![]() ![]() She can express herself, play at MSG and then go to the corner store with no real issue. So, she gets to live the best of both worlds. But even with all this success, Lewis enjoys a life of mostly anonymity (except when she’s in Whole Foods, she says). Even “Better Son/Daughter” was plucked from a personal exchange with her mom. The story of her family, she says, “is wild.” She calls her family “carnies,” in some respects. “I’m the first writer in a long line of performers, players and musicians,” she says.īoth her father and mother spent time in prison, as did he grandfather. With a pen, she can take control of her future. She comes from a family of performers, all of whom were relatively poor-what she calls “working class showbiz.” But Lewis is more than that. And that’s something that Lewis supremely values about herself. It’s the mark of a writer, not just a performer. For someone who has been involved in Hollywood and its glitz and glamor, the album is subtle and personal. On the new album, she writes about family, romance, “ psychopaths,” her truck and her dog. Those that worked, those that didn’t and the various ripples afterwards. As a result, many of her songs are about relationships. Lewis knows she’s sacrificed a lot to be a touring artist. When you live on the road like my father did, who was not around for the three families he started, you really neglect your relationships and your health.” So it was a big moment for me to re-center. “I spent the quarantine by myself,” she says, “which was the first time that I had slowed down since I was a kid, aside from one health thing I had 10 years prior. ![]() In fact, that time provided Lewis a profound shift in her life, she said. Beck would give those in the “camp” prompts and Lewis would write new work based on those. Some of the songs on the record were even inspired by a virtual songwriting camp held by Beck in 2021 during the pandemic. For her latest solo LP, Joy’ALL, which was released this summer and was produced by Dave Cobb, Lewis took inspiration from ’90s music like Sade for her standout song, “Giddy Up.” She also drew from the mellow Laurel Canyon sound. But when she digs into the work, she often writes with pens, paper and a guitar. Like with her former band Rilo Kiley and Lewis’ standout single with the group, “A Better Son/Daughter,” which is both charming and devastating, and about the difficulties of family dynamics.Īs a songwriter, Lewis says she has hundreds or even thousands of voice memos on her phone. Even when there’s a bit of darkness below the surface. Nevertheless, levity and keen writing have always been part of Lewis’ charm and oeuvre. “If I make them chuckle,” she notes, “I’ve succeeded.” But some nights she’s “too shy” to be a comedian. Her “favorite thing” about the gigs is making a giant room full of people laugh. These days, Lewis says she is more and more comfortable addressing the crowd. “I’m living in the past and the present at the same time,” Lewis says. It’s like a frozen moment she can return to at different stages in life. Since Give Up was released 20 years ago, it’s a collection of songs Lewis connects with after big chunks of time have passed (the 10-year anniversary and now the 20 th). The Postal Service was something of a side project for her, singer Ben Gibbard (of Death Cab for Cutie) and Jimmy Tamborello. What’s interesting for her when it comes to The Postal Service, though, is that it’s not a project she works with monthly or yearly. Going between gigs at MSG or Seattle’s giant Climate Pledge Arena, Lewis tries during every show to be in the moment, to “find the authentic feeling every night” and engage in the emotion of whatever song is at hand. ![]()
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