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Conchords Interview & Competition

An interview with the small one without glasses and the cool one.

The Comedy Blog at bbc.co.uk has a cute interview with the boys. Apparently Jemaine became disillusioned with the questions and refused to answer the last question. Then in protest he turned off his computer since the “interview” was in the form of questions sent through email. I made up that last part, I have no idea what he did..maybe he went and ate some ice cream. I don’t know. You can also enter a competition for the BBC CD set..I would enter but I already bought two copies and well..I don’t live in the UK. Anyway, read the “interview” here. Thank you Deirdre!

From: The Comedy Blog BBC

Can you introduce yourselves?

Bret: Jemaine gets called the big one. So by default I’m the small one without glasses.

Jemaine: I’m the cool one, but in a picture you’ll probably think I’m the uncool one.

You two won the Perrier as folk singers, right? Isn’t that for old men with beards and a fear of electricity?

Bret: We’re not really folk singers. I sometimes have a beard. What we do is best described as musical comedy, but that sounds terrible. So we try to avoid describing what we do.

Jemaine: Electricity is essential when recording a radio series.

Why were you drawn to folk? Why not rap for example?

Bret: We have a rap song called The Hip-hop-o-potamus vs. the Rhyme-nocerous. Jemaine’s the Hip-hop-o-potamus and I’m the Rhyme-nocerous.

Jemaine: We invented rap in New Zealand in 1998.

You’re from New Zealand, right? Is folk big down there? How famous are you there?

Bret: We’re from Wellington, New Zealand. It’s the capital. It’s a little bit like Brighton.

Bret: Folk music is not very popular here. There is one annual folk music festival but we haven’t performed at it yet.

Jemaine: Yeah well it isn’t really folk music.

Bret: On a scale of famousness that goes from one to ten, we’re about a one and a half. Maybe a two once this CD comes out.

Jemaine: We would perhaps be as famous in New Zealand as some people who are really famous in Britain but no one has heard of in New Zealand. So not to drop names but in New Zealand we are as famous as Ant and Dec are in New Zealand. Which is not at all. We often tell people in Britain that we are big in New Zealand though because that either impresses them or makes them laugh.

When writing songs, do you use any of those ‘mind-mapping’ techniques for generating ideas?

Bret: We used ‘post it’ notes to help write the series for BBC. It was sort of a mind map but it could also stick to the wall.

Being in a band must be a great way to meet ladies?

Bret: It’s not as good as the internet.

Is there any subject matter that Folk isn’t appropriate for?

Bret: Folk music isn’t that good for the dance floor. It’s hard to
get people bumping and grinding to some of our more folky jams.

Jemaine: Yes but like we said, we don’t strictly do folk music. I’m starting to suspect that this isn’t a proper interview and these questions were sent to us as an email and we just filled them out and sent them back.

You have a CD out (hence this interview and competition). What sort of stuff is on it?

Bret: It’s a six-part radio series that we made for BBC2 last year. It follows the story of our band moving to the UK and trying to make it in the local novelty music scene. Each episode has a couple of songs and a bit of a story. We have guest comics like Daniel Kitson, Jimmy Carr and Nina Conte playing cameo roles and Neil Finn (from Crowded House) appears in each show.

Jemaine: I’m kind of disillusioned about this whole interview and won’t be answering any more questions.

What can Flight of the Conchords fans look forward to next?

Bret: We’re talking about updating our web site.

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