Zooey Deschanel
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Jenna-maria
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she is adorable.
ChloeFrancoise
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Thanks for the picture...s.
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asa nisi masa
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I love how she wears tights with everything. thanks for the pictures!
schwartzman
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i can't wait for it, i hope it's online soon too
On a New Album, Zooey Deschanel's Not Merely Acting Like a Singer
On screen the actress Zooey Deschanel is often cast as the quirky naïf or the ironic wit, the kind of character too flustered or too eye-rollingly impatient to multitask. But in real life Ms. Deschanel is a natural hyphenate, an actress-musician-crafty girl.
Now she is showcasing her harmony-loving side in a new band, She & Him, with the singer-songwriter-guitarist M. Ward. Their debut album, “Volume One,” is a collection of vintage-sounding country-tinged songs written mostly by Ms. Deschanel and produced by Mr. Ward. Released last month on the indie label Merge Records, it has received surprised acclaim from magazines and blogs alike. (The duo begin a brief tour with sold-out shows at Hiro Ballroom in New York next Monday and Tuesday.)
And unlike the work of other actors-cum-musicians — Russell Crowe’s various pub-rock acts for example — the album doesn’t come across as a vanity project; in person Ms. Deschanel is exactly as indie darling as her fans would hope.
Though she was raised and lives amid celebrity in Los Angeles and has appeared in both hugely popular films (“Elf,” in which she briefly sang) and critical and cult favorites (“Almost Famous,” “All the Real Girls”), it’s easy to imagine her puttering around a cozily decorated Williamsburg loft. She takes home doggie bags, prefers tights to spray-tans and uses David Bowie’s “Changes” as her ring tone. She knits and crochets and makes brownies and gingerbread because, she said, “I like the way people react when you bake, which is, like, just pure childlike joy.”
She has some of that too — an almost hand-clapping glee — when she talks about She & Him. The music has drawn comparisons to 1970s AM radio staples like Carly Simon and Linda Ronstadt. It is unironically, unapologetically pleasant; feel-good nostalgia in the best sense. “It sort of defied some of the preconceptions and prejudices I would’ve had about an actor rock album,” said Amrit Singh, the executive editor of the music blog stereogum.com. He compared it favorably to another buzzy actress-and-indie collaboration, Scarlett Johansson’s forthcoming album of Tom Waits covers, produced by TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek. Mr. Ward and Ms. Deschanel “seemed like a good stylistic fit,” he said.
She & Him’s album has sold about 26,000 copies so far, according to Nielsen SoundScan, outpacing the debut of the duo’s labelmate Arcade Fire, said Mac McCaughan, a founder of Merge and the singer for the band Superchunk.
Of course, Ms. Deschanel and Mr. Ward, a musician based in Portland, Ore., whose quiet troubadourism sells out midsize clubs, are not unknown. They met for a few hours in 2006 to do a cover of Linda and Richard Thompson’s “When I Get to the Border” for the soundtrack of a little-seen movie, “The Go-Getter,” and immediately found themselves mutually charmed.
“There was a lot of playfulness and spontaneity,” Ms. Deschanel said in an interview in a Manhattan cafe. “I just knew that his attitude was exactly the attitude of somebody I should work with.”
For his part Mr. Ward liked that her voice already had the old-fashioned sound he aimed for in the studio. “There was an immediate trust that’s hard to explain,” he added in a phone interview from Portland, where he is known as Matt.
That their record collections overlapped somewhere between the Carpenters, the Ronettes and Tammy Wynette helped too. When Mr. Ward learned that Ms. Deschanel had a stack of demos at home, he asked for a sample; she nervously agreed to share. Songwriting, she said, was a “very important part of myself, and I wanted to bring it out so I could do more, but I didn’t know how.”
The music — lovely, bittersweet melodies about hook-ups and break-ups — “knocked my socks off,” Mr. Ward, 34, said. “It’s surprising enough to hear it from a songwriter. It’s even more surprising to hear it coming from someone who doesn’t write songs for a living.”
