Jenny Lewis

0:03Is this like the first show of the, like it looks like you're on the road all summer and this is like the first one I know you did a couple of probably one-offs here and there but this is yeah, this is kicking off this this one. I was feeling back on stage and playing these tunes and Feels good. crafting a set list and all that stuff. It's a work in progress, you know. Is it? Well it is because you in your mind you can go over a set list a hundred times but until you're up there

0:50You're actually feeling it in front of a crowd. So today I thought there was a little I could like throw in a rocker or two But I'm having to balance okay material from such a yeah an extended period of time Well, I noticed close call went into money maker. Yes, it does in the record too, right? Oh, does it? Doesn't it? Or maybe my truck? Okay, you don't know. I don't know. I think it does go to the end of this morning. But see I ordered that too so you do what you. But I'm wondering like were those so I guess they didn't have to be back to back. I just thought oh so maybe she wrote and like they were meant to be one piece kind of. Well yeah, I wanted to create a little consistency in the set like this is this particular era. Okay, you know and thematically they work well together. Okay, but that wasn't a goal like even when you're writing the songs like these two need to sit back to back. To go back seven years. We'll talk about the new record.

1:36What was I doing back in 2007? But let's talk about the Voyager. Okay. Because I hear it was a tough record to make. So are they hard to perform on stage? Not yet because they're not all in there. Okay. And I'm slowly because the record is not out yet. Yeah. So you have to kind of like slowly introduce people to the new record in a live context. Or you'll hate your new material because they're like oh interesting. In the crowd like but yeah but they're hearing it for the first time. Yeah. You can't expect people to like freak out because they're actually really listening. And today the crowd was so attentive you know they were really listening to the lyrics. But I think it's time for another newie. Okay. So if you go to the summer you'll start to bust him out a little bit. So you were talking to Brian from Gaslight Anthem yesterday.

2:22You played the festival and his record comes out in August. And he said he doesn't want to play anything until people until that records out for YouTube and all the like you know the way stuff leaks out nowadays. It sounds like you feel a little the opposite. I don't really think about that stuff. You know I play what I want to play and what makes me feel good in the moment. And like we were talking about just crafting a set from like 15 years of music. You know it's a very careful process you know. But I want a fair amount of new stuff to be in there so I remain interested. Sure. You know because it's always the new stuff that is the most exciting I think to play. Well here's a song about Metallica. And it's a song about a comically bad vacation as well. Yes. So let's tell me about the let's start with the comically bad vacation because that sounds fun. That one I wanted to put in the set today but I chicken note.

3:08Oh let's do that. I love that song is I recorded it three times and finally hit it with Ryan. And then Adam's who produced most of the Voyager. He really understood the vibe of that tune. But it was based on it's called a low ha in the three Johns. And it was based on an ill faded trip to paradise to Hawaii where I wanted to basically gift my band a trip to Hawaii on our way back from Australia to break up the flight. And when we got there, they put us up in the worst possible hotel in like Meftown, Waikiki, which I didn't even realize there was like a Meftown.

3:53Just like prostitution, ice. I think that's what the kids call it now. Oh. These days, ice. Okay. And then the craziest thing happened where I was walking with Jonathan and we were on the main drag in Honolulu. And we look across the way and there's a guy standing on the corner who looks very thirsty. And he then proceeds to unzip his pants. You may have to censor this for the kids. And then he pees directly into his own mouth. No. On the corner of the main drag in Honolulu, I can't pronounce it because all the streets sound alike there.

4:38And I just thought this is just the worst vacation. We'll talk about this after, but how does he even do that? No, he's a magician, clearly. And very thirsty. And like a surfer kind of guy, I don't know, but it was like just the end to like the worst week in paradise. Good barter for a song though. Wow. Right. So that I didn't, I tried to write that into a verse, but I couldn't quite. That's the subtext. Gotcha. Talking about Ryan though, I heard he wouldn't let you listen to playbacks. No. Is that something you think you want to take into like the process now? That's such a different way of working. I know, but that's the joy of recording. Do you like it though? Because I mean, obviously it's different. Well, I needed that, I needed a new way of doing things and I needed a guide. And I was in his studio, so I was going to play by his roles, begrudgingly sometimes,

5:26but I thought it was really, really smart for me at that moment because I was stuck. And I really didn't need to look back. I needed to just keep looking forward with the songs. You really helped me out a lot. What song do you help the most on? He understood, well, the first song I recorded with him, she's not me. I wrote in it. It's a good closer by the way. Oh, thanks. Well, it's a good, it's kind of feels uplifting. Which it doesn't, all of my songs don't necessarily feel that way. No, really? Today I was like singing about like something so dark and I looked out, I was like, why? What am I doing? This is so dark. I like that. But maybe it kind of, people don't totally listen to all the words.

