THE ADAM BUXTON PODCAST - EP.220 - FRED ARMISEN

Episode Date: February 18, 2024

Adam talks with American actor, comedian, voice artist, screenwriter, producer and musician Fred Armisen about hotel hacks, what Fred and Matt Berry learned when they hung out with David Bowie's producer Tony Visconti, the Stop Making Sense nerd fact David Byrne told Fred, how Adam could help Talking Heads get on better, why you can't beat Paul McCartney, why Fred wasn't nervous for his Saturday Night Live Audition, the Portlandia sketches that summed up the show best and Fred takes us on an accent tour of New York.This conversation was recorded face-to-face in London on 25th November 2023.Thanks to Séamus Murphy-Mitchell for production support and conversation editing.Podcast artwork by Helen GreenJIM DOWN - LIFE IN THE BALANCE (PAPERBACK) - 2023 (WATERSTONES)RELATED LINKSFRED ARMISEN BRITISH MUSIC PLAYLIST - 2023 (LINE OF BEST FIT WEBSITE)DAVID BOWIE, BRIAN ENO AND TONY VISCONTI RECORD WARSZAWA (animated by Brothers McLeod) - 2013 (YOUTUBE)BREAKING DOWN HEROES - TONY VISCONTI & ERIN TONKON (FROM MUSIC MOGULS: MASTERS OF POP, BCC) - 2016 (YOUTUBE)MATT BERRY INTERVIEWS BRIAN ENO - 2018 (YOUTUBE)PORTLANDIA - PUT A BIRD ON IT - 2011 (YOUTUBE)PORTLANDIA - IN THE RESTAURANT - 2011 (YOUTUBE)PORTLANDIA - WHICH BIN DOES IT GO IN - 2012 (YOUTUBE)HISTORY OF PUNK SNL - 2013 (YOUTUBE)SNL WEEKEND UPDATE - GARTH AND KAT SING HALLOWEEN SONGS - 2010 (YOUTUBE)NARDWUAR VS FRED ARMISEN - 2013 (YOUTUBE)FRED ARMISEN, BILL HADER, SETH MYERS RECALL PRINCE AFTERSHOW PARTY ON HOWARD STERN SHOW - 2016 (YOUTUBE)BEST OF BILL HADER AND FRED ARMISEN (YOUTUBE)SATURDAY NIGHT - A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT SNL BY JAMES FRANCO - 2014 (YOUTUBE) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I added one more podcast to the giant podcast bin Now you have plucked that podcast out and started listening I took my microphone and found some human folk Then I recorded all the noises while we spoke My name is Adam Buxton, I'm a man I want you to enjoy this, that's the plan. The beautiful bucolic sound of the wood pigeon that is what woke me up this morning at 7 30 a.m it's a saturday so i wouldn't have minded sleeping a little while longer

and it would have been fine if the wood pigeon wasn't quite so close to the bedroom window. But I suppose there's worse sounds to be woken by. And even though it is grey and cloudy now that I'm out here on my walk with Rose Dog, who's doing fine, aren't you, dog legs? I'm patronised, Rose. It's not quite as windy or as rainy as it has been recently. So all in all, I'm going to say winning! Charlie Sheen called back there.

I wish we heard more from Charlie Sheen. He should run for president. Hey, how you doing, podcats? It's Adam Buxton here. OK, let me tell you a bit about podcast number 220, which features a rambling conversation with American actor, comedian, voice artist, screenwriter, producer and musician, Fred Armisen. Here's a few bullet points from the Fred Facts sheet. Fereydun Robert Armisen was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi in 1966, the son of a

Venezuelan mother and a father of mixed German and South Korean heritage. In the late 1980s, after attending the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan for a while, Fred moved to Chicago, where he served as the drummer of a punk band named Trenchmouth, with whom he played and toured for nearly a decade. During the 90s, Fred's focus shifted from music towards acting and comedy, and after a handful of TV appearances in the early 2000s, Fred became a cast member of the American comedy show Saturday Night Live, or SNL, where he remained for 11 seasons between 2002 and 2013. SNL was where Fred formed his friendship with comedian and former podcast guest, more importantly, Bill Hader.

