Jenny and Johnny

Jenny and Johnny

Jenny and Johnny are a United States indie pop and alt-country duo made up of singer-songwriters Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice. The pair begin working together in Los Angeles in 2005 after being introduced by Conor Oberst, and their collaboration grows out of their parallel solo careers and shared recording sessions.

Background

Rice travels to Nebraska to record his first album before moving to Los Angeles, where Lewis is working with Mike Mogis on her solo debut Rabbit Fur Coat. The two appear on each other’s recordings and develop an ongoing creative partnership. Rice joins Lewis’s band for the Rabbit Fur Coat world tour in 2006 and continues to perform live with her throughout her solo career. Lewis also contributes songwriting and vocals to Rice’s Further North in 2007, while Rice produces Lewis’s Acid Tongue and joins her on tour.

Recording and album

During the Acid Tongue tour, they begin writing songs together that differ from the material they have made separately. The songs are fast, melodic, and often blend both voices into a single sound. After the tour ends in Japan in August 2009, they record the new material with Pierre De Reeder engineering a nine-day session at Bright Street Recorders in North Hollywood. They play most of the instruments themselves, with Jason Boesel contributing drums where needed.

They then move to Omaha, Nebraska, to work with Mike Mogis at ARC Studios. The sessions last five weeks and include tracking, vocals, and mixing. The resulting album, I’m Having Fun Now, is released in 2010. The record moves away from the vintage and classic-rock textures associated with their earlier work and presents a harder-edged pop sound. Songs mentioned from the album include “Scissor Runner,” “Big Wave,” “Animal,” and “My Pet Snakes.”

Related collaborators

Elvis Costello also appears in their wider creative circle: during the Acid Tongue sessions, Lewis and Rice record “Carpetbaggers” with him, and he later brings Lewis, Rice, their Acid Tongue team, and the Imposters into work on his album Momofuku.