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“New Girl” actress Zooey Deschanel plays She to M. Ward’s Him in She & Him, an indie-pop duo whose more infectious moments find them effortlessly channeling the innocuous charms of the Brill Building Era. There are times when they sound like a Phil Spector girl group recording a ballad originally written for Roy Orbison, only way more adorable.
We caught up with Ward, who met the actress while doing the music to “The Go-Getter,” an indie film from 2007 that prominently featured Deschanel. Here’s what he had to say about their chemistry and “Volume 3,” their latest effort.
Question: That’s a really nice version of “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me.”
Answer: Thank you. It’s a thrill to work with classic old songs. Zooey suggested covering that one and I thought it was a great idea, so we tried it out. And it seemed to have a life of its own when Zooey sang.
Q: What do you look for in a cover?
A: Mainly, emotion. If the raw material, which is the song, is great, it gives the producer and the singer a lot of leeway to experiment. You know it’s gonna end up at least pretty good (laughs).
Q: Speaking of the raw material, when Zooey sends you demos of new songs, how much goes into turning those ideas into She & Him songs.
A: She normally sends me pretty raw demos recorded on GarageBand, normally vocals and a couple instruments — ukulele and piano or something. I’ll listen to these demos for months and sometimes years and just get production ideas. When it turns out that we have a couple dozen songs, we’ll meet in the studio and start recording.
Q: “Never Wanted Your Love” is one that you’ve kind of been sitting on a while, which seems surprising.
A: Yeah. The demo for that one was kind of a slow piano ballad and we’ve tried to give it these different identities in the past but it just didn’t seem to work. And for this new record, I wanted to try to resuscitate that song with a different string arrangement, a different rhythm, different drums. And it ended up jumping out of the speakers. It just sounded like a single to us. So that was the first song we released.
Q: This is the first time you’ve incorporated horn arrangements, right?
A: It is. I’m very hesitant to use horns, but the songs where we did use them, we used them sparingly and I think it really helped the production. We were able to get these great players in New York City. Maybe I’ll mess around with more brass arrangements in the future but it’s a little bit playing with fire, in my opinion.
Q: Why is that?
A: It’s just my own personal taste. Don’t get me wrong. I love John Coltrane and Miles Davis. I love Louis Armstrong. But sometimes, if you add a brass band to whatever song you’re producing, it can destroy nuance and subtlety. In a similar way, I’m very hesitant to have banjo on my records because it’s a little too obvious of a statement, whereas the guitar can do so many different things, so many different flavors. It’s so much more open to interpretation. And granted, I say all this because I’m such a novice at brass arrangements.
Q: So you’re saying a banjo or a brass arrangement calls attention to itself in ways some other instrument may not?
A: Exactly. That’s how I feel on the production side. That’s why there’s been very little banjo or tuba on She & Him records.
Q: You two met when you were writing music for the film, “The Go-Getter”?
A: Exactly. It was the director’s idea to put me in the studio with her and cover a Richard Thompson song. She was one of the stars of the movie. And it ended up turning out very well.
Q: How did it go from one duet to collaborating on a project?
A: Well, she told me that she had a bunch of songs that she had been slowly amassing over the years. And I told her that I would love to hear them if they were ready to be heard by someone else. So she sent them to me and I thought they were incredible. That’s how we started “Volume One,” with those songs.
Q: Did the songs themselves suggest the direction that She & Him ended up taking? Or did you have conversations where you said, “Well, we should be this kind of group or make this kind of record”?
A: The demo tells me everything I need to know about where the song should go. That eventually creates the production of the record. The heart and soul of all the records is Zooey’s voice. And Zooey’s songs. Her chord progressions and vocal melodies. Her lyrics. Her rhyme schemes. Things like that.
Q: When you were doing “Volume One,” did it feel like something you could see yourself still doing several records down the line?
A: We knew that we wanted to make a record. We had no idea how long it would last. But it did go very easily. That’s normally a sign that there’s a chemistry there and that it could very easily extend past one record. If it was like pulling teeth, that probably would have been the only record. But neither of us felt that way.
Q: What do you think it is about the two of you that makes it work so well?
A: It’s a similar sort of interest in older recordings. We’re not too interested in what is happening right now on the cover of Spin or Nylon magazine as far as music is concerned. So we’re somewhat outsiders that way. I think most musicians our age have at least a passing understanding of the music that’s pretty popular and neither of us really do.
Q: So you’re not bringing Skrillex in on “Volume 4”?
