TWWB talks to J-Lep in our first ever band interview
Story by TWBB • Photos by Marc Steinberg • Additional Art by TWBB & Marc Steinberg
TWWB: Hi and thank you all for flying in to Hollywood for this interview. I must confess, this is TWWB’s first interview and we may have some bumps in the road so please bear with us.
STEPHANIE AND MARISSA: Sigh.
TWBB: Okay, we’re here with four members of J-lep; Lana, Stephanie, Marissa, and Lauren.
J-LEP: Hi.
TWWB: Now, let’s see, I guess we should start with the basics. So, how long have each of you been with the Junior League of El Paso or “J-Lep” as you call it.
LANA: What?
MARISSA: J-Lep is a band.
TWWB: I’m quite sure you’re wrong. According to my research which relies heavily on the Google™ search engine, you are members of the Junior League of El Paso.
STEPHANIE: No. J-Lep stands for Jennifer the Leopard. We are a band.
TWWB: (Looks over his notes) Well this is embarrassing. Are you sure? Because I have lots of questions about the Junior League of El Paso. You guys… um I mean THEY have some great programs to reach out to the community. Like the “Music Therapy for the Elderly” series or the “Field of Miracles” which is a baseball diamond especially designed for special needs kids.
J-LEP: (Silence)
TWBB: No? Okay, we’re going to take a brief break while I do some supplemental research for this interview. Here’s a picture to tide you over.
30 minutes later:
TWBB: Okay, we’re here with J-lep THE BAND. Welcome ladies.
LAUREN: Thanks for having us. We’re huge fans of ThereWillBeBlog.
TWBB: Of course you are. But let’s not gush, it isn’t very becoming.
LAUREN: Sorry.
TWBB: Moving on. So, although you go by J-Lep, your band is actually called Jennifer The Leopard. It’s pretty unusual to give a leopard a human name, and then use that combined phrase as a band name and then shorten that name like it is a nickname. Where did it all come from?
STEPHANIE: Well, it comes from a personal story. A friend of ours…
TWBB: Is this gonna take a long time? People tend to get bored with long ramblings on the internet. Keep it exciting. Maybe now is a good time for another picture.
STEPHANIE: It’s actually a pretty quick story. Our friend sponsors a leopard just north of Valencia California at a leopard sanctuary and he named her Jennifer.
TWBB: Sure.
STEPHANIE: So anyways, she (Jennifer) existed before the band.
LAUREN: Yeah, and so one day, the four of us were hanging out and… was Lana there?
MARISSA: Um, I don’t know.
LANA: No.
STEPHANIE: I can’t remember. Was it just the three of us?
TWBB: Not to be rude, but this is really boring. Are you going somewhere with this or can I pause my tape deck for a while?
LAUREN: Well, that’s how we decided to start the band. It’s one of those stories where we thought “That would be a sweet band name” and then it was like “let’s just start a band.”.
TWBB: I think that’s how a lot of famous bands got their start. Like the Beatles and Michael Bublé.
J-Lep: True.
TWBB: On the Google™ search engine, I read about a show you did as part of the CalArts New Original Works festival at the Redcat theater that you were reviewed in the LA Times.
J-Lep: (groans)
TWBB: In that article, reviewer Victoria Looseleaf said “The program ended with a shockingly bad and irrelevant performance by Jennifer the Leopard.”. Ms. Looseleaf then went on to say “This art house-wannabe quartet sang nonsense ditties (led by the cloying, tone-deaf Stephanie Hutin) and showed pretentious videos, one featuring keyboardist Lana Kim crying while stuffing her face with doughnuts.”
MARISSA: She was way off base. Those were creampuffs.
TWBB: It must be difficult as a band to read a review like that. How did it make you feel?
STEPHANIE: We felt that it wouldn’t have been possible to purchase publicity like that and we felt honored that Ms. Looseleaf and her keen eyes and ears were present that night.
TWBB: Well, as a surprise to you I used the Google™ search engine and did a little of my own research on this so-called Victoria Looseleaf.
MARISSA: Oh really?
TWBB: Yes. In fact, I uncovered some very interesting details about Ms. Looseleaf. For example, I found out that she has some sort of cable access show and on that show or at some point in her life she interviewed world famous actor and gentleman, Leonardo DiCaprio.
