INTERVIEW: Songwriter Jenny Owen Youngs Heads to Caffe Lena
5/30 @ Caffe Lena, Saratoga
Photo by Savannah Lauren
“Youngs’ knack for pop songwriting melds impeccably with the dreamy, rustic soundscape that’s present throughout the record—needless to say, it’s an undeniable match for the Lena stage.”
Even if you’re not necessarily familiar with Jenny Owen Youngs, you’re undoubtedly familiar with her work. In the last ten or so years, she’s become a highly sought after songwriter, co-writing songs as recognizable as Panic! At the Disco’s #1 single, “High Hopes.” Before diving into that realm of her career, she crafted an impressive total of three full-length LPs and five EPs between 2007 and 2015, garnering critical acclaim along the way. In fact, the way she tells it, writing songs with other artists was almost a happy accident.
“Without really meaning to, I kind of took a few steps back from my artist focus,” Youngs says. “I started going to Los Angeles to do songwriting sessions for one, two, three weeks at a time. I was doing so much that I thought, ‘I guess I should just move to LA and see what happens.’ Writing songs with and for other artists came to take up a lot of space in my creative life—to my joy!—but it sort of back-burnered my own stuff.”
The New Jersey-born songwriter ended up spending five years in Los Angeles, preceded by almost a decade in Brooklyn. Now, she calls the coast of Maine home with her wife and two-year-old son. In the last couple years, she’s found time to get back into “Jenny stuff” and has adjusted her approach to releasing and promoting music in order to better accommodate her family and home life—“touring smarter, not harder,” as she puts it.
“[My son’s] existence has greatly shaped the way I approach leaving the house,” Youngs admits. “My favorite is to play a cluster of shows in New England, some of which I can drive home from after the show. Because the second I leave, I just miss my little guy.”
It’s this methodology that leads Youngs to the historic Caffe Lena in Saratoga for the first time on May 30th, as part of a three-date, weekend ‘tour.’ The show is in support of her most recent release, 2023’s Avalanche. Her first record in over a decade, it spotlights a more intimate side of her songwriting, leaning into Americana-tinged arrangements and resonant themes of resilience and heartbreak.
“Avalanche was greatly informed by Josh Kaufman (of Bonny Light Horseman), who I just adore so much,” Youngs tells me. “He produced the record and is very much about capturing an energy that can only be found in people playing a song live. Everything started with me and Josh playing through a song together, and me singing. I feel like it just allowed for so much breadth in the recording.”
Though her own personal experiences undoubtedly had the biggest impact on Avalanche, her time spent in those west coast writing sessions with artists like Ingrid Michaelson, Pitbull, and the aforementioned Panic! At the Disco ended up being a valuable source of inspiration in her own writing.
“One of the things I love about collaborative songwriting is getting a window into how other people make connections and chase ideas,” Youngs says. “Getting to experience other people’s methods and taking the parts of those methods that felt exciting and incorporating them into my songwriting practice.”
Youngs’ knack for pop songwriting melds impeccably with the dreamy, rustic soundscape that’s present throughout the record—needless to say, it’s an undeniable match for the Lena stage. While a number of the songs are undoubtedly about the divorce Youngs went through before meeting her now-wife, others zoom out more broadly, examining the things that make us human. Lyrics like, “Something about my savage heart / That wants to tear your world apart / And stitch it all right back together for you…” and “Anybody worth their salt / Knows the arrow hurts worse when you pull it back out…” resonate deeply with each repeat listen.
Avalanche is a stunning addition to an underappreciated discography, one that we expect will be welcomed with open arms for Caffe Lena’s Bright Series tomorrow night. Don’t miss the rare opportunity to see this songwriting master in action.
Tickets for Jenny Owen Youngs at Caffe Lena are still available at www.caffelena.org.
