Just Jenn: Behind the Music

Get the real BTS story of how Jenn’s RHONJ song “Teams Divided” was created. 
From writing the lyrics to finding the chords, Jenn shares how much joy the song has brought her.   Plus, is Kristen Chenoweth Jenn’s biggest fan?!!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hi, you guys.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
It is just Jen. I can't even say that without
wanting to laugh. I hope you guys know the reference
from Will and Grace. But I am here because we
are doing a little special messy FeSi behind the music.
I hope that you guys have heard the song at
the end of the last reunion non reunion of the

(00:25):
Housewives of New Jersey, I wrote a little diddy and
I've gotten such nice feedback and people have actually just
been asking me a lot of questions about it. Did
I in fact really write it?

Speaker 3 (00:38):
You know?

Speaker 2 (00:38):
How did I come up with the lyrics? So this
is just going to be a little mini podcast about
Teams Divided, which is the name of the song. And
what's really exciting is that I have my dear friend
Anthony with me. Say hello, Anthony, Hey, Jen Fesla sexy right,

(01:00):
that's like the sexiest boy. So my friend Anthony has
been working with me since the beginning of this crazy
Housewives of New Jersey ride that I've gone on, and
he has worked with me in pr since the very beginning,
and he has become one of my dearest friends, which
is weird because he is what twenty nine how old

(01:20):
do you know twenty It makes zero sense except for
the fact that he's a very old soul and we
have so much in common. One of the things that
we have in common is our love of music.

Speaker 3 (01:33):
Music.

Speaker 4 (01:33):
Yeah, and I always felt like Jen had such a
natural kind of wordsmith energy to her, but also kind
of ironically like an old Broadway Dane, like, yes, it's
really cool.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
That's like the biggest compliment.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
I love that.

Speaker 4 (01:51):
Yeah, and you, from the beginning of this season have
really wanted to write a song. And I loved the
story that you told me. I'd love you to tell
it about how it's just always been your dream to
write a false Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Well so I always it's not even it's I always
thought would be the coolest thing to be like the
girl that plays the guitar. I went to like Sleepwoy
camp for years and years, and the people that played guitar,
they were absolutely the coolest. And I pictured myself like,
you know, just sitting around somewhere outside a bunch of
friends smoking pod I'm strumming along like playing songs like that. Right,

(02:29):
you can't get cooler than like that chick.

Speaker 4 (02:31):
You were like, they're the personal Joni Mitchell like to
the Yes.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
That's exactly I was going to wear like all like
folk dresses, like long dresses and be all folksy. But anyway,
so but I really don't have any ability musically. You
may have picked up on that when you heard Teams Divided.
I am trying my best, and I've tried, off and
on tried guitar throughout the years. But learning guitar is
a bitch.

Speaker 3 (02:56):
And it hurts. It hurts, it.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
Hurts your fingertips. I had to cut all my nails off.
This has been going on for the past ten years,
on and off, and but the piece that was so
exciting to me was always like the writing, the lyrics,
and I wanted to learn guitar. That was the driving force,
right because I love writing like everybody's birthday. I'm always
writing some like fun, you know, crazy dirty, or self

(03:21):
deprecating poem about myself or about roasting people, and I
just like kind of a wordsmith like that. The music
part definitely comes harder to me. You know, Anthony is
like is a musician, so it's just been so much
fun to have him help me with the guitar. And
I mean all of Teams Divided it's all what three chords,

(03:44):
It's all three chords, so it's also like three chords, right.

Speaker 3 (03:48):
It's just it's in the key of D major.

