Interview: Jane Jensen

On August 19th, Jane Jensen took some time out of her busy schedule preparing the release of her new record, Changeling, to sit down with Shutter 16 and discuss her decades-long career, new music, and her hopes for the future.

Shutter 16: Thanks, Jane, for taking this time. So you’ve been in the industry for 25-plus years, what would you say lit the fire that got you started in music in the first place?

Jensen: Music was always in my trajectory. There was no time when I was a kid where I was like, what do I want to do when I grow up? I never had to figure out where I wanted my life to go. And that might be because my biological father was a bluegrass musician – but we didn’t have any relationship either. Sometimes I wonder if my obsession with music has been an access point to try to access a relationship that just never was. Even though his style of music is completely different than the kind of music that I work in. So, that just led to my interest in music – and my love of music guided my path from a young age.

Shutter 16: Wow, that’s really weird. My father is a bluegrass musician as well! No way. It blows your mind how fast they play.

Jensen: You’re kidding me, that’s amazing. I could not participate in that in that genre though. I just cannot play that fast. Noooo way. 

Shutter 16: Were there any musical artists or particular albums when you were growing up that maybe changed everything or inspired you when you were writing your own music?

Jensen: Oh yeah. Well, when I was in, I guess middle school the Double Fantasy album came out. Hearing Yoko was so interesting and different to me. I just thought it was fantastic. And then shortly after that, my sister got the David Bowie Scary Monsters album. That was also really, extremely creative. It was the most creative thing I’d ever heard, so I listened to that album constantly. When I got a bit older, Sinead O’Connor’s The Lion and the Cobra came out. That album meant so much and still means a lot to me. So, I would say those three things, as a young person, just kind of defined my musical interests and broadened my scope of what music can sound like. Pop music, those were three big influences. And there are so many other bands that I’ve always loved and followed and but as far as sonic influences and, you know, just people that I really admire those and music that I really admire….those are the three biggies. 

Shutter 16: In 1996, I personally stumbled upon your music at Ziggy’s in Winston-Salem, North Carolina when you opened up for a band called Vallejo. My friends and I got there early, and your music immediately blew my mind. I was thinking, what is this? Who is this? I need to hear everything she’s done immediately.

Jensen: Wow, Vallejo. North Carolina? Man, I need to try to recall this. (she writes it down)

Shutter 16: That performance was simply amazing. So what do you love about performing live and maybe what do you hate about performing live?

Jensen: I haven’t done a lot of live performing in quite a while. After I had my kiddos, I think I started to develop some serious stage fright. It was also affecting me in the studio. But now I have my studio at home. So, I don’t have to battle that so much these days. I think it’s also helping me overcome it. But what I loved about performing back then, and after that too, with The Dolls is we just got into a real groove. The groove of being on a performance schedule and really connecting with an audience is really exhilarating – I have to say. I’m really proud of a lot of the shows that I did back then. I had a couple that really went the wrong way, but most of them were really, really, fantastic. And it’s kind of a drag that there’s not much footage from those days. It’s not like today where everything and everyone has a camera. So yeah, we had a lot of fun.

Shutter 16: So, that record Comic Book Whore, was that was on a major label, Interscope. Right?

Jensen: It was it started out on a small label in New York called Flip Records, and then an indie label in Australia got involved, Mushroom Records. Finally, Interscope came on board and that’s when the, you know….. Before that, I was doing some small radio appearances and I did a really cool, short little tour through Australia with my acoustic guitar. Based on the title of the album and the artwork, they assumed that I was a comic book artist and a caricature artist. So, they put this little tour together for me to go to the art galleries around Australia.

Shutter 16: You don’t draw at all?

Jensen: I did a little bit on the album, but you can see what I did was –  I know it’s very rudimentary. So, I told my manager, “I’m not going to be able to do this.” Her response was: “Just do it.” So, I would get sheets of paper, play my guitar, do some songs, get more sheets of paper and markers, and would do line drawings of people. They actually turned out pretty cute a lot of times. But yeah, it was a fun tour and it was fun to play in galleries. I like that.

Shutter 16: Then you got off the road and began what would become your second record, Burner.