6:13But she's not me. It was in an open, keith tuning. I just read life. I don't know if you read. I started it. I jumped from book to book, so I'm like 60 pages in. It's so good. It gets even better, even though the early stuff is really interesting. But so I was messing around in this tuning and he understood immediately what to do with that song to like make it feel more like the Stones disco than like a cheesier side of disco. Yeah, no, I mean, the missy stuff. Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, that was actually the song. We were only supposed to record one and by the end of the day he asked if he could recut my whole record at PAX. Oh, that's cool. And so I led him. For the best. Oh, yeah. I mean, I don't know if he'd ever want to work with me again. You just had to have a little tour?

6:59Well, we're both, we're a lot alike in some ways and we clashed a couple times. I don't know if he'd want to deal with me again, but I'd be up for it. You heard it here? Ryan. He's a lot to us. Love him forever to love you forever and form the rest of the record. Him changing those words for you? Yeah, he changed them. He, well, we were recording live and we only had a couple passes at each song. So you had to get it right because he wouldn't allow us to do more than two takes of a song. So that one I flubbed the lyric and I sang, love you forever. And he was like, stop, love, love. That's it. That's the song. I was like, no, that's not the song. It's love. Don't you see it written down? It's love him forever. He's like, no, Lewis, that's like the direct. That's like heartbreaking.

7:44Love you forever to say that to someone. Then I realized in my own life, it's very hard for me to say, I love you. And it's, so of course I was hiding behind, oh, love him forever. Not love you forever. I have a whole psychological analysis on you now, but we can do that some other time. It's a slippery slip. We were talking about acid tongue before and I've heard you say it's like one of your most like, what do you want to, I have to say something written down. What I say. Some bullshit. No, no, no, it was good. It was good. I was talking talk. Okay, well, whatever. You're very close to that song. I don't know where it is anymore. But as I was listening to it live today and I remember like when the record came up being like, how did you come up with that vocal melody for like the third line of the chorus where you keeps going up? The background vocals you mean? No, even like your stuff. My melody? Man, that song just kind of spilled out of me.

8:34Some are harder to catch or wrangle, but that one, I don't know where it came from. But the background vocals on that song, which we recorded that one live, I'm playing and singing and then it was Jonathan Rice, Chris Robinson. Black Rose. And Farmer Dave Cher, one of my best friends. So I had that kind of dude power. You can hear Chris in there. He's pretty like Chris Robinson. Yeah. He's wailing. Nice. I think our time is almost up sadly. Oh. We got to do five questions. Five quick questions. Oh, okay. One word answers. Okay. Roder studio. Uh, Rode. Landon and McCartney. George Harrison. Cool. When you hear a song, what usually hits you first, lyrics, melody or rhythm? Uh, lyrics. If someone's never heard Jenny Lewis before, what song do you start with?

9:22Acid time. Jenny Lewis. Weird. Weird? It's good. I like that. Totally weird. Thank you. Thanks. Appreciate it. Thank you. Cool. Good talk of you. Great combo. Yeah. I tried not here. Carl Sagan Cosmos influenced the record. He actually did. And I... You did from beyond. I'm not going to ask you more questions. She's going to go through the list. From Beyond the Grave. Have you seen the new one? You started watching the new one yet? I haven't seen the new one yet, but I hear it's great. I've watched the old one on a loop. And I moved into a house in Laurel Canyon. And... Yeah, we're good, Dave. The books were in the library from the previous people that lived there and built the house.

10:07And one day I was going through the post. Oh my gosh, the cosmos. And I opened it up and it was a signed copy. Oh, wow. Carl Sagan to the woman who built the house. That's amazing. Let's see. One more here. Sing's about listening to Metallica. True. We did that already. Go to the girls' one. I like the girls' one. Where's the girls' one? When you write a song for girls. Oh. How does it change? Like, when you have a goal in mind for a song. How does the writing change? Well, I don't know if I write actual questions. Well, that's interesting because they called me in and they wanted me to... They wanted to show me an episode out of order. And I'm a fan of the show. Oh, that's hard. And I was like, I don't know if I can do that, guys. Like you're asking me to come in and they assured me that it was a kind of standalone episode from season three. So I went in and watched the episode and simultaneously my friend Rostam from Vampire

10:57Weekend sent me this beautiful track. And so I kind of took the episode and the track and then fused the idea. But mostly that song is about feeling like a werewolf. And I synced it up with Team Wolf, the scene where he's like becoming a werewolf and sent it off to Rostam. I was like, listen and watch it the same time. It's like the dark side of the moon thing. Exactly. And you're not feeling like yourself. That was a good hit ending. That was a good hit ending.