Singer-songwriter Aimee Mann has spent years bucking the record industry in her pursuit of artistic freedom. But her persistence has finally paid off.
It's been the busiest, most successful year of Mann's career since her band 'Til Tuesday broke up a decade ago. She released her third solo album (and first independent release), "Bachelor No. 2," to critical acclaim. Eight of her songs were used in the soundtrack of the movie "Magnolia" (including the Academy Award-nominated "Save Me"). She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for the soundtrack. And she did an extensive concert tour with husband Michael Penn, a singer-songwriter and recording artist in his own right.
Mann, who appears at the Mystic Theater on Dec. 11 as part of a mini-tour of the West Coast, is happy to be making music on her own terms these days instead of struggling with record company executives.
"I really like the idea of being a professional musician - that I have a job that I'm good at and a good work ethic. I get a giant kick out of that," she says in comments on her web site. "It's fun working on the craft aspect, but toward an emotional end."
A native of Virginia, Mann attended Boston's prestigious Berklee College of Music in the early 1980s. She quit the school and formed her first band, the Young Snakes. After that group broke up, she teamed up with fellow Berklee dropout Michael Hausman along with Joey Pesce and Robert Holmes to form 'Til Tuesday. After winning a Boston battle of the bands contest, Epic Records signed the band and their debut album, "Voices Carry," went gold within seven months, thanks to heavy play on MTV. The group put out three albums on Epic before disbanding in 1990.
Mann's solo debut, "Whatever," released in 1993, drew praise from critics and fans. Her 1996 album, "I'm With Stupid," was called "one of the catchiest pop albums of the year, brimming with poised three-minute mini-masterpieces" by Time magazine. Entertainment Weekly described her as "one of rock's most elegantly gifted writers, with a well-attuned psychological acuity to her catchy kiss-offs that any angry young woman should envy. Bitterness, regret, and recrimination never sounded any sweeter, or smarter."
On her latest album, Mann worked again with co-producer and multi-instrumentalist Jon Brion - her main collaborator since just before 'Til Tuesday broke up in the late '80s. She self-produced most of the tracks on "Bachelor No. 2," which has more ballads than her previous work.
Mann bought the album back from her previous label, Interscope Records, rather than agree to their demands to replace some songs by recording more hit-radio-friendly material. "Bachelor No. 2" includes uncompromising songs like "Nothing is Good Enough" and "Calling It Quits" and the wryly titled "Fall of the World's Own Optimist," co-written with Elvis Costello.
Some major labels have shown interest in signing her recently, but Mann is adamant that she won't go that route again. Although her independently-distributed CD isn't found in every record store, she sells quite a few of her current albums and her back catalog at concerts and through her web site. The Internet gives musicians the powerful option to sell their own music - something they didn't have a few years ago.
"Probably one of the reasons it's so frustrating dealing with people at record companies who are trying to push you in a direction you're not comfortable with is that they're trying to get you to do stuff you're not good at," she says. "Posing for pictures and videos and schmoozing is the thing I'm least competent at. But writing lyrics and putting songs together and recording them - that part I'm good at. To thwart that and then encourage the thing that I can only be mediocre at is just very stressful."
Major record labels, says Mann, are for people who want to have giant hits at any cost. That's the place for them," she says. "It hasn't been a system for people like me in a long, long time. I was crazy to think I could find some way to make it work for me. As it happens, I can't. And I'm a million times happier, just in these last few months, going out on tour and playing for myself and having nobody criticize the way I'm touring or what I'm playing or what I say in interviews. It's fantastic - it's incredibly liberating."
(Aimee Mann appears in concert Monday, Dec. 11 at the Mystic Theater, 21 Petaluma Blvd. North. Opening is Grant-Lee Phillips. Showtime is 9 p.m. Tickets are $22. Phone 765-6665.)
(Published Dec. 6, 2000)
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