Joanna Sternberg and Jeffrey Lewis Want That Immediate Immediacy

Jeffrey Lewis is a songwriter and comic book artist from the Lower East Side; Joanna Sternberg is a songwriter and artist from Hell’s Kitchen. Jeffrey’s new record, The EVEN MORE Freewheelin’ Jeffrey Lewis, just came out last week (via Don Giovanni), so to celebrate, the two artists got on the phone to catch up about it, and much more. 
— Annie Fell, Editor-in-chief, Talkhouse Music

Jeffrey Lewis: What were your early recording experiences like? When did you make your first recordings of songs that you had made?

Joanna Sternberg: Well, when I had GarageBand in middle school, I would have fun trying to do that. And then the iPhone and voice memos… Then in college, there was a friend I had who recorded us in just his house and set up microphones. And then I went to this guy, Alex Wernquest, and he recorded me doing 10 songs upstate. That was the first time I actually recorded my songs to release, pretty much.

Jeffrey: Actually, that’s kind of similar to me. My first tape of songs was mostly recorded in upstate New York at my friend Whip’s house, because he had a four-track, even though we didn’t use all four-tracks. But it was upstate, somewhere around the Tivoli area, around Bard College. Anyway, he offered to record me singing my songs, so I stayed at his place for a few days. I remember playing through a bunch of my stuff and he hit record, and it was really just one take each. I just kind of played through a bunch of the songs. That would have been in 1998, so those recordings that we made were the same recordings that I put on my first tape and ended up on my first Rough Trade album. But, yeah, definitely the upstate recording experience.

Joanna: When did you record after that?

Jeffrey: Well, I recorded some stuff with my brother Jack just in our bedroom when I was 22 and Jack was, like, 17. Those are also some of the recordings that were on my first album, like Jack’s songs “Another Girl” and “The Man with the Golden Arm.” Jack would have been playing bass and singing, and I was singing and playing acoustic guitar. That was also 1998. And those are much more lo-fi, because I didn’t have a four-track or anything. Those were just recorded on a boombox. There were actually a bunch of other songs that my brother Jack would make up, where I would play piano and Jack would play bass, and that was on another early tape of songs that we made around that time. But that was very bad sound quality, because I just was using a Walkman or a boombox to record stuff at that time.

Joanna: I don’t really know anything about sound quality. I don’t even know where to begin. Have you gotten into any of that stuff?

Jeffrey: Well, I certainly have gotten a lot more familiar with these different methods over the years. It wasn’t really until my third official album, the City & Eastern Songs album that we recorded in 2005, where it was me on guitar, my brother Jack on bass, and our drummer at that time, David Beauchamp. We recorded with the producer Kramer at a recording studio. We had, I think, five or six days in this recording studio that was near where the Knitting Factory was on Leonard Street — it was in that Tribeca neighborhood — and we were just so unfamiliar with the idea of recording in a recording studio. I didn’t really understand. I just had all these ideas of what we could get done — I was like, “Oh, wow, now we’re in a studio. We can do all these elaborate overdubs.” But I was just very amateurish, and I should have listened to Kramer more. Kramer knew what he was talking about more than I did. When was your first recording studio experience?

Joanna: My first recording studio experience was when I did my first record, and the producer had a studio called Room 17 in Bushwick. It was really great. It’s since closed down, but it was really nice. I still kind of get nervous in studios. I’ve only ever now been recorded in three, in terms of my songs. Is there a studio you like?

Jeffrey: My last two regular albums with my band were recorded with the producer Roger Moutenot in Nashville, because I really loved the Yo La Tengo records — that really got me into modern indie rock in the ‘90s, and all of those Yo La Tengo records always said the producer was this guy Roger Moutenot. I never knew who he was, but I just always had that in my head as the guy who recorded those albums. So at some point a few years ago, I was like, “Let me look this guy up on the internet and see if he still records bands.” So I did get in touch with him, and it turns out he has this recording studio in Nashville, and he was very accessible and just seemed really cool to work with. So I took my band to Nashville and we recorded this album there, the 2019 album that I put out called Bad Wiring.

That was such a good experience that I wanted to do another one the exact same way, in the same studio working with Roger again. It was just a very comfortable fit working with him. And me and my drummer, Brent Cole, just really idolized those 1990s Yo La Tengo records that Roger recorded, so we both were just like, “Wow, we can’t believe that we’re actually working with the guy who made those records!” But then the pandemic happened so everything got really delayed, and then by the time I actually was able to get my band back down to see Roger again in Nashville, Roger had COVID. So that really put another difficulty in that recording process. We ended up only working with Roger for, like, four days to make our new record — which is finally coming out now, a couple years later than intended.