STEPHANIE: We had heard that.
LAUREN: Yes.
TWBB: Well, are you aware that at some point after that interview, Ms. Looseleaf (having been so moved by said interview) penned a BOOK about the very same interview she had once with world famous actor and gentleman, Leonardo DiCaprio.
LANA: I didn’t know that.
TWBB: Well then, you may be even more surprised to know that Ms. Looseleaf was so taken with this interview of Leonardo DiCaprio that after writing that book, she decided to turn the experience into music.
STEPHANIE: Really?
TWBB: Yes, as it turns out, Ms. Looseleaf is a very qualified music reviewer. She is a professional harpy… or whatever you call someone who plays the harp. In addition to her two already released albums (“Harpnosis” and “Beyond Harpnosis”), she is the co writer of a song based on her book based on the interview she did one time with actor and gentleman Leonardo DiCaprio. It is called “Love Is Leonardo,” the world’s first love ballad written for this generation’s reigning heartthrob, Leonardo DiCaprio.
MARISSA: Wow.
LAUREN: Hmm.
TWBB: …and you can order it here: http://www.looseleafreport.com/lovesong.html
LANA: I want to get that.
STEPHANIE: We should cover that.
TWBB: The reason I bring it up is that I plan on writing a book based loosely on our experience here today and then, years later I plan to follow that up with a song based on that book. I guess I just wanted to get your permission for that.
J-LEP: You have our permission.
TWBB: Ok, let’s talk about your album.
MARISSA: We don’t have one.
STEPHANIE: We have actually never recorded professionally in any way.
TWBB: Wait. Hold on a second. You’re telling me that the garbled, static filled, muddled songs I have listened to on the web were not professionally recorded?
LAUREN: No. But we do want to go into the studio and record at least an EP.
TWBB: Do you have any ideas for the cover of that EP?
LAUREN: Not really.
TWBB: The reason I bring it up is that I DO have an idea. What if we could get the people at CatPaint to release a new version with a leopard named Jennifer as one of the pictures of cats, and then you use that to create your album cover?
Lana: Yay, I love Catpaint.
STEPHANIE: Cool.
MARISSA: Yeah.
TWBB: OK, I will contact them on your behalf and we will get the ball rolling on this.
(As of this printing, the kind people at CatPaint have not responded to our requests)
TWBB: OK, let’s talk fashion for a minute. I heard a rumor about a J-Lep t-shirt line. Tell me more.
STEPHANIE: Oh yeah. Well, I’m not sure if you’ve heard of this artist Shepard Fairey, but he is a huge fan of J-Lep.
TWBB: I’m not familiar with his work but it sounds like he has a pretty silly name. He must have gotten beat up a lot in school.
STEPHANIE: Maybe. But anyway his company OBEY is releasing a J-lep T-shirt line and we wanted TWBB to have the exclusive on the news.
TWBB: Cool. We like exclusives. What can you tell us about the t-shirts?
STEPHANIE: Well, the shirts will be released as part of Obey clothing’s fall 2010 line. The J-lep shirt line has no specific name yet but the shirts will all say Obey ♥’s J-lep and there are four shirts, each featuring one of the band members.
TWBB: I may be new at interviewing people, but one thing I know is that the information you just gave us is vague and useless.
STEPHANIE: Sorry, it hasn’t been officially announced and we just don’t know much yet.
TWBB: Very well. Thanks for the non-information. You have left me no choice but to display our own “artist’s rendition” of what we think these shirts could and/or should look like. Here:
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TWBB: Okay, it’s time for me to eat, so I guess you guys should probably go.
LAUREN: Thanks for having us.
MARISSA: Yeah, thanks.
TWBB: No prob. By the way, Lana was like 20 minutes late and I feel like I should give you a heads up that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated and it WILL reflect negatively on your Hank rating.
LANA: Sorry guys.
TWBB: Ok, seriously. You guys need to leave. I have stuff to do.
The Interview gets 3 Hanks (points deducted for Lana’s tardiness)
LINKS OF NOTE: J-lep: j-lep.com Stephanie Hutin: stephaniehutin.com Marissa Mayer: powerballad.com Lana Kim: thelanashow.com Lauren Fisher: www.thelaurenfisher.com Obey Clothing Blog: obeyclothing.com/news
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