Singer-songwriter Jenny Owen Youngs is excited. Excited to be on the road, to be working on a new record. To be independent.
“I’m having a total blast,” said Youngs during a phone conversation last week. Her current tour includes a performance at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hotel on Tuesday. “I’m having a lot of fun. I’m super fired up. It’s been a little while. I was worried about the wrong things for a while and it kind of got me into the wrong head space. But I am back and I’m ready to knock [things] out of the park.”
It’s been a period of change the last few months for Youngs. She parted ways with her label Netwerk, as well as her management. Now she’s her own boss, her own publicist, her own team.
“I spent a while getting really hung up about the business end of things,” she said. “I had a light bulb go off and remind me that that’s not really what’s important, it’s not why I do what I do.”
What Youngs likes to do is create music. To raise money for her first full-length album since 2009’s “Transmitter Failure,” she used the project fundraising Web site kickstarter.com on a recommendation from musician friends. She initially set a goal of $20,000 in contributions from private donors. More than $38,000 later, Youngs now should have enough to record and press a new album, with hopefully some left over for promotion.
“It’s pretty overwhelming,” said Youngs, who turns 29 this month. “I can’t really handle it. I’m so moved by everybody’s willingness to stand up and give me their hard-earned money to make this thing.”
Youngs’ most recent release was the “Last Person EP,” a reworking of some “Transmitter Failure” songs that came out last spring. She hopes to finish recording new material by January.
“I don’t want anybody to think I’m slacking,” she jokes, referencing the lag time between raising the money through kickstarter.com over the summer and the time it takes to release a new album.
Youngs’ current tour has a pure do-it-yourself aesthetic. In addition to raising money to independently record a new album while wearing both management and publicity hats, Youngs is traveling in her Honda Civic along with her drummer, Elliot Jacobson. The Rock N Roll Hotel show will feature the duo.
“I’ve been really psyched the last handful of months that I’ve been handling things on my own,” Youngs said. “I got to a point I just forgot about the nuts and bolts. It’s been a great reminder. I like having this stuff in the front of my brain.”