But Ms. Deschanel, 28, was a devoted hobbyist, begging her parents, the cinematographer Caleb Deschanel and the actress Mary Jo Deschanel, for piano lessons as a child — she started at the age of 8 — and writing harmony-rich songs by 20. Her piano was perpetually covered in Post-it notes scribbled with ideas, and for a while she had an Andrews
Sisters-style cabaret act around Los Angeles with the actress Samantha Shelton. (Following Ms. Deschanel’s lead Mr. Ward began listening to midcentury vocalists like Wanda Jackson and Darlene Love.)
Still, as a professional actress-turned-musician, Ms. Deschanel cannot escape the mantle of, well, actress-turned-musician. “Just because it doesn’t have Zooey’s name on it,” Mr. Singh wrote by e-mail, “doesn’t spare it that scrutiny. Just ask Dogstar. (Keanu Reeves’s horrible, horrible project.)”
Though she initially began recording with Mr. Ward as a lark — “I was like, this is just a present to myself,” she said — when they decided to release a record they were thoughtful about how to promote it. “I wanted a name that was very humble, modest and anonymous,” Ms. Deschanel said. (She was inspired by the Band.)
But they were also aware that the curiosity effect might help them. “There’s going to be a lot of people approaching this record from very different back stories,” Mr. Ward said. “As long as people are listening to the songs first and not getting too caught up with who is making the songs, I’m happy.”
While they were recording, Ms. Deschanel made some guest appearances at Mr. Ward’s shows, but they had their first few performances as She & Him at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Tex., last month. They are still getting their onstage dynamic right: during one show, Ms. Deschanel, dressed in the same flowy gray skirt she later wore to the interview (double-dipping outfits: very indie darling), appeared nervous, barely smiling until nearly the end of the set. At another, Mr. Ward forgot his slide; he improvised with a beer bottle.
Those are the kind of snags this D.I.Y.ish duo thrives on; they’re already planning a Volume Two. Mr. Ward, who has never before produced an entire album for another performer, found he enjoyed having only to play guitar, not sing. Ms. Deschanel relished having more personal control than she does as an actress.
“Sometimes I like the movies I’m in, sometimes I don’t,” she said. “Whereas this, I could say: This is me. I like it. I stand by it.”
source: newyorktimes.com
On screen the actress Zooey Deschanel is often cast as the quirky naïf or the ironic wit, the kind of character too flustered or too eye-rollingly impatient to multitask. But in real life Ms. Deschanel is a natural hyphenate, an actress-musician-crafty girl.
Now she is showcasing her harmony-loving side in a new band, She & Him, with the singer-songwriter-guitarist M. Ward. Their debut album, “Volume One,” is a collection of vintage-sounding country-tinged songs written mostly by Ms. Deschanel and produced by Mr. Ward. Released last month on the indie label Merge Records, it has received surprised acclaim from magazines and blogs alike. (The duo begin a brief tour with sold-out shows at Hiro Ballroom in New York next Monday and Tuesday.)
And unlike the work of other actors-cum-musicians — Russell Crowe’s various pub-rock acts for example — the album doesn’t come across as a vanity project; in person Ms. Deschanel is exactly as indie darling as her fans would hope.
Though she was raised and lives amid celebrity in Los Angeles and has appeared in both hugely popular films (“Elf,” in which she briefly sang) and critical and cult favorites (“Almost Famous,” “All the Real Girls”), it’s easy to imagine her puttering around a cozily decorated Williamsburg loft. She takes home doggie bags, prefers tights to spray-tans and uses David Bowie’s “Changes” as her ring tone. She knits and crochets and makes brownies and gingerbread because, she said, “I like the way people react when you bake, which is, like, just pure childlike joy.”
She has some of that too — an almost hand-clapping glee — when she talks about She & Him. The music has drawn comparisons to 1970s AM radio staples like Carly Simon and Linda Ronstadt. It is unironically, unapologetically pleasant; feel-good nostalgia in the best sense. “It sort of defied some of the preconceptions and prejudices I would’ve had about an actor rock album,” said Amrit Singh, the executive editor of the music blog stereogum.com. He compared it favorably to another buzzy actress-and-indie collaboration, Scarlett Johansson’s forthcoming album of Tom Waits covers, produced by TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek. Mr. Ward and Ms. Deschanel “seemed like a good stylistic fit,” he said.
