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Jenn Champion
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Key Information
Jennifer Hays, known professionally as Jenn Champion, is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. From 1995 to 2003, she was a vocalist in the band Carissa's Wierd. Since 2001, she has also released solo albums under the name S. Until 2015, she went by the moniker Jenn Ghetto.
Early life
[edit]Born Jennifer Hays, Champion grew up in Tucson, Arizona where, in the mid-1990s, she worked selling pizza with future bandmates Ben Bridwell and Mat Brooke.[1][2] In 1997 the trio moved to Olympia, Washington for a year[3] before moving to Seattle.[3][4]
Carissa's Wierd
[edit]In Seattle, Champion and Brooke formed Carissa's Wierd, who released three studio albums, the first two on Bridwell's Brown Records label. The band broke up in 2003 and since then three compilation albums have been released. Carissa's Wierd reformed for a one off show in Seattle on July 9, 2010[5] to promote their "best of" album, They'll Only Miss You When You Leave: Songs 1996–2003, which was released by Hardly Art Records on July 13, 2010.
In July 2010, Mat Brooke announced that he and Champion had bought the rights to Carissa's Wierd's back catalogue from Sad Robot Records. He said, "Me and Jenn have been working for a while to buy back the rights to all of our records and we finally were able to get them all back." This should allow all of Carissa's Wierd's albums to be re-released soon.[6]
S
[edit]_-_Pop_Conference_2015_-_40_(17205540676).jpg)
Champion has recorded four solo albums under the name S. Her songs are usually recorded in her bedroom and feature only vocals and guitar. 2010's I'm Not As Good at It As You featured eleven songs recorded on an 8 track machine between 2006 and 2008, along with "Wait", the album's opening track, which features her former Carissa's Wierd bandmates Mat Brooke (ukulele & banjo) and Sarah Standard (violin). Champion's most recent album, Cool Choices, was produced by former Death Cab For Cutie guitarist Chris Walla and was released on Hardly Art Records in September 2014.
Personal life
[edit]On September 8, 2015, Champion changed her stage name from Jenn Ghetto to Jenn Champion, citing the potential offensiveness and racially charged usage of the word "ghetto".[7]
Champion is queer and has been out for her entire career.[8] She has been married to her wife, journalist Arwen Nicks, since 2017.[9]
Discography
[edit]Solo albums (recorded under the name "S" or Jenn Champion)
[edit]- Sadstyle – Brown Records (2001)
- Puking and Crying – Suicide Squeeze Records (2004)
- I'm Not as Good at It As You – Own Records (2010)
- Cool Choices – Hardly Art (2014)
- Single Rider – Hardly Art (2018)
- Last Night of Sadness – Self released (2023)
With Carissa's Wierd
[edit]- Ugly But Honest: 1996–1999 – Brown Records (1999)
- You Should Be at Home Here – Brown Records (2001)
- Songs About Leaving – Sad Robot Records (2002)
- Scrapbook (2003)
- I Before E – Sad Robot Records (2004)
- They'll Only Miss You When You Leave: Songs 1996–2003 – Hardly Art (2010)
References
[edit]- ^ Pareles, Jon (2014-10-24). "CMJ 2014: S's Resentment, Odessa's Tranquility". ArtsBeat. Retrieved 2025-11-17.
- ^ Swick, Shaun (2010-07-01). "The Band That Got Away". City Arts Magazine. Retrieved 2025-11-17.
- ^ a b Erin Franzman, "Carissa's Weird" (sic) The Stranger – from the December 9 – 15, 1999 issue.
- ^ Stephen Seigel, "Better Late Than Never" Tucson Weekly – June 22, 2006
- ^ "Save The Dates: Carissa’s Wierd at the Showbox..." Archived 2010-06-08 at the Wayback Machine soundonthesound.com – May 3, 2010
- ^ Zach Stoloff, "Sleepless in Seattle" Archived 2010-07-17 at the Wayback Machine Good Times – July 13, 2010
- ^ Modell, Josh. "Week 15: Many best-of-all-time discs, from Smog and Seam to The Smiths". AV Club. Retrieved 2025-11-17.
- ^ "Jenn Ghetto is S, and "Cool Choices" is her fantastic new break-up inspired album". Afterellen.com. 17 October 2014. Retrieved 13 July 2018.
