Lexytron On the Making Of “Disco Jenny”
What was the initial spark or idea that led to the creation of "Disco Jenny?"
The song started off with a riff from Mike. He had nothing to go with it. It was the first time I had to compose a melody and lyrics around something existing. I came up the ‘Why can’t you just tell me how you feel?’ hook as I sang a melody against it. Then I formed the concept of the song as I went. The other songs on the album were already written, and I knew I wanted the album to be called ‘Something New’, so I made sure to get that title into the song because the last record ('Something Blue') had the songs ‘Blue’ and ‘Gypsy Blue’ on it. The ‘Knives Out’ line may have also come from the fact that I recently had watched the movie (with Daniel Craig) and was playing around with it.
How did you work with the producer or engineers to bring your vision for this single to life?
As I was forming the melody and lyrics, I remember counting the bars as we went and measuring out where the transitions would go including the middle 8, so this was a really interactive process for us, which was new because I’d always taken Mike fully formed songs, and this felt almost like how I imagine professional songwriters do things! We initially laid down some sample brass to bring a bit of sass to the recording and were delighted when Gwyn from Llareggub (Welsh brass band) ultimately agreed to play the parts!
What impact do you hope this song will have on your audience?
I’m a fan of this song because it’s funky, danceable, catchy and has some cool hooks. I hope the audience takes the same pleasure that we have in making it and has a good boogie to it. I see it as the kind of song that would work well with a covers band at a wedding!
Can you tell us more about you as a duo?
I met Mike at the Salford Arms. We were introduced by a mutual friend and rocked up to a gig that never happened. We quickly became gig buddies and after that, more! He had his own band and I had been writing songs at the time but didn’t have any intentions to do anything with them. I guess I didn’t have the confidence in myself as a singer and I didn’t know if the songs would make sense to others, so I parked my writing for a long time. When we moved to London, I started to work on music with a local producer, Marco Meloni, and also joined a folk band as a violinist. Mike then started to jam with us and then we talked about doing something together and he agreed to produce my songs. We got ghosted from the folk band, probably because we got too much into the recording process! He studied how to record, and we set up a home studio to record ‘Something Blue’ and then ‘Something New.’
What is your favorite part of the recording process, and is there a specific song that was particularly rewarding to record?
My favourite part of recording is listening to what wizardry Mike has come with in the studio with my songs and the joy it brings when he’s brought colour to my sketches. He can make something that sounds like Buddy Holly come out like The Cure or QOTSA! This song was fun because the composition happened as part of the recording whereas others were developed. I also loved recording the backing vocals with Elen and EVA. We roped in Stephen Lake on bass, an old friend of Mike’s, and Gwyn to play the trumpet, which really brought the funk out in the track. I think it’s a special song for me and might be my best! You will decide!
