Issue 1.5
Juliette and the Licks
By Clint CatalystPhotos By Piper Ferguson
Makeup By Robert Wild
Styling By Kat Turner
As an actress, 31-year-old Juliette Lewis is capable of channeling ambulatory madness one moment and shifting gears into an awkward innocence the next. Her incendiary roles in Natural Born Killers and Kalifornia are the stuff of bad-girl legends, while leads in films like The Other Sister tug at the ol’ heartstrings. But is she believable as a rock star? With her band Juliette & The Licks, this is no role: this is real life. For admirers of her acting ability, this provides an opportunity to see what Ms. Lewis has to say, as opposed to what she communicates through the characters she inhabits. The band’s new 8-song debut, Like a Bolt of Lightning, is charged with a manic intensity. Juliette’s lyrics open with the line, “Put it in my hand and tell me how much pressure it takes to get you off.” Her band mates—guitarist Todd Morse, bassist Paul Ill, and former Hole drummer Patty Schemel—sound as if they’re playing their instruments for nothing short of a molar-splitting, life-changing experience. And as for Juliette’s gritty voice, well, it has enough gusto to tear down one of L.A.’s gorgeous nuclear sunsets.
I heard about the band back when you guys were going by Juliette Lewis and the Licks, and I couldn’t help but have a flash back to Huey Lewis and the News?
No!
And then there’s the whole actor-living-out-rock-star fantasy: Gina Gershon, Minnie Driver, Jada Pinkett Smith?
Every week it’s a new person! But that doesn’t matter. I’m the real deal; so who cares?
I don’t want to be lumped with that. My inspiration was Iggy and The Stooges and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. In the sense of there being a first and last—’cause I want to do collaborations with other people, and also because I am a very strong front personality. That’s why I wanted to do “Juliette and the Licks.” I didn’t want to do ‘Juliette Lewis.’ It has too many syllables.
What did you listen to growing up?
I’m a girl of a million identities; my taste in music sort of reflects that. I was born and raised here in L.A. County, but I lived three years in Florida. During that time was my brother’s influence, which was KISS, Judas Priest, and Van Halen. I didn’t really take on Judas Priest. Van Halen stuck with me years later, and then I got into early dance music. But my New Wave phase was first, which went along with the peroxide bangs, almost orange. Then I got into LL Cool J, early Run D.M.C., Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, all that stuff. I could go on forever. And then my dad introduced me to Janis Joplin, and that’s when I went into my ‘60s music phase. From there, I went into Jazz, torch singers—
Do you remember the moment that you decided you wanted to make music? Assuming, that is, that there was only one of them.
Well, I had a few of ‘em, ‘cause when I was a kid, I was always like, “I wanna be a singer! I wanna be an actress!” I always thought of the entire package.
Did you have make-believe bands as a kid?
Yes. Me and my friend Patricia, who grew up across the street, would lip sync to The Go-Go’s. “Vacation, all I ever wanted…” And I remember she had a tennis racket.
As a fake mic! That’s so much better than a brush. It’s so Disney movie, for a girl to be singing into a pink plastic brush.
With a tennis racket, it can function as a microphone and a guitar. So anyway, I was raised on musicals: risqué ones like Hair and All That Jazz, which was very dark, but I didn’t know that at the time. You just respond to whatever you respond to. I really thought of utilizing the whole package. You know, movement with your body, singing, and drama. But I got into acting, and that came easier than the singing. I always had a really high standard and if I couldn’t do it from A to Z, without anything in between, I pissed myself off. Eventually, a little later I did Strange Days. There, I had to sing for the movie; that brought it back around. I then developed a small, quick drug addiction, so I had to get that out of the way. You can’t really do anything in life unless you conquer that shit. To me, all chemicals—when you’re searching for a release through chemicals—is just bad news, period. I started with pot, the old innocuous kind of drug, but I did it every single day. I was really trying to sedate my natural energy; I didn’t know how to communicate with people. Then of course weed exacerbates social anxiety, though I was using it to try and get rid of that. It got to the point where I couldn’t leave my house, but then weed got boring, and I moved on.
And we know the blanks that get filled in from there. As a recovering speed freak, mine filled so quickly, and the years flew by.
It’s such a fuckin’ drag, because you’re like, “Oh God!” Like, I would have started my music much earlier, maybe at 25. That’s a good lesson, because now I have such a strong foundation. I feel really ferocious, and very principled. I’m not wishy-washy about things. And all of this is from learning, “No, this does not work for me. I’ve seen it not work for others, so I’m not going to support it.” I quit doing drugs at 22. I don’t want anyone to think I had an ongoing drug problem over an extended period of time. People thought I had a drug problem during the period of Natural Born Killers, but I didn’t. That was just because that movie was so crazy. The good news is that all my phases were very intense and short. Part of my agenda is that I love bringing an unpredictable and ferocious element to rock and roll, ‘cause those are the kinds of shows that I like to go to. Having a band dependent on drugs and booze makes for sloppy, predictable, common music. I mean, the whole “slobbering on the mic, my guitar string breaks,” it’s been done.
So Bette Midler in The Rose.
Exactly. I wish people would get into what’s radical these days. That’s why I also support the straightedge movement. I’m not straightedge, but I will fuckin’ give a huge shout out. I want it to be revitalized. I know they went a little crazy when they said “No sex…”(laughs hysterically)
Then it just turns into a contest of who can do the least. What’s next: my heart beats less? I breathe less? Cutting out the chemicals is cool enough.
I’m all about desire, and using that in productive ways. Music’s been such an amazing thing with sexual desire: using that energy in a whole other way, rather than daydreaming about a cute boy or something.
With all the different projects that you have going on, do you have any guilty pleasures you indulge in to unwind?
Well, I don’t know if it qualifies as a “guilty” pleasure, but I love Saturday Night Live. Oh, and you know what we watch on the tour bus is Family Guy. That fucking baby! At first, I didn’t like the baby, but now I get that nobody hears the baby. And I like looking at, and undressing, men on the street. But that’s harmless.
Unless you’re driving!
True. For me, I think my pleasure is that I’m so alive and can see beauty in a lot of things. I’ll just hypnotize myself with someone’s lips, or their neck, or their hands. It’s a good time.