With 2009 still in its infancy, we already have an early nominee for one of our year-end favorites – and it’s an album that was originally released almost four years ago. With the re-release of Maybe Tomorrow set for March 3rd, San Diego’s Molly Jenson is ready to take the music world by storm with her catchy quirk-pop sound.

Molly recently took time out to talk with Stereo Subversion about some of the stories behind her songs, how she connects really well with Jon Foreman and Greg Laswell when writing, why she doesn’t think of herself as a typical artist, and some of the guys she has had crushes on over the years.

SSv: One of your songs talks about not being able to stop thinking about someone, but I haven’t been able to get your songs out of my head for about the last week now.

Molly Jenson: [Laughs] Well that can be a good thing or a bad thing, so I apologize and I’m glad.

SSv: So this album was actually released back in 2005 and is getting reissued in March, correct?

Molly: Yes. I put it out independently in 2005, and I actually started working on my second record when Bully Pulpit and Nettwerk came to me and I signed with them, so that album has been put on hold. They liked this record so much that we’re re-releasing it. And there are definitely songs on there that I am just so sick of and would like to take off the record and swap out with new songs but they wanted them all. We actually just added a song that I wrote with a friend and then changed the artwork, so it was basically the same record but with just a couple new tricks on it.

SSv: You touched a little on what was going to be my next question and that is whether any of these songs sound dated to you or…

Molly: Some of them I’ll be able to play for a long time and not get totally sick of. Other songs, yeah, they totally feel dated. When I listen to the record, the record feels dated to me because it was written such a long time ago. It was written in 2004 so that’s five years ago now, so it’s definitely dated to me. But, I know that there’s still life in the record so I’m excited to see how it’s received, you know, three years later, and see how the public takes it.

SSv: And just imagine, if everything goes really well and the record blows up you might have to tour behind this album for a couple more years.

Molly: [Laughs] I know!

SSv: So then you’ll really get sick of it.

Molly: [Laughs] I’ve thought about that, but I try to do things to the songs. Not every time, but I try to switch them up every now and then so there’s always something different, so that when I play live is it going to be a full band or just a couple people. That changes the sound and makes it different every time and I try to do different things. I change the ending up a bit or play this part out a little longer or sing higher. So that helps keep it fresh.

SSv: Absolutely. So how do you decide from show to show many band members are going to play with you?

Molly: First it depends on where we’re playing, what the venue is, what the event is, the significance and/or non-significance of it. [Laughs] And then it depends if I’m getting paid for the show. And then it depends on how much money I have so that I can pay my band. [Both laugh.] And then it depends on who’s available. So it really, it changes. Sometimes I have a full band; when I have a full band there’s five of us. And then when I have a partial band there’s maybe, like, three of us or maybe just two of us. I can go any variation of those five people.

SSv: That definitely changes the dynamic of the shows from one night to the next. Do you prefer the full band or the stripped-down sets?

Molly: I really like playing with a full band the best. I think just because it’s closer to what the record sounds like. I mean it sounds much more like the record because I only play keys when I have a full band. So other than that when it’s not a full band it’s just like four of us so I don’t have keys. That makes such a difference because the record is so piano-driven, so it seems more folky when I don’t have a full band. I definitely love the full band the most. But, I’ve played in a couple places that are like these music halls that are like churchy, or concert hall-ish. And those shows I love playing with a partial band. Something smaller. And I’ll bring in someone to play a pedal steel or I’ll bring in a violin…

SSv: Oh yeah!

Molly: Or like a cello or upright bass. And those shows, I love those shows because that’s the kind of, that’s the way you should play in a big hall like that, you know?

SSv: So you have a duet with Jon Foreman on this record.

Molly: Yes, it’s called “Do You Only Love the Ones Who Look Like You?”

SSv: How did this happen?

Molly: Well, I knew Jon and all the Switchfoot guys, and I was just…like my record came out and like at the very beginning of my record when I started working on songs, I would send a couple to Jon just to get his feedback. You know, he always gave great feedback and once the record was done and I was playing shows, I think once he realized I was serious about what I was doing and that I wasn’t just some other girl picking up her guitar and that I was actually serious about it, and once he heard it and we have a lot of mutual friends and so hearing them talk about it and him going to my shows, he just texted me one day. I remember exactly where I was. I was driving and he texted me and he said, ‘Hey, let’s write sometime.’

And I texted him back and I was like, ‘Okay. Whatever.’ I just didn’t really believe him because, you know, it’s Jon Foreman. I’ve been a fan of Switchfoot for a very long time and I’ve known those guys from the very, very beginning and then I worked for them for a bit. And then we became friends, so it was just like, ‘Oh, you’re kind of up higher than I am,’ you know? Like on a pedestal.

SSv: Yeah.