- ^ Kniestedt, Kevin (2017-02-11). "I Bet You Think This Song Is About You ... And It Is". KNKX Public Radio. Retrieved 2025-11-17.
External links
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Jenn Champion
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Early Life
Childhood and Initial Musical Interests
Jenn Champion grew up in Tucson, Arizona, where she developed her initial musical interests during her formative years. She began playing music as a child, taking up the trumpet in elementary school before transitioning to guitar a few years later.[10] Her early listening preferences included pop artists such as George Michael and Madonna, which she enjoyed openly in middle school but kept as "closet faves" during high school amid shifting tastes.[3] As a teenager in Tucson, Champion met future Carissa's Wierd co-founder Mat Brooke at a goth club, fostering connections within the local underground scene that sparked her entry into performing and songwriting.[11] Without emphasis on formal training, her self-directed exploration of guitar and composition laid the groundwork for collaborative efforts. In the mid-1990s, she co-formed a band in Tucson alongside Brooke and Ben Bridwell, whom she knew from shared work selling pizza, marking her initial steps toward professional music.[1] By 1997, Champion relocated to the Pacific Northwest, first to Olympia, Washington, for about a year, before settling in Seattle, where she immersed herself in the evolving indie rock environment following the grunge era's peak. This transition exposed her to regional sounds and performance opportunities, propelling her early trajectory without delving into specific band outputs.[9][12]Musical Career
Tenure with Carissa's Wierd (1995–2003)
Jenn Champion co-founded Carissa's Wierd in 1995 alongside Mat Brooke, originally in Tucson, Arizona, before the duo relocated to Seattle, Washington, to develop their sound amid the city's indie rock underground.[13] As a primary vocalist and guitarist, Champion shaped the band's slowcore aesthetic, marked by sparse, lo-fi instrumentation, plaintive melodies, and introspective arrangements that evoked emotional restraint and melancholy.[14][15] During their active years, Carissa's Wierd issued two principal studio albums: You Should Be at Home Here in 2001, featuring tracks like "Fear Not My Friend for Tonight We Ride" with its subdued violin and rhythmic subtlety, and Songs About Leaving in 2002, which included songs such as "You Should Be Hated Here" emphasizing themes of isolation and farewell through hushed dynamics and chamber-like textures.[16][17] These releases, produced on small indie labels like Kirtland Records initially, prioritized atmospheric depth over accessibility, aligning with the slowcore movement's emphasis on minimalism and emotional authenticity rather than broad appeal.[18] The band dissolved in 2003 after completing a third album, having sustained operations through local performances and grassroots distribution without achieving mainstream commercial traction, though their output cultivated a niche cult audience appreciative of the genre's introspective fidelity.[15][14] This period established Champion's foundational contributions to indie slowcore, influencing subsequent Seattle-area acts through the band's deliberate sonic vulnerability.[19]Solo Work Under the Moniker "S" (2005–2015)
Following the 2003 disbandment of Carissa's Wierd, Jenn Champion launched her solo career under the moniker "S," emphasizing artistic autonomy through bedroom recordings that prioritized raw emotional expression over polished production.[15] These early efforts featured counterpoint guitars, 4-track vocals, and guitar-driven arrangements, cultivating a sound rooted in slowcore and indie introspection without reliance on major label infrastructure.[2] Champion self-produced much of this material, distributing it via DIY channels within the indie music ecosystem to foster a dedicated niche audience.[20] Key releases during this period included the 2004 album Puking and Crying on Suicide Squeeze Records, which established "S" as a vehicle for Champion's lo-fi explorations of heartbreak and vulnerability, though its proximity to the band's end marked the onset of her independent phase.[21] Subsequent works, such as the 2010 album I'm Not as Good at It as You via Own Records, maintained this intimate aesthetic with tracks emphasizing personal turmoil and minimalist instrumentation.[22] An EP titled 2006, featuring songs like "Hot Here" and "I Have a Plan," further exemplified her experimental, home-recorded approach during the mid-2000s.[23] By 2014, "S" evolved with Cool Choices on Hardly Art Records, Champion's first album incorporating a full band and production by Chris Walla, shifting toward more structured indie rock while retaining thematic depth in emotional delivery.[24] This release, recorded at The Hall of Justice and engineered professionally, highlighted her growing technical refinement and broader sonic palette, including alternative rock elements, yet remained anchored in guitar-centric arrangements.[25] Throughout the decade, these outputs underscored Champion's commitment to unfiltered lyrical introspection, building critical regard in indie circles without commercial mainstream pursuits.[26]Transition to Jenn Champion and Continued Solo Output (2015–Present)