Bill, Fred and former SNL cast member Seth Meyers started the documentary spoof series Documentary Now in 2015. They've made four seasons so far. And then there's Portlandia, the sketch show set in the town of Portland, Oregon, that Fred created in 2010 with his friend Carrie Brownstein of the seminal indie rockers Sleeta Kinney who are still going strong. Along with Fred and Carrie, Portlandia, which first aired in early 2011, features a cast of comedy performers including another former podcast guest Matt Berry as well as cameos from dozens of left-field musicians who popped up in sketches that, over eight seasons, lovingly took the piss out of the preciousness and pretensions of the community Fred and Carrie knew best, artists, musicians and creative types

in general. In addition to all of that, Fred has appeared in films including Anchorman, Eurotrip, Tenacious D and The Pick of Destiny and Zoolander 2 and tv shows that include 30 rock modern family parks and recreation tim and eric's awesome show what we do in the shadows and the series moon base 8 which fred wrote along with co-stars tim heidecker of tim and eric and john c reilly fred also does live comedy and my conversation with him was recorded the morning after i'd seen his show comedy for musicians but everyone is welcome at the earth venue in hackney east london back in late november of last year 2023 that show featured fred on stage with guitar keyboards and drums all of which he played in the course of doing a stream of jokes about music

filled with observations parodies deconstructions and impressions of some of the artists and genres closest to fred's heart with british punk and pop featuring heavily the day after the show i met fred face to face for the first time and it wasn't long before we got into the subject of music with conversation turning Bowie-shaped after a mention of Bowie's producer, Tony Visconti, and his friendship with Matt Berry. Incidentally, at that point in the conversation, we mentioned the Japanese vocalist who features on the first track of Bowie's album, Scary Monsters.

And I failed to recall her name while we were speaking she's called Michi Hirota she was a member of Japan's Red Buddha Theatre and she is also fun fact one of the two women on the cover of the Sparks album Kimono My House Michi Hirota is the one holding a fan and it is her who declaims so impressively at the very start of scary monsters as well as other music chat including times when fred met his heroes david burn of talking heads and paul mccartney of beatles i talked to fred a little bit about how he came to be on saturday night live and why he wasn't nervous for his audition. And he told me about the Portlandia sketches that he felt summed up the show best. But we began with me setting up mics

and Fred admiring the strips of black and pink gaffer tape, artfully arranged, on the back of my laptop. Back at the end for a bit more waffle. But right now, with Fred Armisen, here we go. Look at your laptop. Wow. You got some. I'm going to tell you, you may be able to relate to this. It's from doing shows and staying in hotels. Yes. And realizing that there's a very bright light on the smoke alarm.

And you turn the light off and suddenly the whole room is sort of in a pool of jade green light and you can't get to sleep and i always think like shit i wish i had some tape with me and so rather than carry a roll of tape around i have these strips of gaffer on the laptop so there's always enough tape to do some sort of job good idea without actually carrying the whole roll around but it looks like an art piece too yeah thanks uh that's one of my very few life hacks that yeah that's a good one someone taught me a light life hack of closing the curtains at a hotel yeah using a hanger like a uh so like the hanger for your jackets and stuff there's clips oh yes for pants or trousers you use those clips on the curtain to

really stop the light coming in in the morning yeah that is a good hack that's a good one i was at your show last night oh thanks for going that was fantastic thank you i loved it that was a good venue i saw tim heidecker at that same venue a while ago. As I said on stage a million times, I love England. I love being in England. And just being at that venue was like, to think that anyone from England would show up, you know, just because I've been such a fan of everything from here. It still blows my mind.

There was a lot of love for you in that room. Oh, I hope so. It was cool my mind. There was a lot of love for you in that room. Oh, I hope so. It was cool, man. It was a really packed house. Very attractive crowd, I noticed. Oh, good. As a creepy 54-year-old man walking through and thinking, Oh, look at this attractive young crowd.

