Psycho Ward: With a voice as “classic” as Zooey’s, M. Ward would be crazy not to work with her.

She & Him

Actress Zooey Deschanel has teamed up with M. Ward to make lovely music.

by Caralyn Green

Talking to singer/songwriter M. Ward feels a bit like chatting up the pleasant yet resigned best friend of the most popular girl in school. You’re interested in what he has to say—the guy’s solo albums are something fierce, and he’s collaborated with some of the biggest names in folk music today—but you’re most interested in the impression she’s left upon him in her absence.

Whatever dust of unattainable glamour and drama she’s imprinted on his anecdotes and outlook, you want it. She’s got “it,” after all—the impossibly chic retro wardrobe, the inquiring, kohl-lined eyes, the pristine face-framing fringe and that rare honey husk of an A.M.- radio croon.

She, of course, is Zooey Deschanel, the double-threat darling who’s replaced Jenny Lewis as the indie-pop pixie fetish du jour. And while M. Ward is dealing with the continuous drone of wooing press to promote She & Him’s outstandingly nostalgic debut album Volume One, Deschanel is talking to Style.com about mod movie icons; she’s featured in Paper magazine’s “25 Most Stylish Songbirds”; she’s the cover girl of both Lucky and BlackBook magazines; she’s walking red carpets with Marky Mark and mugging cheek-to-cheek with Chloë Sevigny. Deschanel might be best known to the masses as the chick from Failure to Launch and Elf, but you’ll know her as Andy’s crazy ex on Weeds and, forevermore, the big sister from Almost Famous (“Look under your bed; it’ll set you free”).

So how did a Hollywood actress become a musician, and a venerated one at that?

Turns out she was penning and hoarding demos, which she shared with Ward when they worked together on a movie soundtrack project in 2006. He liked what he heard and begged Deschanel to consider an album. She obliged. Ward handled production and most of the instrumentation; Deschanel handled vocals and songwriting (with the help of fellow movie star/musician Jason Schwartzman on the track “Sweet Darlin’”).

“I love being able to focus on the guitar and leave the vocals to an incredible vocalist,” Ward says. “When I first started playing music, going back to when I was 15, I was just playing guitar and not really singing at all into my four-track. It took many years for me to figure out how to use my voice.

“Zooey has a very classic voice. The best I could do is to frame her songs and her voice in very classic kinds of production styles, not to overwhelm the songs with the latest, greatest technological advances. My favorite records didn’t need that to make an impression, and my goal for this record was to let the songs and the voice make the impression, as opposed to studio trickery.”

Whatever Ward did, it’s working. Volume One is a lovely pastiche of recognizable sounds—the Beatles, the Ronettes, Dusty Springfield, Linda Ronstadt and Tammy Wynette. In other words, Volume One is very Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins, whose Rabbit Fur Coat M. Ward happens to have co-produced. He’s also worked with Neko Case, Cat Power and Beth Orton. It seems Ward has a thing for surrounding himself with supremely talented women—in fact, Lavendar Diamond’s Becky Stark, an old friend of Deschanel, will be doing backup vocals for this leg of She & Him’s tour.

Its well-worn ’60s girl-group/soft-country vibe is getting Volume One a ton of respect from the likes of Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, The Village Voice and countless blogs—the kind of respect normally withheld from singing thespians, especially poor Scarlett Johansson, whose Tom Waits cover record got panned in the wake of Volume One’s praise. Ward says he still hasn’t heard that album; just slights from journalists who interview him (“I haven’t been to the record store in a while,” he admits. “I did get that M.I.A. record, though. It’s my favorite record I’ve heard in a long time”).

Tell Ward Volume One sounds instantly familiar and comfortable and he doesn’t take it as an insult—and it shouldn’t be. Volume One is like that ol’ paisley-print frock with mother-of-pearl buttons and Peter Pan collar in the back of your closet. You wore it years ago, but now you’re wearing it again. It still fits. Only this time it’s tighter, sexier. Especially on her.