She & Him’s album has sold about 26,000 copies so far, according to Nielsen SoundScan, outpacing the debut of the duo’s labelmate Arcade Fire, said Mac McCaughan, a founder of Merge and the singer for the band Superchunk.
Of course, Ms. Deschanel and Mr. Ward, a musician based in Portland, Ore., whose quiet troubadourism sells out midsize clubs, are not unknown. They met for a few hours in 2006 to do a cover of Linda and Richard Thompson’s “When I Get to the Border” for the soundtrack of a little-seen movie, “The Go-Getter,” and immediately found themselves mutually charmed.
“There was a lot of playfulness and spontaneity,” Ms. Deschanel said in an interview in a Manhattan cafe. “I just knew that his attitude was exactly the attitude of somebody I should work with.”
For his part Mr. Ward liked that her voice already had the old-fashioned sound he aimed for in the studio. “There was an immediate trust that’s hard to explain,” he added in a phone interview from Portland, where he is known as Matt.
That their record collections overlapped somewhere between the Carpenters, the Ronettes and Tammy Wynette helped too. When Mr. Ward learned that Ms. Deschanel had a stack of demos at home, he asked for a sample; she nervously agreed to share. Songwriting, she said, was a “very important part of myself, and I wanted to bring it out so I could do more, but I didn’t know how.”
The music — lovely, bittersweet melodies about hook-ups and break-ups — “knocked my socks off,” Mr. Ward, 34, said. “It’s surprising enough to hear it from a songwriter. It’s even more surprising to hear it coming from someone who doesn’t write songs for a living.”
But Ms. Deschanel, 28, was a devoted hobbyist, begging her parents, the cinematographer Caleb Deschanel and the actress Mary Jo Deschanel, for piano lessons as a child — she started at the age of 8 — and writing harmony-rich songs by 20. Her piano was perpetually covered in Post-it notes scribbled with ideas, and for a while she had an Andrews
Sisters-style cabaret act around Los Angeles with the actress Samantha Shelton. (Following Ms. Deschanel’s lead Mr. Ward began listening to midcentury vocalists like Wanda Jackson and Darlene Love.)
Still, as a professional actress-turned-musician, Ms. Deschanel cannot escape the mantle of, well, actress-turned-musician. “Just because it doesn’t have Zooey’s name on it,” Mr. Singh wrote by e-mail, “doesn’t spare it that scrutiny. Just ask Dogstar. (Keanu Reeves’s horrible, horrible project.)”
Though she initially began recording with Mr. Ward as a lark — “I was like, this is just a present to myself,” she said — when they decided to release a record they were thoughtful about how to promote it. “I wanted a name that was very humble, modest and anonymous,” Ms. Deschanel said. (She was inspired by the Band.)
But they were also aware that the curiosity effect might help them. “There’s going to be a lot of people approaching this record from very different back stories,” Mr. Ward said. “As long as people are listening to the songs first and not getting too caught up with who is making the songs, I’m happy.”
While they were recording, Ms. Deschanel made some guest appearances at Mr. Ward’s shows, but they had their first few performances as She & Him at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Tex., last month. They are still getting their onstage dynamic right: during one show, Ms. Deschanel, dressed in the same flowy gray skirt she later wore to the interview (double-dipping outfits: very indie darling), appeared nervous, barely smiling until nearly the end of the set. At another, Mr. Ward forgot his slide; he improvised with a beer bottle.
Those are the kind of snags this D.I.Y.ish duo thrives on; they’re already planning a Volume Two. Mr. Ward, who has never before produced an entire album for another performer, found he enjoyed having only to play guitar, not sing. Ms. Deschanel relished having more personal control than she does as an actress.
