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A Conversation with Jen Trynin (continued)
PM: What kind of place does music hold in your life now?
JT: In the past two months, I've been playing a lot, because in my readings I do a few different scenes and they have moments where I play a song. It's really fun. When I did the reading here a few weeks ago, I did the reading, then played a set of my music afterwards. It was the first time I'd done that in eight years. But in general, I haven't been playing much. But I hope to, because I still enjoy it.
PM: Do you still write songs?
JT: I haven't been, but I've been feeling slightly inspired for the first time in eight years.
PM: Are there things you wish you could've done differently in your career?
JT: It's always hard to look at things that way. Hindsight is 20-20, you know? I could venture to say, "I'd have done this or that differently," but the fact is, given the same set of circumstances, I would do the same thing again and again. To turn down anything that happened would've been impossible. I'd been working too hard for too long for nothing.
The smartest thing I could've done was to not to take the big record deal and went with an indie, then tried to build up my reputation slowly. It was very stupid of me to go after the brass ring right out of the box, because of what can happen, which is what did happen. I'd like to say if I had to do it again, I'd go with the little label and turn down the money and blah blah blah. But in reality, every time I show up there, I'm going to do the same thing.
PM: Aside from the cautionary tale aspect of the book, I think it does something even more important, in letting people who get out of the business feel like there's a life beyond it. That's very affirming.
JT: Thanks. Some people are totally missing that aspect of it. The reviews have been pretty great, so I can't complain. But every once in a while, somebody will write a review that says, "This book is pointless. It's a waste of time." I appreciate that you got it.
PM: What's next?
JT: I'm trying to figure that out. I'd like to do a longer book tour. But I'm also thinking about trying to do a one-woman show, in a more theatrical sense, mixing the stories from the book with my songs. I don't really know much about that world, so I'll have to look into more.
PM: Final words?
JT: Tell all your friends so that people will buy it and I don't disappear back into the ether. [laughs] I have a talent for that.
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[* It was our good fortune to be given access to Steve Latham's vast photo archives, from which all of these JT live shots came. To see more of his photographs, visit stevelathamphography.com. Steve is also a graphic designer, based in New England, and his design work can be sampled at stevelathamdesign.com.]
