Heart to Heart: Jenny and Johnny finish their conversation on VenusZine.com
Issue #45
See the original interview in our winter issue and get the extra Q&A right here!
By Eleanor Whitney
Published: November 1st, 2010 | 7:30am
Despite sharing the stage, a life, and countless hours on the road together, indie chanteuse Jenny Lewis and her singer/songwriter boyfriend Johnathan Rice resisted forming a band together. Lucky for their listeners, they gave into the pull and recorded and this summer released I’m Having Fun Now (Warner Bros.) as the appropriately named duo Jenny and Johnny. Featuring bright, down home rock and soaring, blended vocals it reflects a unity of vision and a love of the creative process. Lewis and Rice sat down with us at a hip hotel on New York’s Lower East Side to interview each other and let Venus Zine readers in on a little bit of the five year conversation behind their record. (Get even more of this unique couple's conversation in our winter issue, on newsstands now!)
Jenny Lewis: We’re doing this for Venus Zine. It’s for ladies.
Johnathan Rice: So wait, we have our interview with Manly Monthly next.
JL: I wonder what they would ask you?
JR: How much can you bench press. Like, have you ever killed another man? Have you ever wrestled an alligator?
JL: Yes! So, how much can you bench press?
JR: I measure it in Jennies. How many Jennies.
JL: I don’t think you can bench press me.
JR: I guarantee you I could. Definitely could. Two of you maybe. One and a half for sure.
—
JR: So, we’ve been having a conversation for five years.
JL: This is what we say; it’s an ongoing conversation. We often talk about gardening. You have a green thumb. I do not. I tend to over water. Since you keep me away from the watering can, I guess it’s kind of your domain.
JR: It kind of became my domain. I had to decide if the plants were going to live or die. It was kind of a dire situation.
JL: How did you get such a green thumb?
JR: Just by good, old-fashioned Catholic denial. Like, it might look like the plant wants water, but it actually doesn’t. You want to leave it alone as long as possible and then give it some water.
—
JR: So, what did you listen to growing up?
JL: You grew up on your dad’s record collection initially?
JR: I grew up on tons of classic rock, I guess. Tons of pretty, like, bread and butter stuff. Like the Beatles and the Stones and Neal Young and Joni Mitchell and Jackson Browne.
JL: And also Irish music.
JR: Yeah, also traditional Irish and Scottish music, too. Lots of singing in church and stuff like that.
JL: I never went to church. I went to temple a few times. It didn’t really inspire me musically.
JR: Not a lot of melody.
JL: No, just a different kind of melody. The bar mitzvah melodies. It’s hard to figure out the chords.
JR: It’s hard also to carry a tune when you’re carried around in one of those chairs.
—
JR: I was in terrible high school bands.
JL: I was too. I was in a band with the worst 1990’s name of all time.
JR: It’s pretty awesome.
JL: Soul Fish. ‘Cause either of those words would make for a really bad band name, but those words together? And we were pretty much a Jimi Hendrix cover band. I was the singer. What was the name of your band?
JR: I’m not responsible for the name.
JL: What’s the name?
JR: It’s kind of like, intentionally bad on purpose.
JL: No disclaimers. What’s the name?
JR: Suburban Groove.
JL: Ooh, that’s almost as bad as Soul Fish.
JR: It might be worse.
—
JR: That's the thing. We never intended to play music together. We never intended to start a band together.
JL: I think initially, it was like there was a rule against it. We weren’t allowed to.
JR: Not necessarily because of ourselves, because of outside people.
JL: Well, if you tell someone not to do something they are fuckin’ going to.
JR: I know, I’m glad people told us not to do it, in retrospect. It makes you feel naughtier, you know.
JL: That’s how it feels. Like a pair of criminals.
JR: I think that if you are going to play rock 'n' roll, music delinquency is required.
JL: It’s got to be a little dirty and a little tough.
JR: That’s the way I feel about it.
JL: I think I always favor things that are a little off. That look is a little off, that sound is a little off. Maybe they sound pretty, but the underlying theme is a little off. That appeals to me.
—
JL: We want to get a dog.
JR: Yeah, we really do.
JL: We’ve got dog fever.
JR: Yeah.
JL: We were surrogate…
JR: Fostered him!
JL: We fostered a dog for a week.
JR: We gave him some shots and a name.
JL: And then we gave him back.
JR: 'Cause he didn’t have anywhere to live.
JL: I named him Jack Ruby.
—
Jenny and Johnny official site
Jenny and Johnny MySpace page
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