“Sometimes I like the movies I’m in, sometimes I don’t,” she said. “Whereas this, I could say: This is me. I like it. I stand by it.”
source: newyorktimes.com
izzie stevens
it's a hard-knock life.
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^ thank you! 
ChloeFrancoise
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An interview from Pitchfork:
Mon: 04-21-08
Interview: She & Him
"That's one of the most exciting things for me about listening to records: It's a moment in time, and the less it's messed with the more powerful it is."
Interview by Mike Carriere | Digg this article | Add to del.icio.us
The track record for actors attempting to cross over into the world of music has been less than stellar. Bands such as Jared Leto's 30 Seconds to Mars, Keanu Reeves' Dogstar, and Russell Crowe's 30 Odd Foot of Grunts remind us that all of these artists should probably hang on to their day jobs for the time being. It is such a checkered history that makes Volume One, the debut album by She & Him, seem even all the more impressive. Fronted by actress Zooey Deschanel (of All the Real Girls, Elf, and The Good Girl, among others) with assistance from M. Ward, Volume One is a remarkably self-assured first album, a record with a strong appreciation of history-- including music history (the two cover the Beatles' "I Should Have Known Better" and Smokey Robinson's "You Really Got a Hold on Me", and offer a take on "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot")-- and a keen awareness of the strengths of both parties involved. Pitchfork recently spoke with Deschanel and Ward about the recording process for Volume One, their love of the past, and overcoming the dreaded actor/musician curse.
Pitchfork: It's clear from your familial history why you got interested in movies at a young age (Deschanel's father is Caleb Deschanel, an Oscar-nominated cinematographer and her mother is actress Mary Jo Deschanel), but I am curious as to what has drawn you to the world of music. Were there experiences in your childhood that pushed you towards a potential career in music?
Zooey Deschanel: I always have loved music, ever since I was really little. I just loved to sing. I can't really explain it, except maybe--and this is going to sound really stupid-- when I would listen to a song it would make me more excited than anything else could. It would fill me with every amazing, wonderful feeling. It gave me so much joy to be able to listen to music. When I got a little bit older I wanted to play piano-- that's all I wanted to do. I remember learning how to play a blues progression on the xylophone in music class and thinking "This is the greatest thing I've ever learned." [laughs]
Pitchfork: Obviously, you became a well-respected actress. Why the desire now to become a musician? Is there a balance-- or perhaps even a tension-- between the ways you approach these two crafts?
ZD: Writing music is really personal, and it's a really exciting thing to participate in because represents the full creative process: It feels like something is coming from nothing. Also, in making a record there are so fewer people involved-- at least in our case. There were no more than three or four people in the studio at once. So I really feel like I can stand by everything on the record and say this is something that I personally endorse.
In making a movie, you're part of a big machine. Even in a small movie there are still so many people involved in the process, and it costs so much money to make. There is so much more invested in it for a lot of different people, so much money is sunk into it that they usually want some guarantee or promise that it's going to be able to do something on a financial level. There's just a lot more messing with you [laughs] in film. I love movies and I love to watch movies and being a part of the whole film experience. Being a filmgoer is a unique experience, and it can affect you on so many levels. But being an actor in movies you often have a very narrow palette for expressing yourself. And that can be fun, but I feel like making music because-- and this has much to do with the way I was able to make this record-- there's more of myself in it.
Pitchfork: So do you see your involvement in music as a bit like taking a role that allows you to highlight a different aspect of your personality-- perhaps in a way that acting in a scripted movie just can't allow?
ZD: Yeah. It's definitely a different side of me.
Pitchfork: I ask that question in part because I notice a sort of coming-of-age theme on the record, which is something a number of your film roles have addressed. The album's first track, "Sentimental Heart", begins with an image of the protagonist lying on her bedroom floor, crying and unable to move. Yet by the last song ("Sweet Darlin'") the protagonist seems much more adult and self-assured. Was an exploration of such themes a conscious decision on your part?
