Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
SHINING A LIGHT
FIERCELY DETERMINED MANN AN INSPIRATION TO WOMEN
She was nominated for an Oscar but musician Aimee Mann admitted you don’t need to be working in the movie business to experience severe sexual harassment.
It’s been three weeks since sexual assault and harassment allegations against producer Harvey Weinstein hit headlines and stars are still reeling from what many have called one of Hollywood’s worst – and worst kept – secrets.
US singer-songwriter Mann, 57, told The Beat: “I’m not part of that scene but even I had heard that ‘that guy’s a creep.’
“But nothing really specific.”
The Save Me hitmaker told how every single woman she knows has been a victim in one form or another, including herself.
“We’ve all experienced a version of this. Every single woman. You know, you go to his apartment and it’s a friendly thing then suddenly it’s the version of going to the bathroom and coming out in a bathrobe.
“I’ve definitely experienced that, we all have.”
The star – who has also appeared on screen as a
German nihilist in The Big Lebowski, with her band on
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and was more recently featured in an episode of
Portlandia – said she feels
“lucky” to have escaped relatively unscathed.
“I never really encountered (sexual harassment) in the music industry but I’m not saying it doesn’t exist.
“Back in the days of labels and trying to get signed to labels think people at labels thought you were a viable commodity or they didn’t.
She added: “I can’t really imagine having lots of meetings alone with record executives in hotel rooms but the movie business has more of that.”
Fiercely political, Mann is also getting behind Ireland’s Repeal The 8th movement and said she worries about the US tightening its abortion laws.
“There’s a right wing faction that have been trying to ban abortion for years and years.
“A lot of people have pointed out that it’s a real economic issue for women. If you force women to have children you force them into a dire economic situation.”
Starting out in Boston-based new-wave group ‘Til Tuesday, a then 25-year-old Mann scored her first Top 10 hit with their first single, Voices Carry.
But it was her work on the soundtrack for Paul Thomas Anderson’s critically-acclaimed film Magnolia that catapulted her into stardom.
In 1999 Save Me was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song, and was also nominated for a 2001 Grammy award as Best Pop Female Vocal.
In 1999, she cut herself loose from the industry mainstream releasing her own work on her own label, Superego Records.
Earlier this year she released Mental Illness, (above) her ninth studio album and her first since 2012’s Charmer.
The 11-track album is inspired by 70s soft rockers Bread and gives a nod to the fragile music of Elliott Smith.
Mann showcases that sad, folky approach on lead single Goose
Snow Cone.
“Even birds of a feather find it hard to fly,” she croons over acoustic guitars and strings.
Mann, who has battled an eating disorder and is open about her struggle with depression, said the album title started out as a dark joke.
She said: “I was talking to a friend of mine when I was recording the record and he was asking what it was about. You can’t really explain what a record is about to someone. I gave a flippant answer, ‘it’s about my usual songs about mental illness.’
“In return he said ‘why don’t you call it mental illness? Then as soon as he suggested that it really made me laugh because it was so stark in a way that was funny but it’s also kind of accurate.
“The theme of mental illness runs through this record.”
The star, who is married to Sean Penn’s brother, the musician Michael Penn, said she has been enjoying playing the new tracks live on her current European tour.
“I really like playing these songs life. This album is a little on the acoustic side but we do have a full band, bass and drums and everything.
“It’s nice to have some really stripped down moments.”
She added: “I love Ireland, they’re a great audience. I feel like maybe this is a dream and I’m projecting my own desires onto the country but I feel like the Irish are a highly literate and educated people so it’s nice to play for a smart audience.”
zaimee Mann plays Dublin’s National Stadium on Saturday October 28. Tickets priced €40, available at Ticketmaster.