Jenny Lewis on nostalgia, following her muse, and the art of the groove ahead of her Tuesday show at The Truman

Jenny Lewis. // Photo by Bobbi Rich

Musician Jenny Lewis has likely graced your ears at some point in the last few decades, of noot multiple times. She was part of Rilo Kiley, the band she founded with Blake Sennett in the late ’90s, she’s paired up with Johnathan Rice and the Watson Twins, and guested on albums from Bright Eyes, Cursive, and the Postal Service.

She’s released a series of amazing solo albums, each one of which sees her expanding her sound into something new and exciting, including the country-tinged Joy’All which released last year.

While the wait in between Lewis’ albums might be longer than fans want, it’s always worthwhile. The moment you hear her latest single, you know you’re in for a treat, regardless of genre. We spoke with Lewis by phone ahead of her show at the Truman on Tuesday, March 5.

The Pitch: You had a really great last year.

Jenny Lewis: I had a busy year.

What was it like, releasing your own album as well as popping in and doing all of those Death Cab for Cutie dates?

I was time traveling and in the present with putting out a new record, there’s all the stuff that goes along with that. And then kind of pretty soon into that cycle, we did the Postal Service tour. So, I was kind of going back and forth between all the narratives, and it really gave me a sense of just the scope of time that I’ve been playing music and all the bands that I’ve been in and 20 years of Give Up with the Postal Service. It’s pretty cool to be able to do both.

You also have two big anniversaries this year. It’s the anniversary of More Adventurous, which was Rilo Kiley’s major label debut and also the anniversary of The Voyager as well. It just seems like every year, you’ve got something to celebrate, both new and old.

Well, luckily I’m still making new stuff ’cause otherwise I’d feel old because everything’s like–were we always this nostalgic that we always celebrate 10 years, 15 years, 20 years? It seems like with records from the ’90s, you kind of just were like, “Oh, yeah. 1993, that was rad.” I feel like nostalgia is rapidly becoming this thing, and I don’t quite know how I relate to it.

How do you feel, when you’re going out on the road and celebrating some of these anniversaries?

Well, I was very emotional on the Postal Service tour this last year, and we had done it 10 years previous and then originally in 2003, but this time around–20 years out–I really felt it. And I felt the impact of those songs.

They still feel so fun to play and Ben [Gibbard] and me and Jimmy [Tamborello] were all still friends so I felt very just moved by the experience and then moved by the people in the audience who have kids now and they were there 10 years ago, or they’re bringing all of their emotional baggage to the show as well.

Well, but like you mentioned, you got to release this new album last year, which was your first one in four years. Is it because of the time between your albums that you try something new each time?

Yeah, well I think as a solo artist, that’s one of the luxuries of being able to follow the muse or the love affair, which becomes the muse, or moving to a different city, playing with different musicians, experimenting with different producers.

When you’re in a band, you’ve got your sound, you’ve got your family. It’s kind of harder to be whimsical because you’re grounded by this institution. Being in a band is like being in a corporation or something, you know? So yeah, I’ve been lucky to just follow the vibe and it’s led me to all of these places emotionally and musically over the years.

Speaking of working with new producers, you worked with Dave Cobb on Joy’All. He has done so much for the modern country resurgence. His discography is just album after album that I absolutely love–up to and including this one. What was that experience like?

Well, I met Dave very naturally visiting my friends in Lucius. They were making a record with Dave and Brandi Carlile producing, and it was pretty serious pandemic time. I’d just got my little puppy and my friend Jess from Lucius was like, “Please come down. I want you to meet Dave. Get out of your house. You’ve been alone for a year. Come see us. There’s a nurse here like doing tests.”

So, I went in and I’m living in Nashville and to walk into Dave Cobb’s studio and have him know who you are is pretty cool. And I just hit it off with him. I had all these songs that I’d written before the pandemic and then during the songwriting workshop that Beck put together with a bunch of cool peeps.

It was just time and so there was no management or label. I just texted Dave and I was like, “Hey man, I have these songs. Do you want to record them?” and he’s like, “Yeah, that’d be awesome. I love these songs,” so that just worked out so well in his style–on the floor, live, quick recording, which I really appreciate.