In September 2015, Champion announced via Facebook her decision to abandon the stage name "Jenn Ghetto," which she had adopted as a teenager for its perceived edgy connotation but now viewed as inappropriate upon personal reevaluation.[27] This shift to her full name, Jenn Champion, emphasized a pursuit of authenticity in her solo identity, distinct from prior monikers like "S."[4] Following the name change, Champion sustained her independent solo career with releases including the album No One in 2016 and Single Rider in 2018, both self-directed efforts reflecting her evolution toward synth-pop influences while maintaining bedroom-recording roots.[28] By 2021, she issued The Blue Album and the Love Nobody EP, further showcasing her persistence in self-production amid the streaming landscape's demands on indie artists.[29] In 2023, she released the single "Famous" as the lead track for her album The Last Night of Sadness, which she self-recorded and crowdfunded through Kickstarter, raising $41,489 from 486 backers to fund production and distribution without institutional backing.[30][31] Champion has continued local performances in Seattle, including a headline slot at West Seattle Summer Fest on July 11, 2025, and a show at Fremont Abbey in May 2024, often featuring solo or minimal-band setups that align with her indie ethos.[32][33] As of 2025, no major label affiliations have been secured, underscoring her reliance on direct fan support and platforms like Bandcamp for sustainability in an era dominated by streaming algorithms and reduced physical sales.[7][34]Artistic Approach
Musical Influences and Genre Classification
Champion's sonic foundations are rooted in the 1990s Seattle indie rock and slowcore milieu, shaped by her involvement in Carissa's Wierd, a band that exemplified the genre's hallmarks of sparse arrangements, slow tempos, and atmospheric restraint to build emotional tension.[35][19] This regional scene, emerging post-grunge in Seattle's underground, fostered sounds prioritizing raw introspection over polished production, with Carissa's Wierd's lo-fi acoustics and whispered dynamics mirroring the minimalist ethos of slowcore acts like Low—known for droning guitars and hushed vocals—and Codeine, whose sludge-like pacing emphasized sonic voids for expressive weight.[35] Her compositional approach remains guitar-centric in its early iterations, drawing from folk minimalism's emphasis on unadorned strumming and fingerpicking to evoke vulnerability, deliberately sidestepping the layered, effects-heavy trends of mainstream pop.[28] Solo output under Champion retains this restraint, blending acoustic sparsity with occasional electronic textures while avoiding overproduction, as evidenced in arrangements that favor clean tones and negative space to sustain mood over bombast.[9] Genre-wise, Champion's catalog classifies primarily as indie and alternative rock, with later evolutions into indie electronic and synth pop, attributable to the Seattle ecosystem's causal role in cultivating niche, anti-commercial aesthetics that valorize personal narrative through subdued sonics rather than broad accessibility.[36][8] This positioning underscores a continuity from slowcore's regional introspection, where environmental factors like Seattle's insular DIY venues and label networks perpetuated unhurried, guitar-led experimentation disconnected from pop radio's velocity.[19]Lyrical Themes and Creative Evolution
Champion's songwriting recurrently explores melancholy and emotional vulnerability, often rooted in interpersonal dynamics and unresolved personal turmoil. Lyrics frequently depict fractured relationships marked by longing, betrayal, and isolation, as seen in her examinations of love's impermanence and the weight of emotional exposure without evasion.[37][38] This confessional approach avoids idealizing suffering as empowerment, instead presenting raw introspection that underscores individual agency amid distress.[8] During her tenure with Carissa's Wierd, Champion's contributions emphasized abstracted narratives of departure and relational dissolution, conveyed through dejected vocal delivery and atmospheric restraint that amplified themes of sinking despair.[13][39] These works prioritized evocative ambiguity over explicit self-disclosure, fostering a collective sense of melancholy tied to transience and emotional withdrawal.