2002-08-28 Lion's Roar
They Might Be Giants: Interview and Concert Montage
By Shawna Lee, Normandale Community College Lion's Roar, August 28, 2002
Archived from: https://web.archive.org/web/20031003075914/http://www.tmbg.net/articles/LionsRoar-082802.html
Show reviews from the same publication can be found on the pages for Shows/2002-08-04a and Shows/2002-08-04b.
For 20 years now, the Brooklyn based band They Might Be Giants have been making eclectic music, vigorously touring, and working on various other projects. Although still considered an underground band, the duo front men and founders, John Flansburgh and John Linnell, have accomplished more than most musicians. The band won a Grammy for "Boss of Me," their theme song for Malcolm in the Middle, and has a highly praised documentary, titled Gigantic.
Of their ten full albums released, one has gone platinum, another being one of the first to be sold as MP3 only online, and their most recent one is the children's album, No! Considering this was their first album for kids and it topped the Billboard children's chart, it's certainly a breakthrough in the music world. There's not only music on the CD, but an interactive portion as well, with colorful cartoons and lyrics to sing along. The album is great for restless youngsters and their parents, full of imaginative songs about robots, violins, being a grocery bag and going to bed. Even teens and older would enjoy No! to reminisce about singing "Mr. Golden Sun" in kindergarten.
They Might Be Giants have been on the No! tour all summer, including their back up band, the Band of Dans (yes, they are all named Dan). Before seeing their Minneapolis concert at First Ave, I had the chance to interview John Linnell over the phone about the recent activities of the band.
Lee: Hello?
Linnell: Hi Shawna.
Lee: Hi John.
Linnell: How are you?
Lee: I'm good. How are you doing?
Linnell: OK. We're in St. Louis. Are you in St. Louis?
Lee: No, I'm in Minnesota.
Linnell: Minnesota. Excellent.
Lee: How's the tour going so far?
Linnell: It's going well. The band sounds really good. We've had good turnouts. We've survived... you know we had a very long drive these last two days. We drove from Phoenix to St. Louis, just stopped to sleep basically... for the driver to sleep. Yeah, it's been fun I'd say. We're playing a lot of new material, so that's always a pleasure.
Lee: So do you have a lot of kids in the audience? Is it kind of different with kids?
Linnell: Well you know we've done some special shows for kids. We've done some matinees. We did one up in Seattle at the, what's it called? The Music Experience Center. (Experience Music Project?) Yeah, we performed there for kids during the day. And we had the same thing at a bookstore in L.A called Storyopolis. Same kind of deal, it's like a 1pm show. But our regular show, we normally play a club or a theater at night. And it's too late for young kids. Our show tonight, for example, we're starting at 9. Some of the shows start at 10. So we don't have a lot of young kids in our audience for those shows.
Lee: So what was it like to make the album?
Linnell: Well it was a ton of fun. Obviously we've made a lot of records up till now, but I think something about this project, made us feel like we could cut loose in a way. I mean, I think part of it was that we were writing and recording songs for people who didn't already have a lot of preconceptions about what a record was supposed to sound like. So that made us feel like we could get a lot more loose ourselves. And I think we also felt like we had the opportunity to do something people don't usually do when they do music for kids. I think a lot of the stuff we have encountered is not so much music rock records for kids as records that are supposed to be good for kids, you know. We kind of felt like kids probably deserve a break. And we want to apply the same standards of entertainment to that record that we apply to our adult records. In other words, have it just be, you know, interesting and fun for kids to listen to. Something that they would like, rather than something that was supposed to help them be better people or something like that, you know?
Lee: Yeah, and I know, my friends, they're not sure what to make of it. They haven't heard it, but I want to encourage them to listen to it. It's for adults too, right?
Linnell: Yes, absolutely. And you know, as I said, we're playing mostly to adults. We pretty much have our regular concert crowd and we're doing really well at the box office. So yeah, I think grownups obviously like this record a lot and the songs go over. In the live show we're mixing up the new record with all the stuff we've done in the past. We're playing pretty much all the songs people like and then we're playing a lot of material from the new record. In some ways I didn't even think the distinction is really that obvious. I think like, you know there's something playful about the stuff on the new record, but it's not completely... none of this has to be totally out of place on the records that we did for adults. I think the main thing is that on those we left out the things that kids would find disturbing, like death imagery and a lot of the dark stuff that we have on our normal records. And you know, you don't have to be adult to get this... I think that there's, on other records, things that require some kind of... foreknowledge of the culture at large to get what it is we're on about, you know. In one way or another I think that's generally true of our work.
Lee: What role do you think music plays in a child's life?
Linnell: Well I have a son who's three and a half and I know, at least in our house, it's really important to him. I mean, I think that music comes naturally to kids, you know, most kids. And it's a big part of his world... it's something that you can take with you anywhere. Like kids can sing in the car and you know, we do that. And anything, pretty much anything that he's interested in has some musical component you know, like if he goes out to see a movie or some kind of show or games that kids play. Music is sort of everywhere, as far as kids are concerned. I think that's really important, you know.
Lee: You think this applies to people, like adults too? It's important in their lives too?
