Interview: Aimee Mann

By John Wenzel | October 9th, 2009 | No Comments »

aimee2

Has anyone ever stumped you?

Absolutely! I have a terrible terrible memory. What I’ve been doing for the shows is printing all my lyrics and putting them in a notebook so I have something to refer to. That’s sort of one less thing to scramble for. Especially under any stress, your memory tends to erode that much more. It’s actually ridiculous for me to do a request show because my memory is the worst of anyone. If you know it, it’s fun, but sometimes if you don’t it’s even more fun. Then you can make comedy out of it.

And you’re certainly not afraid of that, since you love touring and playing with comedians.

You bet.

I notice that you played Singapore earlier this month. Was that your first time there?

It was and it was great. It’s a really interesting place. I mean, obviously we just kind of went in and out so I didn’t get a chance to wander around, but it had a really nice atmosphere. It’s really beautiful. I didn’t’ realize how tropical it was, so that alone was a nice treat. The audience was terrific.

Did you do requests there?

I did, although I had a really tough time singing because I had been sick and they were totally fine with me coughing and clearing my throat. I played a really long show. Everybody’s English seemed to be amazingly great so I didn’t worry about communicating. We played in Santiago, Chile and it was sort of the same thing. I don’t know a word of Spanish and I don’t even try, but I really felt like communication wasn’t a problem.

How many days of the year are you touring?

It’s different every year when you’re supporting an album. It’s a little more concentrated this year. It’s more about — and that’s partly why I’m doing the trio – but trying to get to places that I never get to. But that also means having to go with a more stripped-down approach because if you play places you’ve never played before, they can’t really afford to take the big band. So it’s nice to be able to go to some different places.

Have you written anything on the road you’re excited about? Or are you working on a new album at all?

I’m not worrying about it. I wrote a little bit in my time off in the early part of the year. I have enough music to start a record but I’m not really thinking about it. It’ a different sort of era when people don’t really buy records anymore. You feel a little less impetus to do that.

Yep, all the money’s in touring these days.

All the touring I did last year was break even, so you don’t make money selling records or touring. It’s like, “Which one is the hobby?”

Are you gearing up for another holiday show this year?

I’m actually taking a year off because it really was super exhausting and I’m actually going to try to have a real Christmas instead of being on tour for all of December.

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John Wenzel is the co-editor of Reverb, editor of the Get Real Denver blog and an arts and entertainment reporter for The Denver Post. His book “Mock Stars: Indie Comedy and the Dangerously Funny” was recently published by Speck Press.