"Sometimes I'll just have a word in mind, or a specific image, or a story, or a fraction of that story, and I'll mess around with progressions, or jump around from instrument to instrument until it feels like the door starts to open".

Jenny Owen Youngs is a multi-talented singer/songwriter, pop writer & podcaster. But if we had to label Jenny in one word, we would call her an Enthusiast. 

She’s the kind of person who inhales knowledge like it’s air. If there is something she wants to share with you—whether it’s an obscure historical or scientific discovery or a new album you MUST listen to—Jenny has been known to uncontrollably drop to one knee with her hands up in the air to PROCLAIM the amazingness of x y or z. 

And we think that’s a big part of what makes her an excellent songwriter. She’s a perpetual student. She’s always expanding her skill set and taking in new art and information that propels her own art forward. 

The variety of her enthusiasm is reflected in the variety of her music. She can write tender & vulnerable confessionals, or raucous drunken-pirate shanties. In fact, she was once described as “the voice of an angel with the mouth of a sailor.”  

Her newest EP, Nightshift, was just released in November and it is absolutely stellar. We highly recommend that you go listen (immediately after reading this interview, of course). 

In addition to her own music, she also has the pop chops to write for other artists including Ingrid Michaelson, Pitbull, and Brett Dennen. She recently co-wrote the latest Panic! at the Disco platinum single “High Hopes.”

As if all that wasn’t enough, Jenny also co-hosts a successful podcast called Buffering the Vampire Slayer, a Buffy rewatch podcast featuring an original recap song for every episode, alongside LGBT activist & author Kristin Russo. As expected, Jenny is extremely witty & hilarious; it is pure joy to listen to her pontificate on vampire high school drama. 

Knowing all this, we were obviously not surprised that her answers to our questions about creativity are extremely introspective and entertaining. Reading them made our hearts leap and also made us want to go out into the world, discover something exciting and write a song about it.

We hope it does the same for you. 

10 Questions: Jenny Owen Youngs on Creativity & Songwriting

1. When you sit down to write a song, which elements tend to come first? (melody, concept, title, lyrics, chords, beat, etc?)

It truly depends on the song, the day, the weather, the last thing I listened to or read before I sit down to write, whatever is going on in my life at the time. If I happen to be moving through something emotionally heavy, the lyric will often lead the way. If I'm in the middle of a love affair with a particular song or album by another artist, their harmonic and melodic tendencies might be at the top of my mind and lead me in a melody/chords first direction. Sometimes I'll just have a word in mind, or a specific image, or a story, or a fraction of that story, and I'll mess around with progressions, or jump around from instrument to instrument until it feels like the door starts to open. I'll often work on ideas in the shower, which usually means building the melody and lyric (and perhaps chords implied via the melody) first. I guess the answer here is: there's no wrong answer!

2. How often do you write? Do you have a regular routine, or do you do it only when you’re feeling inspired?

Most of my writing happens on a schedule. I do a lot of co-writing sessions, usually around three per week; I write and produce songs for my podcast Buffering the Vampire Slayer on a bi-weekly basis, and I write for my artist project (and various side-projects) in the space between. Before I started doing a lot of session work, I used to subscribe to the idea of only writing when I felt inspired. The trouble I found with that was sometimes you're tied up when the muse knocks. Showing up to see what I can pull out of my brain on a daily basis has proven to work well for me, keeping the wheels greased and all that.

3. Do you have any practices that help you find inspiration and collect ideas?

I'm a firm believer in maintaining a healthy supply of grist for the mill. That means reading books, listening to music, watching movies and tv, seeing art, listening to podcasts, even indulging in wikipedia research rabbit hole detours. Anything that sparks my interest is a possible future song seed. You have to consume stuff to make stuff!

4. Have you ever felt creatively blocked, and what did/do you do to overcome it?

When I was feeling particularly blocked a while back, I started a project called Exhibit. Every Tuesday, I'd go to a museum, and by the following Tuesday I had to have written, recorded, and uploaded to Bandcamp a song inspired by something I saw at the museum. For my first run of this, I did it for 8 weeks in a row, and it really got the blood pumping, so to speak. Having a set of rules (and having made some kind of public vow to follow them) helped pull me forward out of the muck, out of the "Can I do this?" headspace and into the "I HAVE to do this!!!" headspace.

5. Do you like to collaborate with other artists and in what capacity does collaboration work best for you?

I love writing with other artists. In many ways it feels easier (or at least less mysterious) than writing songs for pitch with other writers—having the artist in the room means we have access to the "true north" of the write. They can tell me (and any other writers or producers in the room) if something feels right or authentic to them, or if we're wandering off the path away from their artistic voice. My favorite way of collaborating is finding a way for everyone in the room to help push the boulder up the hill.

6. Are there any non-musical things you do that affect your art?

Oh, sure! A photograph I saw in a book five years ago that never left my mind. The memory of the mulberry tree at the house where I grew up in New Jersey. My mom's recounting of her father's time working in Pennsylvania coal mines when he was 14. A sentence I read in a short story once, the context of which I couldn't possibly recall. A recent news story about ongoing developments in the realm of AI. There are stories and images everywhere you care to look, and there are so many threads you can pull out of them, if you're looking.

7. How do you know when a song is done?

When you know, you know. (But sometimes you NEVER KNOW, which is terrifying!)

8. What do you think are your strengths as a songwriter and how do you play to those strengths?

I think my greatest strength (and biggest interest) writing-wise is in the lyric department. In collaborative settings, I think a great deal about internal rhyme, slant rhyme, wordplay, and matched vowels, but also work hard to make sure I'm matching the lyrical direction to the musical direction, the artistic voice, and the mission of the session in general. I try to make sure everything I'm contributing is in service to the song first, and my individual satisfaction second. The great days are when that Venn diagram of "serves the song" and "satisfies me personally" is just a circle.

9. What do you think are your weaknesses as a songwriter and how have you worked around them or worked to improve them?

This is a "social" take on this question, but I think it's worth talking about, because collaboration isn't just about everyone pushing their skills together on a table and then *poof* making a song. There's nuance to any interpersonal relationship, and songwriting is no exception! I have a Libra moon, so I'm always worried about 1) whether everyone is having a good time, and 2) if anyone thinks I'm a terrible person and/or an idiot. This has provided me with a communicational obstacle to overcome; my natural tendency is to over-explain and over-disclaim my ideas while presenting them, making them more difficult to understand. One thing I continue to work on is taming my urge to explain that "this idea might be bad" before I've even identified what the idea is.

10. What is one important lesson you have learned through your experiences as a songwriter?

The thing about collaboration that is SO incredible is that I could toss out a lyric that isn't right for the song, but that "wrong" lyric could make someone else in the room think of an INCREDIBLE lyric they might not ever have thought of otherwise. But you have to let go of your worries and make yourself vulnerable to access that spooky spooky magic. So I guess the lesson is cultivate vulnerability!

Favorite song to dance to: "Shut Up Kiss Me" by Angel Olsen

Favorite song to make out to: "break up with your girlfriend, i'm bored" by Ariana Grande

Favorite song to cry to: "Credits" by Chris Farren

Favorite song to work out to: "On The Regular" by Shamir

Favorite song to drive to: "Midway" by Bad Bad Hats

Follow Jenny online:

twitter.com/jennyowenyoungs

instagram.com/jennyowenyoungs

facebook.com/jennyowenyoungs

photos by Tucker Leary