Pitchfork

Scarlett Johansson's debut LP-- Anywhere I Lay My Head, a collection of 10 Tom Waits covers and one original cut-- is a weird, druggy homage to the Louisiana bayou, produced by TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek and featuring guest performances by Nick Zinner and David Bowie. Pitchfork spoke to Johansson about road trips, being taken seriously as a singer, and her decision to tackle one of the most iconic vocalists of the past half-century.

Pitchfork: When did you first start singing?

Scarlett Johansson: When I was a little girl. I actually started acting because I wanted to be in musical theater, which is kind of a dorky fact. I started taking vocal lessons. It was a dream of mine to be [sings] on Broadway! I was this blonde-haired, pigtailed girl with a baritone singing voice. There wasn't really a place for me in Annie. [laughs] But that's how I started singing. I think by the time my body fit my voice better, I was crippled with anxiety-- I didn't want to be a musical star anymore. But I always sang, my whole life, all the time.

Pitchfork: How did you partner with Dave Sitek?

SJ: For about a year, I had this project on the back burner. I couldn't really get the right sound. I had tried bringing together a whole bunch of studio musicians, trying to recapture the original sound and vibe of the songs, and it was really awful. Part of the reason I'm such a fan of Tom Waits is [because of] the seemingly off-the-cuff magic that's captured in the recordings. I'd been trying to recreate that, and it turned out to be bad, like something you would hear in a coffeehouse. I figured I would probably need to find a producer and when someone approached me and said that perhaps Dave would be a good person to collaborate with-- I was such a fan of the wall of sound that is TV on the Radio, the dimension of that. I felt like it would be really exciting to at least talk to Dave about the project, to see why it interested him. As soon as we started talking, we had the exact same vision for the project. It was very natural, I think. We both shared the same love of the music, [we both wanted] the same massive, multi-dimensional sound.

Pitchfork: There are a lot of relatively high-profile guests here, from Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Nick Zinner to David Bowie.

SJ: Dave kind of pulled out all the stops in terms of "Who can we get together that would just be, like, this unbelievable wellspring of creativity?" It became this fantasy band, in a way, for me. These are all members of other bands that I love. Dave and I both thought of this as our pet project, we wanted everything to be ideal. We were in such a remote part of Louisiana. And with everyone getting together and wanting to be there, just purely out of love for Tom Waits and the love of music-- the fact that we had all these seemingly endless possibilities was really attractive to all the guys in the band. And Dave is such a wizard, he's such a warm and welcoming energy, I think he just attracts goodness.

Pitchfork: Yeah, but it must have been super weird to get a phone call from David Bowie.

SJ: Yeah, it was totally crazy. For me, it was a dream come true. It was like a fantasy. In the beginning, when I first conceived of the album as Waits covers, I wanted to do this song "Never Talk to Strangers", which is a duet that Tom does with Bette Midler. And I thought "God, it would be great if Bowie could sing Bette's part and I could do the Waits part." I love [Bowie's] voice so much, and I had seen him in concert not that long before, and he just sounded better than ever. Dave [Sitek] and I had always imagined putting Bowie in different scenarios, and then one summer day he called me and said "Guess who's in the studio?" I was like "Holy shit." I couldn't believe it. Apparently he played Bowie some of the rough mixes and he was really into it, and he came in with the lyrics and his parts and he had it all planned out.

Pitchfork: That's like finding the Holy Grail.

SJ: It's amazing. Bowie is such a fan of TV on the Radio, and he and Dave had such a nice rapport. I had met him a couple of times in the past. I think he's such a strong supporter of young musicians, of up-and-coming artists, and you always see him at the coolest shows in New York. Any underground show, it's like wow, Bowie's here. He's so enthusiastic about music. I think that's so wonderful. It's really inspiring.

Pitchfork: I hear a lot of Louisiana on the record. Not in a historical sense-- obviously it's not a zydeco or Dixieland record-- but there's a certain mugginess to it, a thickness. What was it like recording at Dockside Studios?

SJ: The ambient noise, humidity, the heaviness, the inescapable stickiness that is the Bayou-- it's magical, in a way. Capturing that sound, that's the thread or the glue that holds the whole album together. Because it spans Waits' whole career and [because] there's no specific storyline we were trying to follow, where we were is what really makes the album whole and cohesive. It was incredible being there. I've always loved Louisiana and particularly New Orleans, and I think a lot of people when they travel there, think they're home there-- there are just so many spirits, it's so rich in culture. It's steeped in [a] true [spirit of] individuality that makes this country. It's the oldest part of our story, in a way. And being in that climate, it was really conducive to letting our imaginations soar. I found it to be the true inspiration for the album. I always associated the Bayou and that intoxicating air and, like you said, humidity, with Tom Waits. So it felt very apropos, I guess.

