Jeffrey Lewis is an anti-folk icon and visual artist based in New York City. All his art forms can be experienced on his website. After I purchased a zine he created ("Sonnet Youth"- a collection of sonnets and drawings inspired by Sonic Youth's Goo), we chatted over the merch table following his set at the Music Hall of Williamsburg during that February blizzard.
How are you?
Very well. I warmed up nicely even though it’s very cold and
wintery out. Being on stage is a good way to warm up.
Was there a specific
moment that you can recall in which you knew you wanted to play an instrument
or write a song?
You know, I’ve never considered myself a musician. I went to
LaGuardia as an art major and I’ve always been into drawing and making comic
books and I started playing at open mics because it was a good way to draw a
lot of people. Because I would just hang out for hours at the open mic and draw
a lot of different performers and my sketchbooks filled up with drawings of
musicians and then it was sort of like, well, I can make up a couple of songs a
week and just play the open mic also while hanging out drawing people, too. So
I sort of just started like that. And then, somewhat to my chagrin, the music
just started developing and having a…I sort of started ending up having a
career in music rather than a career in drawing, without really having any
experience or much ability in music. But in a certain way, I think that that maybe
made people more interested in my music. Because like everybody else knew what
they were doing and I was kind of like the guy who didn’t know what he was
doing, which maybe made me sort of stand out more among the crowd, whereas
perhaps with the artwork, maybe, a lot of people know how to draw. I don’t
know. So anyway, I, yeah, I feel like I never really decided “I’m going to
become a musician” or a songwriter. But I didn’t fight against it either. I was
just like, alright. This is working out. Let’s just keep doing this.
Is ignorance bliss?
Oh, definitely. Absolutely. I’m so glad I’m stupid.
How has growing up in
New York City affected your art?
I think growing up in New York City has been really
important for me in so many ways, and I never understand it when people are
like “Oh, I could never have kids in New York.” Or “I wanna move out of the
city before I start a family”. Because I think it’s such a wonderful experience
to grow up with so many different kinds of people, so many different kinds of
food, different kinds of music…I always was just a product of public schools
and you know, that exposure to different people, I think, you know it sort of
can’t help but inform your art in some way. I think the most important things
are the things that you don’t even realize, like the things you take for
granted about what you do, but once you start traveling the world, you realize
that other people think what you do is like, “Oh, you’re so New York!” or
you’re so whatever the hell it is. You know, you’re so Jewish or you’re so
white or you’re so short or you’re so…whatever the heck it is. And you’re just
like, I don’t know, I’m just me. I’m not any of these things. I’m just being
myself. But once you are in a context where suddenly people make you feel like
that is something rare and special that, you know, New York City is so small,
and while we’re here, it’s our entire universe. When you go out into the rest
of the world, you realize that it’s such a different universe than the rest of
the world and it’s more special than we have to give it credit for while we’re here
in the midst of it.
How important is
individuality?
Well, I don’t know. That’s a tough one. Like, everybody’s an
individual so in some ways, I feel like individuality just alienates you, and
the more individual you are, the harder it is just to hang out with people, and
you sort of have to learn to compromise yourself just for the sake of being a
human being. And I feel like that’s sort of the toss-up that we all deal with
in our lives is how much are you willing to compromise what you wanna do in
order to be part of a group of other people or to have a relationship with
somebody, or to have a band with somebody, or to be friends with somebody. And,
you know, if everybody was just a total individual and just did anything they
wanted to do, everybody would just be a baby. I feel like part of growing up is
maybe not being so individual, but kind of learning where you fit in to this
community with other people. So it’s sort of like…I don’t know. It’s a tough
thing. I feel like people place so much emphasis on being an individual but
everyone is an individual. If they just kind of relax, maybe their
individuality would come out more? But maybe that’s just easy for me to say
because, I don’t know. It’s hard to say. It’s a weird question. It’s a good
question. It’s actually an excellent question because I’m going to be thinking
about it for a while.
Do you have any
advice for young artists?
Well, let’s see. One thing I’ve learned is that it’s very
easy to make art because all you need to do is spend a lot of time at it. I
didn’t realize that until I was about eighteen. I had been drawing all my life
but it wasn’t until then that I realized there was a very simple equation: draw
more, you get better at it. That’s it. You don’t need to go to school for
anything. No matter what you do, if you do it for four hours, you’re much
better than if you just did it for two hours. And that’s it. That’s the whole
equation of anything. But it’s so hard to do one thing a lot, and not be
distracted by other things. But other than that, pretty much anything is just
that easy. If, you know, if you wanna be an artist as your job, well, if you
can actually make art for forty hours a week, like a day job, 9-5, you’re gonna
get so good, that like, you will be able to make a living at it. It’s just
like, can you actually make art for forty hours or more every week? That’s the
challenge. But getting good at it is actually kind of easy. Just do it a lot,
no matter what it is.
What is the meaning
of life?
Probably, it’s probably totally meaningless, meaningless,
like no meaning, just complete meaninglessness, but that can be a good thing,
because otherwise you’d be really stressed out all the time. That you’re like,
screwing everything up, ‘cause of course you’re going to screw everything up
because it’s always your first time doing everything in life, you have no experience
in anything because it’s your first time being alive, but if it actually
mattered and it meant something, then you’d really be stressed out all the
time. But luckily, it’s all totally like, you know, whatever, we’re all just
gonna die and it doesn’t matter at all. But that doesn’t have to be a
depressing thing. That can actually be pretty cool. It’s like okay, so what? Like, alright. That’s cool. That takes the
pressure off.
Photo via BlitzGigs.
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