an excerpt from “DOGMA AND HORROR” an interview with Jennifer’s Body front-man ANITA by Isaac Hoge for MUZIX magazine (on june 23rd, 2015)

*In their seminal self titled album, Jennifer’s Body makes a splashing debut on the post-punk scene with genre-crossing collaborations and jazz and folk solos sandwiched between haunting vocals and guitar riffs. Front man of the band, Anita, joins us in this interview to talk about her songwriting inspiration, the thematic elements of the album, and what it was like working with industry stars as a newcomer.
A—well, first of all I wouldn’t call us newcomers—Jennifer’s Body has been touring for five years, this is just the first mainstream attention we’ve gotten. (Anita seemed bored with the interview at this point, tossing her long blonde hair over her shoulder, and looking out the window)
I—Sure, I can understand that. So if you’ve been touring for five years, why is this the first album you’ve put out? (this line of questioning caught her attention, and she looked at me with curiousity)
A—well to be honest, this is a thing I just sort of fell into. I was traveling with some bands looking for someone, and this bands lead singer got into an accident and they needed someone all of the sudden. I never really meant to become this, but I guess I had things to say that I couldn’t say before, and they were able to come out in the music.
I—RIght!! Like in ‘Devil with an Angel’s Body’ where you use a lot of religious imagery and explore the holiness of carnality. I definitely felt some heavy things were being explored there in a way that everyday language just, can’t.
A—yeah, that’s an okay example; but more for instance, I was thinking of ‘Needy, Needy, Needy’ when I said that. Not alot of people know this, but when I was younger my nickname was Needy, and I think in alot of ways, it fucked me up. People made me feel selfish and demanding for knowing what I thought and wanted and saying it. For asking for things and wanting things. So that’s more what I meant.
I—so the hedonistic language in the song is sort of referring to breaking free of those misogynistic ideals about women not being allowed to have their own desires, right? My question to you then would be, what makes your songwriting so interesting is the horror that you pair with all of this religous language and imagery, what inspired that sort of side by side? Like in the song (songname) where you say (song lyrics).
A—hmm. When I was younger, some pretty horrific things happened in the town I grew up in. And everyone just sort of covered it up and moved on. But I couldn’t because I had been too close to the situation. And I really had no outlet to process that until I started exploring music. I grew up in a very religious area, and the thing is, horrific things still happen. They just get ignored, or excused with some faith BS. Those are the experiences that shaped me, so I think seeing dogma and horror next to each other just felt natural to me. I couldn’t have thought of doing it another way because those things are so tied together in my own history.

part one:

Anita never dreamed of becoming a rock star. She didn’t dream of making music or of traveling the world. Anita had dreamed of a girl like a goddess wrapping her perfect lips around Anita’s name, of touching that goddesses skin, of forbidden fruit. And then Anita had nightmares, of her friend become monster, of dead boys, of burning bodies, of the way a knife felt when it pierced someone’s heart.
Ten years later, she was front woman of a band named after her ex best friend. Some people thought she was jennifer, some got closer to the truth, surmising jennifer was an ex best friend she had been in unrequited love with. No one ever guessed the truth of the matter.
No one could’ve ever guessed that some nights Jennifer still visited Anita in her dreams, that Anita chased dark haired women from continent to continent desperate for the flame she had long ago put out. What other choice do you have when the girl you wish was your lover becomes a man eater?
Anita had thought about that many times—like she was thinking of it now as she drained the scummy bartender that had been adding roofies to girls drinks all week during her gigs. What do you do when your best friend who you’re in love with becomes a literal man eating monster? What could she have done differently?
His legs were twitching, a sure sign that his last bit of strength was going out and he was about to get a lot heavier to hold up. She thought about eating his heart too—but the real dirtbags always tasted a bit rotten. She didn’t even need this meal. She just hadn’t liked how he was looking at the young girls who had come in tonight to see the show. Now she was the man eater, dropping the bartenders body behind the dumpster.

Anita is a conventionally attractive blonde woman, who looks like she should be on a runway in LA or a boardroom in NYC, not in a grungy bar talking to a Rolling Stones writer, but here she is.

She pulled out a cigarette and lit it between her lips. Her bandmates had tried to get her to stop forever but when she went through rehab they finally stopped giving her shit about smoking. At least she wasn’t shooting up or drinking every night.
A cigarette after a feed felt better than a cigarette after sex. Something about the taste of tobacco mixing with the salty, coppery taste of blood. She pulled in a big drag, and then dropped her cigarette on the ground, putting it out with her boot. There was still a bit of time before she had to go on stage.

What a difference 10 years could make. She had gotten into the music community via her first real hunt—for the band members that had cursed her friend and ruined her life. She didn’t want to just slash them all at once. She wanted them to feel the terror she had felt. So she stalked them slowly over the course of a year. They were on tour and so she met all sorts of music people and began to be looked at like a groupie. The band never recognized her from Devil’s Kettle, thinking she was just another hot girl who was obsessed with them.
She hadn’t feasted on a single one of them: no amount of fullness or beauty was worth one piece of them ever being inside of her. Or any woman for that matter.
She had studied those occult books, and knew better than to waste five perfectly good tributes of sacrifice. She was after all—now a creature of the dark. So as she stalked her prey, gutted and killed them, she saved pieces of each. And at the end of her first year in the dark, on the night of a Super New Moon, with no lights in the sky, she arranged those pieces in a pentagram:
“Balls of a coward, tongue of a liar, hand of a thief, eyes of a sinner, heart of the weak.”
“Power below hear me, grant what i seek!”

