By Hilary Saunders
Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, who will be performing this weekend at the Sunshine Music and Blues Festival they curated, aren’t the only formidable duo who will take the stage at the Mizner Park Amphitheatre.
Guitarist, bassist, and vocalist Aimee Mann — who established herself as one of the most adaptable and influential female musicians in the early 1980s — and punk(ish) singer and guitarist Ted Leo, who has fronted his namesake Ted Leo and the Pharmacists since 1999, will come together as The Both on Sunday for an appearance in Boca Raton.
The two songwriters met almost 10 years ago, Leo estimates, through mutual friends in the comedy world. In 2012, Mann invited Leo to open for her on tour, during which the two began to conceptualize a musical collaboration. By last year, the duo — whose friendship now seems obvious and fostered with ease — had co-authored 11 songs as The Both and released their self-titled debut via Mann’s SuperEgo Records.
The Sunshine and Blues Music Festival marks The Both’s first show in South Florida. Throughout the past year or so of touring their record, Mann and Leo have been commended for their authentic and comedic verbal interplay. While fans can definitely expect to hear that banter in between their ageless power-pop songs, collaborations with other musicians on the bill such as Grace Potter and the Rebirth Brass Band are unlikely.
“I’m very un-jammy,” Mann deadpans.
“Yeah, we don’t jam,” Leo responds quickly.
The two pause on the line, as they each call from their homes on opposite sides of the country. “Ted’s been known to jam and collaborate a lot more than me,” says Mann as Leo interrupts: “I don’t know about that!”
“I am absolutely the worst at jamming,” admits Mann. “I never know anybody else’s songs. I’m terrible at coming up with harmonies on the fly.”
“I’m not a good enough musician, frankly,” tries Leo amid shushing from his co-star.
For all their light-hearted modesty, the two musicians have enjoyed prolific, successful careers. Their reputations precede them so much, in fact, that Mann and Leo are careful to clarify who contributed what to this project.
“People tend to make assumptions with the collaboration about who’s bringing what to the table,” Leo begins. “One of the more interesting things about our record that I feel like we haven’t been asked about is, song by song, who kicked off this idea or who came up with this part. And the reason that I find that interesting is because it would often defy what people’s expectations were.
“One thing I have read is that the first single from the record is ‘Milwaukee,’ people assumed that the initial idea for that came out of my head. It didn’t. It came out of Aimee’s,” he said.
Mann elaborates: “I wrote the lyrics to the first verse. The initial musical idea for the verse and chorus was mine and I was making an attempt to write a song that felt like a marriage of my style and Ted’s style. I also think that there’s this idea that Ted never writes a slow song and I never write a fast song.
“As soon as I put my voice on anything, it turns into a lilting folk song,” she says with a laugh. “It doesn’t matter how fast the tempo is or how aggressive the drums are. The voice kind of defines it, which is frustrating and often not my intention in the writing.”
With The Both, she says, “one of the exciting things for me … is that I can write a song … and know that I can get Ted to sing it to actually make it sound like I intend it to.”
“Milwaukee” does indeed represent their complementary pairing, showcasing her narrative lyricism alongside his musical grit. Mann’s bass lines rumble steadily everywhere from the driving second single “Volunteers of America,” to the swinging “The Inevitable Shove,” in which hand-claps and tambourines mask the uncomfortably honest reminder that “you’re still going to blame the ones that you love.”
At the same time, Leo’s fuzz-buffered chords return honor to the art of the dad-rock guitar solo in “Bedtime Stories” and “Pay For It Now.” The two trade lead vocals between verses as easily as their funny and conversational quips, and they credit each other with creating a safe space to explore musical ideas.
“When you start working with somebody else, you realize that you do have muscles that you haven’t really flexed in a while,” says Leo. “The other person sort of creates that space that you can walk into — that’s a gross metaphor and I don’t know why I used it — but you can go in and flex those muscles.”
After giggling and questioning his choice of comparison, Mann continues, “For me, it was being able to take a more aggressive approach, just the whole idea of playing in a rock band and being able to play bass in a band. The first time I saw Ted play a solo show was just him and an electric guitar. I just immediately thought, ‘I could add a bass to this and drums and we’d have a band.’ I could hear how it would sound and have this muscular — see, it’s all about muscles — lean, little unit.
“Ew!” she exclaims, almost as an afterthought. “Lean unit!”
Leo concurs: “Yeah, that’s gross!” And yet he perpetuates the metaphor — “We’re used to a wiry, sinewy kind of muscularity,” he says, before the two lose their thoughts amid laughter.
In Boca this weekend, The Both hope to see fans of their latest effort, not just of their individual solo works. And moving forward, Mann and Leo already have snippets of songs they eventually want to make into a follow-up Both record.
They also are interested in co-authoring a musical inspired by the saga of Edward Snowden. Both, too, foresee additional individual solo albums in the future.
“You have to make your peace with the fact that if you have ‘hits’ in your past, they’re still going to remain hits. You can’t count on the fact that everybody is always going to be happiest with the newest thing that you’ve done,” Leo said.
“But as you keep creating, you do want people to appreciate the new things. So just the simple fact that we’ve had good shows with good audiences who actually care about this new thing that we’ve done, that’s fantastic.”
The Both appears as part of the The Sunshine Music and Blues Festival, starting at noon (gates open at 11 a.m.) on Sunday at Mizner Park Ampitheatre, 590 Plaza Real, Boca Raton ($49.50, $99.50 and $179.50 plus service charges through Ticketmaster, 800-745-3000).