Juliette & the Licks

Nominated for the MTV Live Performer Award

 "The prototype for a female is that they're desirable, pretty tolook at, predictable and safe", says Juliette Lewis. "That's why my music is soimportant to me, because it’s the antithesis of that, it breaks the mould."

Such a statement should come as little  surprise to anyone who has been caught up in the full heat and sweat of a ‘Licks live performance, which has seen Juliette continuing to emanate the same elemental energy and disregard for convention she’s done her whole life.

Despite a long-established film career that has seen her play some of celluloid’s most complex and striking heroines, music has always been a constant for Juliette. – whether listening to Steely Dan and The Who aged nine with her father, discovering Black Flag and Iron Maiden with her brothers, or  playing Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Voodoo Child’ over and over on the set of Natural Born Killers. “My whole little creative juggernaut was comprised of three things,” she explains. “Music, performance art and drama. I’d been doing movies for fifteen years, I was really unfulfilled and as I was getting older, the necessity to do music was just getting stronger.”

In 2003, she formed Juliette and the Licks – a five piece outfit whose guitarists, Todd Morse (from NY hardcore act H20) and Kemble Walters would prove a constant in its fledgling, revolving line-ups. Deciding that the live arena would be the best way for the band to discover its identity, J&TL hit the road appearing on the Vans Warped Tour in 2004, and opening for acts as diverse as Turbonegro, Social Distortion and Courtney Love. While the following year brought with it a hurricane of activity that saw the band’s first studio releases (the Linda Perry-produced ‘Like a Bolt of Lightening’ EP in march, swiftly followed in May by the self produced debut full-length, ‘You’re Speaking My Language’), while a relentless touring schedule saw them play to over 500,000 people in over 20 countries.

Though the records showcased a growing diversity to the Licks’ sound, taking in alternative pop, new wave and old school rock n roll, live, the band were proving themselves to be one concentrated burst of undisputed attitude and adrenaline, with their front-woman as its crackling nerve-centre.

“Music’s a visceral experience to me,” says Lewis of her live-wire stage persona. “It’s right in your gut; it’s not intellectual or analytical. You just hear some drums and you’re in the tribe! You either feel it or you don’t”.

If 2005 had seen the ‘Licks establish an unshakable presence as a live act, then their first stable line-up brought with it the chance to develop as a song writing unit. Writing as they toured, the band concentrated on capturing their stage energy to provide a definitive Licks sound for the next record, the departure of their drummer at the end of the year left them without a drummer once more. Luckily, the road had also seen their paths cross with someone who would play an instrumental role in the most important chapter of their career - Foo Fighters front man and former Nirvana drummer, Dave Grohl. Originally brought in to play on demos the band recorded at his 606 Studio in California, Grohl extended his stay for the album.

“It was like watching Miles Davis play the trumpet or Michael Jordan play ball!” enthuses Juliette of the sessions. “You’re four feet from watching him do what he does and why he has the reputation he does, his attack is punishing and his feel is pure sex. We recorded fifteen drum tracks in 3 days and as a professional, he’s the nicest, funniest, most energetic person, but as a personality, Dave is a much more complicated character and I think it’s his complexity that informs his many talents. I still have a fantasy he’ll play live with us!”

Though the presence of one of the greatest drummers in rock could only be a bonus, ‘Four on the Floor’ takes the ‘Licks to a devastating new levels of confidence, chemistry and kick-ass rock thrills. Produced by Dylan McLaren who had mixed the band live and deriving its title from both a timeless rock drumbeat and a racing term for power and speed, it’s an album as deeply connected to the raw, physicality of live performance as it is to blistering song writing hooks. Not to mention a rollercoaster of hot-blooded, emotional intensity.

“The through line on this record is desire, in its many forms. Desire of dreams, love, redemption and the consequences of that; the unfulfillment, the betrayal, the pursuit, the need” clarifies Juliette.  While her refusal to censor the contrasts and complexities of such impulses, from the bad-girl bravado of ‘Smash and Grab’ to the vivid, disturbing ‘Death of a Whore’, or the brooding, unresolved ‘Inside the Cage’ sees Juliette at a lyrical highpoint, it’s a testament to the musicianship of the ‘Licks as a band, a fully functioning entity, that they can give their heated amps such a broad palette of expression – one as convincing on the Who-inspired exuberance of ‘Get Up’ as it is on the dirty ‘Stones swagger of ‘Hot Kiss’, or the breezy pop rush of ‘Sticky Honey’.

“I can’t wait for people to recognise how great the musicians are in my band,” says Juliette. Juliette says ‘Todd really leaves stuff open for melody and writes these tight, really catchy songs, while Kimble, whose favourite guitar player is Brian May tends to bring a more grandiose and dramatic element to his song-writing. My bass player Jason Womack who joined us last year, really adds the X factor to this band. He has very unconventional taste and does not follow the normal rules of song structure. I wrote Killer from this dark driving bass riff he came up with.

“This album is the licks I was aiming for three years ago and then some. I think there are some surprising tracks as well that show the potential of what’s to come, this is the beginning for us….”

Whatever else Juliette and the Licks may bring this year, the following months look set to be a particularly wild ride for both the band and anyone caught in their incendiary path.