Zooey Deschanel and M Ward of She & Him Keep Making Christmas Cool

Since they first formed in 2006, indie pop duo She & Him has been a hipster sonic wet-dream of a pairing. The "she” is Zooey Deschanel and “he” is critic-favorite, soft-rasp singer-songwriter Matt “M” Ward.

Deschanel has long occupied space in our hearts and screens as a film and TV star — and now Celebrity Dating Game show host — and as the creator behind the clean, uplifting news platform HelloGiggles. As a style icon who loves puff sleeves more than Anne of Green Gables, she’s become a shortcut to an aesthetic reference (much like Wes Anderson), whose Marianne Faithfull haircut and mod-quirky-retro style spurred a legion of Zooey cosplayers. As an actress, she’s taken famous turns as a sardonic young rebel in Almost Famous, Frasier, The Good Girl and Failure to Launch, but is perhaps best known for playing characters with an elusive, bubbly brand of camp, inspiring the term “adorkable” and setting the blueprint as a catch-her-if-you-can manic pixie dream girl in 500 Days of Summer, New Girl, Yes Man and Elf.

Since the latter, Deschanel is also an icon of Christmas. Her low-tone, airy vocal delivery has always felt personable, and her singing scenes in Elf are forever woven into our memories like tinsel clinging on a Christmas tree branch. But also because her band is just really, really, into Christmas.

After the two musicians met while working on a song for a film soundtrack, their output has included three albums of original tracks, Volume One, Volume Two, Volume Three, plus one collection of covers, Classics, and two Christmas albums.

In November, She & Him re-released their first Christmas album, 2011’s A Very She & Him Christmas, on occasion of its 10th anniversary. Now on vinyl, it also includes three new singles with Madonna’s “Holiday” and Wham’s “Last Christmas.”

The pair talked to us from Los Angeles ahead of their tour, which brings them to the McFarlin Auditorium in Dallas on Dec. 11. They touched on their new projects, impersonations and some recurring holiday debates.

Let's talk about the re-release of A Very She & Him Christmas. At this point you could have done a Greatest Christmas Hits compilation, but you chose to re-release the first one.

Deschanel: (Laughs) You know, we just had a couple of songs that we wanted to add and, you know, it's been a tough couple of years for everyone and just wanted to do something fun that would hopefully bring some joy to the people for the holidays.

Ward: We had a tour coming up at the end of the year, which we're excited to start in about a week, and it seemed like a great idea to re-celebrate this record that we really love. Zooey and I, we have gotten so much nice feedback about this record that took us about six days to make, is that right, Zooey?

Deschanel: Yeah, it was six days we took to record the record. It was very fun, easy. We wanted it to feel like a cohesive, like, whole performance, you know, like we're just playing in your living room and there’s a fire going. So it does have the feeling of, you know, almost like a live feeling. So yeah, we recorded it really fast and it was such a great time. So we just wanted to bring it back around.

I gotta say, I've never thought of Madonna’s “Holiday” specifically as a Christmas song, but you're starting a whole new tradition.

Deschanel: That was all Matt. Matt was like, how about we do "Holiday"? And I was like "That. is. a. great. idea."

Ward: I think Madonna was asking for it. It was just a matter of time.

Deschanel: Yeah, yeah. It was a hidden Easter egg in Madonna's catalog. A hidden Christmas song.

So what is the selection process when you do covers, like you pick a song you like and then give it the She & Him treatment, or do pick songs when you already have a good idea of how you would change a song?

Deschanel: Yeah, I think when we get together and do things … It's like I have my instinct, Matt has his instincts and when you get them together, it sounds like a She & Him song. But I mean usually we're talking a lot of harmonies, a lot of really cool guitar parts that are both unique and also feel very organic and, you know, we have our way of recording things. We have, mainly, we don't process a lot. There's no auto-tune on our records. Most everything's recorded in a kind of old-school way. So it has a particular sound.

Ward: And we're always covering songs, whether it be from, you know, a hundred years ago or 50 years ago or a couple of decades ago, and we love the process of learning old songs. We’ve always done that and then the ones that make it onto the record are the ones that seem to have, like, an identity of their own, like separate from the original recording, and that's part of the fun of recording songs that were written a long time ago.

Will you be collaborating on any original songs, maybe Volume Four?

Deschanel: I'm writing stuff now, and we actually just … mainly for She & Him obviously — Matt’s an incredible songwriter, but mainly for She and Him — I'll just write the songs and send them to Matt and he produces them, but we just actually can't say what it is 'cause it's a secret thus far. But we just collaborated on our first song which was very fun and exciting, yes. And yeah, and I'm also working on stuff for She & Him, too, on original stuff.

And then I know, Matt, you're going on your own tour after this one to Europe ...

Ward: Yes, I miss Europe so much and I'm going to be doing a couple of months in the winter and a couple of weeks in the spring in Europe. I get a lot of inspiration from going out there, and I've missed it. You know, we've all been stuck at home for a long time, and the whole touring season starts, though, with this She & Him Christmas tour. And, you know, we can't wait.