Pitchfork: So you knew you needed to get out of Los Angeles to do this.

SJ: Yeah. I didn't want to be driving to work everyday and sending out my Starbucks order. I didn't want to be in New York or L.A. I wanted to have space and I wanted to be in a remote place where all of us could just be ourselves and not worry about anyone trying to listen in or get in on that. I wanted to just be comfortable. I feel like being in a big city-- as much as I find New York, in particular, very inspiring in a lot of ways-- can also be claustrophobic.

Pitchfork: I heard that you and Dave Sitek drove together from L.A. to Dockside. What was that road trip like?

SJ: It was really interesting because it gave us a chance to learn about each other. When you spend that much time in a car with somebody, you share all kinds of stories and love. We played each other a lot of music, and found the sound we were looking for on the way down. It was a really great trip. Even without really knowing each other that well in the beginning, we both knew that we definitely wanted to drive down together. We didn't even bring any equipment down. We both just wanted to journey that way.

Pitchfork: Well, it feels like an appropriate way to approach a Tom Waits record.

SJ: Yeah. And I love road trips, I love driving, I love finding little towns. I just think it's the best way to travel. I'd never driven south before, I'd never driven through Texas. I loved it. I loved every minute of it. I'd take a road trip over anything.

Pitchfork: People are notoriously protective of Tom Waits-- Tom Waits is protective of Tom Waits. Have you encountered any skepticism or resistance about the choice to cover his songs, in particular?

SJ: Not really, actually! Everyone seemed to think it was a pretty cool idea. And I think part of that is because I'm a young woman. I think that it felt like there could be an interesting story there-- that the songs might take on a different life or be re-imagined because you could never compare me to Tom. I'm not a solo artist with a guitar or something. There were so many directions we could have gone, and I think a lot of people were interested to see what it would be.

I never would have done it if Tom didn't give his OK. I made sure that he heard some of the rough, horrible mixes. [laughs] He even OKed it with how terribly boring and dull it was [at that point]. But he did. I think he was probably interested himself to hear what could happen. I don't feel like it's a debut album or something. It's more like a valentine for his work and for all of these incredible musicians who collaborated on the album.

Pitchfork: Have you spoken to him about the project since it's been finished?

SJ: I've spoken to a lot of people who are, like, one degree from him. Everyone says he's really pleased with it. I think he's in a little bit of a work bubble right now. I'm glad to hear that there's no violent reaction. I have yet to really find out, from him, what he really thinks of it. But apparently he's into it. I'm so happy that he won't come after Dave and I in some crowded, dark place.

Pitchfork: Right, that feels very Tom Waits. Like he's going to pop out of a garbage can somewhere, wearing a fake handlebar mustache and holding a cane.

SJ: [laughs] Yeah, like all of a sudden, you look up from your drink, and... [laughs]

Pitchfork: How did you choose these 10 songs? They're not necessarily the most obvious choices-- some of them are fairly aggressive.

SJ: [We picked them] in different ways. There were some songs that I always knew that I wanted to do, like "I Wish I Was in New Orleans" and "Green Grass" and "Town with No Cheer". Basically, I came with a list of 20 songs or that I wanted to try, to see what people thought. They were songs I felt comfortable taking a crack at. There are certain songs I wouldn't try, like "Waltzing Matilda". I don't know, his original is so-- I can't imagine it any other way than the way. But other songs, like "Green Grass", I'd sing it to myself and I kind of got that obsessive love: You know, you're gonna love me no matter what. I felt like I could give it an interesting voice, especially coming from a young, female perspective. I thought it was appropriate in a certain way.

Other songs didn't work, I'd try to get to the essence of the song, to figure out what is it about this song that attracts me to it. And it would be the original, the way that it is, it's just perfect the way that it is. Not to say that all of these songs aren't perfect the way that they are, they certainly are. It's just that I couldn't imagine them any other way.

Pitchfork: Sure, I would think that sometimes it's harder to find a way in...

