In Session: Jessica Bowen of House of Saturn

TROY – All set to release their newest single, “Time and Other Matters,” House of Saturn continues to add to their body of work that is wonderfully hard to pin down. Spearheaded by songwriter, Jessica Bowen, the song is severely reminiscent of not only elements of late 1970s punk, but also mid-1990’s rock, as well. For good measure, the vocals add a contradictory but effective, softer edge to the arrangement. Dirty, distorted guitars, against a well-executed arrangement and production, make “Time And Other Matters” quite the enjoyable listen! The song will be available for streaming and purchase on Nov. 17^th on all major online distribution platforms.

I had a chance to sit down with Bowen ahead of her band’s release. What follows is our conversation.

Lucas Garrett: Thank you for sitting down tonight; you’ve been quite busy. How are you, Jess?

Jess Bowen: I’m good! It’s been a crazy fall. Moving from one thing to the other every day.

LG: That’s the way to do it. So, your band, House of Saturn, has a new single coming out. Tell us a bit about that.

JB: It’s a tune called “Time and Other Matters.” It’s coming out on Nov. 17^th. It’s our first single in a while.

LG: I had a chance to hear it; it’s pretty fantastic. There’s a lot going on in that song, genre-wise. You and your band are all over the place in terms of genre.

JB: The way I approach songwriting is a little different than others. When I was working on this tune, it came together pretty quickly in comparison to the way other tunes have in the past. On the recording, I’m singing and playing guitar. There are also strings mixed in there.

LG: How do you translate that to a live setting?

JB: We don’t do the strings! Ha. We really pare it down, as is true for all of our studio recordings in comparison to the live setting. This song is one that can exist without the string parts; they’re a colorful enhancement rather than a feature.

LG: You’re a wonderfully skilled violinist whom I’ve heard most recently at the Jive Hive Live with Headless Relatives. But what you’re hearing on this song is not at all classical; it features a very dirty guitar tone. I love the tone. What led you down that path that is so far removed from the classical area that I know you from?

JB: A lot of the tunes in House of Saturn are excursions in different genres that I like. For this one, I was really inspired by a few specific artists I was listening to at the time. I wrote this song a couple of years ago, which is crazy to think about. The sort of 90s, post-punk, almost teetering into emo but not quite… Placebo was a big influence for this particular song. A more modern band who I think sits in the same vein, is Mannequin Pussy. I really like those types of tunes.

I was listening to a lot of Brian Jonestown Massacre at the time, and 90s garage-y, female-led groups, like That Dog, The Breeders… things like that. They’re more traditional rock, garage-y style tunes in their foundation. I take a lot of inspiration in the way they write such wonderful vocals that also tell a story: they have a through-line that you can really follow in what’s going on. I took inspirations from all those sources in terms of a songwriting perspective and a lyrical perspective when it came to writing “Time And Other Matters.”

LG: How long ago did you start playing violin and guitar?

JB: Violin was the first instrument that I started studying. I started in school in 4^th or 5^th grade and have been playing ever since. I went on to study violin [in college] and have been trained classically. Guitar, I picked up a little later ‘cause I had to save up. I took all my birthday money, allowance money, and in 8^th grade – I must’ve been 13 – I bought my first guitar. It was a crappy Yamaha acoustic guitar, and I started playing.

Unlike having a very traditional training in violin, I never took guitar lessons. I started learning some of my favorite songs and went from there. In college, I didn’t do it a heck of a lot, except for fun. Post college, it’s been very fun getting back into it. Sometimes I wish I could transfer all of my skill on violin to guitar, and be equally as good at both. Haha. But that’s not how life works!

LG: No, unfortunately you have to practice. Have you found it difficult going back-and-forth between violin and guitar? Do you write your guitar lines like a violinist? How does that all work for you?

JB: That’s a really interesting question. I, to no surprise, find guitar to be really convoluted, because scales are so simple on bowed string instruments. It’s “one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four” (fingering patterns), and on guitar it is not that way!

LG: It sure isn’t!

JB: For me, especially over the last five years of me playing guitar a lot more, it’s been a big hurdle to get over… the fingerboard geography of the guitar versus the violin. I think when it comes to writing guitar lines, I’m not really thinking about writing on the instrument. I’m thinking for listening to what I want to hear, especially when I’m approaching tunes like “Time And Other Matters.” I’m using the instrument as a vehicle to get where I want to be, in terms of hearing. Maybe the instrument is lending itself to a style more than something else.