Joanna: Right, it’s been a long process.

Jeffrey: Yeah. Even though the recording itself happens pretty quickly, by the time everything gets put together… Which is kind of why I like the old style, when I would just make recordings at home and put it on a tape and sell it at the open mic the next day. That really immediate immediacy. And actually, I was doing that during the pandemic too — I was making home recordings and putting them on Bandcamp. You know, you can just record something and put it up immediately without any of the other rigmarole. You don’t have to get it mastered and do the album packaging and upload it to streaming so that it gets on Discover Weekly and figure out a record label situation. That kind of reminds me of my old cassette days. I like that quick working.

Joanna: Me too. I was really lucky that I got to work with this great producer, Joe Rogers, for the first record. And he knows everything in the studio. I was just so amazed at how he can know all that stuff, because I don’t know anything about gear. It’s kind of embarrassing. Even amplifiers or stuff like that — I don’t know where to begin with any of it. But at least I could play the instruments for all the songs. I just know nothing about gear at all. It’s hard to memorize all those words. 

Jeffrey: Yeah, I also don’t know anything about gear. And a lot of these people who record stuff want to show off their gear, and they say, “Oh, this is a certain special microphone, and I got this special mixing desk from 1976, and these compressors over here are blah, blah, blah.” It is not my world at all. Even guitars and amplifiers is really not my world at all. Because you’ll go into a recording studio and somebody will say, “Hey, for this song, why don’t you try playing my Gibson 1982? I think that’ll have a nice tone for this.” And I’m just like, “I don’t know about tone.” I think that is all irrelevant to the song. I’m just like, “Are the words good? Is the song good?” I just feel like if you don’t have a good song, then how does it possibly matter what amplifier you play it through?

Joanna: I agree, totally. I’m not picky at all about that stuff. But I’m very picky about the songs.

Jeffrey: Yeah. What is your writing process like recently? When you find yourself writing a song, how does that go?

Joanna: Well, I usually get stuff stuck in my head, so then I record it into my phone, and then I’ll maybe come back to it because I can’t tell in the moment how I feel about it. Or I’ll sit down with the intention to write and I’ll just come up with something on the spot. Or I’ll just go through all the voice memos and try to combine stuff, or I’ll be working on some songs that I still haven’t finished for years for some reason.

Are you always every day writing? What is your process? 

Jeffrey: I wish I was writing more. I always say that I try to go to an open mic once a week and try to make a new song for the open mic, so that it forces me to make a new song every week. But lately, I’ve really been saying that more than I’ve been doing it. Because, I mean, here we are — it’s already March 15 today and I think I’ve only written maybe two songs in all of 2025 so far. That’s pathetic. I’ve just been so busy with, I just did this tour. And I’m busy with other stuff. 

Joanna: Right. How was the tour? 

Jeffrey: It was really cool and weird to be in Australia. I hadn’t been there in 15 years. And the booking guy, this guy Andy Burns, says that he would really love to book you there. He keeps asking me, “Will you please put me in contact with Joanna?” So I think I should put you guys in touch so you can discuss, because it’s really cool being in Australia. 

Joanna: I mean, I would love to. It’s so flattering that he even knows who I am. I would love to go there. My goodness, I would love to go there. Do you find it’s harder to [write on the road]? Some people can write while they’re on the road, and I can barely do one thing at a time.

Jeffrey: Yeah. I think that’s really impossible for me at the level at which I’m doing things. I mean, on this Australia tour, Andy was doing basically all the driving. But a lot of times on tour, my band is doing all the driving, and even if I’m not driving, there’s no time to just be alone. The kind of focus that you would need to feel like you have some hours alone to think of stuff, it’s just impossible. It just never happens. 

Joanna: And if you are alone, you just want to sleep.

Jeffrey: Yeah, that is definitely a thing too. Which actually is one of the things that I love about being on tour — I tend to not have insomnia. I feel like if I’m home in New York, I’ll wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to get back to sleep. But on tour, I’m so exhausted I just get a really great night’s sleep every night.

Joanna: It’s like being an athlete, or in the army. [Laughs.] Just getting blackout sleep. Do you need a lot of sleep on tour?

