When you’re in your mid-thirties, the cult of people who have children around you all want you in their cult, and they constantly ask you, ‘So when are you going to have a baby?’ – Jenny Lewis
I felt like hip-hop was my music, it was like my outsider music… but then my mom started answering our phone, ‘Yo, what’s up.’ She was hearing me talk to my friends. I was like, ‘No, mom, don’t cop the hip-hop talk.’ – Jenny Lewis
Sometimes you don’t understand what you’re going through until you’re on the other side of it. – Jenny Lewis
It really helps me to get into the character of the record when I have a designated look. It just really simplifies things for me. – Jenny Lewis
I didn’t know anything about music when I started a band. I barely knew how to play a guitar. I didn’t know how to produce records. I learned how to play bass guitar and keyboards in Rilo Kiley. I picked up a lot from my collaborators. – Jenny Lewis
Being in a band is a really magical thing because you’ve got a family and you operate as this one entity. It’s very democratic; everyone is involved in the output. But within that, there can be a lot of disagreements and strife. – Jenny Lewis
I felt like onstage I have to have a certain amount of anonymity, like, personal anonymity, to feel loose and free. When you’re up there with people who’ve known you for a decade, and you make a bad joke and you hear the cackling behind the drums, it’s hard to get lost in the moment. – Jenny Lewis
I think a lot of musicians play for the playback. I mean, that’s the joy of recording – you want to hear what you’ve done and what you’ve contributed – but never listening to that playback kind of removes the intellectual part of making music, and it removes the tendency to be revisionist. – Jenny Lewis
Insomnia is a very prevalent issue. It’s a women’s health issue, and I chose to talk about it because so many people have experienced it to varying degrees. For me, I’m doing great now, but it took a lot of work to figure out how to get back to sleep. I had to change some of my habits. I developed some pretty bad sleep ritual habits. – Jenny Lewis
After Rilo Kiley broke up and a few really intense personal things happened, I completely melted down. It nearly destroyed me. I had such severe insomnia that, at one point, I didn’t sleep for five straight nights. – Jenny Lewis
I am a child of digital generation. I have done most of the records with Rilo Kiley on computers, on Pro Tools or other digital programs. – Jenny Lewis
The Rilo Kiley song ‘A Better Son/Daughter’ is my most requested song – especially for people who are at the age I was when I wrote it. It’s sort of a mid-twenties lament. – Jenny Lewis
I am a huge hip-hop fan, and growing up, I only listened to hip-hop, so I dressed accordingly. – Jenny Lewis
I am in a constant cycle of selling my clothes at Wasteland and buying from Goodwill. Once or twice a year, I go through my closet and donate everything to Goodwill. It feels like I am recycling my fashion. – Jenny Lewis
When you’re talking about your own music every day, listening to bands, going to festivals, you can kind of lose sight of your initial connection with music. Instrumental music – especially jazz – helps me refocus. – Jenny Lewis
When I sit down to write a song, there is no filter. I’m not trying to write for anyone or anything specifically. It’s just trying to capture a little piece of your soul – even if it’s a really ugly part. – Jenny Lewis
My parents divorced when I was 3 years old. They had a lounge act in Las Vegas, where I was born. The band broke up and the marriage dissolved, and my mother, my sister and I moved to Southern California. And I didn’t see my dad a lot growing up; he was on the road a lot. I’d see him every couple years. – Jenny Lewis
I think it’s always an adjustment for me, but I do feel like, ultimately, I can kind of write anywhere. It just takes a second to get back in to the groove. – Jenny Lewis
That is the true joy of being a solo artist. I can do whatever I want. I can go wherever I want. I can show up with my guitar and my song, and it can sound a hundred different ways. That’s the freedom of being on your own. The flipside is: That’s you on the cover. If it sucks, it’s your fault. – Jenny Lewis
Songs are really interesting in that way. Sometimes, they grow with you. Sometimes, you outgrow them. – Jenny Lewis
When something is coming off of a Neve board and being laid down on tape, it’s like a warm blanket for the brain. When you’re working in a digital form, it’s so harsh; it’s almost painful. Your ears get more fatigued if you’re mixing all day. – Jenny Lewis