Bret McKenzie on Flight of the Conchords, Hollywood and writing songs for frogs and unicorns

Bret McKenzie now mainly works on movie soundtracks, the Simpsons, Minecraft and the Muppets among them, which brings the pure delight of hearing his songs sung by Lady Gaga, Benedict Cumberbatch, Miss Piggy and Tony Bennett. He talks here about his early life in Wellington (ballet teacher Mum, racehorse trainer Dad), narrative comedy, songwriting heroes and his new album Freak Out City, and unravels New Zealand’s double-edged sense of humour. Along with … … how Randy Newman pitches songs for soundtracks … “the test of a good song works is if it works with just one instrument” … lyrics he loved growing up like 16 Tons by Tennessee Ernie Ford – ‘Some people say a man is made out of mud/ A poor man's made out of muscle and blood’ … Morrissey’s wounded reaction to his sausage-firing Quilloughby on the Simpsons ‘Panic On The Streets Of Springfield’ ... solving the “fun puzzles” of a song brief and writing for “donkeys who have a dream” … the ingenious humour of John Prine, Harry Nilsson and Leonard Cohen … the moment in his live shows where he asks the audience for a story and creates a song around it – “one woman suggested ‘falling out of love’ with her husband standing right beside her” ... playing the local girls schools aged 15 as the drummer in a James Brown funk band … reworking rejected songs – “which was hard with one from Paddington with its multiple rhymes for marmalade and Peru” … Flight Of The Conchords lampooning the acts they loved (Bowie, Pet Shop Boys) and playing the O2 – “pretending to be a stadium band and the audience pretending to be a stadium audience” … live on-stage application of the John Lennon “pomegranate” lyric-solving technique … “Play like a used car salesman! I need a Steely Dan solo here!” Recording with LA session legends like Leland Sklar. Order Bret’s ‘Freak Out City’ album here: https://music.subpop.com/bretmckenzie_freakoutcityFind out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Tour dates and tickets …https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/bret-mckenzie-tickets/artist/5380913 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Mark Ellen and David Hepworth have been talking about and writing about music together and individually for a collective eighty years in magazines like Smash Hits, Mojo and The Word and on radio and TV programmes like "Rock On", "Whistle Test" and VH-1.Over thirteen years ago, when working on the late magazine The Word, they began producing podcasts. Some listeners have been kind enough to say these have been very special to them. When the magazine folded in 2012 they kept the spirit of those podcasts alive in regular Word In Your Ear evenings in which they spoke to musicians and authors in front of an audience. Over these years they've produced hundreds of hours of material. As of the Current Unpleasantness of 2020, they've produced yet hundreds of hours more with a little help from guests kind enough to digitally show them around their attics such as Danny Baker, Andy Partridge, Sir Tim Rice and Mark Lewisohn. For the full span of the Word In Your Ear world, visit wiyelondon.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.