A white rad ride, so glam it's absurd

Johnny Jewel has at least three bands: The Chromatics, who are really Ruth Radelet, and Desire, who are really Megan Louise, and Glass Candy, who are really Ida No. There's more to it than that, of course, but the vocals are each group's distinguishing feature. Radelet is on edge and Louise is more laid back. Ida No, who with Jewel is (#3) Glass Candy sings in a very high, late-night key like a flipped-out Maria Muldaur and raps like Prince (i.e. badly). 'Beautiful Object' is the one on high-rotate. When asked what she missed most when she was on tour Ida said:

My cat. The smell of the air here. The quietness of the night-time. The wet ground which helps settle my nervous system.

The definitive Chromatics song is probably 'Tick of the Clock' -- a phat, minimal click track in the tradition of Pink Floyd's 'Heart Beat, Pig Meat' and Cabaret Voltaire's 'Sluggin' for Jesus'. My favourite Radelet number is 'I Want Your Love': airy, frail, bumping into things. Girl is wrapped too tight for Vietnam. She is also nervous about singing live:

I am almost never satisfied with my own performance, so it is nice to hear that people are saying good things! In the beginning I was very nervous, because I didn’t have any experience singing in front of people. So, for me, the goal has always been to get to the point where I am completely comfortable on stage, and I am a lot closer to that point now than when we first started playing shows last spring. I don’t think anything we do live is too thought-out. We just try to be ourselves and give our all to the music.

My favourite Desire track is 'Don't Call', not least of all for the lyrics:

You're gone
And babe that's a good thing
I'm still here
And looking for something
To come along.

Writing pop lyrics is like laying bricks: if you do the job right, it looks like it's been there forever. Says Megan:

I was reading on this tour Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho, a love story between a Brazilian prostitute and a French Swiss painter. They discover pure love by not drawing any limits to their romance and letting themselves be free birds. As for music Lionel Richie’s All Night Long has been a theme song for this first European tour! Francoise Hardy always makes me smile and T-Pain, Lil Wayne and Kid Cudi put me in a party mood before shows! As for movies, Marley and Me was the last movie I watched that made me cry because it was real life.

She's from Canada.