Growing up, Jenny Lewis wanted to be a rapper. Born into a musical family, with parents who were musicians and vaudeville performers, Lewis found music early on. “[It] was the family hustle,” she tells American Songwriter.
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Lewis was discovered at three years old by a talent agent who saw her in a restaurant. Then, it was Lewis’ charisma and acting ability that became the family hustle. But at ten years old, she began writing raps and then poetry. She liked words and lyrics. She got a Casio keyboard next and started plunking away on that. As a teenager, she got an acoustic guitar and learned a few chords from a Beatles songbook.
Today, Lewis is a beloved indie rocker and she’s currently on tour with her group The Postal Service, which is celebrating the 20th anniversary of their iconic LP, Give Up. For Lewis, who recently played Madison Square Garden as part of the trek, the tour is the culmination of a life of work.
“I learned a lot about work ethic being a child on a movie set,” says Lewis from the road. “And listening and taking direction and method. So, I apply the techniques I learned as a kid onstage every night on this tour.”
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Going between gigs at MSG or Seattle’s giant Climate Pledge Arena, Lewis tries during every show to be in the moment, to “find the authentic feeling every night” and engage in the emotion of whatever song is at hand. What’s interesting for her when it comes to The Postal Service, though, is that it’s not a project she works with monthly or yearly. The Postal Service was something of a side project for her, singer Ben Gibbard (of Death Cab for Cutie) and Jimmy Tamborello. Since Give Up was released 20 years ago, it’s a collection of songs Lewis connects with after big chunks of time have passed (the 10-year anniversary and now the 20th). It’s like a frozen moment she can return to at different stages in life. “I’m living in the past and the present at the same time,” Lewis says.
These days, Lewis says she is more and more comfortable addressing the crowd. Her “favorite thing” about the gigs is making a giant room full of people laugh. “If I make them chuckle,” she notes, “I’ve succeeded.” But some nights she’s “too shy” to be a comedian. Nevertheless, levity and keen writing have always been part of Lewis’ charm and oeuvre. Even when there’s a bit of darkness below the surface. Like with her former band Rilo Kiley and Lewis’ standout single with the group, “A Better Son/Daughter,” which is both charming and devastating, and about the difficulties of family dynamics.
“I wrote that song outside of our practice space on an old envelope, a telephone bill,” Lewis says. “That was a poem. And then when I walked in, we put it to music. So, that was just the realist thing in that moment. I was late to practice [that day] because I had to get it out on that envelope.”
As a songwriter, Lewis says she has hundreds or even thousands of voice memos on her phone. But when she digs into the work, she often writes with pens, paper and a guitar. For her latest solo LP, Joy’ALL, which was released this summer and was produced by Dave Cobb, Lewis took inspiration from ’90s music like Sade for her standout song, “Giddy Up.” She also drew from the mellow Laurel Canyon sound. Some of the songs on the record were even inspired by a virtual songwriting camp held by Beck in 2021 during the pandemic. Beck would give those in the “camp” prompts and Lewis would write new work based on those. In fact, that time provided Lewis a profound shift in her life, she said.
“I spent the quarantine by myself,” she says, “which was the first time that I had slowed down since I was a kid, aside from one health thing I had 10 years prior. So it was a big moment for me to re-center. When you live on the road like my father did, who was not around for the three families he started, you really neglect your relationships and your health.”
Lewis knows she’s sacrificed a lot to be a touring artist. As a result, many of her songs are about relationships. Those that worked, those that didn’t and the various ripples afterwards. On the new album, she writes about family, romance, “psychopaths,” her truck and her dog. For someone who has been involved in Hollywood and its glitz and glamor, the album is subtle and personal. It’s the mark of a writer, not just a performer. And that’s something that Lewis supremely values about herself. She comes from a family of performers, all of whom were relatively poor—what she calls “working class showbiz.” But Lewis is more than that. With a pen, she can take control of her future. “I’m the first writer in a long line of performers, players and musicians,” she says.
Both her father and mother spent time in prison, as did he grandfather. The story of her family, she says, “is wild.” She calls her family “carnies,” in some respects. There is material for days, years. Even “Better Son/Daughter” was plucked from a personal exchange with her mom. But even with all this success, Lewis enjoys a life of mostly anonymity (except when she’s in Whole Foods, she says). So, she gets to live the best of both worlds. She can express herself, play at MSG and then go to the corner store with no real issue. It’s a good life, especially for someone who lives in the moment. “I don’t really think more than three days ahead,” Lewis says.
Yet, she is already working on new songs. Lewis says she is constantly writing music and today she has about four songs she’s “chipping into existence.” She’s also keeping present while she plays some of the biggest venues in the world, knowing this is the climax of a life at work. As for her and The Postal Service, the band is like family. She says they’re like siblings, though she does call Gibbard “dad.” The members are honest with one another. There is “a lot of respect, a lot of love.” It’s a band that doesn’t have to be a band, in the traditional sense. Instead, they can parachute in together, jam out, and then go back to their lives. In the end, though, all of this is born out of Lewis’ love of music and the joy it’s brought her.
“Writing it,” says Lewis when asked what she loves most about the art form. “You can say a lot in a song. If you sit down to write a novel, there’s a lot of words there. But you can really express a feeling and tell a concise story in a short amount of time [with a song], like two-and-a-half minutes. They’re like little short stories.”
Reserve your spot for an unforgettable concert experience! Get your tickets early for Jenny Lewis’ 2024 tour before they’re sold out.
Discover euphoria with The Postal Service! Secure your Just Like Heaven 2024 tickets for an unforgettable journey.
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