Linnell: Except that I think that adults, you know, start making choices that move them away from stuff like you know. I think all kids get exposed to drawing, music, you know, playing games and stuff like that. And then a lot of adults grow out of that stuff and some of them just forget it altogether. Some people aren't that interested in it. You know ultimately they don't care that much about creative stuff. I think that's something that, you know, for one reason or another grownups mostly move on to other things.
Lee: Do you have some advice for aspiring musicians?
Linnell: Uh, well yeah, I do, I mean we've been asked that question before and I feel like there's one really simple answer which is I think that people should really enjoy what they're doing. They should do it because they like it. And we've met musicians and I think we've even had this experience ourselves a little bit, where we've been wanting to succeed kind of like on any terms, you know, like you want to write a song that everybody's gonna like. And I think that eventually John and I came to realize, that we weren't really that good at figuring out what other people like. And what we had to do, I mean speaking for ourselves, is we had to do the stuff that we like. That was the only thing we could figure out, it was the only thing we could be good at, is to do stuff that we like. We could never figure out what other people wanted. Some people are better at that, you know, but we never quite cracked the code of what it is everybody wants. And the only thing we ever succeeded at was figuring out what we like and doing that and getting other people to like it. So I would say, based on, you know, entirely on my limited experience in They Might Be Giants that that's probably a good thing to apply, for any band. Because I mean one thing that occurred to us was if we got rich and famous doing stuff we didn't like then we'd kind of be stuck. It might not be such a great life for us later on if we were touring around the country playing songs that we were not particularly excited about. It could be a kind of purgatory. However successful you get at something, you don't want to actually dislike what you're doing. And if you do like it, it takes some of the sting out of not being successful at it.
Lee: I don't think I could ever see you guys doing that.
Linnell: Well, I think we, you know, just couldn't figure out how to sell out. [laughs] If we could have figured it out, we might have done it.
Lee: [laughs] Well I'm glad you guys didn't. Oh, I wanted to know what instruments you guys are playing on this tour.
Linnell: Oh, well we've got a five-piece band. We've got drums, bass, guitar...
Lee: The Band Of Dans?
Linnell: That's the band of Dans... and John and I. And we're playing the usual grab bag of stuff. We've given away the glockenspiel that was, uh... we had kind of a final blow out show where we awarded the glockenspiel to a member of the audience. So that's not in the show any more but we do have um, let's see, I'm playing the sax and my usual instruments. Sax, accordion, keyboards. John Flansburgh's playing guitar. Our guitarist Dan Miller is playing electric guitar and acoustic guitar, and he's got this thing that, where he can play his guitar and it sounds like a trumpet. It's kind of a special effect, you know. Kind of kooky. And similarly the drummer has stuff that he can hit that make sound effects and things. So you know, it's a pretty versatile sounding band. The main thing is the band is really well rehearsed right now. We've been touring for a while and I think everybody sounds really good. It's a nice sounding show.
Lee: That's awesome! What have you learned from being in a band so long?
Linnell: Uh, I can't remember.
Lee: [laughs] You learned a lot.
Linnell: A lot of little things, I think mostly.
Lee: Well, I really love your band.
Linnell: All right. Thanks so much for saying that.
Lee: What were your upcoming projects that you have? Are any more for kids?
Linnell: Well, this experience kind of exceeded our expectations we didn't really know what it would be like and it turned out to be really fun and great. I think we're probably gonna make another regular adults They Might Be Giants record after this, but we'd be happy to go back and do more kids music as well, you know. It was a really fun and interesting experience. We'd definitely love to repeat that. We're doing lots of music for TV and trying to do music for movies at the moment.
Lee: Oh yeah, yeah! Congratulations on your Grammy, by the way.
Linnell: Thank you very much! Yeah, it was good because, you know that's kind of helping open more doors for us in the commercial world. I think it's an appealing job for us cause we get to stay home a little more, if we're writing this extra commercial stuff. Then you don't actually go tour after you make a TV theme. They just play it over and over again and you get paid a lot, so that seems like a good job as we get older.
Lee: You have your documentary out, Gigantic, and how's that doing? I heard it's doing really well.
Linnell: Yes, well, it's not really commercial—there's not really a commercial release of it yet, but it's doing a lot of festivals, it's playing in museums and things right at the moment. And they're looking for distribution. I'm not sure where they're at now, I've kind of lost track but it' s getting really great responses everywhere, and, and we're, you know, obviously... Having seen the movie I think we're really interested in it succeeding cause it's a really nicely done movie. It says, I think, the right kinds of things about the band, so I really like it. And I hope it does well.
Lee: I'm excited to see it.
Linnell: Yeah, I mean, one of the things about the film is that, I think it really puts the music forward, you know, it's not so much about like the cult of personality about me and John. It's much more of a movie about doing your own thing and sticking with it... a do-it-yourself kind of thing, so I really liked the movie for that reason. Yeah, there's a lot of stuff at the moment, there's also a big article in the New Yorker coming out next week. So that'll be another nice thing, I'm looking forward to seeing that.
Lee: Wow! Well, thank you so much, John! Thanks for taking the time for this!
Linnell: Yeah! My pleasure! Nice talking to you. We'll see you when we get out to Minneapolis. Afterwards, amazed and grateful for the opportunity to talk to John Linnell, I was ready to see them in concert.