FEATURE:
The Digital Mixtape
PHOTO CREDIT: Johnny Hostile
The Very Best of Jehnny Beth
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RATHER than put together a mixtape…
IN THIS PHOTO: Savages
around an artist’s birthday or on a particular theme, I wanted to focus on the incredible Jehnny Beth. Former lead of Savages, her debut solo album, TO LOVE IS TO LIVE, was released in 2020. A new album is out on 29th August. You Heartbreaker, You will be released through Fiction Records. I would urge people to pre-order the album. New single, Broken Rib, is among Jehnny Beth’s very best. A fascinating insight into her upcoming album. Prior to getting to a mixtape of Jehnny’s Beth’s finest songs, I want to bring in part of a new interview from NME:
“NME: Hello Jehnny Beth. It’s been a while since we last spoke before ‘To Love Is To Live’. How have the last five years been for you?
Jehnny Beth: “They’ve been interesting. I’ve been doing lots of different things. Surprising things happened. ‘To Love Is To Live’ came out around the pandemic so all the plans around it were cancelled. That wasn’t an easy time. I know that for some people, confinement was a great experience for them creatively. But for me it was the time I was supposed to be out there. It dragged everything, even financially, into a difficult spot.
“I was very lucky that I got some offers in films that year. I was asked to star in Jacques Audiard movie [Paris, 13th District] and the next year we went to Cannes. These non-music based things were new, so they were new and I was curious about it. A few other acting jobs came. I knew I wanted to make a new record, but it just had to hit the point where I couldn’t sleep at night over it.”
A record that needed to be made?
“That’s it. I was still making music, but I don’t think it felt as urgent as it felt when I decided to write ‘You Heartbreaker, You’.”
Paris, 13th District got so much attention and then Anatomy Of A Fall had pretty phenomenal critical success. How did it feel to be seen by so many in a different light? Did that confidence and new sense of identity bleed into the new album?
“When I go into the studio to write music with [creative partner and longtime collaborator] Johnny Hostile, the world outside disappears. Although it is within me and the sum of all these experiences add up to be part of who you are. However, I was not thinking about my experiences as an actor when I was writing – but there are links between artforms. Acting is an interpretation. What they have in common is that you have to think of what you want to say in the world, where your places is and what your point of view is.
“Singing or acting – they spring from that place of ‘What do I want to say?’ You’re not thinking about the superficiality of it of ‘Where do I place my hands?’ The need comes from within. What I wanted to do with this record was to reconnect with the urge of my time in Savages – maybe adding something more dangerous to it, perhaps a sense of humour as well.
“I think it was the first time I was not overthinking what I was doing. I was just enjoying the process with an unconditional trust and belief. Maybe that’s me watching too much Ted Lasso…”
Is the album basically saying, ‘Everything’s fucked, but we must move’?
“I like that! They’re your words not mine, but yes. The world is better with a good song in it, and music is a way to bring things back together. Nothing really makes sense in the end, but it’s a way to cope. It’s the same for live music: it’s a great thing that we do as a species that we should be proud of. The times are traumatic, there’s a lot of drama and pain in the world. We still consider love with a very prehistoric approach.”
And that’s what inspired the album title, right?
“The artwork of the record is a reference to all the car tags you see when lovers break up and attack their ex’s car by spraying a massive ‘TWAT’ or something like that. Me and Johnny Hostile came across a few in London. One was, ‘You cheating bastard – I’m pregnant with your child’. It’s very violent and aggressive. My friend tagged my car to make the record sleeve. That’s the echo of the world that I receive.
“Yasiin Bey said in a recent TV interview that if your heart’s not broken then your heart’s not working. If you find yourself displaced in a society that’s sick then it probably means you’re sane. One of the lyrics on the record is: ‘Anyone who does anything with their heart knows one day they’ll have it broken’. That was the starting point of the record”.
I am really looking forward to You Heartbreaker, You. One of the most distinct and remarkable artists of this time, Broken Rib shows what a compelling and brilliant talent Jehnny Beth is. If you have not dug into her music or know her from Savages, then I hope the mixtape below gives you a good impression of who this artist is. I am including some hits from Savages and Jehnny Beth and some deeper cuts. An extraordinary artist, when you look at her body of work and listen to what she is producing now, there are few others…
BETTER than her.