Name: Jehnny Beth
Occupation: Singer, songwriter
Nationality: French
Current release: Jehnny Beth's new album You Heartbreaker, You is out now.

If you enjoyed this Jehnny Beth interview and would like to stay up to date with her music and live dates, visit her official homepage. She is also on Instagram, and Facebook.



Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

Everything is a source of inspiration, and everyone can create.

At 5 years old we are all painters, we just forget. A plant is an artist.

For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualisation' of the finished work? What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?

It needs to be a necessity and I nurture that feeling every day to keep it alive. It’s not work, it’s not a hobby, it’s a way of living.

Being inspired is far better than being ok - and the only way I can exist in this world.

Is there a preparation phase for your process? Do you require your tools to be laid out in a particular way, for example, do you need to do 'research' or create 'early versions'?

You just need to do it, without judgement. Wake up, do it, decide later. It’s not as complicated as it seems.

And also take breaks, enjoy your life. You don’t have to work 3 hours straight to be productive, this is not office work.

Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating? What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise or reading poetry play?

Coffee is essential. Exercise too.

For You Heartbreaker, You, what did you start with? If there were conceptual considerations, what were they?

The idea of the new record came as I was onstage in America.

We were playing a metal/hardcore festival called aftershock and the connection with the audience was so intense and real, I made a mental note to write a record with that energy in mind.

Tell me a bit about the way the new material developed and gradually took its final form, please.

I asked Johnny Hostile to start writing new music on guitar again. I knew he was an incredible guitarist but he became a real riff machine.

When I started hearing all those intense heavy riffs, I felt immediately inspired and I knew we were on the right path.

What makes lyrics good in your opinion? What are your own ambitions and challenges in this regard?

My intention with the lyrics is to not be boring, same as with the music. Sometimes I spend a lot of time on lyrics to realise that I need to get rid of half of what I’ve written. I usually write more than I use.

Lyrics are important but I think the voice and the intention in the voice are equally important. You can have the most beautiful lyrics but if I don’t believe you when you sing them, what’s the point?

What are areas/themes/topics that you keep returning to in your lyrics?

Isolation, love, frustration, alternative sexuality, oblique strategies.

Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?

Yes I agree with that idea, you have to follow the music. The music knows what to do. If you listen, it will tell you what to do.

To a certain extent, writing music is knowing how to listen.

There are many descriptions of the creative state. How would you describe it for you personally? Is there an element of spirituality to what you do?

The creative state in a meditative state. I wish I could say it contains an element of spirituality, and to some extent it probably does, but as an artist from the Western world I don’t think I can boast with that sort of elevated self.

We terribly lack spirituality, I think, myself included.

Once a piece is finished, how important is it for you to let it lie and evaluate it later on? How much improvement and refinement do you personally allow until you're satisfied with a piece?

When I’m not enjoying working on a piece anymore, when I’m not having fun, it probably means I’m pushing it too far and I need to stop. Let it rest. Sometimes you get lucky, though, and the song appears really quickly.

For “NO GOOD FOR PEOPLE” for instance, I think we stopped working on it after 3 days, everything was there. Working on it more would have ruined it.

How do you think the meaning, or effect of an individual piece is enhanced, clarified or possibly contrasted by the EPs, or albums it is part of? Does each piece, for example, need to be consistent with the larger whole?

I think people still enjoy listening to albums, and artists enjoy making them - otherwise they would have stopped doing them.

Albums are more than a collection of songs, they’re a chance to create a world, share an artistic vision that is equally visual and musical, that stretches beyond mere algorithmic music consumption.

In terms of what they contribute to a song, what is the balance between the composition and the arrangement (including production, mixing and mastering)?

For YOU HEARTBREAKER, YOU Johnny Hostile and I started working with mixing engineer Matty Green who lives in Denver, USA, and our collaboration changed the way we write music.

Knowing he is at the end of the chain makes it easier for us to go crazy in the studio, we know he will figure out our mess somehow! He is very talented.

The first song he mixed from the new record was “OBSESSION” and we loved it straight away.



Music and the accompanying artwork are often closely related. Can you talk about this a little bit for your current project and the relationship that images and sounds have for you in general?

Johnny and I worked on the music and the image simultaneously for this album. We wanted to work on different media at the same time, and not just music.

So, next to our music studio, we set up a silk screen studio where we can make our own t-shirts, a photographic studio where we can take pictures and develop our own films … all the artwork, photos, music videos were made by us, as well as the music.

This new process has really been liberating for us and I think it’s only the beginning.

After finishing a piece or album and releasing something into the world, there can be a sense of emptiness. Can you relate to this – and how do you return to the state of creativity after experiencing it?

I don’t really relate to that feeling. Creating is part of my life and it never ends.

Moments I am not creating per se, I am living and collecting inspirations. The only emptiness I have experienced in my life was related to loss.  

I would love to know a little about the feedback you've received from listeners or critics about what they thought some of your songs are about or the impact it had on them – have there been “misunderstandings” or did you perhaps even gain new “insights?”

Straight from the beginning when we released the first song “BROKEN RIB” the responses from fans have been incredibly positive. Everyone seems to need a loud guitar record right now (I know I do!).

Personally I think it is the best work I have ever done.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you personally feel as though writing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?  

I think music, for me, is a way to communicate with the outside world. It enables me to meet people, to interact with them and share.

Without music, I would feel even more of an outsider than I am.



I don't write a song to mend myself, I write with the intention to touch someone, including myself. The song “HIGH RESOLUTION SADNESS” for instance was written with the energy of a moshpit in mind.