When you’re recording in Nashville and you’re living in Nashville, is there something to be said for getting to record and then going home to sleep in your own bed?

Yes. I mean, I’ve been lucky to do a lot of that in various cities where I’m living. But certainly in Nashville. I’m not from Tennessee. I’m from California. It felt very legitimizing to go to RCA Studio B and make a record with Dave Cobb. I wanted to just tell everyone.

You’re getting ready to take these songs out on the road again. How do these songs transform from just being small and intimate in the studio and then taking out a bigger band on the road?

Well, I think that the rhythm section really carries this record. The songs are simple, they’re short–it’s a short record–but they groove. I’ve got an all-femme band. We all live in Nashville. Finding the right elements to bring the new record to life, but also look back on the catalog–there are a lot of songs. I have a ton of songs to pick from, from Rilo Kiley, my own five solo records, all my side parts.

It’s this like nuanced thing of playing the new stuff, which is always the most fun to play, but also having a balanced set, so people get to hear the songs that they know from other records.

You mentioned groove and going all the way back to Rilo Kiley through your solo work and your other projects, groove is the perfect word to describe it. Is there something that attracts you to having a song that you can kind of bop to, for lack of a better word?

Well, I grew up listening to hip hop and writing rhymes, basically, that was my first outlet. Then I got a Casio keyboard that had a beat on it. I got an acoustic guitar and I played the beat on the keyboard and then wrote songs on the acoustic guitar, so I feel like that’s always been foundational for me and then I’ve lucked out in playing with some of the world’s most incredible drummers who are just groove-based, like Jim Keltner and Nate Smith and that’s the skeleton. That’s the vibe of the song and that’s always been really important to me and I write a lot on bass guitar so in the songwriting itself, it’s kind of rhythmic.

This album is on Blue Note. Is it somewhat intimidating to be on that label?

It is. I want to honor the greatness of that label and Blue Note was my first favorite record label that I knew of as a kid because I started collecting jazz records because my godfather would take me to the record shop and say, “Pick out five CDs, but they have to be from the jazz section,” so I was like, “Oh, I guess I’ll pick this cool looking Blue Note record.”

[clicks tongue] Well, I think it’s the opposite, you know. It feels very shielded from the TikTok promo thing, in a way. It feels like a legitimate substantial music label that caters to adult music. Yeah. So that’s very safe. I’m in my late forties and I hope to keep making records and I don’t want to have to make music that I don’t feel or isn’t appropriate for where I’m at right now, so Blue Notes feels like–I’d love to make a jazz record. That would be amazing.

Going back to you talking about hip hop, one of the best hip hop albums of the last 20-25 years is that Madlib Blue Note record where he just goes crazy in their vault.

Yeah, totally. Which is like, what a vault. How do you choose? In listening to hip hop, you hear all of these samples, just the records that I grew up listening to, like A Tribe Called Quest or the Jungle Brothers, they’re all full of that, and then you learn the deep groove, which is jazz or soul or gospel. I feel like, being a fan of rap music, you’re also a fan of all of those other genres that were sampled so well.

Speaking of choosing, how do you pick the set list for your tour? Getting into the nuts and bolts of it, knowing that there are so many songs, how do you pick?

Well, I make a master list for the band and we learn, you know, 30 to 40 songs. The last decade or so, I really have been challenging myself to switch it up every night a little bit. Not dramatically, necessarily, but I think it keeps you on your toes–especially when you’re playing songs that you’ve been playing for that long–to really bring things in and out of the set.

It’s really all about feel–again, groove–and then emotion and connectivity to the material Some stuff doesn’t feel relevant, so I don’t play it. Some things, I feel obligated to play but if it doesn’t feel relevant in the moment, I’ll leave it out of the set. It’s this little woven tapestry of current stuff, which inherently you’re most excited about your new work, and the audience is the least excited about your new work.

Which is such a mindfuck, you know? All these years you’re like, “But do they like it?” and then it takes the next album cycle for people to sing along. You’re like, “Oh, they just needed a moment.”

Jenny Lewis plays the Truman on Tuesday, March 5. Details on that show here.