ZD: That's interesting because I'm always interested in hearing how other people read and react to my songs. I hadn't thought of it in just that way. One of the things I love about doing things that are creative is that I feel like it's my right as an artist not to be affected by the reactions of those people that are going to hear my songs. But I also feel like it's the right of the people hearing them to have their own interpretations of what these songs mean. Sometimes people will see things that I don't see.
Pitchfork: Your work seems to have a strong understanding and appreciation of the past.
ZD: I love telling stories. I think of myself as a storyteller, and I don't feel bound by being just a singer or an actress. First, I'm a storyteller, and history is stories-- the most compelling stories. There is a lot you can find out about yourself through knowing about history. I have always been attracted to things that are old. I have just always found such things interesting and compelling.
Pitchfork: Did this understanding of history influence your decision to include a selection of cover songs on the album?
ZD: We had both recorded "I Should Have Known Better" as demos. That was a sort of weird and exciting thing, so we decided to do that as a duet. There's a version of that song on Beach Boys' Party! that I really like because-- and I really love the Beatles version as well, of course-- it's nice to hear a cover that has so much life and is so much fun and so different from the original. It really expressed a different side of the song. I thought here was a song that had many different sides, and we tried to find another one.
The Smokey Robinson song has been covered so many times that it's now almost a standard. We were sort of playing around with it in the studio and then just decided to put it down. I liked that it really had the feeling of that moment in the studio. We recorded it in one take and there were no overdubs. That's one of the most exciting things for me about listening to records: It's a moment in time, and the less it's messed with the more powerful it is. I wanted at least one song on the record to be just completely about the moment.
Pitchfork: What about "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot", a song that doesn't seem able to perform such a task? Why include a song that already has such a long and complex history of its own?
ZD: I had to get over a lot of fear just to even send Matt my songs. For years I was sort of holding all of this stuff in. I had recorded the vocal track for it in my house, all a capella, on my computer using Garage Band or something in the middle of the night. It was in my computer and when I was sending Matt my songs to sort of break the ice, I was really nervous. I made the decision to send him a cover first, thinking that might be a little easier. I sent him that, so that was the first thing he heard. He liked it, and I think I felt like it was nice to have something that retains the feeling of those initial demos. Those demos have a certain quality, of somebody-- that somebody being me [laughs]-- trying to figure out how to make songs. There's sort of an experimental quality to all of them, and I think this song brings the record full circle.
The beginning of the record starts off with "Sentimental Heart"-- it's sort of meant to begin very humbly-- it's very spare. Then it goes into the bigger arrangements and sounds that mark the rest of the song. In a way, that song was meant to be an introduction to the whole world of the record. And the "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" was meant to bring you back to that initial feeling. To me, it begins in my bedroom and then you are introduced to this different world of the record, and then you are taken back out with this little song at the end.
Pitchfork: The track record for actors going into music has been less than stellar. Is this something that you worry about? Are you concerned that people will only be interested in your music because you are "Zooey Deschanel, Actress"?
ZD: I'm not really that interested in pandering to an audience of people that are going to judge me before they hear me. If they hear it and don't like it, that's totally fine. There are lots of things that everyone else likes that I hate. So I feel that audience rights are very important. I just want people to hear it and decide if they like it or don't like it as they would with anything else.
One thing that was important to me was that the project have a different name than mine. I already have the weird experience of having a name for myself personally that's connected to someone that's in the public eye. So you have me, Zooey Deschanel, and then there's Zooey Deschanel's public persona. "Persona" may not be the best word-- I try to be authentic-- but at the same time I don't really want people prying into my personal life. It was important to have something that had a name that was different from all of that. It can make you a little crazy when you are too connected to a product. So we came up with something that was sort of humble and a bit anonymous. I don't really have so much interest in being a "star" in this format. I just really enjoy playing music.
I love these quotes: "when I would listen to a song it would make me more excited than anything else could. It would fill me with every amazing, wonderful feeling. It gave me so much joy to be able to listen to music."
"I'm not really that interested in pandering to an audience of people that are going to judge me before they hear me."