LG: Is the new single going to be part of an album?

JB: Yeah! We are in the process of wrapping up an EP, that we’re hoping to release in early 2024.

LG: Where are you recording the album?

JB: We’ve been working with our good buddy, Alec Lewis, at Honey Home Studios.

LG: He’s a great guy.

JB: Yes, he is. He’s been working with us for a long time.

LG: Do you have a name for the album?

JB: Not yet. We’re still brainstorming on that front.

LG: When it comes out, do you have a plan to go on tour?

JB: Yeah, we’re already thinking about that. This album has been a really long time coming. We’re super excited about it. We’ve been playing the songs that’ll be on the EP for a really long time, but we haven’t had a way to give that to people in a nice package. We’re taking a backseat to performing live these days because we want to get the album ready to go.

We’re already thinking about a mini-tour to get out of the area, and play more to celebrate the release of a body of music that is a bit more substantial.

LG: A lot of the bands you mentioned have a dirty, raw, sloppy… a lot of that punk music from 1970’s and early 1990’s has sounds that are antithetical to classical music. How do those different areas of your brain work together?

JB: It’s an interesting topic of conversation and one I think about a lot. The person I study violin with has been around a long time. He’s never listened to non-classical music, ever. He never bothered to appreciate that or see the value in it. He thinks art music of the Western kind is what he wants to listen to and that’s where the art truly lies for him. He loves it for so many reasons and I owe all of my musicianship to this person. He’s never listened to Radiohead, or heck, even The Beatles! I know more about them than he does and he was around when they were here!

I think there’s something to appreciate about every single genre. The meaning of music, for me, doesn’t lie in the execution or genre. It’s really more about the meaning in it, and the performer or composer behind that. When you think of something like Bo Diddley versus Nirvana or versus Shostakovich or Beethoven. All of that music is incredibly emotional or personal to the person that wrote it. I think that’s where the artistry lies: the way people and their music are able to communicate with you. I think in every genre you’re able to get that in one way or another.

When it comes to writing my own music, I see value in a lot of different genres, and I’ve definitely found it to be beneficial, and in some ways… the thought process of being a trained musician can get in the way every once in a while. It can be really handy to communicate with fellow band members, like with Roman numerals of the chord progressions, or solfege of the vocal melody. Or, it’s easy to identify time signatures or keys. Sometimes, you can run into situations in a non-classical world where people aren’t familiar with that, and communication barriers can break down. In that way, I’ve found it really helpful in both songwriting and performing music that is non-classical. But it can get in the way.

I try not to work from a place where I’m writing non-classical music and say I’m going to a I vi IV V chord progression. I try to work from a “What are sounds and shapes that I like?” That’s not to say I’m not thinking about chord structures, because I am, but it’s a unique blend of both of those things. Taking the music theory knowledge and quickly learn all these bands’ songs. I’ll sit around and play their music for hours: the guitar, bass, vocal lines… all of that. It’s like putting a puzzle piece together when it comes to [songwriting].

LG: Have you been delving into any new styles lately?

JB: I’ve recently become really enamored with fiddle playing a lot more in various styles, whether that’s American old-time and bluegrass, or Nordic fiddling… even Arabic music. Eastern music is one of my favorite things to listen to. It’s so interesting the way they use alternate tonalities. I think when I’m listening to something and I enjoy it, then for me, it’s not really something where I’m feeling conflicted about, “Well, I know all this stuff about music theory, and I have a trained ear in this or that.”

It’s like when people say you have a great palette for food. You can taste all the ingredients. I can taste all the ingredients and see how things are put together with ease because of that training. I don’t view it in a way where I’m looking down on something because it might not be as harmonically complex as something else, because I don’t necessarily think it has to be art music to be harmonically complex.

LG: I think in a way, the less you know [about music theory], the more chances you’re going to take. I heard a friend one night, and I said to them, “What the hell did you just play?!” They had no idea; they didn’t know how to communicate the idea. It was really amazing guitar work. It goes to show that it’s good to know [music theory], but I feel that sometimes it puts you in a box.

JB: Absolutely. That’s why I try to stay away from the Roman numerals and solfege-y way of writing and rely more on “isms.” I do try not to let that be at the forefront when I’m writing.