Molly: So then he texted me again or called me or something like a week later and he was like, ‘Seriously. When are we going to write? I really want to write with you.’ And so I said, ‘Okay. Don’t tease me because I’m getting my hopes up. Okay. Let’s get together.’ So we got together and we decided that we’d both come in with ideas of songs. I had started working on a song the night before and then I got to his house and he’s like, ‘Well what do you want to do? Do you want to do one of my songs? Do you want to do one of yours?’ And I said, ‘Well let me play something for you I just started working on.’

So I played it for him and he was like ‘That’s perfect! Let’s work with it.’ So I had started working on “Do You Only Love the Ones Who Look Like You?” and I didn’t know where it was going or anything, but I had some chords and lyrics and we just kind of went on with that and we connected so well.

And I’ve worked with other people, like Greg Laswell. I did my record with Greg Laswell, and I’d worked with a couple of people before him, but not on any of my own stuff. He was just the first person I really connected with. And then I worked with other people after Greg and I just never connected with anybody, and so I was nervous that I wouldn’t connect with Jon, but we totally connected.

And you just know, and when you can write with somebody like that, connect with them while you’re writing, it’s such a great feeling. So we’ve actually written three songs together and it’s awesome, but the first one we wrote together was “Do You Only Love the Ones Who Look Like You?” and we got to put that on the record. So I’m very excited.

SSv: Cool. Now you made an appearance on one of Jon’s solo EPs, right?

Molly: Yeah. He came out with EPs for each of the seasons, and Spring is the one that our song is on. It’s called “March: A Prelude to Spring.” And I got over there…I’m trying to remember what I went over there for…I think I went over to record some stuff for one of the songs we had done and then we had like 30 minutes left in our time together and he’s like, “Let’s just write something real quick.” And I was like, “Okay. I want to write something really bouncy. Let’s write a song about two people that are in the woods and they start off together and somebody gets lost, and it’s kind of like how you fall in love with someone and something happens and you’re just not in love anymore.” And he was like, “Perfect!” [Both laugh]

So we pounded it out in like 30 minutes. We just recorded it right then and there. It was just so quick and the song’s only like a minute and a half and he added a bunch of stuff afterwards that I just love! It’s just really circus-y and kind of bouncy. So that was on that record. And it wasn’t really, I don’t know if it was received very well because it’s so different from what he’s doing and it’s so different from the rest of that record that I think it was a little bit of a shock to some people, but as long as a few people liked it I’m good with that. I really like it. I love it. It’s my favorite song that we’ve written.

SSv: Well that’s good. People can tell if you’re digging your own tunes or if you’re just mailing it in, so that’s good you’re so enthusiastic about that one.

Molly: Yeah.

SSv: So how much of the material on your record is personal and introspective, and how much of it is observational?

Molly: Most all of it. Actually let me think about that…all of it’s personal. I started writing it right when I had broken up with a guy I had been dating for a year, so the first three songs we wrote were about him. And then I had a break and I wasn’t dating anybody for like 4 months, and during that time I was writing songs about … like one song I wrote, “Give it Time,” which is my first single, a lot of people think that’s about a guy, but it’s really about having money problems. [Both laugh] Like trying to figure out how we were going to pay for the record … anything having to do with money just freaks me out and it was one of those issues I just really wanted to run away from and not deal with. But it was also one of those issues I couldn’t really run away from. I had to deal with it and I had to figure it out and I had to talk about it and think about it, so I wanted to write a song kind of to myself, ‘Hey! Don’t run away from this. You need to deal with this.’ But that’s what “Give it Time” is about.

And another song came about where I’d seen an old friend and he just was a jerk to me and acted like he knew who I was and he hadn’t see me for three years, and he was giving me all this advice on how my life could be better if I listened to his advice. And I just thought it was so rude, so I wrote “The Edgy 8 Ball Song” about him. So like in between relationships I definitely found some personal things to pull from. And then I did have one song in there, “Wednesday,” it’s like a minute long and is honestly one of those songs I really would have liked to have taken off because I never play it live and, you know, it’s a minute. I mean what are you going to do with it? But that one was about someone I didn’t know, so I guess that was more of an observational song.

And as far as the rest, I started dating this guy and the rest of the record was that whole relationship, from the beginning to the end. So yeah, it’s pretty personal.

SSv: So which one of these guys is “Thinking of You” based on?

Molly: The first guy I dated. It’s actually three verses about three different guys. The first verse was about a guy I’d just broken up with, and “Thinking of You” I think was the second song we did for this record..okay, I usually do this from the beginning to the end, but this time I’m going to do it from the end to the beginning. The third verse is about this guy I’d been dating, and I had that day, you know that day where you’re thinking, ‘Gosh I really miss this person,’ and ‘Did I do the right thing?’ And this lasted a day and it was perfect; I just threw it all out in the song and then I didn’t feel any of it anymore. So the third verse is about him and just basically saying, ‘Why did we end this? Was this the right thing to do?’

