For over a decade Indie songstress Jenny Lewis has quickly shot up the ranks of music stardom, from her early days in Rilo Kiley, to her solo career and beyond.
Throughout her career, she’s collaborated with some of the greatest musicians past and present including everyone from Elvis Costello to Conor Oberst. As an artist she is constantly evolving, and constantly redefining her own sound. Her work in Rilo Kiley made her famous, her work in Postal Service showcased her remarkable ability to adapt, and her subsequent solo records and collaborations have earned her a spot in the hearts of music lovers everywhere, placing her right up there with legends like Alison Krauss and Joan Baez.
As Ms. Lewis moves into her 15th year in the spotlight, it is time once again for her to step outside the comfortable world of the familiar, and to push her art into its next incarnation. In order to do this she has teamed up with renowned Screenwriter Naomi Foner, whom has brought her on as both a Music Supervisor and Composer, for her Naomi’s Directoral debut in Very Good Girls, which is part of Sundance’s Premiere Category.
We got to sit down with Jenny to discuss her work on the film, as well as the challenges associated with having to break her normal songwriting conventions.
HeyUGuys: Can you talk a little bit about how you ended up working on this film?
Jenny Lewis: Initially it was Naomi Foner who approached me to write original songs for the film. Elizabeth Olsen’s character in the film (Gerry), she’s sort of like just starting out as a young songwriter, so initially I was just supposed to just write a handful of songs, and then a couple from her perspective as a young songwriter. As we started discussing that, and after I had read the script a couple times, she asked if I would just be in charge of all of the music, compose the score, and even compile the soundtrack.
Did having to write from the perspective of Gerry bring you back in any way to the days when you yourself were just a young budding artist?
I did relate to the fact that she was just sort of starting out as a young artist. In my mind I had to go back and put myself in that place of being a young writer, because as I’ve been writing for 10-15 years, you know, my perspective has changed and evolved, and I write about different things now that I’m in my 30s. I had to go back to a different place which at times was uncomfortable, but it was also kind of a relief to not be writing from my own perspective. Sometimes you get sick of your own narrative and yeah it was a learning experience.
Throughout the process, a couple of the original songs that I had written just for the film got cut because they weren’t quite sitting well with the film. Once we had the rough cut of the film, we were placing stuff that at times felt sort of out of sync, so it was then my job to create something instrumental to take the place of those song cues and to just kind of create this music that supports the story instead of telling a story on top of the story.
So was it hard to then take a purely instrumental approach?
Yeah. It’s a different skill set. I’m a songwriter, I’m not necessarily an a-list composer. There were moments where I would have lyric-based songs, and then suddenly there were no lyrics there and I then had to fill out the music.
The film had such a small budget so I ended up having to demo everything on my own on Garage Band. I have a music studio at my house, and I would just watch the film and start writing on guitar, or piano, or drums, or bass, and I really kind of found comfort in that. I had been working on a solo record at the time, and just not having to rely on lyrics was so soothing. There is something really liberating about that, especially if you’re a lyrically focused writer, which I always have been.
You’re primarily known for your lyrical songwriting, but interestingly enough, one of my favorite Jenny Lewis moments was on the track Happy where every once in awhile you hear this ethereal guitar tone rise up in these moody waves, and though it was just a solid note with some feedback, for me it was the most emotionally moving part of that particular song. Was it fun to explore moods with just pure tonality and not having to sing?
Yes! And stripping things back that you couldn’t necessarily do on a record to like just having one delayed out whurlitzer note and tweaking the delay and letting that sort of create tension. It’s so simple in concept but when you see it with the picture, it really kind of sits in there nicely and creates a tense mood.
I’ve learned so much from my collaborators in the past. On Happy, Matt Ward produced that song and that was his guitar playing, so I took a little bit of that vibe. I played a lot of stuff which has a texture that you may have heard on my previous albums, because I wanted it to reflect my palate as an artist.
Well it still has to be able to stand as a Jenny Lewis piece.
Yeah, because there is no point in bringing me in if you really just want something like John Williams. I mean if you can afford him and an orchestra then do that. But if you’re asking a Singer/Songwriter/Indie Rocker to do your score, then your score will have to reflect that sonic universe.
How did you go about curating the other songs in the film. Did you just pick artists you were a fan of, or did you recruit friends?
Well the film is about two young women and we had both a first time female director, as well as a first time female composer. I wanted the music, not only the score, but the additional cues to be, for the most part, female driven. There are a couple of male voice cues that sort of work, and we struggled kind of fitting them in place, but theres a Sharon Van Etten song in the film and a Gillian Welch song. So yeah, I wanted it to just be really female focused. I even hired backup singers like Becky Stark (Lavender Diamond). so as to be able to take myself out of the equation, and to just sit in the studio as a producer and composer. Having these beautiful female vocals as another texture within the instrumental stuff was kind of my way of cheating the lyric-free approach, we just used voices instead of words.
Are you planning on taking the Trent Reznor route and picking up more work composing for Film?
Reznor’s Social Network score was one I referenced at times due to the fact that it was so simple yet effective. I want to make records, and I want to tour as well, but this process has been really educational, and I certainly would love to do more given the opportunities.
Is there a plan at all to release a soundtrack?
This whole thing happened so quickly and so we really haven’t even have time to discuss how we were going to get this music out there before we compiled the soundtrack. We didn’t finalize the cut until like two weeks ago, cause we got accepted to Sundance, so everything was like “Oh now its time for your job and you have 2 weeks for the entire score”. There were times in the film where we had to cut songs down or simply stem them out to just a few instruments, so it’s not necessarily my mix that I would do for a record. Should we ever get around to releasing a soundtrack, it is my hope that I will of course curate it and that the compositions will be there in their entirety.
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Very Good Girls had it’s premiere Jan 22 here at the Sundance Festival, with three showings slated for the rest of the week. If you are by chance in town, take the time to go and check it out, if only for the remarkable score done by Ms. Lewis!
