Jehnny Beth tells us about ‘You Heartbreaker, You’: “I wanted to reconnect with the urge of my time in Savages”

Jehnny Beth has launched her new solo album ‘You Heartbreaker, You’ with the pummelling single ‘Broken Rib’. Check it out below, along with Beth telling us about her aim to “reconnect with the urge of my time in Savages“.

The former Savages singer turned solo star, TV presenter, radio host and movie actor released her first record under her own name with the acclaimed ‘To Love Is To Live‘ back in 2020. Since then, the French polymath has released a collaborative album with Primal Scream icon Bobby Gillespie, seen her new music TV show Echoes (a reinvigorated European answer to Later… With Jools Holland) go from strength to strength, and reached new audiences with her celebrated and high-profile roles in films including Paris, 13th District and Anatomy Of A Fall.

Now, Beth is back with ‘You Heartbreaker, You’ due out on Friday August 29 via her new label of Fiction Records – previewing the LP with the pummelling single ‘Broken Rib’.

“I wanted to make a punk record,” Beth told NME of the album. “I knew I wanted to make an aggressive sound and for the record to start with a scream on the song ‘Broken Rib’. This is how I felt: the world was broken, I was broken, but it’s not a sad thing. How can a song recompose those fragments? Is it like a Frankenstein beast? I’m not trying to polish it or hide it.”

She continued: “I’m very proud to release a guitar punk rock record today. You know when Savages were releasing our second record [‘Adore Life‘, 2016] and in the middle of our high, I was told that rock music was dead on this BBC panel. Fontaines D.C. and IDLES weren’t known yet, and everyone thought rock was dead. We’re here, and no it’s not. I’m very happy with how things turned out.”

And whose office did they choose with for the stark and surrealist video?

“It’s filmed at Fiction Records’ office,” replied Beth. “We signed to Fiction for this record and one of our first asks was to film in their office for a day. They said yes but had no idea what we were doing, it was hilarious. You can hear [label boss] Jim Chancellor in the corner on the phone at the beginning.”

Check out our full interview below, where Beth tells about life on the big screen, returning to her punk roots from Savages, being inspired by life on the road with Queens Of The Stone Age, and her plans for playing before Kneecap at Glastonbury.

NME: Hello Jehnny Beth. It’s been a while since we last spoke before ‘To Love Is To Live’. How have the last five years been for you? 

Jehnny Beth: “They’ve been interesting. I’ve been doing lots of different things. Surprising things happened. ‘To Love Is To Live’ came out around the pandemic so all the plans around it were cancelled. That wasn’t an easy time. I know that for some people, confinement was a great experience for them creatively. But for me it was the time I was supposed to be out there. It dragged everything, even financially, into a difficult spot.

“I was very lucky that I got some offers in films that year. I was asked to star in Jacques Audiard movie [Paris, 13th District] and the next year we went to Cannes. These non-music based things were new, so they were new and I was curious about it. A few other acting jobs came. I knew I wanted to make a new record, but it just had to hit the point where I couldn’t sleep at night over it.”

A record that needed to be made?

“That’s it. I was still making music, but I don’t think it felt as urgent as it felt when I decided to write ‘You Heartbreaker, You’.”

Paris, 13th District got so much attention and then Anatomy Of A Fall had pretty phenomenal critical success. How did it feel to be seen by so many in a different light? Did that confidence and new sense of identity bleed into the new album? 

“When I go into the studio to write music with [creative partner and longtime collaborator] Johnny Hostile, the world outside disappears. Although it is within me and the sum of all these experiences add up to be part of who you are. However, I was not thinking about my experiences as an actor when I was writing – but there are links between artforms. Acting is an interpretation. What they have in common is that you have to think of what you want to say in the world, where your places is and what your point of view is.

“Singing or acting – they spring from that place of ‘What do I want to say?’ You’re not thinking about the superficiality of it of ‘Where do I place my hands?’ The need comes from within. What I wanted to do with this record was to reconnect with the urge of my time in Savages – maybe adding something more dangerous to it, perhaps a sense of humour as well.

“I think it was the first time I was not overthinking what I was doing. I was just enjoying the process with an unconditional trust and belief. Maybe that’s me watching too much Ted Lasso…”

Is the album basically saying, ‘Everything’s fucked, but we must move’? 

“I like that! They’re your words not mine, but yes. The world is better with a good song in it, and music is a way to bring things back together. Nothing really makes sense in the end, but it’s a way to cope. It’s the same for live music: it’s a great thing that we do as a species that we should be proud of. The times are traumatic, there’s a lot of drama and pain in the world. We still consider love with a very prehistoric approach.”