Speaker 4 (03:51):
Well, so that was so Jen, when you were like
doing lessons, which like you, I think you have a
natural knack for picking up music and paid. Okay, let
me tell you this. Jen Fessler leaves this out about herself.
She went to a performing arts school.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
Okay, I mean, yes, that is I can't that is
very true, but I was. I was in the theater department,
not the music department. But I've definitely guess I'm a
theater geek. I definitely, I definitely am. And I went
to U After college, I went to the American Academy
of Dramatic Arts for a couple of years.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
I really did.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
I was not a very good actress, Like I'm not
a very good guitar player, but I think I just
always wanted to be on stage. But I was really
always a pretty good writer and love just putting. Not necessarily.
I never really next wanted to write the next, you know, novel,
next to all American novel, but I did. I do
love writing catchy, funny stories and poems anyway, I went

(04:50):
through a phase when Jeff and I, my husband and
I were separated for like a year and a half, right,
and I was in my just melancholy, uh you know,
I'm a single parent phase, which it's all I mean,
that's a whole other episode. Who knows, maybe we'll do
it just jen about that. But so I'm writing, you know,

(05:10):
these melancholy lyrics, except I had no tune and I
was also really into country music at the time, and
I started just writing I don't know, pages of songs,
and at one point I, if you go online, you
can send them away to people that like will evaluate
your lyrics. So I don't know, I sent them to
some address in Nashville. That ship came back so marked up.

(05:31):
I never saw so much red in my life.

Speaker 5 (05:33):
Okay, scheme is yeah, I mean honestly, yes, Well they
just it was.

Speaker 1 (05:44):
It was so marked up and it was so discouraging.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
I was positive that as soon as they got my lyrics,
they were going to be like, listen, you got to
come in. Keith Urban is waiting to meet with you,
you know, meet us on Main Street in Nashville. Didn't
go exactly like that, but it's still just I felt
like if I could just have though the music, I
could sort of write along to it anyway. So Anthony,

(06:09):
when we were working together and you taught me these
three chords.

Speaker 3 (06:12):
Yeah, d dgn A, d G and A and.

Speaker 4 (06:15):
Yes, that's all I felt like you needed because when
you were doing guitar lessons, you had so much knowledge
already of which no, which not chords, not grades. And
so first of all, we found out you can sing
and play at the same time.

Speaker 3 (06:32):
Now, maybe not to the ability that you would like
to do Jen Fastwood, but for her Novice, you can.
You can stand on trying and do it at the
same time.

Speaker 4 (06:41):
And I think your voice sits really nicely over those
three chords, like it's.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
Thank you, yes, yes, hopefully yes.

Speaker 3 (06:50):
But once you had those three chords you started writing.

Speaker 2 (06:53):
It was well, that's the thing. So Anthony and I
the story behind the origins of the song. So Anthony
and I were on the phone. I think I was
headed into the city for something, and which is how
everything seems to happen between the two of us, Like Anthony,
I and I are always on the same page.

Speaker 1 (07:10):
It's weird.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
It's like with ideas and the way that we you
know picture, I don't know, adventures panning out, creative, being creative, Yes, exactly,
thank you, Yes. And I don't know if it was
you or if it was me who said, you know,
we started off the season this season with me on
the guitar, and then I really needed long nails for

(07:31):
the rest of the season in my mind, and so
I wasn't practicing. But anyway, I don't know who said
it first, me or you, like, I should write a
song for the film.

Speaker 3 (07:40):
I remember what you said.

Speaker 4 (07:41):
You said something along the lines of, you know, there's
been so much drama, I don't even have time for
my guitar lessons anymore. Yeah, oh, you gotta get back
into that creativity. And I think, so what was happening.
It's like, I gotta write, it's so finite. And you
were like, I just got to write a song for
this finale and you were inspired.

Speaker 2 (07:59):
Right, Yeah, it was so easy. I don't know it
was so easy. First of all, there was so much material, right,
but also we didn't know, like I didn't know if
the song was going to get approved, they would even
play it, you know, who knew? But this is this
is what I think, is what I love the most
about this entire situation is that the writing of it,
the playing of it, the practicing of it has been

(08:23):
such a joy. And so, you know, have you ever
heard that expression like I'm gonna I'm gonna mess it up,
But when you're doing what you're meant to do.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
It's easy.

Speaker 2 (08:33):
I don't know if you ever heard that, Like I'm
not saying, wait, nobody, do not misunderstand me. I am
not like you know, I'm not opening for Taylor Swift.

Speaker 3 (08:41):
No, I think that you might be.

