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| Birth Name(s) : Aimee Mann |
Date of Birth: N/A |
| Status:
Single
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Partner:
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| Profession:
Singer-songwriter |
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Full Aimee Mann Biography
Aimee Mann (born September 8, 1960) is an American rock guitarist, bassist, singer, and noted songwriter.
Aimee Mann was born in Midlothian, Virginia, graduated from Open High School and attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, but dropped out to sing with her first punk rock band, the Young Snakes; the band released the EP Bark Along with the Young Snakes in 1982, and a compilation album was issued in 2004.
In 1983, seeking a return to "sweetness and melody", she co-founded with Berklee classmate and boyfriend Michael Hausman the new wave band 'Til Tuesday, which achieved success in 1985 with its first album, Voices Carry. The title song is said to be inspired by Hausman and Mann's breakup; the video became an MTV staple, winning the MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist, although Mann's then-signature spiky hair would lead some to dismiss the group. Mann performed with the rock band Rush on the song "Time Stand Still" (from Hold Your Fire, 1987), singing backup vocals and appearing in the music video. With Mann playing an increasingly important role in songwriting, 'Til Tuesday released two more albums, Welcome Home and Everything's Different Now. On the final album and tour, musician Jon Brion joined the band, which broke up in 1990 when Mann left to start her solo career.
Around the time of the first album's release, Mann began a romantic relationship with Jules Shear; they broke up before the final 'Til Tuesday album, which contained the song "J For Jules." Professional relationships from the band would continue: Hausman later became Mann's manager, and Brion produced her first two solo albums, along with the Magnolia soundtrack.
In 1993 Mann released Whatever, her first solo album. Promotion suffered due to the collapse of her label, Imago. While only a small hit, the album was critically praised, and paved the way for her next release, 1995's I'm with Stupid, through Geffen Records. Again, reviews were positive, but sales were weak.
Mann recorded Bachelor No. 2, but Geffen saw no hit singles in the material and ordered her back to the studio. The album languished while Mann and the label fought.
Meanwhile, film director Paul Thomas Anderson, for whom Penn and Brion had composed a soundtrack, became a close friend. Mann gained greater public recognition in 1999 — indeed, more than anything else since "Voices Carry" — when she contributed eight songs to the soundtrack of Anderson's Magnolia, including the Academy Award-nominated song, "Save Me." Anderson deliberately worked from Mann's lyrics to create the film's characters and situations. Mann soon became sought after as a soundtrack contributor.
Mann, Penn, Brion, Fiona Apple, and other musicians had by this time developed a subculture around the Largo nightclub in L.A. Penn and Mann formed a concept called Acoustic Vaudeville to recreate it on tour in California and eventually on an irregular, ongoing national tour. The Acoustic Vaudeville shows intermix music and stand-up comedy; among the comedians joining them for individual shows were Janeane Garofalo, Patton Oswalt, and David Cross. Mann continued her solo career with Lost in Space (2002), a somewhat more sombre album in the same vein as Bachelor No. 2. In 2003 her website released the Lost in Space Special Edition, which featured a second disc containing six live recordings, as well two B-sides and two previously unreleased songs. In November 2004, Live at St. Ann's Warehouse, a live album and DVD recorded at a series of June 2004 shows in Brooklyn, came out; the two discs were sold packaged together in either a CD jewel case or a DVD case.
In July 2006, Mann announced that she would be releasing One More Drifter in the Snow, a full-length Christmas album. The album featured primarily covers of Christmas standards, as well as a new version of "Christmastime" and an original song, called "Calling On Mary", written by Mann and bassist Paul Bryan, who produced the record. It was released on October 31 in the US, and late November 2006 in the UK.
In July 2007, the music video for a song entitled '31 Today' (which featured comedienne Morgan Murphy alongside Mann) was posted on the internet. The song will presumably be featured on Mann's sixth studio album, tentatively titled Smilers, which has been slated for an early 2008 release.
July 31, 2007 saw the release of the soundtrack for the motion picture Arctic Tale featuring two new Mann songs, "The Great Beyond" and "At the Edge of the World."
(directors in parenthesis)
- Stupid Thing (1993)
- I Should've Known (Katherine Dieckmann) (1993)
- Say Anything (1993)
- That's Just What You Are (1995)
- Amateur (Bobby Woods) (1995)
- Save Me (Paul Thomas Anderson) (1999)
- Ghost World (Michael Panes) (2000)
- Calling It Quits (Robert Cohen) (2000)
- Red Vines (Evan Mather) (spec video) (2001)
- Pavlov's Bell (James Frost) (2002)
- How Am I Different (Naoki Mitsuse) (2002) (in fact a short film called "Joe's Story 01")
- Pavlov's Bell (Evan Mather) (spec video) (2003)
- Video (James Frost) (spec video) (2005)
'Til Tuesday Albums:Voices Carry | Welcome Home | Everything's Different Now | Coming Up Close: A Retrospective
Solo albums:Whatever | I'm with Stupid | Magnolia: Music from the Motion Picture | Bachelor No. 2 | Lost in Space | The Forgotten Arm | One More Drifter in the Snow |
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