And that’s what inspired the album title, right?

“The artwork of the record is a reference to all the car tags you see when lovers break up and attack their ex’s car by spraying a massive ‘TWAT’ or something like that. Me and Johnny Hostile came across a few in London. One was, ‘You cheating bastard – I’m pregnant with your child’. It’s very violent and aggressive. My friend tagged my car to make the record sleeve. That’s the echo of the world that I receive.

“Yasiin Bey said in a recent TV interview that if your heart’s not broken then your heart’s not working. If you find yourself displaced in a society that’s sick then it probably means you’re sane. One of the lyrics on the record is: ‘Anyone who does anything with their heart knows one day they’ll have it broken’. That was the starting point of the record.”

How have you found playing live as a solo artist?

“We did a lot of touring after lockdown, but we didn’t start until 2022 and had to reduce the number of musicians on stage for financial reasons. There were only three of us, and it kind of turned into this industrial electronic set with a rock aspect to it.

“It was great fun. We were very generously invited to open for Depeche Mode in Europe and Queens Of The Stone Age in America, but IDLES were actually the first to ask us back for a UK tour. It was on stage with Queens in the US when I had the intuition for the new record.”

Where did that feeling come from? 

“We were playing with QOTSA as well as these hardcore metal festivals too with bands like KoRn, GEL and Scowl, and the crowd were so in tune with what we were doing. There were so many bands from that young hardcore scene with some really inspiring female singers. On stage, I just knew in my gut what I wanted to do.

“Unfortunately, I had two films to make in the meantime, so I went back to shoot for six months but did my best to not lose that feeling. As soon as I’d finished, I went back to the studio with Johnny and we recorded everything straight away. We signed to Fiction straight away as they loved it and it was all so instant. I get my inspiration from connection with the people, so I’m not surprised that I got my intuition for this record while on stage.”

What can we expect from the live show for this record?

“I think people want to see some real shit now: things with integrity, things with presence. That’s where I want to go. The album is a heart-to-heart so the stage will be eyes-to-eyes. It’s about a moment. I’ve been a huge fan of Fugazi since I was a teenager so there will be elements of that raw, unique energy.”

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You’re DJing at Shangri-La on the Saturday night of Glastonbury just before Fatboy Slim and Kneecap – that’s going to be pretty wild, right? 

“Yes. Kneecap played my TV show in France [Echoes] when they really weren’t as known as they are now. The show is a great platform for me. Johnny chooses the bands and I host. Wet Leg and Kneecap played their first TV gigs for us. It’s going to be mad. I saw Kneecap at The Forum in London last year and it felt like I’d been transported back to the gigs of the ‘90s. It felt so dangerous and I loved it!”

“DJing is really fun too because we’re doing our own remixes. It’s another way to show what we do and to introduce rock culture into the clubs. You know, in the way that 2ManyDJs do it. It’s important to mix genres and to find bridges and cross over. Johnny did an excellent KoRn remix and it’s a banger every time I play it. Things are so separate and fragmented right now so I like to be able to do that in a club: to mix Amyl & The Sniffers with a beat, or play my own songs from the record remixed by Johnny.

“DJing is about taking people on a journey to surprise them with things they’re not used to hearing.”

What kind of set do you have planned? 

“I’ve got a lot of things prepared. I’ve got remixes by Johnny, plus big beats mixing with my school of rock, vocals from singers I love. It’ll be highly danceable – festive but hard with some distortion. From Sextile – who I’ve just worked with and have just released an amazing dance record – to Amyl & The Sniffers on my own remixes via Nine Inch Nails and KoRn remixed. It’s going to be on point!”

How do you feel about the recent rallying letter for freedom for expression after the call for Kneecap to be dropped from festival line-ups after their recent controversy?

“I didn’t know about that. I followed a little bit about the aftermath of Coachella. Kneecap are doing an excellent job and doing what they should be doing: they’re creating a conversation. That’s what democracy is about. They’re the right people to do that. That’s the job of an artist.”

Jehnny Beth will release ‘You Heartbreaker, You’ on Friday August 29 via Fiction Records. Pre-order it here and check out the tracklist below.

‘Broken Rib’
‘No Good For People’
‘Obsession’
‘Out Of My Reach’
‘I Still Believe’ 
‘Reality’
‘Stop Me Now’ 
‘High Resolution Sadness’ 
‘I See Your Pain’

Beth will also support Queens Of The Stone Age at their Rock N Roll Circus Festival in Sheffield on August 27 and 28 alongside Viagra Boys, Fat Dog, Shame, The Murder Capital and many more. Visit here for tickets and more information.

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