At Mexico City’s Corona Capital festival, Jenny Lewis and Conor Oberst sit down for a quick chat.
Jenny Lewis, American singer-songwriter/actress began as the primary vocalist of indie rock band Rilo Kiley. She has also had a successful solo career, and is currently a part of the duo Jenny & Johnny with her boyfriend Jonathan Rice. Rilo Kiley broke up in 2011. In 2002, she collaborated with The Postal Service in the video for the song “We Will Become Silhouettes” and toured with them in 2013. She has also partnered with UNICEF on the benefit song, “Do They Know it’s Hallowe’en?” with Sennett and Jimmy Tamborello. She’s set to participate in Black Friday record event as well.
Conor Oberst, American singer-songwriter, is well known as the founder of the band Bright Eyes. He had several bands before Bright Eyes as well, including Desaparecidos, The Faint, and Commander Venus. Bright Eyes was founded in 1995, originally as Oberst’s solo project. Bright Eyes’ third album, Fevers and Mirrors, from May 200, was ranked in the top 200 albums of the 2000s by Pitchfork. He recently performed at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival.
The super casual interview begins with the story of how these two met. They had mutual friends, and Oberst was a fan of Rilo Kiley. Allegedly they first saw each other at a Rilo Kiley gig in a restaurant, but Lewis clarifies:
“Did we meet in a basement? Cuz I feel like you came to the show but there was a formal party later where we all dressed like we were going to the prom and I remember you were wearing a suit… or part of a suit. [haha] just like Winnie the pooh. Shirt no pants. And I was like, I like this guy.”
From there, Lewis asks if Oberst remembers their old project, Blood On The 4 Tracks. He does. And if he would release it? Oberst’s response is he’d be “into that as long as it’d be on some kind of edible 7-inch.” Lewis laughs and says, “Yeah, we want a fruit rollup 7-inch of Blood On The 4 Tracks.”
Oberst then notes that with the exception of that never released project, the pair has never made any legit studio recordings together. Lewis claims that he’s never asked her to come sing.
But back to that old record—the process of its creation in Lewis’ basement is self-described as weird:
“We camped out…stayed up for two days and made a weird record. Which I don’t think I’ve ever heard since then. But she’s got it. I feel like some of the songs, or some of the ideas were stolen and put into other songs…so some fruitful things came out of that session.”
Lewis and Oberst have only given us the knowledge that this record exists—it’s still unclear whether the public will ever get a chance to hear it.
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