  'Having this really cool, young director sign off on you, makes people take you seriously in a way that they didn’t before,' says Aimee Mann, describing her breakout soundtrack for 'Magnolia.' |
TORONTO -- It's been almost eight years since "Magnolia" propelled Aimee Mann from sullen, smoke-filled coffeehouses to an Academy Award nomination, but she's still leery of them.
Faces at once nonchalant and then suddenly giddy; people, who at the drop of a dime, use a veneer of 'I'm-OK-you're-OK' smugness to try and make you happy. Living in Los Angeles, Mann meets these types everyday and they make her, well, sick.
So she named her new album "@#%&! Smilers" after them.
"I actually wanted to call it 'F---ing Smilers,'" Mann, 47, says uncovering the lid from a just-delivered cup of coffee in the suite of her Front Street hotel. "But I decided I better just name it…'Smilers,'" she says with a wave her hand.
Admitting that the title is also a jab at critics who think her music is too morose, Mann says she first spotted the phrase in the newsgroup alt.bitter.
"Back before webpages existed, my friend and I found this newsgroup filled with people talking about how bitter they were," she says, her lips curling into a bit of a grin.
"One of the threads was called 'F---ing Smilers.' And the person who wrote it was bitter about people who would come up to you on the streets and say,' What's wrong? Smile.'
"I have to say; I hate that. If you don't feel like smiling, you really don't feel like smiling. You don't need some jackass forcing you to smile."
But unlike 2005's concept release, "The Forgotten Arm," which followed the adventures of a young couple on the run, "@#%&! Smilers" is a loosely connected series of short stories that capture the less glamorous side of Los Angeles. The addicts ("Freeway'), the scorned lovers ("Phoenix") and the failed artisans ("31 Today"), are all there, bathed in a waltzy blend of strings and keys.
"I wanted each song on this album to tell a completely different story, with new characters," Mann says. "So it's more of a short collection than one long narrative."
Considering that her group of friends is made up of well-known Hollywood faces (she's married to Michael Penn - brother of Sean), some of whom gleefully mock their fame in a trilogy of scripted YouTube videos, Mann has a strange kinship with the kinds of people whose lives don't always work out.
"The people who win big in Hollywood," she says sipping from her cup of coffee, "are often complete, total control freak narcissists who are completely crazy.
"But in a way what can you expect? LA has to be obsessed with appearances 'cause moviemaking is all about making something look like something it isn't."
Kind of like all those @#%&*! smilers.
"Who really needs it to be picture day all over again?" she says. "Remember when you were at school, whenever it was picture day, the photographer would come in and force you to smile?
"Now you're stuck with this picture with a big, fake smile. And there's nothing worse than a fake smile."
Aimee Mann performs at the Kool Haus in Toronto Thursday, August 28.
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On the Net:
http://www.aimeemann.com