Wow. I was jealous of your audience. I couldn't, you know, I can't really see from the stage because of all the lights and stuff. But they sounded great. Yeah, they were good. But I will say about Tim Heidecker, he's, you know, he's one of the funniest people I've ever met. And about his music thing, I sometimes think of him as like a Matt Berry type. thing i sometimes think of him as like a matt berry type even though i always wanted to be a matt berry type i feel like tim really is just because of the way he does music he approaches

it in a more serious way what is a matt berry type then you know like a matt berry an insane guy who's talented at music as well it's so hard to describe without sounding like someone who writes for you know a publication or something but like that approach to music which is like he clearly loves it but he's done a show-off about it yeah yeah he's not like oh look how much i can do it's more like i'm obsessed with recording. Yeah. He is a massive nerd. He tracked down Tony Visconti at some point and chewed his ear off for hours about all the gear that Visconti used on Low and things like that. And Visconti was delighted to furnish him with all the info. Matt constructed a sort of hybrid version of a low song, like from Bowie's album Low,

using a lot of the same gear that Tony Visconti used to try and get the same drum sound with the even-tied harmoniser and all this kind of stuff. Wow. He's so into it. But did he have Tony, like, produce it or anything like that? I don't think so. I think he enjoyed the challenge of doing it himself. I might be wrong about that. Have met tony visconti i did a zoom call with him uh a zoom interview during the pandemic and i was nervous about doing it because i have a sketch that i did

that's on youtube and it's uh actually it was animated by it's the animator i've seen that one yeah yeah who did his voice uh i did i did all the voices on there yeah but it's not mean it's just no it's not the joke was that it was um tony visconti complaining that everyone thought brian eno produced the berlin trilogy when actually he was at the very least the co-producer yeah and he keeps saying uh is tony visconti doing more than people think on this record? But then I got an email from Brian Eno, who I'd never met at that point. Somehow he got my email address and he said, I loved your Tony Visconti in the studio sketch. It's very accurate, he said. And it's one of the funniest things I've seen on YouTube.

I was incredibly flattered. he said. And it's one of the funniest things I've seen on YouTube. I was incredibly flattered. And he said, however, I keep bumping into people who think that that's what it was actually like with us in the studio. And that Tony was always complaining about not getting enough credit. Actually, that's not what it was like at all. And we couldn't have made the album without him. And he's one of the funniest, nicest people I know. So I feel a bit bad for him. and he's one of the funniest nicest people i know so i feel a bit bad for him so then i was nervous about doing the interview with visconti but he was totally fine did you address it did you bring up i think we did yeah i think i sort of glossed over i didn't want to make him feel like he was on the spot yeah so but it was totally fine he um i met him once and i went to his studio in New York.

And he's got that sort of half American, half English accent. Yeah. But he played tracks from Scary Monsters isolated. Oh, wow. So just the vocal track. And it's incredible hearing how strong. I can't believe I'm pitching that David Bowie's voice is strong. But it is really, like, it's so heavy and loud. It was so, so great to hear it that I thought Tony Visconti should go on tour and just have tracks and just have people listen to, you know, you could raise your hand and say, can I just hear the bass?

I do feel like nerds would show up for it. Oh, definitely. I would go you must have seen that clip on youtube where he's isolating tracks from heroes yes which is great synthesizer yeah there's that weird synthesizer patch that's he's he describes it as cheesy or corny or something but it's totally necessary for the song. Of course. Yeah. I love all that stuff. And Bowie in 1980, like when they did Scary Monsters, which would have been recorded in 79 or 80. 79.

His voice was at his best then, I think. So, so good. He was really good. I agree. I was in art class at school, and the teacher put it on the stereo put like a record on the actual uh-huh that's a good teacher yeah really good teacher and i remember hearing it's no game coming on and all the clunky sounds at the beginning i'm thinking what is this and then it just blows up into this mad sort of punk Yeah, yeah. Oh, it's perfect.

Tony described that the Japanese you hear in the beginning was a filler. She was, I think she was narrating what you're supposed to, what you should be saying in Japanese. Uh-huh. So that they could translate it or that someone else can do it, but then they liked her take. By the way, I could be getting this totally wrong, but this is just what I remember.