SJ: Yeah, there were some songs that were difficult. Dave had suggested "I Don't Want to Grow Up", and that was one of the ones that we struggled with. Because it's so completely different when you hear it being sung by a middle-aged man, and the whole concept of it changes when it's sung by me, of course. It was hard for us. It started out, we were jamming, it was this loud, thumping thing. There were so many different ways we tried to re-imagine that song. Then eventually we came up with that New Order, new-wave kind of sound. I just hopped around the studio for days every time we played it. We found the songs in different kinds of ways. But it all came from everyone's love of Tom Waits. All Waits fans probably [have their favorites]-- so many fans have come up to me saying "Did you do 'Ol' 55', did you do 'Burma Shave', did you do this or that?" Everyone has their Tom Waits song. So I think it's a compilation of all of our [favorites] in a way.

Pitchfork: I don't mean for this to sound silly, but when you're working with a voice as particular, and as iconic, as Waits', how do you avoid the temptation to, on some level, emulate it? These songs are that voice. How do you learn to divorce the songs from the vocals in a way that allows for reinterpretation?

SJ: It would be so ridiculous for me to [in gruff voice] sing the songs like that. It wouldn't be coming from my own voice. When you live with the lyrics, like I did for that period of time, reading them and listening to them and singing them, you're living with the songs playing all the time, and it's almost as if the songs become your own songs, as if you had written them yourself. Similar, I guess you could say, to dialogue. You read it enough to learn it, and by the time you learn it, you own it somehow. It was more difficult for me to find my own voice than it was to get away from a Tom Waits impersonation. I had never sung my own music before and I had never really listened to myself-- I didn't really know what I sounded like. It was more of a challenge to find that part of myself than to eliminate the Waits in me.

Pitchfork: So is it possible, then, to compare the preparatory work of acting and singing? Did you study the song's narrators in the same way you might study a character in a film?

SJ: I don't know. There are more similarities than differences when it comes to preparation of a performance. You're using these lyrics-- you have a relationship with them, they apply to different parts of your life and different circumstances, different memories, different stories you have in your head. You form personal relationships with the song. I think that's very similar, in a way, to prepping a character. You pour your own personality, in a sense, into the character-- you sympathize with a character in a way that's similar to the way you might sympathize with a song. A lot of the vocalists that I really love, whether it's Leonard Cohen or Marianne Faithfull or Chet Baker or Billie Holliday, they are the characters in their songs. They become it.

Pitchfork: There's one original on the record, "Song for Jo", that you co-wrote. Are you thinking about writing and recording any other original songs?

SJ: I don't know. I have no perspective on my future in regards to anything. [laughs] I have to be inspired by a project. I think that's [true] in every aspect of my life. I don't really move until I can see the picture forming somehow. I don't know what will happen in the future. It would be nice to see, more than anything, the relationship between Dave and I [continue]-- we formed such an incredible working relationship and friendship. Dave can do anything, he's an incredible photographer, making videos with him is great, doing projects like that. Whether it's installations or music, I feel like I'll be inspired more by my own creative friends and circle than I would be by, like, starting to plan an album. Maybe that will be the result of letting our minds expand, in a way, but I have no goals for that, no.

Pitchfork: How difficult is it, as a successful actor, to get people to take you seriously as a singer?

SJ: I probably have an off-center perspective, as far as that goes. I don't think it's strange for singers to act, or painters to sculpt. I don't want to ever feel like I'm cornered into one expression of creativity because I'm successful at making films or being an actor. I guess it's best to not paint yourself into that corner. For me, I think of it as being an advantage in certain ways, and a disadvantage in other ways.

Pitchfork: Well, theoretically, it makes sense for artists to be allowed to work in different disciplines, but people are generally less tolerant of that than one might hope.

SJ: My hope for the album is-- I had an idea for it and, for me, I guess the final thing is, yes, releasing the album and watching it spread its wings and fly. But I feel like we've given birth to it and now it has to stand up on its own. Everything that I could have hoped for the album has already happened in a way. How proud I am of the result and what an incredible experience it was making the album and the friends for life I've made-- that's what my goal was, and I feel accomplished. I feel like I made an album that I'm really proud of, that I would pay $16 for and listen to.

Pitchfork: Do you think you might tour?

SJ: I don't think I'd tour with it, because it's weird to tour with a compilation of other peoples' songs. But it would be cool to play a couple of shows or maybe play at a festival or something. Hopefully my crippling anxiety and stage fright can be overcome! It would be a shame to not play it out. It's got such a big sound, it would be great to hear it in a large venue.