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 A REAL MANN
Aimee Mann Talks About Her New Album, The Forgotten Arm, And Hot Women With Mustaches.
INSTINCT: It’s cool that the theme for The Forgotten Arm is a road trip
across the country, because I moved from Boston—probably around
the time you did—and I listened to your records all the way.
AIMEE MANN: Oh, that’s so funny. Did you stop in fun places or was it
just drudgery?
We did, and it was weird and wonderful. So there’s a lot less wrath on
this record.
[Laughs] I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone use that word for my music
before. That’s awesome. Wrath!
I’m listening to it a lot and more so than the other records. It sounds like
being at one of your concerts, minus the witty banter between songs.
It was recorded very live. The arrangements are really made to be played live.
That [kind of music] just doesn’t happen unless you’re all in the same room.
Sometimes when you take things apart, you can’t really put them back
together in the same way.
One of the awesome things about your music is how you get into so many
different characters’ heads. How do you do it?
I don’t know—you just give it a whirl. You think, How can I apply my
experience to what they may be going through? Sometimes it’s just listening to
what people say. Some of these songs are directly taken from conversations
I’ve had with my drug addict friends. Some sober, talking about their past
experiences, and some still going through it right at that moment.
You’ve gotten to work with some amazing artists—XTC, Cyndi Lauper,
Squeeze, Paul Thomas Anderson, Elvis Costello and your husband,
Michael Penn.
I literally met Elvis Costello on the street in London. What are the odds on
that? His wife at the time recognized me. I don’t know if he did. He may
have, because it was in the ’Til Tuesday days. So we stopped and talked, and
that led to writing a song together. It was so random and so weird.
A lot of your songs deal with problematic relationships. Does your
husband ever get paranoid and think he’s the inspiration?
I think it’s kind of understood that we don’t write songs about each other,
because we’re very similar. The people you write about are more about
conundrums or problematic characters or people you can’t fi gure out. You
don’t really write about the thing that’s working—you write about the thing
that isn’t. There’s a big element of songwriting—emotional troubleshooting.
So what does Aimee Mann do for fun?
I really value hanging out with friends, because it’s so hard to hang on to
friendships when you’re on the road a lot. Stuff gets interrupted. That’s my
big thing. And I don’t really have a lot of friends, so if I get a chance to just
meet someone for coffee, it’s like a big thrill. Aside from that, I took up
boxing about a year and a half ago, and that’s the thing that takes up most
of my leisure time.
You mean you’re actually getting into the ring?
Yeah, I’m getting into the ring and slugging. I have a friend who is a boxer
and drug addict who is sort of a partial inspiration for the character on the
record. He gave a boxing lesson, kind of kidding around, and he was saying,
“You’re a natural!” Which, I’m sure was pure ballyhoo, but it makes it fun
when somebody is encouraging. It was something I was always kind of
interested in, and at the same time, I knew someone who knew
someone who was opening a gym and giving private lessons.
Gay men are big on dance remixes, and I can’t say I know of any of
yours. What do you think of someone remixing one of your songs?
Dance remixes? I would be fascinated and totally into it, but I’m
completely out of that loop. I barely know what it is. I know it’s a
thing, and people do certain remixes and the thing where they put
two songs together?
Mashups.
The mash? I’d be down for it, to hear them work their magic.
In college, when I was “confused,” I had a poster of you that I found
quite sexy. Is there a chick you’d switch for?
That’s funny. You know it’s something I have to ruminate on. I like
anybody to be sort of ambiguous in the gender. I like a faggy guy—
Michael hates when I say that. He’s not faggy, but he doesn’t have that
hypermasculine thing. That just drives me crazy. So I would probably like
a girl with a nice mustache or with huge eyebrows.
You should go tour in Portugal then.
They love me in Portugal for some reason. We were offered to headline a
festival for like 40,000, and I was like, What? To headline?! —TYLER STEELE
You can preview The Forgotten Arm, download videos and check out tour dates at aimeemann.com.
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