Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Along with the album announcement comes the music video for its first single, Darlin.
Thank you both for taking the time to talk with us about this project.
How long has it been in the making?
Zooey Deschanel:We started deep into the pandemic.
It was very much a project we started working on as a shutdown project.
Being from Southern California, I think its part of the landscape.
Its probably the longest
M. Ward:Incubation …
Deschanel:… Because we normally record very quickly.
Like in six days.
This album has a mix of some very well-known Wilson songs and more obscure cuts.
How did you select this mix of tracks?
And that eventually got whittled down to what made it to the record.
This album easily could have been two or three volumes.
Theres so much of his catalogue to be inspired by.
Your ties to Brian Wilson go way back.
Matt, you covered aPet Soundssong on your 2005 albumTransistor Radio.
Zooey, you had anArtists on Artistsinterview with him way back in the day.
How did that working relationship start?
Deschanel:Just generally stalking him, mostly.
Not really, but I would go to see him play every chance I could get.
I knew that there was a lot to Brian Wilson that is underexplored.
Wilson actually does the vocals on one of these tracks, Do It Again.
How did that collaboration happen?
Deschanel:We werent even in the room with him.
Deschanel:Its funny our plan was always for it to be a tribute to Brian.
But I dont think we thought that we should ask Brian to be on one of the tracks.
We thought this will be something that well send him that hopefully hell like.
But then Do It Again, Ive always loved that song.
We were both unsure of our own ability to do that song.
Its got a percussive vocal top-line melody.
Its so Beach Boys that its hard to pivot from how the original was done.
So we were thinking wed ask a guest to be on it.
All the folks that he collaborates with are amazing.
Brian Wilsons compositions are famously layered and complex.
But you guys are a pretty intimate indie-folk outfit.
So how did you achieve the bigness and depth of these recordings?
Deschanel:I usually record a lot of vocals.
But on this album, I would record 40 vocal tracks for one song.
Youd have three to four doing the same thing, and then youd have 10 to 15 different parts.
And then everything would be doubled, or tripled, or quadrupled for all of the backing parts.
Its a massive amount of singing for me.
There is just a massive, massive, massivenumber of tracks on every single one of these songs.
And this would be all me, and Matt would come in, too.
Sometimes those Beach Boys harmonies are so tight, and theyre so Brian.
I cant always break every single thing down.
What would happen if these songs came out of us?
That was the experiment.
Ward:Im always learning from him, the way that he puts chords together.
Weve been covering his songs for so long, and Im sure its similar with Zooey.
Deschanel:Nobody writes songs like Brian Wilson.
Ward:Melt Away and Til I Die are great examples of that.
These have this effortlessness that is so incredible given the complexity of his songs.
Theres almost always an extra backing vocal that I can put in the mix.
Im sure for Matt too.
Theyre all experiments, really.
Speaking of getting experimental, you took a very offbeat approach covering Heads You Win Tails I Lose.
Deschanel:Thats all Matt.
Is it the first-ever She & Him vocoder moment?
Ward:Thats a great question.
Deschanel:I was surprised at how that came out because I sent in vocals.
I wasnt as invested in the final product.
And then we got the master, and I was like,Whoa!
This is very cool.
I love instrumentals, and Brian Wilson has so many great instrumentals.Pet Soundshas so many.
It was fun reinventing that.
Whats next for She & Him?
Have you done any songwriting?
Deschanel:This is the most fruitful, longest collaboration Ive ever had on anything, ever.
Deschanel:Im always excited to make a She & Him record.
Im always excited to work with Matt.
Were just doing stuff because its fun for us and we like it.
Theres a purity to it that I appreciate and love being a part of.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
