2002 Altercation
They Might Be Giants
By Jay Wulff, altercation, Spring 2002
Archived from: @DontLetsPod
They Might Be Giants have been rocking the underground for 20 years now, consistently flirting with mainstream success with their signature quirky pop-alternative ditties. Who would've thought that the two Johns from Brooklyn would earn their first nomination with a T.V. theme song? Altercation's Jay Wulff spoke with the non-accordion playing half of the duo, John Flansburgh.
Altercation: John Flansburgh, the bespectacled half of They Might Be Giants?
John: Yes, the lower half as I like to refer to myself. Hey Jay, I don't know if you've heard but we just found out that we're nominated for a Grammy (for "Boss of Me" from the television show Malcolm in the Middle).
A: Yes, I know, that was going to be my first question. Congratulations
J: Yeah, it's my first emotion because I'm completely on cloud 9 about it.
A: You've gotta be blown away.
J: Yeah, it's crazy. I feel a little bit closer to Sting all of a sudden.
A: Are you going out to the ceremony?
J: Yes, we're going to dust off our tuxedos, fly out to L.A. and maybe we'll be sitting next to Sting. These Hollywood things always blow our minds.
A: What a great day it would be to see They Might Be Giants win a Grammy. I think you guys have a chance.
J: I don't know...
A: There's no blockbuster Disney song in the category this year...
J: Actually I think there is a Disney theme song in our category, but it's a weird category, best original movie or T.V. song. It'll be hard because it's not a song from a movie. I think the movie songs always tromp the T.V. songs in the Grammy world.
A: Luckily though you're not going up against a mega-hit like "A Whole New World" or anything.
J: Yeah.
A: How come "Boss of Me" wasn't included on the new album?
J: It was our choice. You know, we like the song, and it was actually on the European version of the record as a bonus track, but I think when we were making Mink Car, we kinda wanted to get out of the shadow of the song. We worked really hard on the album, and "Boss of Me" had just been dominating our lives for like a year and a half. It came out on the show, and then the show was a hit, then it was a chart hit in the UK and Australia, so we were just kind of like 'Next.' I don't know, maybe it was a mistake not putting it on the record. A lot of people are still looking for it. It was on the Malcolm In The Middle soundtrack, but I think a lot of people are picking up our record expecting it to be on there.
A: It seems the ska thing works for T.V. theme music and commercials. You guys did some similar stuff for the Daily Show.
J: Yeah, we did everything for the Daily Show- the classical stuff, the (imitates the commercial bumper music). We started doing incidental music about 5 years ago. We did a sound package for ABC's Nightline with Ted Koppel. Up until then they used John Williams, the Star Wars composer, who is very high end and very expensive, so they must've been like 'Let's not spend a trillion dollars on this, let's get some smart people in here to do this,' and it was nice for us because they didn't make any assumptions on us, on what we could or couldn't do. So we did this very legitimate, straight news music, and since then we've gotten a lot of gigs in that vein.
A: Some commercials and stuff, right?
J: Yeah, we did this Live 360 thing that was very adult. What's great for us though is that it's totally faceless, we get hired for our ability, not for our name. So then we did the Jon Stewart stuff, it was interesting, because we were doing straight versions kind of riffing on that sound, that 20th century art music kind of sound. I'm sure most people, except when they hear the rock version of the theme, don't even know it's us, or just see our name on the credits. It's a whole other kind of work and it's fun to do.
A: And you guys are certainly suited for it with the wide variety of music you make, which segues nicely into your new album, Mink Car, which gets into some electronic stuff this time around.
J: Yeah, there's a couple of different kinds of electronic music on it. For the last five years we've had the band of Dans backing us up, which is a straight up kind of rock band, so we've kind of returned to our 80's roots a little bit with a few tracks, most notably "Man, It's So Loud In Here." I put together the rhythm track with Adam Schlesinger from Fountains of Wayne, who produced it, at my project studio. John Linnell actually wrote it as a rock song, your classic kind of quiet verse, loud chorus, kind of grunge song, and I think Adam was like, "The song is set in a discotheque, it comments on the nature of disco music, why not make it more of a disco song, that kind of music can sound really huge. Let's do it electronically, let's use all fake drums." So we cooked up this thing and it really has that, uh... what was the name of that producer who did the Pet Shop Boys and New Order?
A: No idea.
J: Well, he produced all the songs that sound like that. You know those sounds are so identifiable, it's very strange that we were a band in the 80's, but we never sounded like that. It's definitely it's own aesthetic but it's pretty cool.
A: Tell us the story of your intention for the song "Bangs" to be another big UK hit.
J: Well, we had this very catchy kind of pop song, so we sent out a tape to Clive Langor and Alan Winstanley who produced "Birdhouse in Your Soul" and "Istanbul Not Constantinople" and we were trying to work with them on something ever since. They've done a lot of big stuff since then, and they really loved the song, so we were like cool, let's do it. We thought like, wow, this could be like "Birdhouse," this could be big. Then while we were recording we found out that the phrase bangs doesn't exist in the UK, they call bangs 'fringe.' So they'd have no idea what we're talking about, it'd be like saying the 'bonnets of your car,' you'd have no idea what I'm talking about, so it was vaguely depressing as we finished recording the song knowing that it wouldn't be a likely contender on the BBC 1.
A: That's a funny story. You guys have a lot of stuff on tap for 2002- a box set anthology, a children's album and a documentary.
J: Yeah, we have a lot of big stuff happening, it's very exciting. The children's record is really neat, I think a lot of people who just like the vibe of the band will like it. There's a Dr. Seuss-like psychedelic quality to the record. It's not your standard teach-you-something-you-don't-want-to-know children's music experience. It's pretty imaginative and has a whole enhanced aspect of it that turns all the songs into video games. So for all the gamers out there who like to blow things up while they listen to children's music, it's the perfect album.
A: It's kind of like your website.
J: Yeah, it's being designed by the same people. We work with these great graphic designers called The Chopping Block, they do all our websites, the dial a song website too.
A: Yeah, I like TMBG.com, it's very Monty Pythonish.
J: Yeah.
A: So tell me about the documentary.
J: A friend of ours A.J. Schnack, who's a big rock video producer, he's done stuff with Blink 182, Papa Roach, and a lot of big stuff, he just had this idea to do this documentary about us. So he started hanging out with us about a year ago, filming shows and rehearsals and other stuff and interviewing like everyone we've ever known. But we haven't been that involved in the film, except for mixing the sound for a concert from the truck. It's been pretty hands-off, so I'm a little bit scared, you know besides all the basic vanity stuff, like how my hair looks and if I look fat in the picture. I don't want to be exposed for the charlatan that I am. It's a little bit strange, I mean, it was very flattering, but beyond that, I'm not sure how much I want to know. There will be some interesting stuff, they interviewed all the people we worked with at Elektra, where we had an 8 year run, and the arc of our time there will probably drive a lot of the hubbub. I think it will be a very thoughtful, well-crafted it for us.
A: Will it be an actual film, like hitting the art house theatres, video, DVD?
J: I know it will be hitting the festivals and I'd assume it's going to be on DVD, I think they're already talking about it.
A: Well, I hope they're taking the cameras to the Grammys, just in case. That might be a nice ending.
J: Yeah it will be a great ending- Faith Hill walking up to get her Grammy while John and I burst into tears. (in announcer voice) "Suddenly, tragically, their Grammy hopes were dashed..."