She & Him is the musical collaboration between quirky actress Zooey Deschanel and singer/songwriter M. Ward. But unlike nearly every other discipline-crossing venture, the pair are actually getting a very warm reception from the press. So how has Deschanel successfully parlayed her talents where so many ScarJo-types fall flat? One would be tempted to pin the merit badge on Ward’s affection for handcrafted Americana. But to hear it from Ward, She & Him is really all about Deschanel’s gift for writing songs that sound like undiscovered treasures from Tin Pan Alley. EYE WEEKLY caught up with the eponymous Him on the phone from Portland as he returned from a trip to MTV in LA for the premiere of their “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?” video.

I was surprised to find out that Zooey wrote almost all of the album — I thought the songs might be covers of ‘50s and ‘60s hits. What were your thoughts when you first heard her songs?
I was blown away at how great they were. My favourite songs have a simplicity to them that’s emotional. And I felt like all of the songs that she sent me were finished songs. So that’s when I recommended that these songs should be recorded properly.

How did the songs change from demo to finished CD?
What she sent me was just keyboard and vocals and vocal arrangements. So everything else happened in the studio.

Some of the tunes have a distinct country influence and “I Was Made for You” has that ’60s girl-group sound — did that come from the songs themselves or did you have those ideas after you heard them?
There’s definitely a little bit of both. I changed a lot of the rhythms to match an idea I had in my head of where a song could be. I feel like my goal as a producer is to try to give the audience a clear-cut path into the inspiration of the composition. And that requires just a lot of listening to the demos and a tonne of other songs that might help you to get to where the song wants to go.

What kind of stuff were you listening to for inspiration?
Really hundreds of records. The biggest productions that I listened to the most were by Brian Wilson, Phil Spector and George Martin.

I like the idea of songs that don’t really deviate from the standard pop formula, and yet they’re very personal. Is that your approach?
Yeah. Zooey and I are both really inspired by older music and older records, and I’m very much inspired by older productions. This is going to give things a sort of old-fashioned sound. And yet no matter how much you try to make your guitar sound like Chet Atkins or Ry Cooder or whomever, you’re going to fall short and that’s when you come up with something new.

Was there a kinship between you two since you both often use a four-track for home recordings?
Definitely. I mean the songs were great and the vocals were great. But I loved the ways these demos sounded too. They sounded like songs that I wished I had written on my four-track. I’ve been working from lo-fi demos since I started making tapes in high school so it’s definitely a medium that I’m very comfortable working in.

Does that keep you removed from the industry and keep it personal?
It’s a good question. I don’t really know what I’m drawn to with that. I guess it’s just a clear-cut path to the song without any unnecessary effects. And just from listening to Robert Johnson and Daniel Johnston recordings and being really inspired and moved by what they were able to do with incredibly cheap technology, it all gets rolled into that, I guess.