On The Line’, Jenny Lewis Has Cemented Herself As One Of The Greats

“I’m emotionally exhausted from talking about these songs,” Jenny Lewis admits as we reach the end of our interview. Which is completely understandable: It’s the day before her fourth solo album On The Line is released and the singer has been doing press for over a month.

It’s also not surprising considering this album chronicles a very dark period of Lewis’ life. A lot of it was written whilst Lewis was looking after her dying mother and dealing with the end of a long-term relationship.

However, with her international tour behind the album beginning in just a few days, she’s excited to perform the music for her fans. “My songs aren’t the paper of record. They’re fictional versions of feelings and relationships. So they’re not totally on my nose. The interviews, however, I take responsibility for sharing because that’s a different way of sharing.” she tells me, explaining why she finds the press more exhausting than life on tour.

Two decades into Jenny Lewis’ musical career, the child actor turned indie icon herself might not be a household name, but it would be almost impossible for anyone to say they didn’t know her music. Rilo Kiley has soundtracked more TV shows and films than you can count, with Lewis often at the front; ‘Portions For Foxes’ has been played on three different episodes of Grey’s Anatomy alone.

It’s almost guaranteed you’ll have heard her voice dubbed over scenes on your favourite show, whether it’s The OC, 90210, Girls, One Tree Hill, or Weeds.

She’s often been credited as a pioneer of female-led indie music, with her songwriting compared to Joni Mitchell and Carole King. But on her first solo release since 2014’s breakthrough The Voyager, Jenny Lewis has now cemented herself as one of “the greats”, without the need for comparison.

In a short fifteen minutes, we discussed the emotions and inspiration behind On The Line, her songwriting process as a solo artist and in bands, as well as feeling like a “bonafide professional musician” for the first time.

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On The Line comes out tomorrow, but I want to talk about the last record quickly. For the last tour and album, there was a very prominent rainbow theme. Did you feel it was necessary to move away from that aesthetic with this new album?

You know, I wanted to hang onto the rainbow as long as possible but I feel it defined an era that isn’t totally accurate now. When starting a new batch of music, making an album, the fun part is the creation after you’re done with the music and you can imagine what the costumes look like and what the set looks like. I am very much interested in visual art so it’s fun to kind of tear everything down every time and rebuild.

With that idea of rebuilding everything, there are a lot of similar themes and links throughout your music in song titles and lyrics. Do you think that’s intentional when it comes to your writing?

I think it just happens. It’s hard to know intention as a writer because I’m always writing. And I’m always writing in different ways. Sometimes a melody, sometimes a lyric, a feeling, a thought.

I’ve found it’s abstract and I feel like I put the pieces together to create a song. There’s some fact and fiction and ultimately the one true line is me and my perspective. I think there’s a little bit of magic in there and when you know too much about process, maybe then you get tripped up.

That’s completely understandable. I saw you play at Splendour in the Grass back in 2015 behind The Voyager, but you played tracks from almost every part of your career. You’ve got such a vast back catalogue with Rilo Kiley and other projects on top your solo work. Do you feel like, when it comes to performing the tracks from your work with Rilo Kiley and other groups, that you’ve got to approach it differently?

Yeah, it’s interesting looking back on all those songs. There’s so many and I’ve forgotten about most of them because I don’t listen to records once I’m done with them. I just put them away and I move on.

I’ve revisited a handful of songs over the years and some feel good using the original arrangement. But for the most part, the song has to adapt to the current feeling, mood and musicians. With every solo record, I put together a different band. So I want to be able to let the musicians feel and find the songs as well.

“I don’t want to exploit anyone. My songs aren’t the paper of record. They’re fictional versions of feelings and relationships.”

On this tour that we’re about to do we’ve been doing a version of ‘Portions for Foxes’, which I renamed ‘Bad News’. It’s kind of like a ballad version of the song and it feels so current. I don’t think I could do the old rock kind of indie version now. I don’t think that would feel true to me. So I think it’s a testament to a song’s sing power if you can reimagine it.

It’s such a fun song to sing and people really respond to it still. You know, I think everyone can relate to that feeling and I think that’s why it has stuck around.

I think that’s something that’s so beautiful about the songs you write. In particular, you have this ability to share just emotions that come so personally to you but in a way that everyone can relate to that situation.

Yeah, I don’t filter the vibe and I feel there’s so many elements to it. It’s embarrassing and cathartic. But when I’m on tour and I’m sharing that part that’s a little embarrassing, I can feel the support from the crowd. They’re like “Oh, we’re here with you. We’re walking through this with you.” You know? It becomes this symbiotic thing.

The new album has a bunch of big names involved in the recording process, including Ringo Starr and Beck. How did their involvement come about when it came to putting the album together and recording it?

Well, this is why I am a solo artist, so every solo album I can put together groups of people and somehow tap into the energy in the room and document it. It’s such a fun experiment to put two people in a room together and be like, “Okay, let’s play”.

With this record, it started with Jim Keltner. He was my number one pick. I wanted to work with Jim. Jim played drums on ‘Imagine’, he played with Leon Russell, JD Kale. I mean unbelievable drummer. It’s just like the best we got, truly.