Speaker 4 (08:43):
But your daughter, Rachel Fessler, wrote a really nice comment
on your post, which was something along the lines of,
I'm so happy seeing you do what you love to do.

Speaker 3 (08:52):
And it's true and.

Speaker 1 (08:53):
I can't believe that you read that. Yes, so nice.
I know we do work out, but still, he's really
just nice that you read that.

Speaker 3 (09:00):
Men a lot and that's what that's what it's all about.
And I think with a lot.

Speaker 4 (09:05):
Of uh stuff that you do, Jeenfestler, it's kind of like,
you know, I want to start this shoe company. You know,
I'm in my fifties, I want to write music. And
it's you're doing the things that you've always wanted to
do and that's why it comes naturally, because the itch
has been in there.

Speaker 2 (09:22):
Yeah, I guess so. And you know, sometimes like I'm
not really into all of this. Everybody else is like
hocus pocus manifesting or no, that's just not But maybe
I'm Maybe I should be because there are certain things
that resonate with me. Certain like that. That's saying that
when you're doing what you're supposed to do, it comes
very easy. It's funny when I started doing Housewives, I

(09:46):
got a lot of my friends family saying, aren't you nervous?
Like when the cameras go on, you know, when you're
they connect you to that Mike, aren't you for And no,
I don't know why I wasn't. I was nervous about
other pieces of doing the show so obviously, and you
could all guess what those were, right, throwing myself into
the lion's den. But in terms of being miked or

(10:10):
being knowing that I was going to be on TV,
not really now. And the writing of this song also,
for whatever reason, I've found it fun and easy and creative.
I hope that now that I'm I just turned fifty six,
but I hope that I can do things war focus
my life on things like that that come easy to
me because I love them, or because I have God

(10:32):
has given me the gift of being able to do
I don't know, whatever it is, whatever, even if it's
silly songs, writing silly songs, you know. So I think
like when, at least for me, like I never did you.
I hated almost every job I had in my twenties,
even into my early thirties, hated them. I know, you
like what you do, but trying to make myself do

(10:53):
something that I was not suited for and I've done
it so many times in my life. And then there
are other things that come easy. I mean, yeah, you
know for Anthony, for you, it's actually playing music.

Speaker 4 (11:05):
Well, so when you have the chords and you started
humming that melody which was just kind of a real
cool you know, you went up the major scale, you
come down, and what does it resolve on?

Speaker 3 (11:15):
Jen Festler the bridge?

Speaker 2 (11:19):
D d oh, I forgot wait no, no, no hold on,
see I don't okay, everything goes about this is everything
goes back to d apparently wait Andy tell me do
we tell wait? Tell how you were saying to me?
Like there are musicians they carefully play music. They just
seeing everything on the D chord.

Speaker 4 (11:36):
Yeah, and so so there's something called like well, well
everybody knows like the four chords, like CG, A, min
or F, but there's one I don't know a lot
of a lot of people don't know.

Speaker 3 (11:47):
It's just like the D method.

Speaker 4 (11:49):
And it's really uh a method where you just have
the D chord, you pick up one finger and it
opens to a G chord, and then you pick up
your two fingers and all of a sudden it's an A.

Speaker 3 (12:00):
But it's like baby chords. You know, we're not doing
the full ones.

Speaker 1 (12:03):
But you can just sing any song and it'll work too.

Speaker 4 (12:05):
You, Oh, you can. You can sing a bunch of
songs that it works too. That's a lot of pop,
a lot of pop songs, a lot of Broadway songs.
But you really took the camped fire melody. And tell
us how you came up with the phrase. I mean,
obviously it's been everywhere teams divided, you know, cast divided,
but I think your original lyric was cast divided, and.

Speaker 3 (12:26):
It wasn't divided.

Speaker 1 (12:28):
It was cast divided.

Speaker 2 (12:30):
Well because we didn't want to make it sound you know,
quite so there's something called the fourth wall. You guys
may or may not know about this, but like when
you're filming Housewives, you know, you don't want to really
you're having interactions with people as friends, right, and you
want to sort of block out the idea that there's
cameras there and that there are producers there and you're talking.