Jensen: I had left the label by the time I started Burner. This record was going to be on a totally independent label. There were so many things that were cropping up at that time. And I remember I self-released it through a company called Spin. Do you remember something called Spin Records? Their logo was so similar to Spin Magazine, if you saw it, you would never know the difference. Well, anyway, they were sort of my first independent distributor, but then they folded and closed-up shop I thought they were really cool in the beginning. 

Shutter 16: I liked Burner as much as I did the previous record. Burner started out with a one-two punch of kick you in the face tracks. As far as the writing on those early records, did you have to get in a particular headspace, or did it just pour out? How did the writing happen?

Jensen: Well, for Comic Book Whore, I had been living in Chicago and just moved to New York. I had written a bunch of acoustic songs accompanied by my drum machine. That’s all I really had to bring with me to New York. I left everything else in Chicago. I wrote a lot of songs in that way, and then met a guy named Craig Crafton. We started working and recording the songs that I wrote specifically on my own. We had a lot of similar music tastes and similar music interests. One day he asked if I wanted to listen to this thing he was working on and maybe do some vocals. That is what became “More Than I Can.” That was the first thing that we started working on as a collaboration that then became Comic Book Whore. That’s pretty much it. We would sit up in his loft with the drum machines and the guitars. And he had a really cool, Compaq computer, which I don’t think even exists anymore. He also had this really cool analog board in his loft. That’s how that came about – hours and hours of hanging out in his loft and throwing ideas back and forth. It was similar with Burner except we did not record that in Craig’s loft. We recorded that at Martin Bisi’s BC Studios in Brooklyn. Martin came on to engineer that album and added a lot to the production. That was a lot of fun too.

Shutter 16: Both are great pieces of work and On Burner, in particular, the closing track was “Angel.” It is one of my favorite ones that you’ve ever done. How did that song materialize?

Jensen: Oh wow, thank you. I wrote that with Craig and it started out on the acoustic guitar. The track that’s on Burner was actually recorded at Toast Studios in San Francisco with Philip Steir. But, Craig and I originally crafted it. With regard to the lyrics, I think the lyrics just really focus on a feeling. Considering the darkness that surrounds humans, our aspirations and need to rise above it and develop some kind of faith so that we don’t get caught up in the darkness.

Shutter 16: Then you went into acting. You were doing Troma films and starred in Slither. Was acting a passion of yours, or is that just something that fell in your lap? 

Jensen: It’s a little bit of both. I haven’t done any of that for a few years. The last thing I did here in Los Angeles was a musical. I started doing it professionally right after high school. I had a good audition record for different things like commercials. I would use the money that I made to buy music equipment. I always had a background in theater starting mainly in high school. When I went to Chicago for school, I studied music, theater, and audio arts. So I had this combined major of the three things that I was most interested in and got to combine those three things by doing some performance art in Chicago. I was auditioning on the side and picking up whatever gigs I could get, which would often fund the projects that I wanted to do with music, which was cool. Then when I moved out to New York, I saw a notice for the Troma audition. I auditioned for that film, and that was the beginning of a long relationship with Troma films. I did one movie with them, but also a lot of promotional spots, and would go over to the Troma office and just work on fun stuff that they asked me to do. I made a sweet and fun community of friends, people that I’m still good friends with today. I did book other things, mainly television. At a certain point, especially once I had kids, I felt that I had to choose and manage my time. If I was going to do something and move forward with it, I was going to have to choose between music or acting. Music is my first love. 

Shutter 16: I remember back when I was a kid and the video store, I kept seeing this Troma movie whose box always made me laugh. The caption was “Not a true story, but who cares?”  I finally rented it, and needless to say, my mother was very upset with me. 

Jensen: Oh my God, I bet she was! Tell me you didn’t watch “Tromeo and Juliet” with her.

Shutter 16: Oh no, no. That came many years later.

Jensen: Whew, good. I think “Rabid Grannies From Hell” might be my favorite title they did.

Shutter 16: I just wrote that down. I will have to see that one.

Jensen: Yeah, write that down. (laughing)

Shutter 16: I personally didn’t hear anything new from you after Burner until maybe 2007 with My Rockabye, which I liked also.

Jensen: Wow, that one is not even out or available!

Shutter 16: And you did a few EPs in the 2010s. I was a couple of years late on those because I didn’t even know that they existed. But it gave me the feeling you were kind of dipping your feet back into music after starting a family.

