Hear a Jenny Lewis-Penned Track From the ‘Song One’ Soundtrack

Earlier this year, Jenny Lewis spoke with Rolling Stone about the difficulty she had scoring her first movie. “It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” she explained. “I’d never made music for anyone other than myself or my bandmates. Then suddenly I was writing something and having people who aren’t necessarily versed in the language of music say, like, ‘What’s that rumbling sound in the second half?’ Um, the bass guitar? OK, I’ll tone that down.”

For Song One, Lewis tried a different approach, writing the music with boyfriend and Jenny & Johnny partner Johnathan Rice. The forthcoming romance (due January 23rd) stars Anne Hathaway as a woman who tracks down the people mentioned in her comatose brother’s notebook, and the duo’s “In April” introduces Hathaway’s character to James Forester, a Brooklyn singer-songwriter she ends up falling for.

“While I was rewriting the script in New York, Jenny and Johnathan were creating these amazing songs in L.A.,” says director Kate Barker-Froyland. “I only had placeholders for the songs in the script, and as Jenny and Johnnathan sent me demos it made James’ character begin to come to life.”

Listen to “In April,” performed in character by actor Johnny Flynn, below, and expect more scores from Lewis. Despite the challenges, there are a few unexpected perks: “It’s a very prestigious thing to tell your family,” she said. “When they don’t take you as serious as an indie rocker, then you’re like, ‘Well I’m a film composer.'”‘