Deschanel: Very excited. And I’m jealous of Matt going to Europe ‘cause that’s going to be so fun.

Ward: I'll take pictures.

Deschanel: Yes, please take pictures. (Laughs.) Send me a post card.

You know some people find “Baby It’s Cold Outside” a bit controversial through its … persistence. I was wondering if that was any part of the reason you switched the roles when it came to vocals?

Deschanel: Well, I mean, it was 2012 when we released this record and we switched it around and it was kind of before that whole controversy came to light. It was one of those songs that it's definitely a lot about context. Like you read the words and take it out of context, for sure, it's problematic, but it's kind of a portrait of two characters, really. But yeah, I agree with you. I always found that a little bit … you know, I think that if you don't have a context for it, you just hear the song on the radio, it's better if the female is the creepier one. (Laughs.) Because if it's a guy it does feel, like, predatory. It can can, it can. Listen, when I listen to the Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong version of that song, it does not feel like that to me, but, you know, there's a lot of context and a different time period around that. And so we're sensitive to that, of course. And, you know, when I recorded it it just felt like the better way to do it for the modern times, to modernize it.

Ward: I second what Zooey said. And there's just so many ways to interpret music. People will be offended or delighted by the opposite of anything you intend. So it's, you know, we invite people to dig into the story if they want to. But I don't think it's an inherently malicious song.

It seems like everyone has a Zooey Deschanel impression these days.

Deschanel: Really?

Yeah, there’s [Saturday Night Live's] Melissa Villasenor, Annie Murphy from Schitts’ Creek…

Deschanel: I feel like people were doing this like a couple of years ago. I mean, I'm always flattered when people have impressions of me. So I'm like, wow, that means that they have watched me enough to have an impression. So yeah, I love it.

They mostly do it with your singing voice. There's Christina Bianco, a comedian.

Deschanel: Never heard her.

I was just wondering if you guys had a favorite.

Deschanel: I don't because I haven't really heard a lot of them, I think, but I'm very flattered. Usually I don't think people get it totally right. If somebody does, hats off. I think my singing voice isn't super crazy character-y. My speaking voice is more probably, so I would say I'm an easier target with my speaking voice so go at it guys, get that voice. (Laughs.) I like doing impressions of people, too, so I understand,.

What's your specialty?

Deschanel: Well, I grew up doing singing impressions but, you know, it's kind of like a party trick, it's not something I roll out all the time because it can be taken out of context. Some people take it very, very … you know, some people take it personally and I don't ever want to hurt anyone's feelings. I did have somebody take something when I did … I did an impression of somebody once and they were hurt and it was not meant to be, you know, hurtful at all. So, you know, I take that seriously.

And this was their singing voice?

Deschanel: Oh, no, that was speaking voice. But I did use to do lots of singing impressions. It was like kind of my little party trick in high school,

Ward: You know, I don’t have any normal sort of Impressions, but my whole life I've been doing impressions of George Harrison and Chet Atkins and Les Paul on guitar. And so if that's an impression …

Deschanel: Yeah, you’re good at it, Matt.

Ward: Yeah, my whole life has been trying to play like my heroes

How do you guys pass the time on tour?

Deschanel: I mean, most of the day I’m focused on the show so I don't do anything. I don't do a ton other than trying to make sure I'm putting on a good show.

Ward: I like to go to museums, if there's time. I try to see the city, at least a small bite of it, but then the rest of the time is prepping for the show.

But are there any songs you guys sing that people would be surprised, like secret Black Flag covers or something?

Deschanel: (Laughs.) We don’t have any of that. One thing we always like to do and this is one of the things we enjoy is, like, covering songs that sometimes we'll work on a song backstage and just play it kind of on the fly, and that's how it's fun. I think that's what I like about covering songs is you kind of can have your take on it and then there’s the kind of feeling of oh, we just learned this like 10 minutes ago and now we're playing it in front of people. I kind of enjoy that feeling of kind of nerve-racking but fun at the same time.

What is your most cherished vinyl record in your own collection?

Deschanel: For me it's a copy of Surf’s Up by the Beach Boys.

Ward: For me it's probably this Louis Armstrong record I've had for years called Big Butter and Egg Man.

I was going to do a few "yes or no" questions about Christmas, or just, short answers. Do you have any holiday traditions like doing popcorn garlands? (Is that a thing people do or is that just something people do in the movies?)

Deschanel: You mean like popcorn balls? Like that kind of thing? I have Christmas traditions that don't involve popcorn for sure.

Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?

Ward: I have not seen Die Hard, unfortunately.

Deschanel: It takes place on Christmas. It doesn't feel like a Christmas movie to me. But sure, if that's your genre, I think it could be a Christmas movie, though I usually like a little more feel-good movie on Christmas, but, you know, Die Hard being a Christmas movie means there's Christmas movies for everyone.

Friendsgiving or Thanksgiving?

Ward: Oh, man, they're both good.

Deschanel: Yeah, they're both great. I would say have Friendsgiving one day and Thanksgiving for Thanksgiving day. Have your leftovers for Friendsgiving.