And the second verse is about … I used to say Jake Ryan from Sixteen Candles because everybody knows who Jake Ryan is, but it’s about an actor named James Marsden. He’s getting well-known now but when I wrote the song hardly anybody knew who he was. But when I was in high school I had a huge crush on him and he was on a TV show called Second Noah. And I was always known for watching the really odd TV shows that not a lot of people had heard of and that was one of them. But I watched that show and I loved it and he was in it. He sang and he played guitar and I just thought he was really cute and was just in love with him. So the second verse is about him.

And then the first verse was about this guy…I guess it really started because that day I was feeling a mix of missing my ex-boyfriend, but I had also met this guy in Colorado — I was on vacation with my family for Christmas. My cousin was a debutante and so we went to this debutante ball, and the waiter at the restaurant … I wouldn’t say I fell in love with him, but I had a huge crush on him and we had hardly any contact at all. I didn’t even know his name or anything about him, but two weeks later, two months later, I was still thinking about him so I thought, ‘Ah! I’ll give him a verse.’

So that’s the random three guy song.

SSv: “I’m Sorry For Me”…

Molly: Yeah, that’s the first song we wrote for the record.

SSv: It’s a criminally beautiful song, I think.

Molly: I’m glad you like it. That was one of the songs I could have gotten rid of, I think.

SSv: What’s the story behind that one?

Molly: That song was the first song we wrote. My ex-boyfriend and I had gotten in a fight and it was towards the end of our relationship and before I even started working with Greg (Laswell) I had started writing the song. I had the first verse and the chords and everything, and I brought that in to Greg when we started working together and I was like, “This is the latest thing that I’ve started working on.” And he was like, “Those first three lines—get rid of them. They’re too cheesy. But that last line, ‘I’m sorry for me,’ keep it!” So we kept that and we kept the melody and the chords, but we changed the first three lines and went from there.

But the beginning of the song I had started while we were still dating and the rest of it was after we were done dating. When we had started writing it, my ex-boyfriend called me and asked if we could get together because he realized he’d had this pattern with girls where he’d gotten to a point with them and they’d broken up with him, so he was I like, ‘I don’t understand what it is.’ And it wasn’t him trying to get back together with me, it was him saying, “I don’t know what’s wrong. I feel like something’s wrong with me and how can I fix it? What did I do? Can you tell me what I did so that maybe in the future I can fix this?”

And so in “I’m Sorry For Me” it says ‘I’m sorry for this will of mine that isn’t bending your way. I’m sorry you can’t recognize the reasons I should change. And I’m sorry for the days that have gone by without me there, but I’m hardly here.’ And for me it’s just basically saying I wish we could change places. And the chorus basically says I can’t feel anything here, and that’s just how it was. I was so over it by the time we broke up. I knew this wasn’t right and there was no point in me trying.

SSv: Right.

Molly: But he didn’t know it, and so we were at this point where I wanted to trade places with him because I felt so bad that I had ended it. I wanted to feel what he was feeling so that he could feel what I was feeling and be able to move on.

SSv: That’s rough.

Molly: Yeah, so that’s a heavy song…but he’s married now, so he’s happy.

SSv: Now you mentioned earlier that you had begun work on your next album when Nettwerk and Bully Pulpit came along. Have you shelved that indefinitely or are you still working on that here and there?

Molly: I’ve put it on hold. I have two songs done, recorded, they’re all ready pretty much. I think one maybe needs a little bit of work, but other than that they’re pretty much ready. And I’ve pretty much put the rest of it on hold because I’m working with Greg Laswell on it and I’m the only one that he’s producing right now, but he’s a musician and he’s getting bigger and people know who he is now and he’s starting to get more well-known and he’s touring like a mad man. So he’s never around. And my record’s coming out March 3rd and I’m trying to prepare for that and I’m working part-time and so I’m trying to figure out how to do this music thing and how to work part-time and how to grow and help promote myself.

I don’t know anyone who tours as much as Greg does. I mean he’s never here. But with this we don’t have anything that’s really pressing. We haven’t really tried working on it yet. But we work really fast and when we get together we write really fast. Like with my record, it took us a year and a half to do it but we were only working once a week and I went through a major breakup in that time and he went through a major breakup in that time and we both got sick so we had to hold off a lot. I think if we were to sit down and focus we could have a record done…we could have it written in two weeks and have it recorded and done in a couple of months. I really have faith in that because of the way we work. We just work fast … when we have to. [Laughs]

SSv: Cool!