(12:50):
You know, you're in these situations and that happens sort
of naturally. But when you break the fourth wall, it's
as if you know, you're in the middle of filming
a scene and you turn to a producer and say, listen, uh, can.

Speaker 1 (13:03):
You redo that?

Speaker 2 (13:04):
Or I don't like the way I sound, or this
my mic is bleeping like no, like audience doesn't want
to hear that. And when you break I guess like,
in terms of the fourth wall, if I was going
to say cast it was it became just so.

Speaker 1 (13:18):
Much less personal. I don't know. I think that was why.

Speaker 3 (13:20):
Oh yeah, yeah, And I think cast.

Speaker 2 (13:22):
Now it's like a show as opposed to you're telling
you what the real story is, you know, like we're
teams or group of women in teams.

Speaker 1 (13:30):
Does that make sense?

Speaker 4 (13:31):
Yeah, And it's more relatable to like somebody else singing it,
who like might go along, like, you know, they can
meme it in their own life.

Speaker 3 (13:38):
Teams divided, you know.

Speaker 2 (13:39):
Yeah, or this whole country is teams divided right now.
So there's that, right, yeah.

Speaker 4 (13:45):
Absolutely, And I think that you did a I saw
a bunch of comments like and now I want to
write songs about my own friend group or I want
to write songs about my family or or something. And
it's cool that you know, you're normalizing like a creative
outlet as not only a hobby but something people can
do and make the people in their lives laugh about
situations that maybe are kind of dark, you.

Speaker 2 (14:08):
Know, yeah dark, Well we definitely know from darkness over
the past three months. And also I just want to
say this again because it helped me so in the
midst of the craziness of season fourteen. And it was
crazy doing this. I mean we wrote the song very

(14:30):
like obviously before the finale, I don't know, but not
but practicing it writing it it was like anything else,
like meditation. It took me out of my crazy headspace
that went along with the show. And like my psychiatrist
always says that that's why people meditate, right to get yourself,
out of your thoughts, out of your head, out of
all the spinning.

Speaker 1 (14:52):
And I can't. I've tried to meditate a million times.
I'm just not good at it.

Speaker 2 (14:55):
But there are other things that I feel like I do,
like even cooking, where you're concentrating on something else, and
if it's something that you actually enjoy doing, it is
such a great like freeing experience.

Speaker 3 (15:08):
And yeah, so yes, right, it's cathartic. It's cathartic.

Speaker 4 (15:13):
What I saw with you is that you really enjoyed
the things that came along with it, and you took
it seriously, even though you're admittedly.

Speaker 3 (15:24):
Very self deprecating.

Speaker 1 (15:25):
Thank you.

Speaker 4 (15:34):
So, Jen Fessler, you know you're talking about Catharsis writing
the song. I felt like you were enjoying it so much.
And what came with that was you writing like so
many different drafts and ideas and really going back and
editing because admittedly you're self deprecating and this is silly,
but it's also cool and important to you and something
you took and you did a lot of lyric changes

(15:58):
you had this one. I think your original lyric from
the beginning was started started with a birthday party before
it turned into a war.

Speaker 2 (16:08):
Yeah something something, and the Star Wars hit the floor. Yeah,
when when Tosa was like trying to put the Star
Wars in her bag?

Speaker 3 (16:18):
Oh my god.

Speaker 4 (16:19):
And then I think you said you used to say,
is did purple color dildos end up making it?

Speaker 2 (16:27):
Yes, there were purple colored dildos in the first one too, Yes, yes, yes.

Speaker 1 (16:31):
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (16:32):
Wait, that was so funny. I wondered why did we
change it? That was hilarious. I think sturple colored dildos
and the Star Wars hit the floor or something, yeah,
something like that. There were a lot of different versions, right, yeah.

Speaker 4 (16:46):
And I think that there were even uh versions where
you had each cast members kind of like something funny
and cute about them, Like I remember you had something
about Marge with the soire.

