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_freakoutcity

Find 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

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Justin Currie recorded and toured with Del Amitri and solo for 30 years and his travelogue The Tremolo Diaries perfectly captures the rhythm of life on the road. He talks to us here about combative crowds, the curious bubble you occupy and a recent shock diagnosis that’s forced some adjustments. This includes …

… hard-won rules for life on tour: “Never leave the boat, stay in the bubble, never interact with real life, always maintain low-level adrenaline.”

… seeing Dr Feelgood in ’77 “who passed the punk rock smell test”.

… choreographed abuse from rugby club members; a Liberal Party benefit with his Beefheart-like school band; following rock antagonists Jackyl at Woodstock 2; being pelted with toilet rolls at an ice hockey stadium in Minneapolis.

… the tensions between the Glasgow acts from the Gorbals and the “influx of enormous middle-class twats like us”.

… bands who look exactly like they sound.

… Edwyn Collins as style icon – fringe, corduroy, plaid – and how it took courage to walk round Glasgow dressed like that in the early ‘80s, “a scary place full of pitch battles and hooligans”.

… the loss of the pop tribes when pop music was subsumed into the entertainment business.

… Michael Stipe’s advice about life on the road and how that changes when you’re over 40.

… “if an audience doesn’t like you, the smaller that audience, the worse it is”.

… and his medical diagnosis in 2022 “and my negotiations with the disease”.

Order the Tremolo Diaries here: https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/The-Tremolo-Diaries/Justin-Currie/9781917923002

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Just when you thought it was safe to listen to a weekly rock and roll podcast …

… how Black Sabbath discovered the dark side

… why Elvis went onstage with a pistol in both boots

… rock stars out of their comfort zone

… five perfect things about Jaws we’d never taken onboard

… Ozzy Osbourne, the bungled burglary and the fingerless gloves

… Tony Iommi’s accident and how limitations are always strengths

… beautiful men in military jackets and “an Account of the Misfortunes and Disasters Which Befell Barry Lyndon"

… was Presley’s Americanness the most appealing thing about him?

… rock stars managed by their wives

… “everything was derived from American R&B and then we were plunged into this medieval graveyard. How could that possibly be entertainment?”

… Syd Barrett outtakes? Rare Nina Simone? Richly competitive tape-making in music magazine offices

… Colonel Tom Parker’s ‘Honesty’ game – “think of the number I’m thinking of and I’ll pay you if you’re right!”

… and birthday guest David Cook on how meeting musicians changes your view of their music.

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.