We hadn’t heard from Aimee Mann for some time, but she is back with a new music video for the title track of her eighth studio album ‘Charmer’.
The video, directed by Tom Scharpling, is joking around the idea that a robot could replace Aimee on tour as she worries about been a little tired of traveling,… if the idea sounds too good to be true at first, problem arises when Pygmalion the twin robot, played by sort-of-look-alike Laura Linney, supplants the master.
It’s a funny one and the music is vintage Aimee Mann, a little upbeat and super catchy – although may be very close to what she has done before – with these robotic synths almost humming the chorus for us. And Aimee was very talkative about it on NPR, as this is what she declared:
"Even before I started making a record I knew I wanted Tom Scharpling to direct a video for it. I'd seen the videos he did for the New Pornographers, Ted Leo, Wild Flag, John Hodgman and The Ettes etc… I thought they were really well put together. He had an ability to extract a lot more from a video than the budget would usually indicate.
We talked about the song "Charmer," how it was about people whose charm can become like a persona that then starts to block the person's real self. I definitely wanted something lighthearted and his concept did the perfect job of skirting the line between funny and still acting a bit as a metaphor for the more serious bits that are in the song. He came up with the idea of having a robot stand-in for me in the video, a perfect replica I could send out to do tours and signings and what-not so the me of the video could stay home and do other things. It's a funny idea because there really IS an element of having to having to craft a separate persona when you perform; you fight against it but it makes sense that it happens. I love this video concept because the idea completely falls apart when the robot double begins to do a better job than the original. Such are the pitfalls of relying on a persona! I think Scharpling did a great job, and honestly, it's a rare experience for me to have complete confidence in a video director. But he has great and funny and interesting ideas, and knows how to make things happen.
The biggest surprise was having Laura Linney agree to play the robot double. I had met her at a show of mine in NY a few years ago and just took a huge chance and got in touch with her. It is very hard to ask someone so talented to be a part of something so ridiculous. The miracle was that she was not only willing to do it, she was available and in NY. It goes without saying that she was terrific, but that she could put up with the sort of no-budget, 100-degree-heat, shooting-in-filthy-warehouses shenanigans we put her through with such good humor practically qualifies her for sainthood.’
Her album ‘Charmer’ will be out on September 18 via her own Super-Ego label.