>Aimee Mann
Just two years ago, singer-songwriter Aimee Mann was so frustrated with the music biz, she nearly called it quits. And who could blame her? After recording three albums for as many labels—the first company wasn't interested, the second went bankrupt and the third rejected her songs altogether—Mann, 39, had simply had it. "I would have done anything else—I really didn't care," she says. "I just didn't want to be a musician."
Enter film director Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights). After hearing a tape of Mann's album-in-progress—the just released Bachelor No. 2—he was inspired to write Magnolia, his critically acclaimed 1999 movie. Anderson featured her songs on the Magnolia soundtrack, and suddenly Mann was hot again. Major record companies came knocking. But the singer, who started her own label, SuperEgo, last year, wasn't interested. "It was too little, too late," she says. Now touring with musician husband Michael Penn, 41 (brother of Sean), Mann has recaptured her passion for music-making. "It's fun again," says Mann, "because it has nothing to do with all those business people."
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