Jaffe played shows in Dallas, then moved to Los Angeles for a year, where she had cousins who were musicians. After her time in L.A., Jaffe relocated permanently to
Denton, Texas, which has a vibrant music scene with local musicians from
The University of North Texas's music program that Jaffe connected with as well as other musicians in the community that she began playing with on a regular basis. In 2008, Jaffe self-released a six-song EP called
Even Born Again. The record has been described as singer-songwriter gothic-folk, and features Jaffe on guitar accompanied by a cellist as well as another guitarist.
Even Born Again featured the first release of her song, "Clementine," which is one of Jaffe's most well-known songs and was featured on NPR's Song of the Day. Jaffe said that she wrote the song quickly during a tour with a band she was playing with in Arkansas. The song, which she wrote in 10 minutes, was meant as filler because the band didn't have enough songs. Jaffe said the audience had an immediate positive reaction to the song. In late 2009, she was signed to
Kirtland Records (
Bob Schneider,
Toadies), the Dallas-based record label co-owned by
Deep Blue Something drummer John Kirtland and his wife,
The Polyphonic Spree's Jenny Kirtland. In May 2010, Jaffe released her first full-length album
Suburban Nature, which was recorded in December 2008. The record feature layers of vocals and incorporates ambient music, with live performances often including a cello, a violin and/or violinists (sometimes a quartet), an additional guitar, a string section, keyboards, and a drummer, a big departure from Jaffe's initial EP, which was more stripped down sounding. The song "Clementine" appears on
Suburban Nature, and a video of the song, which was shot in the summer in Texas, was made by Jon Todd Collins. In 2011, she released an EP called
The Way Sound Leaves a Room that included a DVD video performance at the
Wyly Theatre in Dallas from February 2011. This record included a cover of
Drake's song, "Shut it Down". It also included a live cover of the
Robyn song, "
Hang With Me." Jaffe said the EP started with the song, "A Sucker For Your Marketing," and was meant to be a lo-fi quick project to explore music beyond her initial acoustic work. She bought a second-hand bass guitar and drum set and learned how to play them, using the new instruments to explore this new musical direction. which was produced by fellow Texan
John Congleton.
The Body Wins continues a movement away from Jaffe's early acoustic guitar singer-songwriter sound and expansion into
electropop tunes. As part of the promotion of the record, Jaffe performed "Talk", a single from that album, on
Jimmy Kimmel Live! on December 11, 2012. In 2012, Jaffe met fellow North Texas-based producer
Symbolyc One also known as S1 (
Beyoncé,
Erykah Badu,
Jay-Z,
Madonna,
Talib Kweli) during a session where the music producer collective
The Cannabinoids was remixing Jaffe's “Glorified High,” a track from her 2012 record,
The Body Wins. S1 and Jaffe ended up forming a group called The Dividends. The name came from the idea of distribution of profits. The Dividends project resulted in an EP called
Far From Away. Jaffe has said that she was a big
hip hop music fan, but her music up until the collaboration with S1 had not explored beyond Americana and indie pop yet. The work with The Dividends removed the concept of genre and incorporated a diverse mixture of R&B, jazz, electronica, rock, and pop. Jaffe said helped her move past writer's block and into more creative genre-busting directions. S1 produced the first half of the song with
M-Phazes, with the second track produced by StreetRunner. In 2013 for
Record Store Day, Jaffe sang a cover of
PJ Harvey's "
Down by the Water" on a 7-inch recording with
The Toadies, an alternative rock band from
Fort Worth, Texas. The track was recorded live at the 2012 Dia de los Toadies Festival. In 2014, Jaffe released her third full-length record, ''Don't Disconnect.
The record marked a big stylistic shift into what has been described as pop-rock. Don't Disconnect'' was produced by
Midlake drummer and producer
McKenzie Smith at Redwood Studio in Denton, Texas, which Smith owns with fellow Midlake bandmate, guitarist
Joey McClellan. The song, "Some People Will Tell You," was listed as a Songs We Love by
NPR. In 2015, Jaffe released a remix EP called
Visions. Visions features the single, "Vision," with Sam Lao and
Zhora. The record has mixes by
Mystery Skulls,
S1, and Blue, The Misfit. As part of the promotion of the record, Jaffe performed with some of the artists on
Visions, recreating the music live on stage at Trees in Dallas. In 2017, Jaffe released her fourth full-length record,
Bad Baby. Bad Baby opens with the track "Synthetic Love," which is over six minutes long.
Soundtracks The 2011 film,
Life Happens, features Jaffe's song "Clementine" during the end credits. In 2013, Jaffe sang vocals on "The Blue Umbrella Suite" by
Jon Brion, which was featured in
The Blue Umbrella, a short film for 2013
Pixar movie
Monsters University. In 2015, Jaffe appeared in the film,
Some Kind of Hate, singing her song "Before You Go," which is on the soundtrack to the film. In 2016, the Irish comedy TV series ''
Can't Cope, Won't Cope'' used the song "Glorifyed High" from Jaffe's 2012 record
The Body Wins on its soundtrack.
Oculus Story Studio's short virtual reality film,
Dear Angelica, which premiered at the
Sundance Film Festival in January 2017, featured a new version of Jaffe's song, "All That Time."
Dear Angelica stars
Geena Davis and
Mae Whitman. Jaffe knew the director, Saschka Unseld, from her experience working on
The Blue Umbrella. Also at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival is Augustine Frizzell's feature film, ''
Never Goin' Back,
which Jaffe contributed some original songs. Never Goin' Back
stars Camila Morrone and Maia Mitchell (The Fosters'').
Touring In 2012, Jaffe performed as an opener on the
New Multitudes tour, a
Woody Guthrie tribute album with a band made up of
Jay Farrar,
Will Johnson,
Anders Parker, and
Jim James. Jaffe has toured with
Lou Barlow,
Norah Jones,
Band Jaffe frequently plays with and has collaborated with multi-instrumentalist
Robert Gomez on electric guitar. Becki Howard contributed violin on many of Jaffe's records. Her core band is made up of Don Cento on guitar, Scott Danbom (
Centro-matic) on keyboards, and
Matt Pence (
Centro-matic) and sometimes Roberto Sanchez on drums. Pence often produces Jaffe's records. == Activism ==