Jenny Kern is Back: 'Satellite' and 'Now We Know'
Jenny Kern is a New York-based, Toronto-born indie singer-songwriter. Her debut EP was released in 2019 and since then, her songs have been a huge hit in the indie music scene. She stopped by in September 2019 to talk about her first EP, as well as her Europe and North American tour. Since then, her song Slow Burn was recently featured on CW’s Charmed, and Build A Bridge was featured on ABC’s The Rookie. She has also released two new songs from her upcoming project. The atmospheric and raw Satellite, as well as the heartbreaking and emotional Now We Know. She stopped by the Radio Free Brooklyn studio again in February to talk about her two new songs. Read an excerpt from our interview below, and scroll down for the full interview and the music that inspired her new music.
PR: What have you been up to since last time I saw you?!
JK: I went on tour last summer which was awesome, and then I came back and went out to LA to record these two songs. It’s been a relatively quiet fall since I was just recording and not playing shows. But I did have a big sync with my song Build A Bridge on ABC’s The Rookie! I played Mercury Lounge for the first time in November, opening for the incredible Jake Huffman. It was quiet but the things that did happen were pretty awesome.
PR: Can you tell me about the songwriting process for Satellite?
JK: I wrote this song last March or April, I wrote it very stripped back on my guitar. I had this vision for, I don’t want to say a “dance track,” but I wanted that so badly for a song of mine. I knew that if I sped up the tempo and got creative that this one could work. We were really pulling from so many of my 80’s and reverbed snare and things that I knew I wanted to include as I developed my sound.
PR: Your music was amazing before also, but this sounds like a different era. It sounds like your music is growing and changing.
JK: Absolutely, and I think that’s what these two singles represent for me. A sense of closing one era of myself musically and entering something new and fresh, which is exciting for me.
PR: Can you tell me a little bit about what Satellite is about?
JK: This song was based on a relationship that was actually a friendship, and not a romantic one. I was struggling at the time and was going through a depression. I made mistakes and it just didn't work, it clashed, and we had to part ways. This song was about having an outer body experience, wishing you could be better for them, knowing that you can be, but you know that it’s over.
PR: Your latest song, Now We Know, is a gorgeous song. Can you tell me about the song? It seems like such a personal song.
JK: It’s definitely probably my most honest song to date. Usually anyone who has listened to my music, there’s times where I get metaphorical and not so literal, and this was the first song that I wrote where I just wrote the words I wanted to say and how I felt and not try to cover it with color. It was a really cathartic experience for me. I was trying to figure out what had happened in a relationship and closure for myself, and writing this song was one of those moments for me. There was this moment where I was like okay, this is broken, so this can’t be fixed.
PR: Was it hard for you to put this out? Were you nervous for people to hear it?
JK: I was scared to put it out because just the concept of being vulnerable with people and having your emotions on your sleeve. It’s something I’ve learned to get used to. My favorite music I love is when people are willing to open the door and say, “hey, this is me and this is who I am.” I wanted to use this song as one of those moments.
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Check out our full interview below, as well as the songs that inspired Jenny Kern’s latest songs!
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