Jennifer Aniston may not have the best luck when it comes to finding Mr. Right, but her co-star in the upcoming comedy “The Switch”, Juliette Lewis, seems to think the 41-year-old starlet is pretty close to perfect.

“Jen was simply a piece of heaven,” Lewis recently told Pop Tarts while stripping down to her underwear and busily trying on the new Fall/winter 2010 collection at the G-Star Raw showroom in Los Angeles. “Just a real girls’ girl – really down to earth, funny and absolutely wonderful. I play her best friend and I am kind of daffy, but we just had a natural affinity for each other.” But Aniston’s not Lewis’ only co-star with whom she remains friendly. She opened up about her co-stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Johnny Depp, with whom she starred in the 1993 hit “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.”

“Leo I’ve seen from time to time, it’s funny because when you share an experience with people like that – I feel like we went to boot camp together or high school, like we grew up together,” Lewis said. “I remember working on ‘Gilbert Grape,’ and I was older than him by like, one year but it was such a big deal, like I was so grown-up. Johnny Depp I haven’t seen in a long time, and then Brad (Pitt, ex-fiancee and co-star in ‘Kalifornia’) and I run into each other on and off and we say hello and that is really nice.”

The 36-year-old Oscar nominee has certainly explored an array of wild and troublesome behaviors over the years (she was arrested for driving illegally at 15 and again at 16 for sneaking into clubs, wore cornrows in her hair to the Academy Awards, went to rehab in her early twenties to kick a drug and alcohol addiction in which she turned to Scientology for help and even groped new mom Cate Blanchett at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008).

But in spite of all that, Lewis felt it most important to clear up any misconceptions that she has a short fuse.

“I don’t have an explosive temper, people seem to think that – maybe somewhere lives the lion in my cage,” she continued. “But I’m actually kind of goofy.”

And while not many celebs would consciously choose to step away from Hollywood (not to mention give interviews in their underwear), this self-confessed “freak” is certainly a rare exception.

“I’m doing movies again, I hadn’t done a movie in 5 years, which was a really big deal for me and it was very deliberate,” Lewis added. “Because when I started music I meant it so it wasn’t just ‘Oh let me do a show on the weekend.’ For me it was embarking on this spiritual rock and roll journey, I didn’t know if I would succeed or not. I’m still an underground artist, a little freak artist – but music is my livelihood now, so I only make for the sheer love and obsession of the projects. I’m not making movies to cultivate a career which is a very liberating.”

Source: FOXNews.com

Source: www.contactmusic.com

The Hollywood actress-turned-singer, who was frontwoman of Juliette And The Licks, will unveil her new solo album on August 31.

“Because this album is so sonically different than anything I’ve done before and captures many flavours of my emotional life and voice, it needed an entirely new name,” Juliette said in a statement.

“Terra Incognita means unknown territory – and that’s where I wanted to go musically. The guitars are more wild and atmospheric. The groove is dark and deep and allow for a lot of sonic contrasts.”

She added: “It took me five years to really cut my teeth both as a performer and as a songwriter and I wanted to break all the habits I’d gotten used to and let songs develop out of a groove or simple piano notes and melody. It’s been a truly liberating and radical experience.”

Source: musicnews.virginmedia.com

As Rock Daily previously reported, Lewis shifted from the Licks to new moniker the New Romantiques because “this album is so sonically different than anything I’ve done before… it needed an entirely new name.” That change in sound—from the riff-heavy Licks to the atmospheric Romantiques—can be heard on the other cut Lewis performed in our studio, the bluesy “Hard Lovin’ Woman.” Rolling Stone also talked with Lewis about her new project backstage at this year’s SXSW festival, with the Kalifornia actress telling RS that Rodriguez-Lopez got involved after the two met at a music festival and bonded over their love of Federico Fellini films.

Lewis and her band are currently on tour in Europe, but the band will return stateside for a month’s worth of dates during a joint tour with Cat Power and the Pretenders starting August 7th with a show in Wallingford, Connecticut. Two more songs off Terra Incognito—the album’s title track and “Fantasy Bar,” are currently streaming on the singer’s new Licks-less MySpace page.

Click on the links below to watch Juliette Perform.

Juliette Lewis Performing: “Suicide Dive Bombers”
Juliette Lewis Performing: “Hard Lovin’ Woman”

Source: www.rollingstone.com

Earlier this spring, you announced the end of Juliette Lewis and the Licks and a new start as simply “Juliette Lewis.” What prompted the switch?

When I got the Licks off the ground five years ago, I allowed myself to not over-think music, to not be precious, but spit out what I was feeling at the time. The music was very no-nonsense and guitar-driven. And then I stopped and asked myself, “Am I ready to be more revealing, and to discover melody?” I wanted to write songs that were more dynamic and didn’t hang on guitar riffs all the time. It’s an evolution.

I come from a place of discontentment and hunger as an artist, so I’m rarely satisfied. Also, I’m an independent artist. I’m not a radio artist, I’m not on a major label, and all the odds are stacked against me anyway. So I’ve got nothing to lose if I explore my own musical hunger and journey.

