Aimee Mann - Interview

For its “spooky beauty” and “mystery” Christmas becomes Aimee Mann’s muse on One More Drifter In The Snow (Super Ego Records), her latest album. Featuring holiday classics like "Whatever Happened to Christmas," "Christmastime" "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch,” “White Christmas” and a Mann original, “Calling On Mary,” the record harkens back to classic albums of the 40’s & 50’s for their beautiful, thoughtful qualities. But the storyteller’s heartfelt imprint is left in the careful collection and interpretation of songs reflecting “the range of emotions that people have around Christmas."

With producer Paul Bryan’s assist, the duo used the Peanuts Christmas special as one jumping-off point, with both the jazz-inflected Vince Guaraldi Trio soundtrack and comic melancholy of Charlie Brown as influences. Another major inspiration was the Johnny Mathis Christmas album, a record Mann heard as a kid in her house every holiday.

“When I first was thinking about doing a Christmas record I didn’t really know if I wanted to do a whole album and then I started talking to my producer, Paul Bryan…We just started talking about Christmas music that we like and there are really just a lot of Christmas songs that I just like as songs, that I appreciate musically,” says Mann. “When I listen to a Christmas record I hate that whole modern approach where it’s like, the ‘electronica Christmas’ or ‘rocking up Christmas.’ It really does bug me. Christmas songs to me are mostly the Christmas standards. ‘Chestnuts Roasting’ and ‘White Christmas’ and those kinds of songs. With Dean Martin, Peggy Lee, Frank Sinatra, classic vocalists. That’s what I think of…So we thought we’d start in that direction.”

“And the other thing that we were talking about is how you felt as a kid and the things that we remembered as kids and it was always the cartoons,” continues Mann. “The Peanuts cartoon with the Vince Guaraldi jazz trio and the Grinch. That is such a great song, ‘You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch.’ So the more we talked about it, the more we were excited that there was a lot of great stuff out there. And it started to become a much more fun and interesting project. I think that Peanuts cartoon does sort of sum it up because you know when Linus talks about the meaning of Christmas; it does get kind of spooky. And when you’re a little kid and you’re waiting for Santa to come, it is a little mysterious…That’s kind of where I was going with it.”

Mann’s original tune, “Calling On Mary,” co-written with Bryan fits seamlessly aside the rest of the tracks.

“I think our idea was almost like a classic Christmas as salvation story,” says Mann. “This guy’s walking around town and he’s all depressed and he kind of has his moment of Christmas spirit where he sees the Christmas tree being lit up and he has that comfort and joy moment. It’s fun because writing a Christmas song gives you liberty to be super corny and Capra-esque [as in Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life”]. You want the guy who sees the tree being lit up in the town square and suddenly feels the love and joy of the holiday.”

So anyone who actually creates a Christmas album has to have a favorite Christmas memory, right?

“Not necessarily,” says Mann. “I think I have the generalized, being a kid and waking up in the middle of the night and looking outside and seeing if you see Santa Claus and being excited…And then I have all of the bad Christmas memories that everyone has, like the Christmas where you just broke up with your boyfriend and when my parents were getting divorced. When they were fighting over who would have us for Christmas. So I’m no stranger to the crappy Christmases. But I think the nice thing is when I got into the studio and started playing these songs, I instantly had the Christmas spirit of all the nice stuff…It’s really nice that music puts you in a different kind of mood.”

Aimee Mann performs at Town Hall on December 12 and 14.

Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly (11/29/06).