A: Exactly. Things like that. Like, you say Skrillex and it doesn’t really … I have no idea who that is. I mean, I know that name. I think he’s probably a DJ. But I don’t know any of his songs or anything.
2013年06月16日 03点06分
1
We caught up with Ward, who met the actress while doing the music to “The Go-Getter,” an indie film from 2007 that prominently featured Deschanel. Here’s what he had to say about their chemistry and “Volume 3,” their latest effort.
Question: That’s a really nice version of “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me.”
Answer: Thank you. It’s a thrill to work with classic old songs. Zooey suggested covering that one and I thought it was a great idea, so we tried it out. And it seemed to have a life of its own when Zooey sang.
Q: What do you look for in a cover?
A: Mainly, emotion. If the raw material, which is the song, is great, it gives the producer and the singer a lot of leeway to experiment. You know it’s gonna end up at least pretty good (laughs).
Q: Speaking of the raw material, when Zooey sends you demos of new songs, how much goes into turning those ideas into She & Him songs.
A: She normally sends me pretty raw demos recorded on GarageBand, normally vocals and a couple instruments — ukulele and piano or something. I’ll listen to these demos for months and sometimes years and just get production ideas. When it turns out that we have a couple dozen songs, we’ll meet in the studio and start recording.
Q: “Never Wanted Your Love” is one that you’ve kind of been sitting on a while, which seems surprising.
A: Yeah. The demo for that one was kind of a slow piano ballad and we’ve tried to give it these different identities in the past but it just didn’t seem to work. And for this new record, I wanted to try to resuscitate that song with a different string arrangement, a different rhythm, different drums. And it ended up jumping out of the speakers. It just sounded like a single to us. So that was the first song we released.
Q: This is the first time you’ve incorporated horn arrangements, right?
A: It is. I’m very hesitant to use horns, but the songs where we did use them, we used them sparingly and I think it really helped the production. We were able to get these great players in New York City. Maybe I’ll mess around with more brass arrangements in the future but it’s a little bit playing with fire, in my opinion.
Q: Why is that?
A: It’s just my own personal taste. Don’t get me wrong. I love John Coltrane and Miles Davis. I love Louis Armstrong. But sometimes, if you add a brass band to whatever song you’re producing, it can destroy nuance and subtlety. In a similar way, I’m very hesitant to have banjo on my records because it’s a little too obvious of a statement, whereas the guitar can do so many different things, so many different flavors. It’s so much more open to interpretation. And granted, I say all this because I’m such a novice at brass arrangements.
Q: So you’re saying a banjo or a brass arrangement calls attention to itself in ways some other instrument may not?
A: Exactly. That’s how I feel on the production side. That’s why there’s been very little banjo or tuba on She & Him records.
Q: You two met when you were writing music for the film, “The Go-Getter”?
A: Exactly. It was the director’s idea to put me in the studio with her and cover a Richard Thompson song. She was one of the stars of the movie. And it ended up turning out very well.
Q: How did it go from one duet to collaborating on a project?
A: Well, she told me that she had a bunch of songs that she had been slowly amassing over the years. And I told her that I would love to hear them if they were ready to be heard by someone else. So she sent them to me and I thought they were incredible. That’s how we started “Volume One,” with those songs.
Q: Did the songs themselves suggest the direction that She & Him ended up taking? Or did you have conversations where you said, “Well, we should be this kind of group or make this kind of record”?
A: The demo tells me everything I need to know about where the song should go. That eventually creates the production of the record. The heart and soul of all the records is Zooey’s voice. And Zooey’s songs. Her chord progressions and vocal melodies. Her lyrics. Her rhyme schemes. Things like that.
Q: When you were doing “Volume One,” did it feel like something you could see yourself still doing several records down the line?
A: We knew that we wanted to make a record. We had no idea how long it would last. But it did go very easily. That’s normally a sign that there’s a chemistry there and that it could very easily extend past one record. If it was like pulling teeth, that probably would have been the only record. But neither of us felt that way.
Q: What do you think it is about the two of you that makes it work so well?
A: It’s a similar sort of interest in older recordings. We’re not too interested in what is happening right now on the cover of Spin or Nylon magazine as far as music is concerned. So we’re somewhat outsiders that way. I think most musicians our age have at least a passing understanding of the music that’s pretty popular and neither of us really do.
Q: So you’re not bringing Skrillex in on “Volume 4”?
A: Exactly. Things like that. Like, you say Skrillex and it doesn’t really … I have no idea who that is. I mean, I know that name. I think he’s probably a DJ. But I don’t know any of his songs or anything.
