ShareThisBy WAYNE BLEDSOE
Friday, November 17, 2006
Being a woman in music is a lot different now from when singer-songwriter Aimee Mann broke into the business in the early 1980s in the rock band 'Til Tuesday.
"Women were considered a novelty act," says Mann. "I remember talking to A&M about getting a record deal for my solo stuff. And they said, 'Well, we've just signed Sheryl Crow.' They had one female artist. One. And that was enough! That was already too many, so they couldn't sign another one."
The Lilith Fair, organized by singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan, was in response to the one-is-enough idea that promoters had about female artists.
Mann says she talked with McLachlan before she organized the event, adding, "She was telling me how when she was going on tour and wanted to have a female artist open, the promoters would go, 'Oh, nobody's going to come to see two women!'
"Oh, really? 'Cause I guess we're like talking dogs! And once you've seen one talking-dog act, I guess you've seen them all."
Most critics and fans would cite Mann as one of music's most individual artists. Since the breakup of 'Til Tuesday, she has created a string of acclaimed albums, and her music was a primary inspiration for the film "Magnolia."
Since her 1999 album "Bachelor No. 2," Mann has released albums on her own label, SuperEgo Records. Her latest release, "The Forgotten Arm," is a story of a couple dealing with addiction.
"I've had a lot of experience with friends of mine, people I knew who were struggling with addiction, and then on the other side of it, the sort of relationship dynamic that happens when you're trying to have some sort of a relationship with an addict or an alcoholic," says Mann. "It's such an impossible situation."
A good friend of hers who is struggling with addiction was the inspiration for some of the songs on the album.
"There was a song called 'Clean Up for Christmas.' That phrase came directly from my friend, who had relapsed and was on a pretty bad run," says Mann. "When I finally talked to him, he said, 'I think I'm going to just clean up for Christmas and go home to my family and then just go out again.' And he was very helpless about the idea that he could ever stay sober, which I found very poignant."
The movie "Magnolia" took Mann's music to a new audience. Director and screenwriter Paul Thomas Anderson credited Mann's music for giving him the idea for the film, and he said he used her songs for inspiration while he was writing the script. At a pivotal moment in the film, in fact, characters sing her song "Wise Up."
"Paul and I were pretty close friends, and we were inspired by each other," says Mann. "I guess I wasn't really surprised, because that's how I work. I listen to other people's music to kind of get me in the mood to write certain lyrics that make sense to me."
It couldn't have come at a better time. Mann had just asked out of her contract with Geffen Records.
"There was a whole merger going on and a lot of confusion. I was told that I was one of the artists they wanted to keep, but if I really wanted to go, then they would let me go. And I was like, 'Hallelujah!' " she says.
Mann had her own ideas about how to run a record company.
"Big labels have this three-prong strategy: Have a hit video on MTV and put the song on radio and have the band go on tour for freakin' months," she says. "And if you're not an artist they're pushing at radio or they're not making a video, then they're out of ideas!"
She says that using the Internet to get the word out on an artist or even creating a slightly different style of case for a CD seemed more than a big label could handle.
"It's also very frustrating to have music that's already recorded. They've heard it. They like it, because they signed you, and then they want you to change it," she says. "They say there's not a single, and you're like, 'Well, why didn't you tell me that before we got involved?' "