For the first few years after that, she thought the spell had gone wrong. She fell into a band, renamed it Jennifer’s Body, shot into fame from the first album drop, and then a second album dropped and then a third. She slept around, dated a man, dated some women, tried abstinence for a year. Dreamed of Jennifer still, after all this time. Moved through the trauma of her youth with substances and music and therapy and sobriety.

JENNIFER’S BODY, DISCOGRAPHY (to 2019)

JENNIFER’S BODY (2014)

1. Needy, Needy, Needy
2. Boy’s Love Violence
3. Razor Tongue
4. Devil with an Angel’s Body
5. Worshipping the Devil
6. She Kissed Me, I Killed Her
7. Baby I’m the Monster
8. The Devil’s Flower-crown

SINFUL LITTLE WITCH (2016)

1. casting spells
2. what i did to your daughter
3. touch, touch, touch
4. ride my broomstick
5. a binding spell
6. manifestations
7. only on the full moon
8. sacrifice your sons

EDGES (2019)

1. 13 (months sober)
2. 21 (day detox)
3. 3,000 (nights)
4. 22 (seconds)
5. 444
6. 7 (things i’d do to you tonight)
7. 8 (letters)
8. back to zero

part two:

Now here she was, almost 30, wiping creepy bartender from her mouth, about to go onstage at a dive bar to work through new material. She saw a glimpse of leg and skirt and long dark hair swishing past the alley where she stood. She was mesmerized.
She touched her lips like she could still feel jennifer’s kiss there, after all the years and lovers and feasts, it was still there warming her lips. She walked out of the alley, looked around and saw the dark head walking into the bar. She went to follow but a hand grabbed her arm right as she reached the door.
“Ani where are you going? We got to get on stage.” Xoshi, the drummer, one of those past lovers turned closest friend, shook her from her daydreams.
“Right! sorry man I thought I saw someone, let’s go around back.”
The rest of the band was already on stage. Marty, the guitarist was putting in his earplugs, Xoshi sat down at his kit, the accompaniment band they had hired for this leg of the tour was chatting to the side of the stage, holding their instruments. Everyone was waiting for her. So she walked to the mic at the center of the stage, made a fist to signal the band, and waited for her cue.

An hour later they were almost finished with their set, Anita was singing a raspy melody, and her eyes met another ghastly pair in the crowd. Jennifer’s face smiled up at her, taunting her, teasing her, like it always had. She stumbled over the lyrics and lost track of the song. Xoshi and Marty looked at her concerned as they played through. Marty took over instinctively. A band doesn’t play together for ten years without getting a sense of one another. He pulled out the solo he’d been working on, and Anita stumbled off the stage to the left.
She looked back at the crowd but if Jennifer had been there she was gone now. She looked up at Xoshi who was staring at her with concern. She put up both hands in a cue, ten minute break from set. She knew they would take care of crowd control. They were so far in the middle of no where, the crowd wasn’t too big or unruly. Only newcomers or hardcore fans came out to shows like this one.

part three

jennifer haunts anita

part four

anita tries to exorcise jennifer

part five

jennifer is alive!

part six

jennifer and anita fuckkkk

part seven

anita writes jennifer some realllyyyy gay music

In her newest body of work, ANITA has gone solo to work on a project she says is extremely intimate and close to her heart. The album is titled, A+J and here to talk about it today, is Anita.
I—hello! It’s nice to see you, how have you been?
A—honestly Isaac, I’m the best I’ve been in years
I—that’s wonderful to hear. So we are here to talk your new album. I want to know everything. Why make it solo? What inspired it? When you say it’s extremely personal for you, do you mean these songs are about your own life?
A—haha, that’s so many questions at once! I wanted to see what I could do on my own, and you know the guys were actually super supportive the whole way, they really encouraged me to take my time exploring other ways to make the art, you know? It was lovely. I also wanted to see if I still enjoyed making the music without them. And I did. The album was inspired by my girlfriend actually. I was in love with her in high school, and then didn’t see her for a long time and that unrequited and unresolved bundle of feelings had really affected me, you know? So yeah, the songs are definitely about my own life. I was inspired by a lot of grunge that is you know, really stripped down and raw feeling, where the lyrics are really the focus. I wanted to challenge my vocal abilities and my writing styles.
I—wow!! Congratulations on getting the girl after all this time!! haha. feel free not to answer this one, but I’d love to know if this is the same girl you called the devil in your first album?
A—ah! haha, yeah she is actually. Damn, I’m blushing now aren’t I? I guess it’s a little embarassing to be so thoroughly whipped for one girl, but yeah, I guess I’ve always had it pretty bad for her.
I—that is, actually, in a weird way, very very sweet.

A+J (2022)

1. eat me alive
2. she’s a real boy baby

JENNIFER’S BODY, DISCOGRAPHY (2023–2025)

BOYS LOVE VIOLENCE (2023)

1. man eater
2. gaslighter
3. (but mommy) boys love violence

eat your rotten heart (2025)

go home to the hearth