Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2008 > June > 13 > Entry
Preview: Rilo Kiley at Stubb’s
Although much of Rilo Kiley’s deserved attention revolves around the band’s charismatic song-siren Jenny Lewis, the band would not be the indie rock juggernaut that it is without the studied and melodic guitar work of co-vocalist and co-founder Blake Sennett.
The Los Angeles indie-ethos rock band returns Monday to Austin for their second show at Stubb’s in just under nine months in support of the 2007 release, “Under the Blacklight.” Rilo Kiley has always been a genre cipher, but with “Under the Blacklight” the band has grown beyond the bubble-gum and country-tinged pop songs of their previous albums by adding new influences, from ’60s girl-group soul (“Smoke Detector”) to ’70s yacht rock (“Dreamworld”) and beyond.
Sennett, groggy and slightly aloof, talked to us Friday from Charleston, S.C., the wear-and-tear of years of touring sounding as if they weighed on him like a rain-soaked coat. Moments of silence and stammering passed before Sennett opened up about what drew him toward a life in music and away from a lucrative and successful career in acting.
“Teenage years are a time when you really fall in love with music,” Sennett says. “I took piano, guitar, drums and coronet lessons when I was a kid. My mom encouraged that in me.
“I was a little bit of an outcast in school, and so I fell in love with going home and listening to Pink Floyd, Cream, Paul Simon and other ‘60s and ‘70s bands (as an escape).”
Although much of Sennett’s childhood was spent in San Diego, where he attended the exclusive La Jolla Country Day School with old friend and future Rilo Kiley bassist Pierre de Reeder, by age 15 he was regularly acting on televisions shows produced in Los Angeles. Sennett was cast in numerous sitcoms and had recurring roles on “Third Rock From the Sun” and “Boy Meets World.”
Meanwhile Lewis also steadily worked as an actor; she was Kirk Cameron’s first kiss on “Growing Pains,” had a memorable turn in the feature film “Camp Beverly Hills” and worked with a young Angelina Jolie in the 1996 underrated teen drama, “Foxfire.”
Sennett says that sometime around 1996, a mutual friend recommended that he and Lewis meet since they were both actors who played music on the side.
“(Jenny and I) hit it off pretty quickly; the music came real easy. We were just goofing around at first…and then a couple of years later we just both quit acting because we liked music so much,” he says.
Not only did Sennett and Lewis like music, but they liked each as well; they were romantically involved in the band’s early days up through their second album, “The Execution of All Things.”
“Around 1998, we started to get serious (about music) and formed the band,” Sennett says. Drummer Jason Boesel and bassist de Reeder coalesced the line-up that has produced their most creatively ambitious work: “The Execution of All Things,” “More Adventurous” and “Under the Blacklight.”
Much of the band’s folksy, polished-pop sound on their first three albums was enhanced by Saddle Creek Records producer and multi-instrumentalist Mike Mogis. But for “Under the Blacklight,” Rilo Kiley sought out hip-hop producer Mike Elizondo and producer/engineer Jason Lader. The band’s new collaborators helped create a slicker, more-polished sound for the band’s major label debut on Warner Brothers.
Sennett is quick to note that Elizondo was not a Svengali who pushed the band in its new direction. “We brought it out of ourselves, to be honest,” he says. “We really wanted to reach out and try something different. We wanted to work with someone that could help us do some stuff we didn’t know how to do and had never done before.
“And we’re huge fans of Elizondo’s work with Dr. Dre. He’s such a huge part of that team.”
Sennett says that the band’s future is incredibly busy. He reports that Lewis has a second solo album in the can that should be released this fall. Likewise, he will continue to work with his side-project, the Elected, as well as a new electronic/dance music band that he recently started called Huachuca.
Sennett doesn’t say whether he loves music more than acting. But in conversation, he says “like” when referring to acting and films and “love” when talking about music.
“In general, acting was kind of a drag just because auditioning was such a bummer,” he says. “It’s just a really humiliating way to exist. I don’t think I would go back to acting (that involved auditions) if I could help it.”
His voice sounds lighther as he reflects on Rilo Kiley’s current success.
“I don’t anticipate going back to acting as such,” he says. “I don’t think I’ll have to do that.”
Follow Austin Music Source on Facebook and Twitter.
Permalink | | Categories: Music
