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Whether she's making music, acting, or writing,
Jehnny Beth challenges conventions, her audience -- and herself. Her unwavering commitment to pushing boundaries first became widely known during her time with
Savages, whose acclaimed albums
Silence Yourself (2013) and
Adore Life (2016) delivered a jolt of uncompromising feminine energy into post-punk as well as the U.K. rock scene of the 2010s. When that band took a break,
Beth's horizons broadened. Her searing, sexually liberated 2020 debut album,
To Love Is to Live, added touches of jazz, industrial music, and torch songs to her repertoire, while her acting, books, and collaborations like 2021's
Utopian Ashes with
Primal Scream's
Bobby Gillespie proved she could be equally provocative and riveting in just about any medium.
Born Camille Berthomier in Poitiers, Vienne, France,
Beth's parents were theater directors who encouraged her creativity. She took voice and piano lessons starting at age eight; by the time she was ten, she'd starred in a production of
Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt. However, the rest of
Beth's family was Catholic and traditionally minded, and she felt stifled. After studying dramatic arts at the Conservatoire de Poitiers,
Beth moved to London in 2006 to pursue music. It was there that she met
Johnny Hostile (aka Nicolas Congé), who became her longtime life and creative partner. Together, they became the lo-fi band
John & Jehn, who released 2008's John & Jehn and 2010's
Time for the Devil before the project ended in 2011. That year,
Beth and
Hostile founded the Pop Noire label as a platform for their other artistic endeavors.
Late in 2011,
Beth joined forces with guitarist
Gemma Thompson (a former
John & Jehn member), bassist
Ayse Hassan, and drummer
Fay Milton as
Savages. Led by
Beth's commanding presence, the band's electrifying brand of post-punk soon won acclaim: At the end of 2012,
Savages were nominated for the BBC Sound of 2013 award, and their debut album, May 2013's
Silence Yourself, was nominated for the Mercury Prize.
In 2015,
Beth embarked on a few projects and performances outside of
Savages. That March, she performed at the opening of the David Bowie Is … exhibition at the Philharmonie de Paris; in July, she appeared at
Suicide's show at London's Barbican with
Primal Scream's
Bobby Gillespie; and in November,
Beth and
the Strokes'
Julian Casablancas released a cover of the Danish punk band
Sort Sol's 1983 collaboration with
Lydia Lunch, "Boy-Girl."
Savages returned in January 2016 with their second album,
Adore Life, which, like
Silence Yourself, earned a Mercury Prize nomination. Along with touring in support of the record,
Beth continued to establish herself as a solo presence by opening for
PJ Harvey's June 2016 performance at the Eden Project in Cornwall, England, performing a duet of
Lee Hazlewood and
Nancy Sinatra's "Some Velvet Morning" with
Gillespie at a
Primal Scream show, and appearing on
Trentemøller's album
Fixion.
At the end of 2016,
Savages went on hiatus.
Beth took the opportunity to recharge creatively, performing with her friend Romy Madley Croft's group
the xx and collaborating with
Gorillaz and
Noel Gallagher on the song "We Got the Power" from the band's 2017 album
Humanz. She returned to France, where she settled in Paris and bought a studio with
Hostile.
Beth also returned to acting (prior to her time with
Savages, she'd appeared in a few small French films) and earned a César nomination for her performance in Catherine Corsini's 2018 drama An Impossible Love. She and
Hostile then collaborated on the music to the Chelsea Manning documentary XY Chelsea, which they issued on Pop Noire in June 2019.
To make her solo debut album,
Beth tapped
Flood,
Atticus Ross, and
Hostile as producers, and brought on Madley Croft,
Idles'
Joe Talbot, and actor Cillian Murphy as contributors. Spanning jazz and industrial as well as post-punk, the freewheeling and challenging
To Love Is to Live arrived in June 2020. That September saw the publication of Crimes Against Love Memories, a collection of erotic short stories; later in the year, she appeared in Kaamelott – Premier Volet, the movie sequel to director Alexandre Astier's long-running television series about King Arthur and his knights.
Beth teamed up with
Gillespie on June 2021's
Utopian Ashes, a set of songs about the decay of a fictional couple's marriage. Inspired by the country-soul duets of
George Jones and
Tammy Wynette as well as
Gram Parsons and
Emmylou Harris, the album also featured
Hostile and members of
Primal Scream. ~ Heather Phares