MNZ Interview: CoffeeBar Kid Cuts S02 / E06 – Bret McKenzie

One half of our beloved Flight Of the Conchords has been a bit absent from our stages of late. But he has been busy. Soundtracks, caring for his late father, and writing a new album with mega-naut eight-piece band has kept him out of trouble.

In preparation for his appearance at the Capital’s Lōemis Festival in June Bret McKenzie had a bit of a chat with Muzic.NZ’s Tim Gruar about playing with local musicians, writing soundtracks for movies, recording a new album in different cities and what’s in store for his upcoming tour.

I saw on Instagram that you’re doing a song a week?

Yeah. I thought I’d try this thing out that I did during my tour of 2022 where I’d write a song from someone’s idea or story that I’d get from the audience and then play it on stage, play it instantly to them, then the band would jump in, too. I started doing it on Instagram, with stories and ideas that people would give me. For practice and to make a sort of connection with fans.

You’ve got the audience in the room at live gigs. And now this audience on social media. It’s really interesting trying to figure out a way to connect with them and I think that that was really fun time. It creates this kind of dialogue with the audience, on social media. You’ve got the live audience and this different audience online now. So, I was trying to find a way to connect with them in a really fun way. And almost like a weekly practice (for upcoming live gigs).

And, apart from impromptu social media challenges, you haven’t been sitting on your hands. You wrote a couple of last-minute tracks for the Minecraft Movie.
Bret also acts as a villager which Vice Principal Marlene (Jennifer Coolidge) falls in love with.

Yeah, I wrote two songs for the Minecraft movie, quite last minute (Zero to Hero and Could This Be Love?). And that was super fun. It was just the end of this summer. And of course, at the time, we didn’t realise that that film was going just to this absolute juggernaut. Really the biggest movie I’ve ever written songs for. Yeah.

Well, that’s not true. You wrote for The Muppets (Man Or Muppet). Come on!

Yeah, I know. But this thing is it’s such a big international hit. The biggest movie of the year.

I got to write a song and work with BENEE. She sings the song Zero to Hero for a fight sequence in the movie. That was super cool. I’m big fan of BENEE, and it was just fun writing a song and having someone as good as her singing it. I’m a big fan.

Ha. That’s so typical of a Wellingtonian ‘humble’ – To say you are a big fan. Because they should be a big fan of you!

Ha. Ha. Yeah. That’s us. But this project was something different for me. I haven’t really done many songs that have been sung by pop singers. That was really special.

Did I see a song for the animation series Plankton: The Movie?

Yeah. A Sponge Bob movie on Netflix. It’s about the villain, Plankton, who’s always trying to destroy the world. I wrote a few songs for that. That was really fun.

It was with Linda Perry (4 Non-Blondes). She’s a songwriting and producing legend! It was awesome to go to er studio in LA. We actually wrote the songs in different pages over a Zoom-type situation. She’s like a ‘rocker’, and I was bringing sensitive, emotional. It was a great combination and really fun to do together.

I have to say I did really love your album (Songs Without Jokes, 2022), the way you tap into Randy Newman, one of my favourite storytellers. And Harry Nilson. So, underrated these days.

Yeah, big heroes of mine. I was going to see Randy Newman a couple of years ago. But then he cancelled his tour. And now he’s later in life, it’ll be more challenging to see him. I’d love to see him.

And I went back to watch the video A Little Tune, and I realised that you’ve picked out the best Jazz musicians in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, at the minute.

That’s my band now. I’ve given the name the State Highway Wonders yeah.

Sounds like you’d picked up a bunch of hitchhiking troubadours on a roadie to Auckland.

Ha. Yeah. I think it them is like the ‘Wellington Wrecking Crew’ (a reference to the L.A. based session players who played on many famous studio recordings through the 60’s and 70’s, including hundreds of top 40 hits).

Yeah. We’ve got Justin ‘Firefly’ Clarke (who plays in Shakti – a jazz/Indian fusion group and a Middle Eastern one called Bazerka), Leo Coghini ( who’s the virtuoso who plays with pretty much every band in New Zealand), Ben Lemi (who recently was with Vera Ella), Jacqui Nyman (‘the silent ninja’ on bass), Kaito Walley (trombone player extraordinaire) and Louise Williamson (who’s become a big jazz heavyweight) and the two vocalists Moana ‘Mo’ Leoti (who does really cool soul music) and Katelin Little (they’ve just released some amazing solo work). Justin is an old friend of mine, played with him for years, since we were teenagers.

That’s the dream team!

They’re all such amazing players. In 2022 we did a tour. I got the band together, with the help of Ben Lemi, who knows everyone in the music scene. We first came together for the Newtown Festival, and then the tour band for my first record (promotion tour). And then, apart from the horn section because they wouldn’t fit on the bus, I took the whole band across America for a couple of months. Really cool people. Exciting to get them back on the stage again.

I love that they are all in the video to A Little Tune, at the Wellington and Whanganui Opera Houses (along with Madeline Sami).

We are actually going to get them involved in a video we are going to shoot next week. I like to get them involved as much as possible.

So, you actually have real Band Meetings (remember Flight Of The Conchords)?

