Jerskin Fendrix (Interview)
Good morning.
Today we’re listening to Jerskin Fendrix, an English composer and singer based in London. He attended the University of Cambridge and became part of Brixton’s “Windmill scene” which also produced Black Midi.1 In 2020 he released his debut LP, Winterreise, a wholly original record with strains of avant-pop (think Jockstrap) and hyperpop (PC Music). That record caught the attention of filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos, who recognized Fendrix as a “creative soulmate,” as he told The Guardian. Fendrix subsequently composed the outré soundtrack for Lanthimos’s film Poor Things, which earned both of them Oscar nominations. An interview with Fendrix follows the streaming links.
Poor Things - Jerskin Fendrix (40m, occasional sampled vocals, singing on tracks 10 and 17)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Tidal
Winterreise - Jerskin Fendrix (40m, vocals throughout)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Bandcamp / Tidal
Tell us about your earliest memories of music and theater.
The first song I remember hearing is “Rosalita” by Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band from his revelatory sophomore record The Wild, The Innocent, & The E Street Shuffle.
The first play I remember seeing was A Midsummer Night’s Dream, put on at the university my Dad taught at.
What was the first weird music you liked?
Depends on how weird. Perhaps Iannis Xenakis. Some of Warren Zevon’s songwriting could be considered quite weird.
When we recall Poor Things, the music from the soundtrack is an outsize aspect of the recollection. The soundtrack captures and expresses the essential character of the film. We've read elsewhere that you've likened wind instruments to reanimated humans and described the ”melodramaticized” emotion as reflecting Bella Baxter's experience. Tell us about when you originally read the script, and how you began to translate the film's essence into music.
Everything about the script and the designs and the book felt so intuitive for writing music about. The textures were evocative, there was so much sweetness, so much that truly moved me from the first instance. I think it was important to retain the playfulness, the naivety, the honesty of everything – I wanted to write things that would make you smile, or make you genuinely feel the heartache of Bella and the rest of the characters, not something that was a big impressive piece of cinema scoring – nothing objective, or polished, or removed.
What music or films were you consuming while composing Poor Things?
I tried very hard not to really consume anything – it was generally an act of autophagy.
What's your favorite scene in Poor Things?
Musically, the Alexandria sequence, because it is the loudest piece, and where Max first asks Bella to marry him, because it is the quietest piece.
Outside of my involvement, I thought Christopher Abbott as Alfie was a command performance, I truly never tired of him. Such a nuanced depiction of evil. & also Kathryn Hunter’s beautiful beautiful diction.
Name an underrated artist from the past 50 years.
Famous (the band). Pete Um (the man).
What music do you listen to while doing busywork – answering emails, etc.
Great question – I have a treasured recording of a Joe Hisaishi concert, gifted to me, that I would always listen to when I studied for University exams. If I am walking from one place to another I currently blast Emotion or Emotion Side B by Carly Rae Jepsen. In the past my transit albums have included Debonair by Horsey, Call Me If You Get Lost by Tyler, The Creator and Rachmaninov’s 2nd Symphony (LSO/Gergiev). One month a year I’ll listen to the early Bob Dylan bootlegs exclusively.
What are you working on next?
TBA
I need to amend me comments after many listens now... It is not "edgy" as I first said. It is evolutionary over its span, as a soundtrack about a character arc should be. Fendrix is brilliant in the way he uses different aspects of musical complexity and simplicity at the same time, and how complexity and simplicity change over the course of the musical story. It's quite minimal, really, just using exactly and only what is needed. Jerskin is so new to the scene so it's tough to judge, but he seems a bit like a mashup of Sufjan Stevens, Jherek Bischoff, and Jonny Greenwood. He's going to be wowing us for a long time.
Creepy-cute - trying to ignore what I learned about movie as described, since it sounds to me like what someone might cook up as a soundtrack to "A Series of Unfortunate Events" (the children's book series) or similar spooky kid's fare. I appreciate the varied timbres, perhaps too much so to make this a wise choice for work music.