Mon: 04-21-08
Interview: She & Him
"That's one of the most exciting things for me about listening to records: It's a moment in time, and the less it's messed with the more powerful it is."
Interview by Mike Carriere | Digg this article | Add to del.icio.us
The track record for actors attempting to cross over into the world of music has been less than stellar. Bands such as Jared Leto's 30 Seconds to Mars, Keanu Reeves' Dogstar, and Russell Crowe's 30 Odd Foot of Grunts remind us that all of these artists should probably hang on to their day jobs for the time being. It is such a checkered history that makes Volume One, the debut album by She & Him, seem even all the more impressive. Fronted by actress Zooey Deschanel (of All the Real Girls, Elf, and The Good Girl, among others) with assistance from M. Ward, Volume One is a remarkably self-assured first album, a record with a strong appreciation of history-- including music history (the two cover the Beatles' "I Should Have Known Better" and Smokey Robinson's "You Really Got a Hold on Me", and offer a take on "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot")-- and a keen awareness of the strengths of both parties involved. Pitchfork recently spoke with Deschanel and Ward about the recording process for Volume One, their love of the past, and overcoming the dreaded actor/musician curse.
Pitchfork: It's clear from your familial history why you got interested in movies at a young age (Deschanel's father is Caleb Deschanel, an Oscar-nominated cinematographer and her mother is actress Mary Jo Deschanel), but I am curious as to what has drawn you to the world of music. Were there experiences in your childhood that pushed you towards a potential career in music?
Zooey Deschanel: I always have loved music, ever since I was really little. I just loved to sing. I can't really explain it, except maybe--and this is going to sound really stupid-- when I would listen to a song it would make me more excited than anything else could. It would fill me with every amazing, wonderful feeling. It gave me so much joy to be able to listen to music. When I got a little bit older I wanted to play piano-- that's all I wanted to do. I remember learning how to play a blues progression on the xylophone in music class and thinking "This is the greatest thing I've ever learned." [laughs]
Pitchfork: Obviously, you became a well-respected actress. Why the desire now to become a musician? Is there a balance-- or perhaps even a tension-- between the ways you approach these two crafts?
ZD: Writing music is really personal, and it's a really exciting thing to participate in because represents the full creative process: It feels like something is coming from nothing. Also, in making a record there are so fewer people involved-- at least in our case. There were no more than three or four people in the studio at once. So I really feel like I can stand by everything on the record and say this is something that I personally endorse.
In making a movie, you're part of a big machine. Even in a small movie there are still so many people involved in the process, and it costs so much money to make. There is so much more invested in it for a lot of different people, so much money is sunk into it that they usually want some guarantee or promise that it's going to be able to do something on a financial level. There's just a lot more messing with you [laughs] in film. I love movies and I love to watch movies and being a part of the whole film experience. Being a filmgoer is a unique experience, and it can affect you on so many levels. But being an actor in movies you often have a very narrow palette for expressing yourself. And that can be fun, but I feel like making music because-- and this has much to do with the way I was able to make this record-- there's more of myself in it.
Pitchfork: So do you see your involvement in music as a bit like taking a role that allows you to highlight a different aspect of your personality-- perhaps in a way that acting in a scripted movie just can't allow?
ZD: Yeah. It's definitely a different side of me.
Pitchfork: I ask that question in part because I notice a sort of coming-of-age theme on the record, which is something a number of your film roles have addressed. The album's first track, "Sentimental Heart", begins with an image of the protagonist lying on her bedroom floor, crying and unable to move. Yet by the last song ("Sweet Darlin'") the protagonist seems much more adult and self-assured. Was an exploration of such themes a conscious decision on your part?
ZD: That's interesting because I'm always interested in hearing how other people read and react to my songs. I hadn't thought of it in just that way. One of the things I love about doing things that are creative is that I feel like it's my right as an artist not to be affected by the reactions of those people that are going to hear my songs. But I also feel like it's the right of the people hearing them to have their own interpretations of what these songs mean. Sometimes people will see things that I don't see.
Pitchfork: Your work seems to have a strong understanding and appreciation of the past.