Jensen: It was, it was you know, I have a lot of creative energy and I’m wanting to get inspired and I want to write and work on things. But, you know, music, especially the promotion aspect of music, takes so much time and energy. It’s not so much the fun part of it. So mostly what would happen is I would get inspired to do something, but then once the project was completed, I just felt kind of done with it. So I wasn’t inspired to go on a promotion cycle, do all the things, and also learn all of the new media tools. Things have changed so much since I first started. I love those EPs that I put out, but I didn’t have the drive to go into a promotion cycle. I still love the tracks. I was thinking of doing a remix album with a lot of that stuff. I’m really excited about doing videos these days. So I might revisit all of those sort of “sleeper” EPs with a new approach That might be what I do after Changeling – sort of a new take on them.

Shutter 16: So you did the 25th anniversary of Comic Book Whore. Was that something that was an intro to Changeling or just something you felt nostalgic about and wanted to do something with it again?

Jensen: It was definitely both. I can’t believe that it’s been 25 years since this album came out. So I really wanted to recognize that and I wanted to kind of revisit the past – the past in just a positive and affirming way. I wanted to reach out to super supporters all along, and from back in the day. And I have so much in storage of all kinds of photos from tours, different artwork pieces, and things like that. It kind of all ended abruptly and I just put everything away and my life changed instantly 100%. It was really exciting and fascinating to step back into that part of my life and share it again with everyone and let that be a segue way into what’s coming next, which is Changeling. 

Shutter 16: So let’s talk about Changeling. It’s coming out on September 2nd. So what first brought the idea? Were you just ready to jump in?

Jensen: I’m trying to remember exactly when I wrote that song, but it definitely came to fruition during the pandemic when even if I wanted to go to someone’s recording studio, I couldn’t. So I had to start focusing on my songwriting, especially the electronic side of my songwriting at home. And I had to get better. I was inspired to write this song and I really had to sit with it. I was in my own working space before reaching out to someone. So the pandemic was good for me in that way. I think I became a better producer. And lyrically, the song Changeling is all about change and transformation, assessing who you are and what you are, and moving forward to a new destination or a new idea about what you can achieve, or who you can become, or how your life can be more useful. There’s a theme in Changeling that refers to service, and service to others is an important part of being a good human. I got to sit with it here during the pandemic for a long time. Then I started reaching out to others. I just felt that I just wanted more from that particular song. So there are a few versions of it. There’s even more than one version of the lyrics for the song. 

Shutter 16: The song hits really hard from the first downbeat. It made me think of like, you’re walking around some city at night and saunter into some dark basement club and you’re about to have a great time. That’s where it took my brain. It’s like, I’m going into some weird basement in Krakow again and this is going to be a great night!

Jensen: (Laughing) Yes! I love that.

Shutter 16: So when Changeling comes out, what’s the distribution like? Is it digital only? Or will you be able to go to your record store and get it?

Jensen: My distribution company is called The Orchard. I also did this release with Bandcamp as that is such a popular platform for the people that I know like my music, so it was the right thing to do-there are people that are just truly passionate about music and artists. And so I got my footing, trying to understand Bandcamp and get the music up there. That was where I first released the title track “Changeling.” That’s the only prerelease thing that I did thus far. I looked into vinyl and it would be almost six months out. Apparently, everyone wants to make a vinyl album right now and I just didn’t want to wait for six months. I didn’t want to push. I already had to push my release date so far out for various reasons. I just wasn’t prepared to do that again. You know, the vinyl supply and demand are just crazy right now. So we’ll see. I might release it on vinyl at some point. So Changeling comes out on September 2nd. Shortly after that, the video will also be available. I’ll do a series of interviews and promotions just across the basic social media channels. We are still working on the video for “Revolution Maker,” which is the second single that is on the Changeling album. I like that one too. So, that was very exciting. I’m working with an old friend of mine from the Troma days. He has become a film director in his own right and is directing the video for a “Resolution Maker.” It’s kind of a horror-adjacent noir vibe. We’ve done the initial shooting. We just have to do some additional pick-up shots. It’s so great to get to work with old friends and laugh about all the old, dumb shit. I may do some additional videos for Changeling. I don’t have any live shows planned at this time. It doesn’t mean it won’t happen. But other than music, there’s a lot going on around me right now. I also write for film and TV, so I have deadlines with regard to that. Changeling is my own personal music. That’s my passion. We will see what happens next.