Zooey D.: Rising talent, huge macarena fan

so sweet if I hadn’t been so compromised. I rarely take breaks and almost never sleep in, but it’s important to take a break every once in a while. It sounds obvious, but I guess the best advice always is.

H im

APRIL 27, INDIO, CALIFORNIA

Day three of the Coachella festival—it’s about 100 degrees. I arrive in the late afternoon, when it’s only about 90. A little rehearsal with My Morning Jacket, and then I play onstage with them in their evening slot before Roger Waters. Roger Waters is great, but My Morning Jacket are better.

She

APRIL 28, LOS ANGELES

Los Angeles is my hometown and Matt
Ward is from Ventura County, so playing
our first L.A. dates is very exciting. Two
nights at the Vista Theatre in Silver Lake,
which is a wonderful old theater that usually
only shows movies. We’re lucky enough
to get one of my favorite bands, Lavender
Diamond, to play with us. A delight! A joy!
A thrill! We’re also very blessed to have Howe
Gelb and Jason Schwartzman come up and
do a few numbers. I see so many wonderful
friends at these shows; it’s kind of like a fan-
tasy birthday party. I look forward to touring
a bit more and seeing what changes occur
when we play many nights in a row. I learn
a lot just being able to watch Matt. I know I
walk a fine line between expressing passion
and sounding like a fourth-grader when I
say I just absolutely love music and I’m pretty
much the luckiest girl in the whole world.

Webster Hall accommodates everyone from both scheduled nights at the Hiro, and somehow the promoter or ticket agency has everyone’s e-mail address and contacts them to say the venue has changed. The day starts off with meeting everyone at Late Night. We play the song four times in a row as they set up their cameras, and then go backstage and watch the guests chat with Conan. Hair and makeup…and then we play the song. It feels like it’s over in five seconds. Afterward, we head to the Webster. Zooey makes some poster-board signs to communicate to the audience what her voice cannot.

She

APRIL 22, NEW YORK

This is probably the greatest day of my life
since Christmas ’ 91. It’s just such a relief that
when I open my mouth, sound comes out.

H im
APRIL 22, NEW YORK
The show goes off without a hitch. We
perform pretty much every song from the
record, including a couple of covers. For
those of you who don’t own it, I highly
recommend She & Him’s Volume One.

She

APRIL 24, FLYING TO LOS ANGELES

If I were to go back to the weeks leading up to the first New York shows and ask myself, “What’s the worst thing that could happen?” I would probably say, “Get a cold, cancel a show.” In my other job as an actress, I have never missed a day of work in ten years—I will show up as long as I can walk and would probably still show up even if I couldn’t. However, I never would have found the thrill of performing music quite

She

MAY 18, SAN FRANCISCO

We’re here to play the Oyster Festival, and I have to admit, I’m not entirely sure what that is. I assume it has something to do with oysters. Right after the show, we’re flying to L.A. to shoot a video for “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?” and then the day after, I have to be back on set for the movie I’m working on. It’s been really hectic going back and forth, so I’m looking forward to the big U.S. tour starting in July—that’ll be the first long chunk of time devoted just to the band, and it’ll be good to spend that downtime with other musicians. Sure, it’s somewhat stressful playing L.A. and New York with our friends and families coming to see us, but I’m interested to get out there and play for people we don’t even know.

GE T MORE

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