Mr Little Jeans Returns to S.B.

It’s a wonder why Monica Birkenes performs under the pseudonym Mr Little Jeans because she is nothing other than her unique self. The rising singing/songwriting electronic musician — who plays at SOhO Restaurant & Music Club tonight, Thursday, December 8 — takes her clever alias from Kumar Pallana’s character in Wes Anderson’s indie cult classic Rushmore. In a way, it’s a testament to her courageous creativity — to take on a role and persona she didn’t even see herself capable of. The Norwegian-born Los Angeleno never saw herself as anything other than a singer, but she is fairly new to songwriting. “I’ve been singing since I was a kid,” she said. “It’s not even that I wanted to be a singer; it was just what I was going to do. There wasn’t really an option. I think writing was the sort of new thing where I was like, ‘I think I can also write.’”

While Birkenes may have worked toward being a singer her entire life, she is in awe of what it feels like to live the life she’s always imagined for herself. “Before anything happened, I was just waitressing and had no idea if I was crazy or if this was actually something worth pursuing. It’s just given me some sort of peace — like I wasn’t crazy.” Her mature music style could be described as new-wave synth pop; pastel-like vocals and occasionally incomprehensible lyrics create a mysterious sound that leaves the listener endlessly curious. Rather than vying for approval or conforming to what others think her music should sound like, she’s really just doing what she wants. “I’m just gonna do what I feel like doing musically,” she said.

She jump-started her career with the release of a cover of Arcade Fire’s iconic song “The Suburbs,” something she put out because it was fairly easy to record while writing her first album, Pocketknife. “I was sort of having a rough time writing. That’s why we did it.”