Zooey Deschanel's Musical Pal

Zooey Deschanel's closest friend was her keyboard.

The 30-year-old actress - who also performs in duo She and Him with singer-songwriter M. Ward - learned to make music when she was younger because she had no one else to turn to.

She explained: "We travelled a lot when I was really young. I had no friends, but I had a tiny keyboard."

Her bandmate added: "Your friend was the keyboard."

Despite her early love of music, Zooey admits it took her a while to develop as a musician and songwriter because she mostly taught herself.

She added: "I couldn't play more than one note at a time, so that was frustrating. I later learned about chords in school, and when I got home, I started teaching myself how to play piano. Before that, I had no way of writing down the music or recording the ideas.

"I got a karaoke machine in high school. I used it to experiment, in a very primitive way, with multi-track recording. I remember playing those songs for my parents. It was about six years ago that I started feeling comfortable enough to play my songs for a friend. I felt super-shy when I first started, but I got comfortable fast."

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