I think that's right. She is saying silhouettes and shadows, isn't she? Oh, I guess, yeah. How do we both not speak Japanese? Can you do, like, in my mind, I can hear what she is saying, even though I don't know what the words mean oh that's so good no i can't do it verbatim but it's probably i mean i'm sure i'm

way but it's like so dramatic the way she's doing because she puts like drama into it yeah i just looked over in in the room that we're in i see you have a haircut 100 record yeah did you like them yeah they're great oh that's so good yeah have you have a haircut 100 record yeah did you like them yeah they're great oh that's so good yeah have you ever met him he's very funny nick hayward and are they liverpool no where are they from i would imagine they're sort of home counties guys uh or just londoners maybe but he's really why i thought that he He's very funny, Nick Hayward. He's got quite an eccentric sense of humor. Haircut 100. That is one of my favorite albums.

It's great. Pelican West. It's funny that whatever they were a part of doesn't have a name. Haircut 100. Well, I mean, they started out quite punky. There's a demo of Fantastic Day that's like a straightforward punk song. Really? Get around the rainbow, get in on the train every day and every night.

They're from Beckenham in London. Haircut 100. And I just said Liverpool. And now Haircut 100 are going to be offended and mad. And then you're also, you're going to see me as not knowing anything about the british i'm sure you know way more than i do i don't know i certainly i got that city wrong haircut 100 are canceling you um but going back to matt berry yeah obviously he's amazing but he sort of just does his thing that's he just more or less stays himself and the world around him

changes and he adapts to whichever comedic environment he's in but he's basically just matt berry yep and every time i see him or talk to him or whatever i'm like that's the way to be yeah he seems like he's just one of those people who's figured out how to live. Whereas you are something of a chameleon. Yeah, I guess. I mean, obviously, you're able to do every accent under the sun. And you do characters in a way that... Matt obviously does characters. He plays roles.

There is some acting going on there. But he doesn't really do, like, madly different accents, does he? I guess not. Yeah, it's like a different he sounds more like him yeah all the way through yeah yeah and were you like what's your forgive me if i'm asking you stuff that you've been asked a million times before but how did you get i could never be mad about that can you imagine if i was in a place in my life where i was like listen i can't get asked that anymore that would be really bad but that's what musicians are like aren't they though they don't like being

asked about the past very much have you found that yes it's really some are into it and some have a little bit of a chip on their shoulder about it and i'm thinking of two there's some people who are like love talking about it they're into. But there's one, I won't say who, there's one guy I met, and I was talking about his band, and then I'd seen his band, and I can tell this wasn't even an interview. He did not want to talk about it. He did this thing where he became a stranger in his own conversation, he became a stranger in in his own conversation meaning he just turned into a person who it looked like i was telling us like uh someone who'd never heard of the band oh really oh this is like who

are you talking about oh that band and he put such a distance but i you know i read the room and i was like oh he does not want to talk about that. That's fine by me. My theory is that music journalism is so terrible that they become traumatized. Yes. No disrespect to the music journalists. We love you, music journalists. Some of them are amazing. Some of them are great.

I just can't get over the fact that there's such a thing as a bad music review. Because just over the years, now that time has gone, I think back to music reviews. I'm like, why did you criticize this person who's dead now? Why did you, in that month, just create, I don't know, just a bummer? Unless you've written a bad review about a band. Oh, you know what? I did. I used to be a real little twat not anymore i'm great now but when i was at university for all of one term i uh wrote

for the student magazine and i wrote a review of a band called hue and cry i remember hue and cry yeah i think they were scottish uh-huh i think you're right and they had a single i think it was called looking for linda or something like that i can't remember anyway it wasn't my sort of thing at all i thought it was too drippy and so i just wrote this really snarky horrible sarcastic review and i thought that maybe they were i didn't like the lyrics i thought they were too pretentious and i just went for it and um it was awful but you can forgive yourself and that you were just young i suppose so yeah you just that's what you imagine being in your 20s

making everything that comes everything that comes out of your mouth is just it's just dumb i know offense to 20-year-olds. I'm just saying, for me, when I was in my 20s, the stuff I would just say, you know, that band sucks. Yes, exactly. Or whatever. Yeah, because music is important. And when you care about music, you feel very passionate about it.