[13] In transitioning to solo output under the "S" moniker and later as Jenn Champion from 2015 onward, her expression shifted toward heightened directness, transforming veiled band-era allusions into pointed diary-like revelations of inner conflict.[8] Post-2015 material, such as in Single Rider, integrates synth-driven structures with lyrics confronting personal accountability in cycles of sadness, emphasizing cathartic acknowledgment over passive endurance.[37] This evolution reflects a move from ensemble-mediated abstraction to solitary reckoning, where vulnerability manifests as deliberate confrontation with one's role in perpetuating angst, rather than its normalization as an inescapable state.[8][4] The persistence of confessional intimacy across phases highlights a stylistic continuity, yet invites scrutiny of whether sustained focus on unresolved melancholy risks reinforcing escapist rumination over causal resolution, as evidenced by lyrical motifs of mortality and relational futility that prioritize emotional documentation over transformative insight.[4][40] Such patterns, while empirically consistent in her oeuvre, underscore a creative trajectory attuned to subjective experience but potentially limited in addressing underlying drivers of distress.[4]Discography
Solo Albums
Champion released her first solo album under the moniker "S", Puking and Crying, on September 14, 2004, through Suicide Squeeze Records in CD format, featuring guitar-centric lo-fi recordings made with four-track equipment.[28] Subsequent "S" releases included I'm Not as Good at It as You in 2011, self-released digitally with bedroom production emphasizing minimal instrumentation.[26] The final "S" album, Cool Choices, emerged on September 23, 2014, via Hardly Art Records in vinyl and CD formats, marking a shift toward more structured synth-pop arrangements with external production assistance.[41][15] Transitioning to releases under her own name in 2015, Champion issued No One on October 28, 2016, available digitally and later in limited physical editions through independent distribution.[28] Single Rider followed on July 13, 2018, released by Hardly Art in vinyl, CD, and digital formats, incorporating '80s-inspired synth elements self-directed by Champion.[28][42] In 2021, she put out The Blue Album digitally via her Bandcamp page, with optional vinyl pressings.[29] The most recent full-length, The Last Night of Sadness, was self-produced and crowdfunded via Kickstarter, launching on October 13, 2023, through her official Bandcamp in digital and limited vinyl formats.[7][30][43]| Album Title | Release Date | Label | Formats |
|---|---|---|---|
| Puking and Crying (as S) | September 14, 2004 | Suicide Squeeze Records | CD, digital |
| I'm Not as Good at It as You (as S) | 2011 | Self-released | Digital |
| Cool Choices (as S) | September 23, 2014 | Hardly Art | Vinyl, CD, digital |
| No One | October 28, 2016 | Independent | Digital, limited physical |
| Single Rider | July 13, 2018 | Hardly Art | Vinyl, CD, digital |
| The Blue Album | 2021 | Self-released (Bandcamp) | Digital, vinyl |
| The Last Night of Sadness | October 13, 2023 | Self-released (Kickstarter/Bandcamp) | Digital, limited vinyl |
Albums with Carissa's Wierd
Jenn Champion served as co-founder, primary vocalist on select tracks, and co-songwriter for Carissa's Wierd's releases during the band's active years from 1995 to 2003, often collaborating closely with Mat Brooke on material characterized by introspective, lo-fi arrangements.[13][11] The band's output consisted primarily of self-released or small-label efforts, with limited production runs typical of early indie slowcore acts, emphasizing emotional rawness over commercial distribution.[14] The earliest compiled release, Ugly But Honest 1996–1999, appeared in 1999 as a self-released collection of demos and early recordings spanning the band's Tucson origins to Seattle relocation. Champion contributed vocals and songwriting to several tracks, helping establish the group's signature melancholic tone through rudimentary instrumentation and personal lyrics.[11] Carissa's Wierd's only full-length studio album during Champion's tenure, Songs About Leaving, was released on August 6, 2002. Recorded at Seattle's Hall of Justice studio, it featured Champion sharing lead vocals with Brooke across 11 tracks, with her input shaping the confessional songwriting that explored themes of departure and emotional fracture.[44] The album's sparse production, limited to around 1,000 initial copies on K Records before later reissues, underscored the band's cult status rather than mainstream reach.[45]| Album | Release Year | Label | Key Contributions by Champion |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ugly But Honest 1996–1999 | 1999 | Self-released | Co-writing and vocals on early demo material |
| Songs About Leaving | 2002 | K Records | Shared lead vocals and co-songwriting on all tracks |