Speaker 2 (16:59):
You You're such an inner memory, That's what it is
me twenty nine. Yeah, there were a bunch of those.
But I had to make it, Like the thing is,
I had to do it. That's probably what happened with
my country music song.

Speaker 6 (17:10):
Right.

Speaker 2 (17:10):
They probably look at it and they're like, dude, this
is a two and a half minute space we got here, okay. Yeah,
And so I'm writing all this stuff down and trying
to figure out, thank God for your help, how to
sort of break it down. And then I tried to
encapsulate the whole season into this little mini song, which
was tricky, right because there's there was a lot that
I could have written about man trying to be nice

(17:32):
about everybody.

Speaker 1 (17:32):
That was trick.

Speaker 4 (17:34):
I think that that's what was helpful about you having
a long time to kind of do it. I mean,
not that you did have that long it was only
a couple of months, but you've really worked day and
night on it. Like I was making jokes to my
partner like it's like watching Stephen King or like watching
you know, Jack Nicholson and shining, like what's going on here?

(17:54):
Like she's like writing it, but like she's also singing
me voice notes.

Speaker 2 (17:58):
Like my friend sarted calling like my friends and my
family to try to sing it to them. At first
they were polite, but it wasn't again like it was
I was in my process, and I literally like they
just started. People just started hanging up on me, like Jen,
call me when it's like done, when you and it's
all finished, or Jen, I'll watch it. I'll watch it
on the show. But I mean listen. I you know this,

(18:20):
this fun little podcast is really weak, because Anthony, I
was thinking about doing behind the Music, because like when
you introduced me to Taylor Swift. Obviously I knew who
Taylor Swift was, but I never liked Taylor Swift until
you showed me her. What was it called Taylor Swift
behind the music?

Speaker 3 (18:35):
Yeah, behind the music, and I never liked it.

Speaker 2 (18:38):
I was never a fan, yes, and then I got
very inspired. Again, I'm not comparing myself to Taylor Swift,
if you all want to go ahead, but she did
this whole thing talking about her process.

Speaker 1 (18:48):
It was so cool. It was really cool.

Speaker 3 (18:51):
H and you did follow that.

Speaker 4 (18:53):
And what's funny is you really did have like ten
different verses and you could pull like Taylor Swift and
released the ten minute version.

Speaker 3 (19:03):
But thank you.

Speaker 1 (19:04):
I think probably this was it. Yeah, Oh there is.

Speaker 2 (19:06):
A we got the dance version, a dance version.

Speaker 4 (19:13):
Well, it's not really a dance version in like true
Jenfester form. It's not recorded in a recording studio. It's
very finally edited. And I think that Cher might have
some competition. Maybe the local church choir has got a competition.

Speaker 2 (19:32):
Wait a second, by the way, just or really quickly
you said, I know you saw Kristin Chenowith's comment. Oh
I thought I was gonna die. I thought I was
going to die. I don't know everyone who Christian chennow
with is so Christin Chenowick is an icon. I mean,
she's this, She's this huge, ridiculous star. If you guys
saw Wicked, It's like she's 'esus everything She's Nobody has

(19:55):
a voice like her, and I just love her so much.
How did it feel surreal? It felt absolutely surreal. And
thank you to Bravo and thank you to production and
everyone else, because without this insane ride, and it has
been at times high and it has at times been low,
but stuff like that is crazy. I mean I looked

(20:18):
at all of a sudden, I'm looking at it and
it says Kristin Chenowith, and I see a blue check mark,
and I'm like, wait, there's no way.

Speaker 3 (20:27):
Well that's that's such a cool thing.

Speaker 4 (20:29):
And I want to know personally, like you are on
this TV show and you're doing something that you've always
really wanted to do, but you have a platform to
do it and to be creative. Really, when you see
a comment from somebody who you've looked up to, you know,
going to performing arts school, somebody who you've seen in Wicked,
you know, recognizing something that you did in a self deprecating,

(20:52):
funny way.

Speaker 3 (20:53):
But well be it super creative? Cool?

