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Kimya Dawson is probably best known for her lo-fi, anti-folk tunes that made up the majority of the “Juno” soundtrack. But on her most recent album, “Thunder Thighs,” Dawson collaborated with rapper Aesop Rock, and the relationship isn’t ending.
It started with Aesop Rock asking Dawson to write something for his blog. She asked if he would, in turn, contribute a beat for the song “Zero or a Zillion.” He did, and then spoke of feeling a connection to the song “Walk Like Thunder.” Dawson invited him to do a verse on that song as well.
“I liked the way we sounded together,” Dawson, who is performing at The Space for Ames on Thursday, said during a phone interview. “We kept saying ‘Well what about this? Well what about this?’ and next thing you know he was on six songs, and we have a full-length album coming out.”
Their collaborative project is called The Uncluded, and an album, “Hokey Fright,” will be released later this year. They have a song, “Bats,” that will be in stores this weekend as a Record Store Day 2012 exclusive. Dawson said The Uncluded will feature a different sound than their work on “Thunder Thighs,” more of a 50-50 collaboration between the two artists.
“Years ago me and Adam (Green of The Moldy Peaches) and his brother had a really goofy project, AKA, where we were doing silly songs over a drum machine,” Dawson said. “But the songs were more flexible. When the beat changes there’s less room for messing up. Normally when I play I’ll start talking in the the middle of a song or stop and start over when I mess up. You have to make sure you really know the song.
“But I didn’t play guitar in The Moldy Peaches either. I was just standing there, singing. So I have just stood with a microphone, waiting my turn.”
Dawson’s contribution to the “Juno” soundtrack started when director Jason Reitman told the singer he wanted the film to end with Ellen Page and Michael Cera singing a duet of The Moldy Peaches’ “Anybody Else But You.” She was invited to the set to see the scene being filmed, and to the wrap party for the movie.
At the party, she gave copies of her more recent albums to the cast and crew as gifts. A few months later, Reitman called Dawson to say they wanted to use more of her music in the film. Nine songs, in fact.
“I didn’t even know the procedure for making a movie. I thought they had finished filming, so the movie was finished,” Dawson said. “That was a nice surprise.”
Dawson played in Iowa City at the end of March as a part of the Mission Creek Festival. Thursday’s show in Ames is at a much smaller venue, but Dawson said the size of a space isn’t what affects how a show will go.
“It really just depends on my mood. I don’t write a set list until I’m about to play, it all depends on how I’m feeling. Sometimes I feel silly, sometimes it’s more melancholy. It all depends on the night to determine which songs I do.”
Kimya Dawson
Kimya Dawson
When: 8 p.m. Thursday
Where: The Space for Ames, 118 Hayward Ave., Ames.
Cost: $10
Info: thespaceforames.org