Yeah. But when you have a band of eight people it’s really hard to get availability. Ha. Ha. It’s a lot of What’s App chat to coordinate a band practice. (more chuckles)

(When writing together) I can have a song idea, and I give it to them, and it just comes to life. Better than you can ever imagine. And incredibly fun process.

Tell me about the new record – Freak Out City.

We recorded half of it in Los Angeles, with session players there, and half recorded with the Wellington Session band, which is my touring band (the now infamous State Highway Wonders). Iris and Mo sing on both.

For Wellington, we recorded at The Surgery, with ‘Dr’ Lee Prebble (an old friend from his days with the Black Seeds, etc.).

Perfect – home territory!

Absolutely. And we also recorded at the School of Music and Screen Arts – Te Rewa o Puanga at Massey’s Wellington campus with Troy Kelly, another great local music engineer.

And in L.A we recorded at EastWest Studios (Sunset Boulevard), which is where we recorded some strings for three songs. But it was really cool, getting to record in all these different places. If I’m working in LA I could do some work there and if I’m back in Wellington I could do the work here. I’m pretty lucky.

It comes out 15 August. The first song comes out in the first week of June. And they’ll be a tour; some shows in August to celebrate the release of the album. And then we’ll go to America and on to London in October.

There will be three releases before the album comes out. The first song to be released is All I Need. There’s Freak Out City is the title track and the third Shouldn’t Come Here Tonight. We talked about the Randy Newman and Harry Nilsen thing. This time, it’s more 70’s and no synthesiser on it. Touring with this big band, I wanted to try and capture the energy of the band. So, the recordings sound more like the live band does now.

With the first album I had to try and work out how to play these songs live. These new songs were more written for the band to play.

So, the album is more like a souvenir of the live experience?

I think, yes, closer to what you hear in the show, I think.

Some of the songs we played on the last tour are here. We sort of ‘road-tested’ them and then recorded them with arrangements that were developed on the road.

And you are doing some live shows, including at this year’s Lōemis festival – celebrating the darkest part of the year, with your bubbly upbeat music, LoL?

Yeah. It’s one of Wellington’s coolest festivals. It’s the middle of winter, everyone is hibernating, and Andrew Laking puts together this super cool and interesting collection of events. When he asked me if I would do a show, I was really into it. The shows at 6.30 PM in winter, but like 9.30 PM in Summer!

And what can we expect from the show?

I’m gonna play lots of songs from the new record. Some old songs and I wanna try this thing to write a song with someone from the audience and then perform it (like the Instagram posts we’ve mentioned). Really harrowing for me but highly entertaining for everyone else. I might do a Conchords song, a Black Seeds song, some songs from film things, I’m not sure. We’ll see. And I can’t resist bantering along, that’s where I’ll add some stories, you know?

That sounds great.

It’s funny, the last tours I was still finding my way into a new ‘genre’, into songs that weren’t ‘comedy songs’. I wasn’t sure how it was going to work. It’s interesting I called the album Songs Without Jokes because I was desperate to make it clear to the audience that it was something different. But as soon as I started performing it ended up really funny. I couldn’t resist gagging in the banter if that makes sense.

And in the video, you pull all these ‘Bret McKenzie’ faces, the dry, all-knowing characters are so funny.

I thought, ‘yes’. The show can be funny and sentimental and heartfelt but also serious at different times. The audience really enjoyed it. It can go move around in tone and the audience is totally up for it. I guess now, the new show, I’m more confident about the show I’m delivering, you know?

So many of the tracks on Songs Without Jokes are about breaking up, isolation, being away. Were you going through something at the time.

Yeah. Being in L.A with my family back here, it was a very ‘disjointed’ time. I was also watching America start to fall apart. I could just see it all happening and I thought that it was just not going to work. And it’s gradually unravelled further since then.

But this album (‘Freak Out City’) is not about that. I guess I’m now more happy living in New Zealand.

Now you are back here, has your perspective changed? Is there any FOMO to get back to the big smoke?

No. I’m much more placed here now. I can just do short trips. Sneak in undercover at night, stealthily and return before people wake up. Ha Ha.

It’s funny, after Covid a lot of work has continued on Zoom. Sometimes I’d go to LA and the meeting would be on Zoom. Given the distance travelled, quite ridiculous.

Some of the material has a 70’s pink and flamingo LA vibe to it (such as That’s L.A).

Yeah. That was me trying to write a Steely Dan song (laughing more).

And then that flips to sad material about leaving (Up In Smoke, Carry On).

The leaving (songs) were about heading home during Covid.

The dream smashed – for now? Ha. Yeah. Yeah. But trying all these styles out is part of the fun of song writing. In the last couple of years, I’ve become a full-time song writer – that’s pretty much my job now.

The first album was sort of something on the side. A part time project. But now the work is more cohesive. (For example) as I write songs for films and shows they might influence a song that goes on the record or vice versa. They are supporting each other.

Our time is up. But I can’t wait to see these new tunes at the Hannah Playhouse in June.

Thanks, Tim.

No. Thank you, Bret.

—

Bret McKenzie and the State Highway Wonders

Wed 18 + Thu 19 June, 6.30pm

Hannah Playhouse