Aimee Mann and Ted Leo talk about their working relationship and matching personalities in their new band, the Both.
Ted Leo ribs his bandmate for being a few minutes tardy to a phone interview.
“I’m usually the late one,” said Leo, 43, who’s known for his indie-punk work as a solo artist and with his band the Pharmacists. “But we’re both semi-responsible about different things. She’s better with a calendar, I’m better with a watch.”
The compatibility doesn’t end there. Mann and Leo’s new project, , finds the acclaimed artists splitting duties between singing and songwriting, guitar playing and harmonizing. Their self-titled debut, released on April 15 on Superego, melds Mann’s literate folk with Leo’s thorny, sugary guitar work, resulting in a best-of-both-worlds listening experience.
We talked to Mann and Leo in advance the Both’s Colorado dates at Boulder’s on Aug. 8 (sold out), the on Aug. 9 and Aug. 10.
Q: Since you’re both established solo artists, have you found it difficult to delegate creative responsibilities in the Both?
Aimee Mann: I think thatap only a problem if one person is a control freak and you have to constantly negotiate how to convince them to do something differently. Maybe itap because we’re not 20 anymore, but I feel like you always dream about collaborating with someone who makes up for the things you can’t do well, and this experience has actually exceeded my expectations.
Q: I know you started working together musically in 2012 when Ted was opening for you on tour, and you already had a lot of overlap in the indie music and comedy worlds. How does that translate to the Both?
Aimee Mann: A shared sense of humor was the big thing that drew us together and certainly a significant factor in feeling like it would be really fun to go on tour with Ted. He would be a person that would entertaining for extended periods of time and give me an extra boost.
Ted Leo: I’ve always been somebody who enjoys joking around on stage so that shared sensibility really greased the wheels. We don’t tamp down our stage banter.
Q: Your single “Milwaukee” is a pretty balanced hybrid of your styles. Do you find yourselves imitating each other while writing for the Both?
Aimee Mann: Ted has a bigger stylistic vocabulary than I do, so it was easier for him to come over to my side than me to go to his. But actually, the most upbeat songs are probably the ones I contributed more to. I wanted to try to write a Ted Leo song, but itap very hard for me to translate that into something that works for my voice. Generally, as soon as I start singing a song — whatever the tempo or style — it just starts sounding like a folk song.
Ted Leo: I feel like you may have just contradicted yourself in a complimentary way, Aimee. I come up with little hummed melodies sometimes but itap really Aimee who takes to the loudest, most upbeat place on the record. She really sets the tone successfully.
Q: So you meet in the middle, stylistically?
Ted Leo: Itap more about taking off the seat belts that we might otherwise strap ourselves in with if we were working on our own solo projects.
Q: Real talk: Do you have matching outfits yet?
Aimee Mann: Well, we don’t necessarily not match.
Ted Leo: One day we showed up to a venue both wearing blue jeans, green army jackets, some kind of green-colored shirt underneath and black boots. Aimee’s bass player Paul Bryan, who produced the record, started cracking up and we couldn’t figure out why.
Aimee Mann: Which means we should take this act to vaudeville.
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John Wenzel is an A&E reporter and critic for The Denver Post. Follow him @johnwenzel.