“Openness is a beautiful thing but it also makes you vulnerable and I feel like I’ve been doing press now for a month or whatever.”

So with Jim, then you sort of matchup. Who’s going to play well with Jim? Well, Don Was came in on bass. Then Benmont Tench from the Heartbreakers. He played on The Voyager so we brought him in again.

Beck produced a song on The Voyager [‘Just One Of The Guys’] so I knew I had a couple of songs he’d really get. It’s really an experiment, too, like “Well, I hope it works out!” It’s just a bunch of people in a room.

It’s an incredible line-up and it’s so beautiful to listen to it and think about that collaboration in the studio, because outside of the recording aspect, you wrote all the songs yourself. Is collaborating on songwriting easy for you?

I really enjoy collaborating, but I feel like I’m more myself when I’m ultimately in control of the song. So this album I wrote every song and I think it just feels more like my conversational voice. I feel closer to myself when I’m ultimately the author.

But, every time I co-write with someone, which I’ve done a lot throughout my career, I learn so much about music and pop music structure. I feel like my co-writers make me poppier, whereas left to my own devices, I go a little further out. Not musically but also lyrically. I just kind of go down the rabbit hole a little deeper because I don’t have an additional editor.

I think that really attributes to what we were talking about earlier, with you not “filtering the vibe.”

But in the case of Rilo Kiley, Blake would have a piece of music and I would just pour poetry over it. I would just dump on pages of poetry. So those early songs are very wordy because I hadn’t learned how to edit myself yet. I’m so happy they exist in that form because it is truly the evolution of a writer through 20 years.

Speaking of having been writing and making music for 20 years, in the album bio that Fred Armisen has put together you’re quoted as saying this album is the first time you’ve felt like a “bonafide professional musician”. What in particular about recording this album inspired that sentiment?

Well, I think having the experience of 20 years. They say that it takes 10 years to become an expert, not that I’m at all an expert. I still think I’m getting there, I’m still learning so much about songs and songwriting. But the experience of walking into Capitol Records Studio B and having a parking spot reserved for me. “Ms. Lewis, right this way.” That had never happened to me before.

I never assumed I would belong in a professional legendary recording studio. To walk in and see Jim, Benmon and Don. I mean that was so legit. I felt like a true professional.

At this point, when you feel that way when it comes to music, do you ever feel a desire to go back to the acting side of performing you were involved with when you were younger?

No, although I keep getting asked to do stuff and I’m typically like, “No, it’s cool. I don’t want to act”. Bill Murray convinced me to be in the Sofia Coppola Christmas special two or three years ago.

So really, Bill’s like the only person that could bring me out of my shell. I was like, “Oh man, can I just sing a song? Do I have to say dialogue? I don’t want to embarrass you.” I don’t think I’m very good at it, that’s why I stopped doing it.

I don’t need to act in front of a camera but I do love movie making. I’m obsessed with the cinema and just storytelling. I’m really interested in telling stories in different ways so maybe one day I’ll be on the other side of the camera.

Is that something that you’d look at doing in terms of music videos for this album or in the future as a way of stepping into the director’s chair?

I would love to. I make these little short movies on my Instagram, they’re by no means… They’re like little movies. I feel like I’ve found a visual style that is my own and I’d love to pursue that further. Maybe that’ll begin with projections at my shows, like a visual element where I shoot the content.

But it’s all very exciting to me, I just want to stay busy creatively and tell stories with pictures or words, whatever it is…even clothes. Clothing is so fun for mood on stage, like I’m wearing this long, sparkly gown for my tour when I’ve never toured like that before.

I wear a suit or a jumper, whatever. I’m so excited to learn about myself through the costume, like how am I going to present in a long evening gown?

The process of writing this album was fuelled by a lot of personal things that happened in your life, including the passing of your mother. Do you worry about sharing those personal moments for your music with the world?

I never worry about the poetry, but the conversations can get a little uncomfortable. I don’t want to exploit anyone. My songs aren’t the paper of record. They’re fictional versions of feelings and relationships. So they’re not totally on my nose. The interviews, however, I take responsibility for sharing because that’s a different way of sharing.

I’m sure there are consequences. Openness is a beautiful thing but it also makes you vulnerable and I feel like I’ve been doing press now for a month or whatever. The last week, I’m emotionally exhausted from talking about these songs. I’m so tired of the heavy stuff.

Moving away from the “heavy stuff”, before I let you go. I just wanted to mention the wonderful lyric in the chorus of ‘Wasted Youth’ when you referenced Candy Crush. How did that come about?

I’m so happy you caught that. That is the centre of that song, that line. The song’s about vices and escapism and whatever that means. But somehow I think the worst of all this Candy Crush.

Candy Crush and Angry Birds right?

Exactly.

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Jenny Lewis’ On The Line is out now, listen here.

Patrick Campbell is a DJ and freelance writer based in Sydney. He had his first kiss with a boy listening to ‘Silver Lining’ by Rilo Kiley, which is kinda fucked considering it’s a song about leaving a toxic relationship but hey. Follow him on Twitter.