Jeffrey: Usually, yeah, I really like to get a good night’s sleep if I can. And sometimes that’s hard, just because if we’re staying at people’s houses, they want to hang out late, or maybe they’re having a party at their house and the band just wants to go to sleep. Or a lot of times, I find I have to kind of argue with clubs to make sure that the sets don’t go too late. And the club is like, “Well, we know that there’s already two opening acts, but we thought we would add another opening act and then your set can start at midnight.” 

Joanna: No!

Jeffrey: I’m like, “No, our set has to start at 10, because we have to be in bed by 1 AM, because we have to wake up at 8 and drive.” Nobody seems to understand that we have to do that every day. Like, we can’t just play at 1 AM. That’s actually life threatening — we have to stay awake on the road the next day. And by the time you finish selling merchandise and wrap up all the gear, everything takes a while. So I think it’s really important to not have to play too late. I find myself getting into a lot of discussions about that and trying to convince clubs to make the schedule go not very late. 

Joanna: Because you’re there to do a job, and anything else could be threatening your next day. They need to respect your boundaries. But that’s so amazing that you vouch for yourself. I didn’t do exactly that, but I had a situation I wasn’t comfortable with either, and I had to not perform. It was really embarrassing. I’ve definitely played, like, jazz gigs ‘til 5 in the morning — but I live in New York City, so I could play ‘til five in the morning if I’m in the right neighborhood.

Jeffrey: Well, I love seeing you when you do your jazz stuff. You’re just such an advanced musician in these very different departments, because making songs and playing jazz are two things that I don’t usually associate in this modern era. I feel like the people that I see that are making songs are not the same people that I would see if I was going to see jazz, and you’re able to do all of that at such a high level.  I just can’t understand how you can accomplish all of that stuff that you do, because it’s all on a very high level.

Joanna: That’s so kind of you to say that. That’s how I feel about you — I am just blown away by all the stuff you do. But I’ve been lucky that the hours have added up in a way that I can get away with seeming like I can do all this stuff. But I’m not churning out comic books as I’m turning out records like you. [Laughs.] But I’m going to start playing more. Because I realized I can’t write songs unless I’m playing jazz.

Jeffrey: Interesting.

Joanna: I didn’t even realize that until I tried to only dedicate myself to touring. And I guess the reason is because I get down on myself — so if I’m down on my songs, I have jazz. If I’m down on myself with jazz, I have my songs. If I’m down about the other things, I’ve got drawing. I guess I need more than one thing.

Jeffrey: I tend to rotate between things, too. I feel like doing dishes is always a good to be productive. If I’m stuck on something creatively, I’m like, “Well, there’s a sink full of dishes. I guess I’ll do that.”

Joanna: Can I ask you a little more about your record? How are you feeling? Are you excited to get it out? I’m so excited to hear it. 

Jeffrey: I think it came out good. You probably know the experience where you make the record and then you just have to hear it so many times, from the mixing to the putting the songs in the right order, and then getting it mastered and then checking the test pressings. By the time it actually comes out, it’s the last thing you want to listen to. But I think it’s a good record. I feel very proud that at this point in my career — I guess I can call it a career — I’m still able to somehow make songs that I feel strongly about. And it always seems like the last possible one that I’m going to make. I feel like every time I make a record, I’m like, “OK, that’s really it. There’s no way I’ll be able to make more songs that would be worth putting on a record. This is the last gasp.”

Joanna: That’s how I feel a lot. 

Jeffrey: Yeah, because when you put 100% into what you do, of course there is no percentage left over. 

Joanna: How do you time manage all the stuff you do every day? Are you like Stephen King, where he says, “Every day I write for four hours” — like, every day you draw for four hours? I’m envisioning you have a schedule.

Jeffrey: No, that’s my dream. I wish I could be like that. But I really feel like I do nothing. Today, I’ve done nothing. I went to the gym in the morning, I jogged — I try to jog for 30 minutes every day if I can.

Joanna: That’s something!

Jeffrey: It’s something! [Laughs.] I did an interview this morning for this podcast, and then my brother called on the phone so I talked to him. Then I entered the emails into my email list from my Australia tour, and I’m packing some boxes of comic books to send to Europe for my tour in April. And then it was already whatever time that I was supposed to call you, so now we’re doing this!

Joanna: Thank you for doing this with me.

Jeffrey: Oh, man, thank you! I wish we were just hanging out in person, but hopefully we can do that soon.