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She & Him
Posted by Rob Ortenzi on 07-Jul-08 @ 11:43 AM
HQ: Los Angeles, CA; Portland, ORNOW PLAYING: Volume One (MERGE; mergerecords.com) WHY YOU SHOULD KNOW 'EM: If Actress-turned-singer Zooey Deschanel's home-crafted timeless melodies were stunning enough to lure M. Ward to work with her, then we're all ears, too. YOU LIKE? YOU'LL LIKE? Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins / Dusty Springfield / Neko Case STORY: Reed Fischer PHOTO: Dave Hill From the moment cerulean-eyed actress Zooey Deschanel and Americana crooner/producer Matt "M." Ward combined forces to cover Richard and Linda Thompson's "When I Get To The Border" for last year's The Go-Getter soundtrack, this diverse duet's output has been eyed expectantly. The result is Volume One, a collection of nostalgia-seeped songs inspired by Dusty Springfield and Linda Rondstadt penned by Deschanel (with the exception of Smokey Robinson And The Miracles' "You Really Got A Hold On Me" and the Beatles' "I Should've Known Better") that she brought to Ward as raw demos on piano. He immediately fell in love and She & Him were born. According to Ward, naming the project She & Him was, "Us trying as best as we could to let people listen to the music first before making a fuss over who the people are making the music." The strategy hasn't deflected much media attention, as evidenced by the ecstatic fans who packed the pair's very first live appearances in March, including Noise Pop and the South By Southwest Music Conference. With only a half-dozen performances under their collective belts, even those who came to gawk at the duo's SXSW shows stayed to listen to an alto vocal range as striking as Deschanel's classic beauty. Sure, her tambourine arm was occasionally stiff, but her heartfelt delivery never wavered. "She's a natural-born vocalist," says Ward, who recalls first hearing his future bandmate singing "Baby, It's Cold Outside" alongside Will Ferrell in the film Elf. "I remember thinking this is probably someone who sings on the side. [It was] surprising to me to find out that she had never recorded." Crafting Volume One was a joint effort for She & Him; after hearing Deschanel's timeless tunes like "Sentimental Heart" and "Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?", Ward went to work fleshing out the songs with slide guitar, strings, percussion and backing vocals. Aside from a slight disagreement about where to fade in the drums on the driving "This is Not A Test"--eventually won by Ward--Deschanel says their recording process was harmonious. She equates her tight rapport with Ward to the close working relationship with her All The Real Girls director David Gordon Green. "It was sort of similar in the sense that you're working with someone you really see eye to eye with," Deschanel explains. "Sometimes you really connect with something in a moment. With this, I have to connect with the music. If I didn't connect with it, I would have to go re-examine my conscience very carefully." |