Molly: So it is definitely on hold right now and once we both have more time we’ll start going at it again. And once I know or kind of have an idea for when the next album is going to be released, then I’ll have something to work towards.

SSv: So what’s the best part for you about making music?

Molly: The best part for me – that’s a good question, you know – I think I was a late bloomer in almost every aspect of my life. I was always really creative as a kid and I had a big imagination, but I was also really insecure as a kid and awkward and so I never felt like I was that creative. Growing up, I was always acting and I was always singing and drawing and painting and doing all sorts of creative things, but I still never felt like I was. Like even now in my twenties, I still feel a lot of times like I’m not very creative, and so I need that encouragement. It’s so funny because my family, they’re like the most encouraging people ever, but I still feel like I need that and sometimes I wonder if I was too encouraged [Laughs] and if I’ve just gotten used to it. But I feel like even as an adult now I still feel like I need that encouragement.

And so in making music, when people hear my songs and they like them I go ‘Oh!’ Or when I’m writing a song and I feel good about it, it’s a great reminder that I am creative, I am an artist, because I don’t feel like I have an artist’s mentality. I’m not really melancholy. I feel like the true artist is melancholy and wishy-washy and looks at things really deeply and I don’t. I just don’t. I don’t dwell on things. I feel things, but I don’t feel them that deeply, and if something’s bothering me I deal with it and then I move on. And I feel like that’s so different from what most true artists feel inside.

I think growing up I felt like “I’m not a real artist. I don’t act like an artist.” But I’m different and I’m me and I create, and I find that in making music my favorite part is when I realize that, ‘Oh yeah, this is what I’m supposed to do. Oh yeah, I am creative. Oh yeah, I’m not like everybody else.’ Maybe I’m not like a typical artist, but it still works and I can still make it work the way I work. So I think that’s the most exciting thing for me. And you know, playing a new song at a show and having somebody come up to me and tell me they liked it, or seeing someone in the audience singing my song while I’m playing – that’s like one of the most amazing feelings. You know, when someone’s listened to your music that much that they’ve got it memorized.

SSv: Yeah. So this is probably an even broader question, but what does music mean to you?

Molly: [Laughs] Wow! That is a broad question. What does music mean to me? Well, I don’t really know how to answer that. I can tell you like how I feel with music. I guess I don’t feel like music for me is something that I have to do, like it’s an outlet where if I don’t write a song or if I don’t play music every day I’m going to shrive up and die. I don’t feel that way. I don’t feel like it’s a life source to me.

But I can tell you that when I hear music in a movie or when I need to calm down and I can know exactly what song I can turn on to calm me down, or when I need some more energy and I can turn on the right song like at the gym and I can go to the exact song that will give me the most energy to finish up on the treadmill, music in that sense is like a life source to me. And I want my music to be like that for other people. I want other people to hear my songs and be like, “Gosh, I feel awful and nobody else feels this way … wait a minute! There’s that Molly Jenson song and I feel like maybe she felt the same way I feel right now.”

I feel like music is such a comfort in so many ways, and so that’s what it is to me more than a, ‘Gosh, I have to put this out there, I have to express myself through music or I’m going to shrivel up.’ It’s more of a comfort to me to hear other peoples’ music, which is why I want to do music.

SSv: Sounds like you have a real sense of balance. You’re not driven by this maniacal desire to put everything down on paper and get it all down at once. I’m sure there are moments where it’s just like, ‘Wow, this is what’s coming out and this is kind of cathartic.’

Molly: Right.

SSv: It sounds like you don’t always have to find your catharsis through the musical process, but you can still find it if you need to.

Molly: Yeah. Exactly. Sometimes I have to force myself to find it there [Laughs] but yeah, I don’t have to, but I certainly do find it there.

SSv: What is the coolest non-music-related thing that’s happened to you this year?

Molly: This year?! You mean like 2009?

SSv: You bet!

Molly: You mean in like the last week?

SSv: You bet!

Molly: Okay. Coolest non-music thing that’s happened to me this year in the last week has been…ah! Well…no that’s still kind of music-related. I don’t know if anything has really happened to me that’s been non-music-related…it’s all been kind of monotonous…I’m gonna move! I’ve decided to move to L.A.

SSv: Hey, cool.

Molly: But that’s music-related. Oh! My mom [Mary Jenson] and I are going to start writing a children’s book.

SSv: Oh cool! What’s it about?

Molly: We don’t know yet. [Laughs] She’s waiting in the restaurant while I do this interview. She’s writing down ideas. She actually has written a handful of books that aren’t children’s books. So she’s been published and stuff, but right now our economy’s down and she’s looking for jobs and she said, ‘I have some ideas for children’s books, so let’s try it.’ I said, ‘Yeah I could use some money. Let’s do it. That sounds exciting.’