Speaker 6 (20:57):
Right?

Speaker 4 (20:57):
Is that just like an experience unlike any It's like
you're just so grateful for this platform.

Speaker 2 (21:03):
For that, Like I yes, everything you said, just now, yes,
seeing that because as I think you guys know, it's this,
This is a mixed bag. I guess anything, right, you do.
I'm sure that actors and actresses that everything comes along with,
you know, a mixed bag, being a public figure, all
of that, but being on reality TV is a mixed bag.

(21:24):
This was a high and felt like everything just I was.
I just felt so in that moment, like just so
blessed to have the opportunity to actually do something and
then have Kristin Chenna with actually see it and then
comment on it. Yeah, really really, really fricking cool.

Speaker 1 (21:42):
Nice kind of kind of blew my mind.

Speaker 2 (21:53):
So your remix that is coming out on well tomorrow
on Friday, Yeah, and you can download it anywhere you
get you're streaming.

Speaker 4 (22:04):
Yeah, it would be on It's going to be on Spotify,
It's going to be on Apple Music and I think
any any streaming service that you utilize, And it's the
same lyrics and everything is on the show, but with
a little bit more production from Jen Fessler and well.

Speaker 2 (22:23):
Just the idea of anyone out there actually doing that,
downloading it and listen. It's it's right up there with
Chris and Chen with and by the way, ps, I
think like on these different you get like, what is
it like one one hundredth of a penny every time
someone downloads. It's not like a money thing. I don't
think these things are money makers.

Speaker 3 (22:40):
It's more just having the access to it.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
Yeah, No, I just can't imagine if like anybody does that.
And moving forward, we're going to wrap it up, if
you know, in terms of like a limited series. I
hope Anthony you'll be joining me, but I would love
to also interact with some of you guys, some of
you listeners and hear what you think. But everybody's feedback
this song just made it all worthwhile, all of Insane, crazy,

(23:07):
Dirty Rotten season fourteen, Like doing this was so much
fun and so much fun doing it and sharing it
with you guys, And I'm very grateful and to you,
my love.

Speaker 4 (23:17):
Oh you're so cool, jen fest learns so smart, and it's,
you know, one of those things that hopefully a lot
of other people out there can find something that they're
passionate about, no matter what it is, even if you
just think it's a hobby, like it doesn't A hobby's
not a bad thing, you know, it's it's something that
you can do to not only get Catharsis, like you said,

(23:38):
but also you can turn it into something bigger.

Speaker 3 (23:41):
And even if that bigger is.

Speaker 4 (23:42):
Just sharing it with your friends in your living room,
like it's so cool, feel sad that you wrote a
song like it's.

Speaker 1 (23:48):
Really it is, all right.

Speaker 2 (23:50):
So anyway, we're going to leave you with Grammy Award
winning Teams Divided, not really, but here it is. We
hope you enjoy it. Thank you for listening, Love you
to pieces.

Speaker 6 (24:05):
After three long months of filming, season thirteen was no more,
but they brought us back in hopes we'd show some
class now by the shore. So we started season fourteen,
but the group was not the same because, as Andy said, there's.

Speaker 1 (24:20):
No way to sustain.

Speaker 6 (24:24):
Teams divided. Picked your side in, close your eyes and
pray friendships change in s worth saving. Season fourteen Rho
n J started with the birthday party. I would not
say it went well. Flock shots turned to screenshots at

(24:46):
the housewarming from hell. This gets lunch, bougie brunch to
loom these summer night We should have charged a mission
to that fight. Teens divided, pick your side and close
your eyes and pray. Friendships changing some word saving Season fourteen.

Speaker 3 (25:11):
Racho and Jays.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
Jackie beefs with Margaret, Jenny beefs with Danielle c Dolo
stays in Switzerland, while Rachel beeps with Me, Teresa and Melissa. Well,
we know that ship is sailed, which brings us to.

Speaker 6 (25:32):
The blood that that is Rael's popster flip Bob Burn.
We're thirsty, we're dirty, we're deeply insecure, and we're hoping
season fifteen will occur.