Creeping Jenny INTERVIEW

Creeping Jenny: Chatting with (most) of the band 

I couldn’t catch up with this femme-fronted alt-rock, punk band after their set at SESFEST but they were kind enough to answer my video call a couple days later. 

In attendance was, Ren (vocals), Emerson (guitar), Enzo (drums) and Rhys (guitar). And if you’re wondering why this band does not have a bass player, they do and her name is Olivia but she wasn’t able to make it (there is a theme of struggling to coordinate band meet ups that will become clear over the course of the interview). 

Anyways, to Olivia, I am sorry for unintentionally silencing you out. I’m sure you’re as cool as the rest of the band.

How do you guys all know each other? How did the band begin?

Rhys: Well, we were originally a band known as Speed Dial. We met in high school, in year 11/12. We were doing music class and our teacher was like, ‘Oh, you guys should start a band’. And so we did, and we've had lots of member changes in the past but we met Enzo through a mutual friend who came to one of our Sydney gigs. Then when our drummer moved to the UK, we needed a drummer and Enzo was right there.

So, I hear you don’t all live in the same city? 

Enzo: It's kind of a long story. I live in Sydney but I'm the only one who lives in Sydney. Everyone else originally was in or around Bowral, in the Southern Highlands. Liv lives in Wollongong now. Rhys did for a bit, he’s been ostracized back to the Highlands. But yeah, it’s between Wollongong, the Southern Highlands and Sydney but Wollongong is the middle of those. 

Is it hard trying to coordinate meeting up? 

Enzo: Oh yeah, there's a reason that interview and band practice have to be at the same. time We're very hard to like,

Has it ever gotten to the point where you had to video chat a rehearsal?

Ren: We can't get the same schedule for even a call, so it’s a miracle that we’re here.

You guys started in high school, how long ago was that?

Ren: At the end of 2020, start of 2021 that's how long we’ve been going.

Emerson: Since the band changed, the name and style and the members to have been, it’s been two years?

Enzo: I’ve been in the band for just over two years. I think we changed the name, pretty much when I joined it. It became a new thing, I think there's only one song that we still do from before which is ‘Kill Bill’.

Why did you change the name?

Ren: I think just because we had so many members. People left and new people came, and we were evolving our sound, so we felt like the name before didn't really match what we were doing now. 

Is there a reason behind the name?

Enzo: This was one of many video calls because we can't all get together and talk about stuff. We basically spent several hours throwing name ideas at each other and Creeping Jenny, which is the name of a garden plant, was the first thing that someone said where we were all like, ‘Yeah.’ 

Emerson: It was Liv’s suggestion. 

Enzo: Yeah, it was Liv’s suggestion and it was the first one that someone didn’t object. 

So, with the name change, members changing, the struggles of trying to arrange rehearsals—it sounds chaotic. What about discovering your sound? How has that been as a band?

Rhys: It's been really fulfilling. Beforehand, when we were Speed Dial, it was very much poppy, it just wasn’t not to the extent that we would want to go. It wasn't very challenging. 

Ren: It was safe. 

Rhys: It was very safe, exactly. Then I feel like as we talked more about what we actually like to listen to, what we like to play, heavier stuff just kind of came into the conversation. It was very much like that's what we want to do. I think it was very much also Ren’s influence as a lyricist, wanting to write more meaningful songs and then the music had to reflect that as well. It all came together. 

Have you all been musicians from a young age?

Emerson: I think we all have. 

Enzo: It depends what you consider a young age. I started playing drums when I was 14 or so. I'd never played live or anything before I joined this band. I've got a lot better at that aspect of it in the last couple of years, but you guys were playing a few gigs before I joined. 

Yeah, how have you guys been with playing live music?

Ren: I've been pretty good with it. I've been doing musical theatre since I was eight.

Do you like the attention on stage? 

Ren: I do love being on stage but then once I get off stage, I'm a very shy person,

Do you think being a musician, and getting to play on stage, allows you to tap into some different kind of confidence or a different persona of yourself that’s different from who you are?

Ren: Yeah, I was definitely thinking about that recently. I'm pretty shy in real life but then when I get on stage, I feel like I come off pretty strong and out there. And I was thinking, I guess it's kind of a persona. I'm singing about all of these things I'm really angry about, so I guess that also fuels the stage presence.

Are there any particular influences for your music or anything you're listening to at the moment?

Emerson: With all of us, there’s an overlap but there's definitely distinctive tastes between us. I feel like that is reflected in our music. It’s hard to pinpoint an exact band, but we had a few of them. 

Rhys: Like Emerson said, there's a few overlaps. Enzo and Emerson are big Soundgarden, whereas Ren would probably be much more be influenced by Mannequin Pussy, Enzo loves Mannequin Pussy as well. 

What is a song by another band or artist that you wish that you had done yourself?

Ren: I definitely think about that, there are so many!

Enzo: We have started doing this as a cover fairly recently, when we went on tour at the beginning of the year. We did ‘Ok Ok! Ok Ok!’ by Mannequin Pussy, which is this thrashy punk song with an opportunity for both Ren and I to do some singing. It works really well for our arrangement, I guess. So that's a good one, but I don't I don't think we could have written that. 

Emerson: This is an album, but it's my favourite album. I love it. It's by Soundgarden, it’s called Superunknown. I think the quality of the recording and mix on that album is just—I love it so much. But that is something that when I write, personally, I'm very influenced by. 