You're very partisan. Yes. If your favorite band lets you down or, God forbid, sells out. Oh, my God. What a crime. Were you one of those people, massive snob? Come on. Especially the 90s was all about, it was such a thing of if you're on a major label, if your song is in a commercial, it was just like death.

Death to that band you were like you were so offended that they would do something like that what were you like as a 20 year old apart from being a music snob where were you actually when i turned 20 i was here i was traveling through i had midway through college or the university. I just wanted to go traveling. And so I got like a work visa for England. I ended up in Scotland for a while. And I was there for like six months, but it seems like a much longer time.

But I was in Edinburgh. And yeah, this is where I wanted to be. I love, you know, I just love it here. And you came because you were already a fan of British music and things like that? Yeah, yeah. It was like, it really was like someone going to Hollywood or something. I was like, I'm going to go to England and then Scotland.

Verayden. Is that your real name? That's my real name, or that's the name I was born with, because that was my dad's name. But we both changed our name because everyonehuh because everyone was calling us fred right what was your dad up to he worked for ibm oh and we should plug ibm while we're of course so ibm international business machines there for all your business machine needs what did your dad do for them he was he did like internal auditing towards the end of his run there.

But other than that, I have no idea. You know, businessman. It's a briefcase. Goes to the, you know. He wasn't writing code? No. No. I asked him, I was like, dad, are you writing code?

And he was like, no. I was like, all right, let me know if you're writing code he wasn't someone that you sort of thought oh i want to do what dad does a little bit and then he traveled all the time right so he was always traveling and there's something about it that i was like oh that seems pretty great and i remember him being like no it's not great it's just hotels but then i thought i love hotels which i do yeah and when did you join a band high school uh i was in a hardcore punk band called the kgb the kgb yeah which gives you an idea as to like what you know

this is 1983 or something so that's quite a good name but it's very of the time though you know yeah like that's around the time that red dawn came out one the one where russian paratroopers land in a high school and execute the teachers yeah in uh alaska yeah yeah so you're in the KGB. Yeah. Age 16. Yep. And what were your songs like? Were you writing songs? Kind of. Imitation fast. So there's bands who really played fast, but we tried to play faster. You know, we're too young to really master it. But one of the songs was called Fight Back. That was like, that gives you an idea and sort of this tempo like you know it was fun kind of like at the time we thought it sounded aggressive now when i hear it i'm like it was pretty regular yeah were you singing then nope my friend kenny was singing and he loves god he was

so into hardcore and he introduced me to, in fact, so many British bands. Like who? Well, we opened for a band called GBH. That was like the sort of second wave of punk. Yeah. By then, it must have been like the third wave of punk. They were quite big. Yeah, they were great.

And he was so cool that The Clash was already passe to him. He was already advanced into Gang of Four and all that stuff. Right, okay. But I loved The Clash. I got to see them. Yeah, well, your Ian Rubbish character on the internet, it sort of says, Ian Rubbish, oh, it's a parody of John Lydon. But to me, it's that the vocal mannerisms are much more Joe Strummer.

Definitely. Living in the gutter. You remember that one? It's like a mix, you know, but it's mostly Joe Strummer. But he does say be decent, which is like a John Lydon thing. He talks about humanity. Humanity. He talks about humanity. Humanity.

Last night you played the Maggie Thatcher song by Ian Rubbish. Yeah. That really made me laugh. Oh, thanks. You know, as much as I love punk and love all that, that sketch was written by Seth Meyers. Oh, yeah. It was his idea to do a punk.

