Most love songs are tragedies, though most people don’t hear them that way. Jehnny Beth, actress, singer, and former lead of Savages, has long seen the violence in romantic obsession, devotion, and the other fixtures of pop’s lingua franca. Set to release on August 29, her second solo album You, Heartbreaker, You – which she wrote with her longtime creative partner Johnny Hostile and recorded at their 20L07 studio in France – plays like a suite of anti-love songs. Obsession, one of the album’s standouts, turns that vision into sound. “I need you, I need you!” she screams on the track, a teeth-baring, snarling track with stabby guitars that makes you want to run from it. Built from the same sweet nothings as any pop ballad, Beth drags the hungry bloodshed beneath them to the surface.
Love as an act of violence and destruction runs through her second solo album, You, Heartbreaker, You, without mercy. And it’s on the brutal consequences of having a heart that we begin our conversation.
1. Are there any mantras you live by? Anyone who does anything with their heart knows one day they’ll have it broken.
2. What’s one thing you can’t live without? Johnny Hostile.
3. What’s your earliest memory? Stepping on stage at my father’s theatre to play when I was four.
4. What’s your worst nightmare? A real nightmare? War.
5. What are your favourite song lyrics? One I wish I’d written is from Idles, Joe Talbot’s line: “If anyone spoke to you the way you spoke to you, I’d put their teeth through. Love yourself.”
6. What film have you watched the most? Is it okay if it’s a TV series? Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
7. What makes you happy? The Earth. Being creative.
8. What makes you sad? Death.
9. If you weren’t an artist, what would you be doing? I’d open a restaurant.
10. What was the creative itch that triggered You Heartbreaker, You? Was it a phrase, a need, or a physical sensation? A physical sensation on stage while I was on tour in America with Queens of the Stone Age.
Are there any mantras you live by? “Anyone who does anything with their heart knows one day they’ll have it broken” – Jehnny Beth
11. Do you think of different musical instruments as representing different body parts? No, I’ve never thought about it that way. But when I sing, I think of my feet, to be grounded on the floor.
12. On this album, how simplified or complex a version of yourself did you want to put out there? Simplified. The last record was complicated. For this one, the premise was: nothing is complicated.
13. Was this album a reaction to the last one? It always is.
14. How does your body feel when you’re on stage? It feels like there’s an energy ball in my stomach.
15. Is there anything about your public persona that’s made you think about yourself differently? Yes – it made me realise I was beautiful.
16. Because people told you? No, because I could see it.
17. Which of your physical features do you find most beautiful? My eyes.
18. What’s the greatest physical pain you’ve ever been in, and did it inspire the album in some way? No, but Broken Rib was a universal way of talking about pain; physical pain representing an inner pain. Everyone can relate to the idea of hurting every time you breathe. I’ve been in pain before, especially as a child when I was ill a couple of times and almost died. I remember that pain, but I never thought about it until now.
19. How are your feelings on romance and love reflected on this album? I think I’m a post-romantic. I don’t necessarily believe in the romantic aspects of love. As human beings, we’re not as evolved as we should be; our emotions are often prehistoric, and love is too often connected with violence. Hopefully that will evolve over centuries. I believe in, ‘If you love someone, set them free,’ but it takes a lifetime to achieve.
20. Do you think the love song as a form still needs to evolve? Yes, but I think the majority still needs those soapy songs. I understand the 1950s songs where women sing they’ll be waiting no matter what. Love is beautiful and can bring wonderful things, but realistically, if you love someone, they’ll break your heart, and vice versa. The question is how you keep living with a broken heart, like breathing with a broken rib.
You, Heartbreaker, You by Jehnny Beth is out on August 29.
