Anyone with a penchant for cult film will know the slow, sexy Californian voice of Juliette Lewis, whose accent is cooler than a Horrors haircut. Fans of modern bands with a loyalty to modern rock ‘n’ roll will know it too.
Something of a Jack, make that a Jill, of all trades. Juliette has moved from being the unhinged and sweetly strange girl in films such as What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?, Cape Fear and Natural Born Killers to a fully-fledged kneepad and feather headdress-wearing rock goddess.
So was the jump from movies into the mosh pit, stopping off at Scientology on the way, a good move? As the singer of cock-rock-with-a-woman-at-the-helm band Juliette and the Licks, Juliette certainly thinks so. She tells Fused why she swapped the red carpet for the tour bus and of her aims for the group’s yet-to-come, third full-length record.
When we talk, Juliette is in her dressing room before a Newcastle show, the last official UK date in the tour and she’s eating pineapple. She’s excited about the capacity of the venue (about 1,200) but thinks their half past-nine stage slot is too early. “I feel like we’ve played everywhere in the universe,” glides down the phone, in the afore mentioned stylee. “We’ve played some really amazing shows,” she says. “Amsterdam, London and Germany, Spain are probably the stand out shows where the audience was crazy, lovely and chaotic.
It’s always way more than you can ever expect. They give as much as you do, sometimes more. It’s what you work so hard for. In music you want to bring on a sense of elation or unity. With the kind of music we do it’s a kind of feel good rock and roll with a lot of energy. When everyone feeds it back to you it’s so powerful and special. It’s kind of touching.”
Hearing her gush this way it’s clear Juliette gets a lot from the crowd. They have even started paying tribute to her headgear. “They wear feathers too,” she says, “it’s the cutest thing.”
What’s with the headdresses then? “I just have a vision,” she explains. “I don’t think so much. Some things just tempt me when I’m making the record. I think; ‘I’m going to wear feathers this year’. I think it shows a sense of freedom and defiance. It has this image of a rock and roll warrior.”
It’s the shows and the crowd’s energy which keep Juliette and the Licks going. She’s not a big fan of the touring though. Having been away from home for five months she’s understandably missing her family, friends and sunny California - where she was born and raised - but she says the band are surviving on humour and lunch meat, although she admits she’s getting a bit bored of the latter. “This whole thing is to get to the next record. We got to make our solid rock record and the next one is going to be more adventurous. We’ll have more atmospheric sounds and more different kinds of songs; we’ll have slow songs, more percussion and vocal driven songs.”
Although pleased with the current album, which on the whole won solid seven star reviews for its non-mould breaking catchy rock, it’s easy to see the band are keen to push themselves and the fans a bit more next time round. “It’s good to work within our obstacles but creatively I would love to remove these and have less pressure. I want to be able to kind of wank off a little bit in the studio and find sounds - that’s what a lot of bands just do. I have other colours as a vocalist and song writer so I want to show those on the next record.”
Talking about the next album when the current release has only been out and about a few months may seem a little hasty but Juliette says she making up for lost time. I’m not sure starring in more classics than Quentin Tarantino probably has in his video collection is what I’d call lost time. Juliette’s admitted she would even listen to Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix on set when preparing for her take. “I never like to wait and I’m also a person who goes on feel rather than just the search for perfection. Since I started the band three years ago we’ve released an EP and two records. I want to keep that momentum and finish ideas as they come. So rather than trying to find perfection or be a genius I would rather just go with the feeling.
I’m getting more interested in sounds and sonics and how to translate a vision through recording. So I want to now explore that a little more on the third record.”
Juliette and the Licks write collectively but she says she’s generally the driving force. “I think you always have to have a leader otherwise people’s tastes and opinions will cancel each other out. I am definitely the deciding factor on things. But I like to create an environment where people can be as creative as they can, where people challenge themselves because of the other people in the band, stepping outside your own comfort zone.”
Leading the Licks is just one way Juliette shows her strength as a woman, something she feels is very important to do. Especially when music is as lacking in inspiring women as Hollyoaks is lacking in integrity. “I care a great deal about society and how I affect people. I just want to have a positive impact, particularly being a woman in music in 2006. There’s not, for me, the most compelling, complicated or interesting females in the mainstream. Not just music but in the arts at large and it’s the weirdest thing. I know it from film. It’s made to be packaged up all safe and palatable. Females are doe-eyed polished little kittens and its so fucking trite and boring.
For me music is spiritual, I use it to break the mould and as a kind of primal expression. It transcends sex. When we’re on stage its not about male and female anymore, it’s just about emotion and energy.”
“Touring is so fucking hard you wouldn’t believe it,” she groans. “You’re so disconnected from roots, family and home. Yet you’re giving off this amazing energy and having this connection with the crowd. It’s incredibly powerful and inspiring but it’s also alienating and really lonely.
I try and approach this like an athlete. I believe in self-discipline and taking care of yourself. Nobody in the band does drugs. The boys like a beer every now and again but I try to keep it about the music because I think all that shit makes you lazy and lose your focus. It becomes about a party rather than moving audiences. You can be wild, expressive and driven and be drug free. I hate this idea doing drugs is radical. No body says it but there are musicians that don’t do drugs.”
Come off it? There’s a reason it’s not sex, donuts and rock ‘n’ roll. “It’s just never written about. Dave Grohl, Andre 3000 from Outkast don‘t. I like the way our tour is au naturel.”
It’s good to see rehab works for some rockers, mentioning no names. Juliette ditched drugs and films but it seems movies are not so easy to get away from. The judgement she faced under Hollywood’s bright lights still endures. “We get judged 10 times harder than any other rock band. I just think ‘get over it I used to be in movies and now I’m in a rock band’.”
Kerry Eustice