Jena Malone spent ten years making an album while raising a child. She describes the creative process as fire that burns away old ideals to make room for authentic love. The songs explore motherhood, identity, and self-revision.
So this album, what are you communicating and where were you emotionally or mentally when you did it?
Well, I haven't really been able to complete a record since I became a mother, like entering into my parenting journey. It's been about 10 years, but I was able to write a lot and I was still making music, but sort of the finishing of it was wildly complex and seemed to always just be right out of my reach in the sense of, time and dedication. And these songs were written over the course of 10 years. And so it was all through that really beautiful, through the fire, everything burns, you become a parent, it's all from the ground up, all of your ideals. It's sort of a happy death in a way. Your ideals need to die to be able for you to love what's real, you know, what's real for you, what's real for your child. And I found it to be a wildly liberating process process and I, just a great time of revision. I was looking at how I was dating, how I was giving love. I was looking at my own inner politics, governments, how to live on the land, how to demonstrate compassion. I just feel like everything was on the table for me to reeducate myself. And yeah, I think a lot of these songs are about that reclamation of who you want to be in the world if given a chance to reframe it or relend That's it.