ZD: I love telling stories. I think of myself as a storyteller, and I don't feel bound by being just a singer or an actress. First, I'm a storyteller, and history is stories-- the most compelling stories. There is a lot you can find out about yourself through knowing about history. I have always been attracted to things that are old. I have just always found such things interesting and compelling.
Pitchfork: Did this understanding of history influence your decision to include a selection of cover songs on the album?
ZD: We had both recorded "I Should Have Known Better" as demos. That was a sort of weird and exciting thing, so we decided to do that as a duet. There's a version of that song on Beach Boys' Party! that I really like because-- and I really love the Beatles version as well, of course-- it's nice to hear a cover that has so much life and is so much fun and so different from the original. It really expressed a different side of the song. I thought here was a song that had many different sides, and we tried to find another one.
The Smokey Robinson song has been covered so many times that it's now almost a standard. We were sort of playing around with it in the studio and then just decided to put it down. I liked that it really had the feeling of that moment in the studio. We recorded it in one take and there were no overdubs. That's one of the most exciting things for me about listening to records: It's a moment in time, and the less it's messed with the more powerful it is. I wanted at least one song on the record to be just completely about the moment.
Pitchfork: What about "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot", a song that doesn't seem able to perform such a task? Why include a song that already has such a long and complex history of its own?
ZD: I had to get over a lot of fear just to even send Matt my songs. For years I was sort of holding all of this stuff in. I had recorded the vocal track for it in my house, all a capella, on my computer using Garage Band or something in the middle of the night. It was in my computer and when I was sending Matt my songs to sort of break the ice, I was really nervous. I made the decision to send him a cover first, thinking that might be a little easier. I sent him that, so that was the first thing he heard. He liked it, and I think I felt like it was nice to have something that retains the feeling of those initial demos. Those demos have a certain quality, of somebody-- that somebody being me [laughs]-- trying to figure out how to make songs. There's sort of an experimental quality to all of them, and I think this song brings the record full circle.
The beginning of the record starts off with "Sentimental Heart"-- it's sort of meant to begin very humbly-- it's very spare. Then it goes into the bigger arrangements and sounds that mark the rest of the song. In a way, that song was meant to be an introduction to the whole world of the record. And the "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" was meant to bring you back to that initial feeling. To me, it begins in my bedroom and then you are introduced to this different world of the record, and then you are taken back out with this little song at the end.
Pitchfork: The track record for actors going into music has been less than stellar. Is this something that you worry about? Are you concerned that people will only be interested in your music because you are "Zooey Deschanel, Actress"?
ZD: I'm not really that interested in pandering to an audience of people that are going to judge me before they hear me. If they hear it and don't like it, that's totally fine. There are lots of things that everyone else likes that I hate. So I feel that audience rights are very important. I just want people to hear it and decide if they like it or don't like it as they would with anything else.
One thing that was important to me was that the project have a different name than mine. I already have the weird experience of having a name for myself personally that's connected to someone that's in the public eye. So you have me, Zooey Deschanel, and then there's Zooey Deschanel's public persona. "Persona" may not be the best word-- I try to be authentic-- but at the same time I don't really want people prying into my personal life. It was important to have something that had a name that was different from all of that. It can make you a little crazy when you are too connected to a product. So we came up with something that was sort of humble and a bit anonymous. I don't really have so much interest in being a "star" in this format. I just really enjoy playing music.
I love these quotes: "when I would listen to a song it would make me more excited than anything else could. It would fill me with every amazing, wonderful feeling. It gave me so much joy to be able to listen to music."
"I'm not really that interested in pandering to an audience of people that are going to judge me before they hear me."
style_savy
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Zooey Deschanel in vintage
instyle
Jenna-maria
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she looked so lovely at the barneys photos. and i definetly love that she wears black tights almost with everything. she is just so frikin lovely, just got mine she & him cd from mail. i am in LOVE with it 
OOOH and i absolutely love conan so it is great that she is there!!!!!!
OOOH and i absolutely love conan so it is great that she is there!!!!!!
