Episode 29: A Conversation with Matt Easton of The Jenny Thing

Depending on where you live, one could say that we’re going through a bit of a renewal. COVID cases are dropping, people are eating out, and as we’ve chronicled, live music is back! So it’s appropriate, then, that my next guest and his band are going through a rebirth of their own. Berkeley, Ca., based [The Jenny Thing](www.thejennything.com) first came to be in 1991. Their music blended 80s synth pop with the industrial rock sound popularized by 90s bands like Nine Inch Nails. The band was a West-Coast touring mainstay before calling it quits in 1999. As we get ready to venture back out into the world, The Jenny Thing is giving it another go as well. On this episode of For Songs, I speak with Matt Easton, lead singer and co-songwriter for The Jenny Thing. We talk about what led to the band’s return engagement—American Canyon, released in early June 2021. We discuss four songs off the album: Paper Angel, American Canyon, Lightfield, and Waiting for the Knife. Matt talks about how the songwriting process works between himself and guitarist Shaom Rao, and just what a 90s band influenced by 80s music sounds like. Sometimes texture and space is just as important as driving bass and fresh guitars! So tune in!