The only punk who was a fan of Maggie Thatcher. Yeah, he came up with the lyrics, and I just came up with the chords for it. What are some of the lyrics? Can you remind me? Hey, Maggie Thatcher, you're right. Thanks to you, I sleep at night. You keep England safe. your father was a grocer well did you imagine that you would be a musician at that point a professional musician or did you

have another career path in mind no no i was like the fantasy i had the ambition is exactly what i'm doing like somewhere between like devo and david burn and keith moon uh and the clash somewhere in there i was like there's got to be a version it's because i saw bands on tv that's where i saw the specials on tv whatever that world is that's where i wanted it to be visual i am a massive talking heads fan as well yeah yeah and yeah i agree with you they're the sort of they're the ultimate proposition as a fun thing to do because there's no way someone like me was ever well i was never in a band anyway but don't say that yes you were but um the bands i liked seemed to have that punk aesthetic, the DIY thing,

but they were also interested in the presentation and the lyrics were important and the album covers were important. Yes. It was a whole art project. Absolutely. Did you ever meet David Byrne? Oh yeah. We've hung out a bunch of times.

Oh really? Oh yeah. And, and, and kind of recently too. bunch of times. Oh, really? Oh, yeah. And kind of recently, too. Wow. Yeah. Well, we did a parody for a documentary now of Talking Heads.

And then he was aware of it, and we've talked about it and stuff. Oh, he's great. He's quite comfortable talking about the old days, right? Yeah, and I asked him a really good question. He had a really great answer. There's the restored version of Stop Making Sense, the film. In the film, I saw those tours. Did you?

Oh, yeah. Yeah, that would have been 83, I think, for speaking in tongues. And he comes out, and he puts down a boom box and he presses the boom box and you hear the drum machine yeah for psycho killer yeah so watching the restored film i see that he puts down the boom box he plays it and then i felt foolish because i was like oh i thought that was real clearly there's no cable connected to it so how is it going through the pa system so i felt like oh show business they fooled me

and i told him this and he said no we did play it it's there's a transistor in the back that was a real cassette and i was so excited for him to tell me that you're such a massive nerd i was so excited that he remembered yeah you know how some people are like oh i don't remember he like i love that he was like no that was real and we had a transistor in the back what a great answer yeah because i didn't feel foolish anymore no he obviously cared about every single aspect of of the shows and costumes yeah their choreography and all that stuff did you see any of the interviews that talking heads did to promote stop making sense on chat shows and stuff yep yeah and i went to this one they did a few sort of screenings and premieres i went to one one in Los Angeles, and it was wild to see them together.

Yeah, very odd, I thought. Like watching, I don't know them, obviously, and I haven't met them. But I am aware that there's tension within that. And I read Chris France's book, and there's quite a lot of bitterness in that book, I thought, about their relationship with David Byrne, as well as a lot of love and appreciation for him but there were certainly stories about the tensions between him and tina weymouth and uh and chris france you know about the usual sort of things yeah credit for who wrote what and bands you know i feel like the majority of them there's just always issues it's so heavy the fact that they break up while they're successful is amazing to me like there must be some serious tension yeah because

you think come on guys that totally get it together you can still do some good music i'm like i don't know figure it out but just show up on stage we love you you. Yeah, I mean, that is true. On the other hand, it was weird looking at talking heads all sat there trying to be nice. And I noticed that for every interview they did, the configuration on the sofa was the same. With Tina Wehman closest to the interviewer yeah on one side and then her husband chris france next to her yeah and then there's then there's jerry to separate the two camps yeah and then there's david burn on the other end and tina would never look at david burn like she would always just look at the host. She wouldn't turn her head to acknowledge anything that David Byrne was saying.

That's amazing. I mean, they turned up. There is that version where some people refuse. Oh, yeah. So I'm glad at least that they're... What would you do if you... I mean, what if you had all four of them here? I mean, it would be so weird, wouldn't it?

Because I would just find it incredibly uncomfortable. I'd want to acknowledge the tension. I would want to broker a peace and say, come on, guys, let's talk about this. I would just play dumb so that it would bring the niceness out of them. Yeah. If I was like, okay, so what? I don't know anything about your band. What's the name of the kind of music you play?

Did you ever put out records? So this way it's simplified. So they'd be like, they'd actually get along maybe with. They'd rediscover what unified them in the first place. Yes, yeah. I always feel like I want David Byrne to acknowledge, I want someone to acknowledge the tension in the room. I want David Byrne to say, listen, I understand that Tina may have been annoyed with me in the past.

