Jen Korte (solo)

It took Jen Korte a while to get the album she wanted, but the reaction so far suggests it was worth the wait. “Jen Korte’s new album is, like, um … wow! Just freaking wow!” Dave Herrera, Westword “It has taken us over a year to get it right. The first time around, we did it in the very customary way of tracking the drums and bass first and then trying to add everything. I just could not connect with it as a whole at all. It was a very different record than the one we are putting out. I decided to scrap most of it and start over. The second time around, we played almost the entire thing in two or three sessions live.” Korte is a musical late-comer. Growing up an hour from Austin, Korte spent a lot of time there checking out the music scene, but her background was theater. “And, aside from being a dramatic child (in every sense of the word), I wrote poetry. Went to a ton of poetry reading clubs from around twelve on. I had a few published when I was very young. Did slams in Austin.” Her first real music experience was in college. She took a course called, “Rock Band Ensemble.” “They put me in the lead singer spot in the beginners band. It was totally humiliating and great at the same time.” She played a bit in Austin as part of a “loud rock trio,” came to Denver for a couple of months, and decided to stay. She started with local open mics. “I did the usual circuit: Mead Street, the Merc, etc. Someone saw me and asked me to play LILT (an all-women-fronted festival they were having a few years ago). From there, I met more people and played a lot more.” But she didn’t find her musical style (“someone said I sound like Janis Joplin and Nick Drake’s love child”) until teaming up with her current band. “I had to strip down and start over. In one month, I wrote half of the material on here. I just hit a point and it started spewing out of me.” What also helped was finding the right players. “Then I felt like I could put the movement into the songs because I had the instruments to back me.” " WESTWORDS BEST SINGER-SONGWRITER" NOMINEE Denver 2008 and 2009 "Music this arresting and dark almost demands nighttime and sleaze . . " – Kyle Smith, Denver Westword