Ren: I'd probably say ‘Shutterbug’ by Veruca Salt. Love that one. We covered that quite a fair bit last year. I also really love ‘Loud Bark’ by Mannequin Pussy and the entire Preacher’s Daughter album by Ethel Cain. I love that woman. I wish I wrote all those songs. 

Rhys: There's a Nirvana song called ‘You Know You're Right’ which is one of the last songs that Kurt Cobain ever did. I wish I had written that song.

Enzo: There's a lot of songs lyrically where I'm like, ‘Fuck, I wish I was smart enough to come up with that. The Queens of the Stone Age songwriters are like that for me. Or a lot of Mitski lyrics. I’ve got a Mitski t-shirt on right now.

I love Mitski. I literally get full on body chills when I listen to her.

Enzo: She’s so fucking good. I'm thinking of ‘Star’ on the on the newest album. The metaphor of the chorus is just such a clever and emotionally impactful lyric. And I'm like, fuck, I wish that I had that kind of poet in me to come up with that but I don't.

What is the songwriting process for you guys? Is it hard? 

Emerson: Yeah, it’s really hard. 

Enzo: We suck at that aspect of it, actually. I think I'm happy to say, all of us, we are really bad at songwriting. 

Enzo: Ren writes a lot of lyrics in their own time and then when someone comes with a piece of music, they'll find a way to integrate their lyrics into that is music. Then the music will change in response to the lyrics and what Ren wants to do with it too. I think what we struggle with is we're not like a good jam band. We don't get together and play. We have to kind of have an idea. So we all play guitar and have the ability to record stuff, so we can go home and come up with ideas and bring them together. It's just the next step of getting from that point to getting to an actual song can be a bit hard.

Ren: I definitely feel very attached to everything I write, the specifics of what I write. Usually I'll write pretty basic chord structures. Then the boys, the guitarists, will want to change it up, make it more interesting. I'll be like, ‘No, no!’ But yeah, I think we do everything separately and then we all, like Enzo said, come together and then make it work.

Enzo: We're always happy with them. When they're complete, I think we've all contributed enough to them that we all feel really proud of it. 

Emerson: Yeah, that's another thing. If we finish the song but then we play it and it's not quite right, we have gone back workshopped it. 

So, you guys played at SESFEST. How was it? 

Ren: I'm fans of all those bands. So, I was really excited to to jump on that. 

Emerson: I remember we went to Sesame girl. 

Ren: 2022, supporting Teen Jesus. 

Emerson: That was before we'd really done a lot of live shows. So, seeing that and then getting to play with them was really cool. 

Ren: And they’re lovely people!

Enzo: It felt so like strange watching the first couple of bands that are visually much more in line with that cottage core vibe. And everyone’s sitting down watching, it was a really cute lawn space. And we were like, ‘How the fuck are we gonna follow this up with our screaming, aggressive music?’ But then I think it was put together well like having Tallulah before us, it was great. 

What are you guys working on at the moment? 

Ren: Well, we're at a writing session right now. 

Any ideas on themes for the songs?

Rhys: The newest one that we're working on is kind of a way to combine our heavier stuff and maybe a more reserved musical soundscape, if you will. 

Enzo: Ren and I have both, in particularly, been listening to a lot of The Sundays recently, which is like so left field for our kind of music but I think we're excited to try something that's kind of a mix between the stuff we've written before and something a bit more… British.

Ren: I think we still want to keep up our loud punky sound. But I think we also want to add in some more softer things. So, we can include everyone in our music, not just the punk crowd. 

Enzo: Something for the mums.

Ren: Something for the mums, yeah! Something for the girly pops.

Being creatives, it’s cool to have opportunity to reflect your change in taste and what you're interested in with your music at the time.

Enzo: Yeah, I love it. I find that every time we write a new song, the drums that I start playing are massively channeling whoever I've been listening to in the last couple of weeks. I listening back to the stuff we have recorded and knowing what I was listening to, I can hear it in that. I think it's kind to have a diary, almost, of your influences like that.

Do you have any advice for any of the young musicians out there?

Enzo: I recently started a Tafe course in audio production and I've met quite a few people who are also doing the performance certificate there, who are starting out in bands. I feel like that is a great way to do it, if you don't know who to start a band with. I only got really lucky, by being asked to come to this gig and I got along with everybody. But yeah, just try and play music. Try and play as many live gigs as you can because I cannot get my head around how big of a shift it was to go from playing in my room to playing on a stage. Get experience doing it. And go and see other bands. Expose yourself to as much music as possible.

Emerson: It sounds cliché but if you're playing live, just have fun with it. That's why you're doing it, to have fun. Don't get caught up in the little details of getting everything perfect.

Ren: I feel like I've seen a few bands who put on this ‘too cool to be here’ front while they're playing, and, personally, that turns me off the band. So, I've tried to be my authentic self on stage. Be yourself that really shines through in your music, it draws people into what you really have to say.

Rhys: I think that also relates to what I think, you should surround yourself with people that you trust and care about. I feel like the fact that I've been able to play in this band with these people that I really care about, and are some of my closest friends, I think that's one of the most important things about being in the band, being able to express yourself with people who are expressing themselves as well. It's really special.

Creeping Jenny will be supporting Mannequin Death Squad alongside Private Wives at La La La’s April 27. Buy tix HERE and listen to the recent debut EP release Milquebox on Spotify and Apple Music.