What can listeners expect on this record, versus your past work? Where have you taken your style?

Well, it’s not some vast departure of the groove and rock and roll I’ve brought to the equation before. That’s all there, and it’s definitely in our live show, but the sound and the groove has expanded. There’s more drama. I also finally wrote a blues song, which I’ve always wanted to write. I guess you could expect more peaks and valleys, and a really killer band. And some sparkly pants here and there.

You’re starting a tour in August with The Pretenders and Cat Power. How did you get hooked up into that lineup?

How amazing is that? I am so excited and beside myself. You submit yourself as an opener and the band checks it out and then they approve you. It was a real organic thing. I don’t know either of those artists personally, and I just couldn’t be happier. I think it’s going to be a killer lineup, and the type where people should come out and be ready for a whole night’s experience. This is a lineup you want to come real early for…and then you can see my band. [Laughs]

Maybe this isn’t a fair question to ask, but what do you find yourself more passionate about – movies or music?

Anything I’m doing at the time, I’m willing to shed my skin for. So if I’m in a movie, I want to give the most in that moment. It’s about total surrender for me, making things as honest as possible. When I’m writing and performing live, it’s the same way. But I had done movies for 15 years and because I wasn’t exploring the passion of songwriting and performing live, it was building in me like a volcano. So now that I’ve done music for a good five years, I can do movies with relish and a new love. Maybe what’s more personal is the music because I have a part in everything: the merch design, the track listings, the songwriting, the live shows. So it’s all an extension of me. It’s a different experience.

For more info on Lewis’ film and music endeavors, check out her MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/juliettelewis

Source: www.filter-mag.com

The 36-year-old star put on the planned performance at Morecambe Library in Lancashire as part of a campaign to get more youngsters into the library.

The actress-turned-singer sported sequinned shoulder pads, sparkling gloves and a glittering vest for the show.

A stage was set up in between the Talking Book section and the DVD area with a mixing desk in front of the Large Fiction A-Z with space made in the middle for 200 fans.

The performance was part of the Get It Loud In Libraries initiative run by Lancashire County Council for the last four years.

Lewis said: “I’ve been thinking about this show for weeks actually. Just the idea of having a rock’n’roll show in a library is very funny. It’s doing what you’re supposed to do, making noise in quiet places. I love it.”

Stewart Parsons, the manager of Get It Loud In Libraries, said: “It’s very jumpers for goalposts, as you can see. You are budging huge shelves of large print out of the way to accommodate speakers, monitors and Marshall amps.”

Source: Here

Today, we’re treated to a new vlog from Ms. Lewis; one that gives details on the new album with her reformed band as The New Romantiques, sees her rifle through vinyl, flashback to a young teenaged self and dance to a long lost disco treat. Check it out below.

Juliette Lewis storms through NYC on August 10 at SummerStage, opening for The Pretenders and Cat Power. Buy your tickets here. Terra Incognita comes out later this summer.

Source: www.sheenabeaston.com

Terra Incognita will be released via The End Records. Look for her on tour this summer/fall with The Pretenders and Cat Power.

8/7 Chevrolet Theater, CT

8/8 Hampton Beach Casino, NH

8/9 The Stone Pony, NJ

8/10 Central Park Summer Stage, NY

8/12 Bank of America Pavilion, MA

8/13 Electric Factory, PA

8/14 Warner Theater, DC

8/15 The Forum, PA

8/16 LC Pavilion Outdoor, OH

8/18 Aragon Ballroom, IL

8/20 Harrah’s Council Bluffs, IN

8/22 Denver Botanic Gardens, CO

8/23 Red Butte Garden, UT

8/25 Edgefield Amphitheater, OR

8/26 Malkin Bowl, Vancouver BC

8/27 Marymoor Amphitheater, WA

9/1 Pala Casino, CA

9/2 Star of the Desert Arena, NV

9/3 The Greek Theater, CA

Source: sentimentalistmag.com

Flavorpill: There are a few videos of you crowd-surfing on YouTube, you really look like a pure-blooded rock star. What has been your most rock star moment?

Juliette Lewis: I don’t know if it’s rock star because that has other connotations, but I can tell you a very moving moment. I just played an amphitheater from the Jesus days in Verona, Italy. It was built in 35 A.D. I was opening for The Killers, so that was pretty powerful and humbling. Okay so for another rock star moment… one time I walked on the shoulders of people at Lollapalooza.

FP: That’s definitely a cool rock star moment. I’d want to step on people, too.

JL: You want the people to hold you, but you don’t want to hurt anybody. I figure I’m just a little pixie anyway… I’m a pixie and a lion — a combo.

FP: I was reading up on how you met up with Omar Rodriguez-Lopez (Mars Volta) to work on your new album. I can really notice his influence — those atmospheric Mars Volta sounds — in some of the songs, especially “Ghosts.”

