Aimee Mann Brings 'Mental Illness,' And More, To Westhampton Beach

Before her ninth studio album had a name, Aimee Mann was talking with her friend and collaborator, Jonathan Coulton, who wanted to know what her new music was like.

“I said, ‘Oh, just my usual songs about mental illness,’ and Jonathan said, ‘You should call it that.’ It made me laugh, but it also made me feel like, that’s kind of perfect. It’s both funny and sort of bluntly true.”

Ms. Mann’s latest tour will make a stop at the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center on Sunday, June 25, for an 8 p.m. show, where fans will be treated to songs from the new album—which was stripped down, and nearly all acoustic—as well as past hits from her quarter century as a solo artist.

Ms. Mann has developed a reputation for tending toward melancholia in her work, but it’s not a descriptor she’s trying to escape. Rather, in her latest album, she said she intentionally embraced it.

“I was just coming off a recording project with Ted Leo, and it was a real rock ’n’ roll record, and we did a lot of touring and I played bass,” she said. “I sort of felt like with this one, I’m going to be as quiet and soft and sad and introspective as I feel like, and not really worry about having songs to be a contrast to that or having something up-tempo to leaven it.”

Ms. Mann said she was listening to a lot of folk records from the mid 1960s, and taking inspiration from that music as well.

“Really early Leonard Cohen, that kind of thing,” she said. “That’s where I was aiming.”

Ms. Mann has a heart for speaking to the human condition through her music, and acknowledging the inherent struggle of daily life in her songs.

“In general, it’s just hard to be a person,” she said. “I think there are a lot of people who are traumatized and don’t know it. And then on top of that, there are a few songs that are inspired by a friend of mine who’s bipolar and went through a lot of super crazy stuff. That’s one extreme end of the spectrum, but on a lesser level, there are a lot of people who are just constantly fighting anxiety, and it’s hard to live like that.

“I have a sense of compassion for what people go through and how difficult it can be,” she added.

While Ms. Mann’s new album has a distinct personality, she said her performance in Westhampton Beach will incorporate several different elements. Mr. Coulton will open for her and she’s excited for the audience to experience his music. Ms. Mann’s record label, SuperEgo, released Mr. Coulton’s album “Solid State” at the end of April.

“He’s a funny, interesting singer-songwriter, and I’ll come out and join him on a few songs, and he joins me on a few songs. We also wrote a few songs together,” Ms. Mann said. “I’ll play a bunch of my new stuff, but I also play older songs. Some of it’s acoustic, some has more of a full band.”

The ability to put on a versatile performance won’t be a surprise to fans who know Ms. Mann’s work well, despite her reputation as a specific kind of singer-songwriter. She acknowledges the tendency to group her and other female singer-songwriters into the same category, but she’s not concerned about it, because she knows it’s too simplistic a definition.

“When I went to do this record, I was thinking I just want to make a record that’s as soft and sad as I feel like,” Ms. Mann said. “I play into this idea that people think I’m like that anyway, but honestly, I haven’t made a record like that before. I think knowing men who are even sappier than me kind of helps to make it not feel like a gendered situation.”

Ms. Mann said she enjoys turning gender assumptions on their head, a penchant she’s had since she was a child growing up in the ’60s and ’70s and was told girls just “didn’t like” certain things—like wearing Converse sneakers. She’s maintained that fierceness to the present day, when friends and family found it curious that she wanted to play the bass guitar.

“People would say, ‘Well women just don’t like to do that stuff,’ and I’d say, ‘But I’m literally asking to do that thing.’ It had no basis in any fact that pertained to me. I was very interested in everything. Even playing bass, my family laughed at me at first and I was like, why? There’s no f-ing reason! We all have the same number of fingers.”

Ms. Mann has set down the bass guitar, for now, returning to her acoustic roots, but her commitment to defying expectations and stereotypes and, most important, relating to her fans by speaking to the ups and downs of life through her music remains.

Aimee Mann will perform at the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center on Sunday, June 25, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $55, $75 and $95. Call 631-288-1500 or visit whbpac.org.