Aimee Mann
Aimee Elizabeth Mann (born September 8, 1960) is an American singer-songwriter. Over the course of four decades, she has released more than a dozen albums as a solo artist and with other musicians. She is noted for her sardonic and literate lyrics about dark subjects. Mann's work with the producer Jon Brion in the 1990s was influential on American alternative rock.
Aimee Mann
Aimee Elizabeth Mann
September 8, 1960
Richmond, Virginia, U.S.
Musician
- Vocals
- bass
- guitar
1980–present
Mann was born in Richmond, Virginia, and studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. In the 1980s, after playing with the Young Snakes and Ministry, she co-founded the new wave band 'Til Tuesday and wrote their top-ten single "Voices Carry" (1985). 'Til Tuesday released three albums and disbanded in 1990 when Mann left to pursue a solo career.
Mann released her first solo album, Whatever, in 1993, followed by I'm With Stupid in 1995. Both earned positive reviews but low sales, and placed Mann in conflict with her record company, Geffen. She achieved wider recognition for her contributions to the soundtrack for the Paul Thomas Anderson film Magnolia (1999). Her song "Save Me" was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song and the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal. After Geffen refused to release her third album, Bachelor No. 2, Mann released it under her own label, SuperEgo Records, in 2000. It achieved acclaim and strong sales, establishing Mann as a career artist who could work outside the major label system.
Mann has released seven solo albums since. In 2014, she released an album with Ted Leo as the Both. Mann also paints and makes comics, and has appeared in film and television series including The Big Lebowski, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Steven Universe, The West Wing and Portlandia. Her awards include two Grammy Awards, including Best Folk Album for Mental Illness (2017). In 2006, she was named one of the greatest living songwriters by NPR and Paste.
Personal life[edit]
According to the musician Al Jourgensen of the band Ministry, he and Mann had a brief "dysfunctional" romance in Boston in the 1970s or 1980s.[96] Mann wrote "No More Crying" about their relationship.[6] Mann dated the 'Til Tuesday drummer Michael Hausman; after they separated, they remained friends and Hausman became her manager.[5] The actor and comedian Dave Foley said Mann wrote "Save Me" about him while they were in a relationship.[97]
In 1993, while Mann was recording Whatever,[27] she met the songwriter Michael Penn,[59] the brother of the actors Sean Penn and Chris Penn.[26] They married in 1997 and live in Los Angeles.[1][26] Mann said about Penn: "He's really a top-rated songwriter for me, and thank God, because how sad is it if you were with another singer-songwriter and you're like, 'Yeah, whatever, it's not my kind of thing'?"[74]
In 2008, Mann said she had attended Al-Anon, a support group for the families and friends of alcoholics, to deal with the exhaustion she felt from trying to help addicts she knew.[30] In 2020, she developed a nervous system disorder that gave her tinnitus, migraines, nausea and dizziness and prevented her from listening to music for a year. She believed the disorder was triggered by a combination of childhood trauma and the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic.[4]