When it comes to sheer cuteness, there’s no competition for Winnie the Pooh and his pals Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger, Owl, Rabbit, Kanga and Roo – save for maybe Zooey Deschanel. So kudos to the smart folks at Disney bringing in the talented Ms. Deschanel (and her She & Him cohort M. Ward) to write and perform a batch of songs for their new WINNIE THE POOH movie. There couldn’t be a more perfect fit.
Deschanel also gets to croon her version of the classic Sherman Brothers theme “Winnie the Pooh”. As she explains in the below interview, this style of children’s songwriting served as an inspiration for the tuneful original numbers she contributed to the movie’s soundtrack. They’re the kinds of songs you won’t mind playing over and over for your kids/nephews/nieces in the car. They’re not pandering or, worse, repetitive. Hell, you might even throw ‘em on when you’re just by your lonesome.
Deschanel’s career has taken an interesting turn over the last year. This fall, she’ll be starring on a new FOX TV series called NEW GIRL, created by the talented young playwright/screenwriter Liz Meriwether. A twenty-plus episode run can be a grind, but Deschanel is hopeful that the constant work will fire her creativity. So while there may be fewer film appearances, it sounds like she expects to keep writing music and, hopefully, stick with the show for a good, syndicate-able five seasons.
And maybe, if we’re lucky, she’ll get to revisit her inspiring portrayal of Mary Todd Lincoln. We get to that. But first, we talked about a bear with a serious honey-swillin’ problem…
Mr. Beaks: How did you feel when Disney or the producers or whomever came to you and asked you if you would like to write music for a Winnie the Pooh movie?
Zooey Deschanel: I was really excited. Originally, they just asked me to do the beginning credits song, which was the original “Winnie the Pooh” song. I had gone in for a meeting, and they had this whole thing prepared; they showed me a sort of rough animation cut together with some cels and stuff where they had mocked up one of my songs in there just for mood purposes. So they asked me to do that, and we did that, and then it went really well, so then they asked me to write the end credits song, which was really cool. Then they asked me to do some harmonies in the interior of the film. So it just grew from just the first song. I felt super lucky that they kept asking me to come back and do more.
Beaks: Was it easy to come up with ideas for songs once the ball started rolling?
Deschanel: Well, they showed me the movie and I kind of took my inspirations from having watched the film. Also, I have the number of… “children’s records” is what you might call them, but I have a few children’s numbers that I still love and listen to, so I wanted to take my cue from those. I wanted it to be something that would be an appealing song - appealing to kids, but also something that would appeal to somebody who listens to it twenty years later. Do you know what I mean?
Beaks: Sure.
Deschanel: I wanted to make it for everyone.
Beaks: Which children’s records?
Deschanel: Well, Harry Nilsson’s THE POINT was one of my favorite records and I still listen to it. I love Carole King’s REALLY ROSIE. I love FREE TO BE… YOU AND ME.
Beaks: (Laughs) Who doesn’t?
Deschanel: I was thinking about those, and I was also thinking about… Disney has such an incredible tradition of music, so all of those Sherman Brothers songs from MARY POPPINS and stuff and THE JUNGLE BOOK, and then Peggy Lee with LADY AND THE TRAMP. There is so much great stuff in their past, so I wanted to do it right.
Beaks: So how does your songwriting process work? Do you kind of get a melody going, or do you have lyrics first?
Deschanel: I usually start with melody. It’s hard for me to start with lyrics. I need to have a little bit of an idea of a lyric, but it’s hard for me to write lyrics before I write. Melody usually just comes first. I have to have a chord progression that I like, and a melody that fits with that, and then you find the words that make sense with the theme that fits into the song. That’s what I always like. The words come. You have to have a lyrical idea, but not too specific, and then once you have your melody and your over all song structure laid out, then… it all kind of comes at once. But I would say if I were to pick the thing that comes first, it’s usually melody. Well, chord progression then melody.
Beaks: That’s interesting. Whenever I’ve interviewed songwriters, very often they say they don’t spend a lot of time trying to make a melody work, it’s either there or it isn’t. If it’s not there right away, they just discard it.
Deschanel: Everybody has their own sensibility of what pleases them, and I feel like what pleases you melodically is a more visceral reaction than what pleases you with the lyrics. Lyrics for me are about walking a fine line of not saying too much, but not being too vague. (Laughs) It’s like you want to hit the thing, but you want it to be... if it doesn’t have enough mystery, it wont be evocative. I think a lot of modern pop songs are very specific lyrically - which is why I think I relate a little bit more to older stuff, because it’s more universal. If you listen to a Cole Porter song, it can fit and you can use the lyrics as metaphor; it can fit in several different contexts, so it’s not just about something very literal.
Beaks: And in songs like [Cole Porter’s], there are double entendres standing in for things they couldn’t say explicitly back then.
Deschanel: Right, and that, in a way, makes people a little bit more clever.
Beaks: It’s a better way of writing, I think.
Deschanel: I feel that way about movies, too. You don’t need to show everything. You can leave a little mystery and people can use their imaginations.
Beaks: Sure. Unless you are doing YOUR HIGHNESS, then you kind of just need to say it all. (Laughs)
Deschanel: Well that is a whole other thing. (Laughs)
Beaks: I loved it.
Deschanel: Thanks. I love it, too. It doesn’t fit into any categories.
Beaks: No, it doesn’t. And why should it?
Deschanel: It defies all logic.
Beaks: So things are kind of changing for you professionally, now that you are going to be in a TV show [NEW GIRL]. How does that affect your work in terms of balancing the songwriting and everything else? Is it a big change?
Deschanel: You know, I always was writing music while I was working. Always. I actually like to have a schedule, because if I just have endless time or something… I feel like I write more when I have a schedule. I’m actually excited and happy that I have something to do that’s just, like, the thing that I’m always doing during a certain part of the year. Obviously, if things continue to go well, and the show continues to be on the air, then, you know, I like that idea. It’s funny, because I ended up touring for a lot of the last two or three years; I never intended to really tour all that much, and it’s been super fun. But I’ll still have time to tour, which is great, and time to record. I always feel like creative things beget other creative things, so if you are creative in one way and creative in another way, if you are doing something creative it’s not like it drains all of your creative energy, I think it actually restores it.
Beaks: It keeps you sharp.
Deschanel: Exactly. I think it’s the physical stuff that knocks you down. If I work a fourteen-hour day or a sixteen-hour day, and it’s a good day, I want to keep thinking about stuff. It’s exciting to me. But with a fourteen-hour day where I’m doing press or something, that’s more draining than doing…
(Both Laugh)
Deschanel: I mean, I love talking to you, but...
Beaks: Well, I only have one last question here, and it’s not even really a question; it’s just a statement. I want to thank you for giving us what is, I believe, the definitive portrayal of Mary Todd Lincoln.
Deschanel: (Laughs) Well, thank you. Those [“Drunk History” shorts] are so funny, because you have to actually memorize the inflections of the drunk person. So I was sitting there with Don Cheadle, and there are these weird pauses. (Laughing) It really… that is one of the best ideas ever.
Beaks: How you guys kept a straight face long enough to actually finish it is beyond me.
Deschanel: You know, we are professionals. I’m a professional straight-face-keeper. That’s really what I am.
You can hear Zooey Deschanel’s music in Disney’s brand new WINNIE THE POOH, which opens theatrically this Friday, July 15th. NEW GIRL premieres this fall on FOX.
Faithfully submitted