JL: Yeah, there’s a melding of energies. It was a really vulnerable album for me to make. I wrote songs on piano for the first time. I also had a lot of courage to do really stripped down songs, and he was very supportive. He also created a lot of the sonic landscapes for those songs. But for “Ghosts,” it was so incredible to work with somebody who could accentuate the lyrical story. I wrote “Ghosts” on piano and always pictured it as haunting. I wanted to create a barren feeling and one of alienation. And that drum beat that’s like [sings] “Boom boom boo boo,” was made with my foot. Omar was like, “I love what you’re doing with your foot. Let’s replicate that.” He’s not intrusive and yet he was bringing light to the visions I was having.

FP: So he he reaffirmed and brought out more of your own ideas.

JL: You need encouragement, you need validation. At every turn somewhere in the world, there are these consumer signs that try to breed more complacency, to be like everyone else. There are things trying to inhibit us so that we’re all these perfect little robots that are just imitations of each other. I don’t know any other more radical artist than Omar — his music, the way he leads his life. He also makes films, he’s just fucking radical.

*The phone gets cut off for 10 minutes*

FP: Okay, so you were saying…about Omar and his geniosity.

JL: Geniosity! Love it. Did you make that up? I love making up words! It’s great. I made up another word because people are like, “Oh you act and you do music, bla bla bla.” And I’m like: “I’m an emotionalist.” I deal with emotions like finger-painting. It’s a different medium, but it’s still working with colors — blues reds, yellows, dealing with joy and anger and longing and lust. You can pull it out in lyrics, song, and melody.

*Phone cuts off again*

FP: Hello?

JL: We’re going to make this happen!

FP: I was wondering about your change in sound, from straight forward rock to a more experimental, atmospheric rock. Was this style of music always within you or did you have to grow into it?

JL: It’s living within me. It’s gaining the means and the ability and depth to be able to access it and pour it out. When I first started out, I wouldn’t have had the balls to write “Hard Loving Woman.” But I’m smart enough from my fifteen years of movies to know how to “get out of my own way,” to be able to execute where you are at the time. If you try to seek perfection, saying “It’s not good enough, it’s not good enough,” years will go by and you’ll never do anything.

FP: What song are you most emotionally attached to on the album?

JL: “Suicide Dive Bombers,” “Noche Sin Fin,” and “Hard Loving Woman” are the three most honest, they just poured out. “Noche Sin Fin” was like a purging and was very hard to record, because it was like a storm. How do you pour out a storm? I don’t know. “Suicide Dive Bombers” is about finding hope in disillusionment. I wrote it for my audience so that we could sing it together.

FP: Are your live shows different with the new band?

JL: It’s been awesome; it’s all been more me. All the shit that my audience responded to — this whirling dervish, this girl, little pixie-lion creature or whatever it is I am. We’ve been playing live for months now and I’m loving it. We played old songs and new songs, it’s just a different groove. It all makes sense live.

FP: Will you be wearing equal amounts of spandex?

JL: No! I did wear jump suits, I only had three pairs. I do need clothes that I can move in. I’ve been into sequins lately, like Tina Turner.

FP: When people think of you from this point on, do you want them to think of you as a singer first and then an actor? Or vice-versa?

JL: I don’t even care what people call me to tell you the truth, just as long as they show up. I know some people take wording very seriously. I feel like no one is stopping me. I have this tremendous freedom, this great love for what I’m doing. You wanna call me a singer, a sham, an actor, I really don’t care. But like I said, I’m an emotionalist. I’m the pied piper for the underdog, the pied piper for all the little creatures that live in the forest [laughs]. I would like people to remember my life in cinema and I hope they get a kick out of the next thing I do. I’m all for the journey. Yeah, but labels… shit magazines, they like to take the substance out of everything.

FP: I really like that promo picture of you with the buffalo, by the way. You guys look like kindred spirits. Would you say it’s in line with your earthiness/pixie-lion image?

JL: Yeah, I had all these visions and to try to manifest them is hard with limited resources. If I had it my way, I would’ve created even more of a universe. The bull on a leash came out of Omar’s guitar. Omar played a guitar riff and I imagined a bull, because sounds can be really visual, and I think it went with the whole idea of Terra Incognita and this unknown land. We rented a bull and I held him on a leash. It should mean whatever you want it to mean, but it’s very symbolic of trying to domesticate the wild, but you can’t or harness your power, but you can’t.

FP: You should have kept him as a pet.

JL: That’s what I wanted to do! It’s like if this creature fell to earth and she had a bull as her pet. That bull’s name was Willy.

Source: flavorwire.com

Produced with Omar Rodriguez-Lopez of Mars Volta fame, Terra Incognita is will be out this autumn. The press release says that Juliette and Omar have worked together in creating an album of romance and tragedy, dreams and disillusionment.

“My next album will be so sonically different than anything I’ve done before and captures many flavors of my emotional life and voice. Do I have fear? Of course but it is exactly what gets me going. Because I L O V E what I’m doing,” she said. And we believe her.

Here are the dates:

13th July – Morecambe Library (all ages)
14th July – London Lexington (18+)

21st October – Glasgow Garage
22nd October – Manchester Academy 2
23rd October – London Shepherd’s Bush Empire
24th October – Bristol Lazarette Festival @ Anson Rooms
25th October – Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms

Tickets are £14 for London / £15 for Bristol and £12.50 everywhere else.

Source: www.sound-screen.co.uk