The first time I saw Jenny Owen Youngs was opening for Regina Spektor on Easter in 2006 and while I enjoyed her songs, I also didn’t give her much thought until many weeks later when a friend at the show had her heartbreak anthem “Fuck Was I” at the top of her all time iTunes count by an insane margin. So I took a second look and I was hooked almost instantly. Just as she had snagged me, I tried to snag an interview with her for months; finally I got a response from one of the editors while on a train to Boston for a wedding. Could I do the interview two days from now? No problem. After spending a day in an unfamiliar city trying to track down a tape recorder and fending off spoiled cats in a friend’s apartment, my three and a half year journey met with some much needed closure.
Hey 973, that’s a New Jersey Area Code. You’re from Montclair right?
Yeah! Yours is a New York code.
I’m from Brooklyn originally. You live there now, right?
I just moved here two months ago.
Which part?
Essex. Its very peaceful here, very floral. I haven’t had much of a chance to be here with touring.
I’ve seen you about four or five times opening for a different artist
Whoa, that’s intense.
You’re a very in demand opening act. Is it tough to choose which tour to join?
We decide on what’s sort of thrown our way. We’ll get a bunch of offers and just decide from there. I’ve made some really great friends the road and touring has been good like that to me.
You’ve gotten a knack for stage banter up there. Was that something that came naturally?
I like to keep things pretty casual. Its a little trickier with the band but when I was touring for Batten the Hatches, it’s something to break up uncomfortable moments in songs where people would be like “whoa.”
There seems to be a lot more hope and longing on Transmitter Failure than Batten the Hatches? Was that a conscience choice?
It was a reflection of the way things were at the time; the record just kind of grew organically. Batten the Hatches was a way of working through a lot of things that were going on previously. Sonically it was a little more fun to play on Transmitter Failure and more melodic.
What attracts you to relationship songs?
I think their songs just about how people interact. Those types of situations lends themselves more to a mood that’s necessary for a song. The state of mind in a relationship takes me to a place where I have all these tools to have people communicate and interact with each other.
Do you see yourself as the main character in most of your songs? Not necessarily that every song is autobiographical, but that you are very much in them.
Hmm. As time goes on, I’m main character less and less as I go forward. As life continues to be life there will probably be undulation and I’ll feeling more of a pull toward that first person confessional. But right now it’s going in the opposite direction.
Do the words or music come first?
I’ve tried it both ways .With the words first going forward or starting with the melodies and going backwards from there. There’s never a set way that a song comes about it develops how I feel it should.
Do you have a favorite whiskey?
(laughs) Oh man.
I thought I saw you drinking Jameson at the Black Cat. Let me rephrase that: when is it too early to drink whiskey?
Well that’s true, I am fond of Jameson. Normally I wait until its dark which means about 4:00 this time of year. But it’s harder and harder for me to drink whiskey nowadays because it gets me so angry. (pause) I just saw a bar fight last night and it put me there. Have you heard of a very rough bar called The Living Room in New York?
Yes.
Well this is one of I think three fights I’ve seen there. Things get very tense.
A lot of people are looking back at the last 10 years and taking stock of their music and those of others. Have you done that at all?
Not with my music, but as far as others I feel like I’m five to seven years behind everyone. Normally I still listen to late ’90s-’00s music like Elliot Smith’s XO.
Is there little time for that after all the touring?
Yes, yes I’d say so.
There are some orchestral flourishes on your records. What about you music lends itself well to that?
Well it’s kind of a learning experience with me and Dan Romer [the record's producer], we both seem to be getting a hang of a lusher sound as the music comes. But I don’t think we’ll be using it in the future.
What are your plans for the future?
After my tour with Regina Spektor in U.K., there will be more new music coming. Hopefully we can get some songs down for the spring or summer.
How did you like playing the Black Cat?
It’s funny because I’ve played just about everywhere else in Washington D.C. and people talk up that club all the time. And it was nice but the staff was very serious and tight and professional.
by Neal Fersko
