SEPT/OCT 2010 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM

Whatever its reference points, I’m Having Fun Now marks the formalization of a musical partnership that began in 2006, when Rice played on Lewis’ solo debut, Rabbit Fur Coat. The Scottish-American singer-songwriter then co-produced and co-wrote songs for the follow-up, Acid Tongue. Rice says the Jenny and Johnny project was “born out of a lack of planning.” When he and Lewis began making demos, recording them in one nine-day burst of inspiration, they had no idea whose album they might come out on. “We ended up playing everything ourselves,” Lewis says. “In doing so, it just sounded different— and different enough that it warranted a new band.” With their mission defined, the twosome left Los Angeles for the Omaha home of Mike Mogis, the producer behind Rabbit Fur Coat and Rice’s 2005 Trouble Is Real. The sessions dragged on for fi ve frigid winter weeks, during which Lewis

Autumn de Wilde Johnathan Rice, Jenny Lewis and Rice endeavored to maintain the spirit of the early demos. “We set the tone with that fi rst week,” Lewis says. “But sometimes you have to hunker down and pay attention JENNY AND JOHNNY to the details, and Mike Mogis is a really An indie-rock couple’s unplanned burst of detail-oriented person. We knew that we trusted him, and the songs really benefi ted inspiration turns into a full-time gig from the brainpower.” Lewis and Rice each contributed words ON I’M HAVING FUN NOW, THEIR lovers. The tune evokes Elvis Costello, an and music, sometimes bringing in completed debut effort as Jenny and Johnny, indie- artist Lewis and Rice have recorded with tunes, sometimes fi nishing each other’s rock “it” couple Jenny Lewis and Johnathan and consider a major infl uence. “I hear compositions. “We’ve reached a level of Rice take on God, economics and Michael more of a Heartbreakers vibe,” Lewis says, comfort with one another I’ve never achieved Jackson’s chimpanzee, addressing these acknowledging a debt to Tom Petty, another with anyone else,” Rice says. “When Jenny and other topics with wit and wisdom. rocker the former child actress, Rilo Kiley tells me something, I don’t think there’s any The two began writing the album in late frontwoman and acclaimed solo artist has ill intention behind it, or any of the B.S. that 2009—“a bastard of a year,” as Rice sings on drawn on throughout her career. “I think emerges when you become a band. We can the standout “My Pet Snakes,” a venomous there’s a place where early Heartbreakers basically tell each other anything.” back-and-forth between contemptuous and early Costello meet,” Rice says. –Kenneth Partridge

cold, cold sweat, because working by myself has also taken me out Malo followed the example of his childhood heroes, the Beatles, of my comfort zone,” he says, “and I think it will take the listeners out in daring to be diverse on Sinners & Saints. Tex-Mex and Latin of their comfort zones as well.” infl uences are laced throughout, but the only true communal thread Malo, who was born in Miami to Cuban parents, has always among the songs is Malo’s own majestic baritone. “If it comes from taken chances with his music. From his genre-blurring 1990s me, there’s a reason the song is on there,” explains Malo. “If there’s country band, the Mavericks, to his more pop- and Latin-oriented a little variety on this record, well, I personally think that’s a good work in the 2000s, he has always been open to new infl uences thing. I happen to love these sounds. The songs and the music come and directions. The last decade was dominated by albums from a very different place for this album.” of smooth cover songs, in settings that ranged from stripped-down Malo views himself not as simply another musician with a acoustic sessions to richly orchestrated pop; he even made an few more songs to send out into the marketplace. “Since I was AS SEENalbum ofIN: seasonal SEPT/OCT tunes, 2007’s 2010 Marshmallow M MUSIC World && OtherMUSICIANS younger, music MAGAZINE has turned into my life,” he says. “But there are Holiday Favorites. But last year’s Lucky One saw him take up adults who haven’t heard a string quartet or a jazz ensemble before, his songwriting pen once more, and Sinners & Saints fi nds him and that’s really sad. My ultimate mission in life is to ensure that mixing his originals with those by artists like Los Lobos music stays alive.” and Rodney Crowell. –Kelly Dearmore

17

M mag 6.indd 17 9/29/10 4:55:11 PM