You may have felt that I didn't give her enough credit, that I broke up the band in the wrong way without letting everybody know the way I should have done. And I'm sorry about that. Oh, I like your version. That was so well put. You should send that to him and say that. Yeah. That's the quote he should put out. That's really good.

Is the comedy world like that? Was SNL like that? Were there tensions? With us, the group that I was with was fantastic and supportive. With us, the group that I was with was fantastic and supportive. And there's not the same sort of ownership of sketches because we have writers with us, so we write with other writers. And it's just all one show, as opposed to song credits. So because of that, I think there's less of that kind of thing.

You don't have to years later go, I wrote that. There's none of that. It's all like, it's just the show. And the group that I was with were still friends. So who were they for people who don't know? Well, if people don't know out there, then you shouldn't be listening to this. This is for SNL fans.

Bill Hader, Jason Sudeikis, Kristen Wiig, Kenan Thompson, Andy Samberg. Amy Poehler was there for part of that. Maya Rudolph. Will Forte. Will Forte. It was just, you know, Daryl Hammond was there throughout. And it was just a great, great group. I mean, that is a mad collection of variants.

It's insane. And I just remember how I felt when I was there. Because, like, when I think about people supporting each other, it's a common thing to say, like, oh, everyone is a great family. But, like, I do remember when someone else had a sketch going at the i'm gesturing like there's a table because we would read it as a table you know read like there'd be like we'd act it out or whatever yes i saw the james franco uh saturday night perfect that's on youtube yeah that's a perfect example and has a lot of those table reads in it yeah and i remember my feeling

when the sketch was going well that i had nothing to do with i remember feeling great like oh that's so great i hope this makes it on the air andy is so funny in this or whoever and uh that's how i know like that we were supportive of each other that feeling i feel like it was mutual it it looks fun in that documentary in fact it was someone at your show last night as I was walking out who said, oh, I like the podcast. And I said, oh, I'm going to talk to Fred tomorrow. And the guy said, oh, you should,

have you seen the Saturday night documentary? It's on YouTube. So I watched it last night when I got back. How did you have time? Oh, I just went to bed late. I got home. I was to where I'm staying and i was so i was exhausted yeah well you were performing a show i was just watching it but that's an active

thing to be doing yes it is my brain was engaged yeah but i was uh lying on the sofa uh had some pringles and watched um the saturday night doc and did look fun. It was a good counterpoint to so many stories I've heard, many of them on Mark Maron's podcast, of what seemed like a really stressful environment that Saturday Night Live could be for some people. I loved every second of it. I mean, the documentary was great, but also as a side note, I can't believe I was there. So you didn't have you didn't experience those moments of extreme mental anguish at the unfairness of certain decisions that were made.

I guess you were you and Bill carved out a pretty good little scene there and uh it seemed like a very productive yeah and anything that like didn't end up in the air now that i look back i'm like oh rightly so there's no reason that i the stuff that didn't work just didn't work and then we had the next week to come up with something else anyway. So, yeah. We're halfway through the podcast. I think it's going really great. The conversation's flowing like it would between a geezer and his mate. All right, mate. Hello, geezer.

I'm pleased to see you. Ooh, there's so much chemistry. It's like a science lab of talking. I'm interested in what you said. Thank you. There's fun chat and It's like a science lab of talking I'm interested in what you said Thank you There's fun chat and there's deep chat It's like Chris Evans is meeting Stephen Hawking Did Carrie Brownstein act before Portlandia then? Maybe a few bits and pieces here and there

But I don't think like with that kind of intensity, intensity meaning schedule, like she was never working on a TV show, but she'd done a couple of things here and there. And how did you know her? Through her drummer. Sleater-Kinney is or was my favorite band, and I was friends with her drummer, Janet,

the drummer for Sle Kinney then Carrie and I met and then right away we were like best friends you know like I we just knew we were going to be friends and and then it turned out that way was she living in Portland oh yeah it still does so describe Portland to people from the UK i think in many ways it's similar to the uk and that it's like cloudy um but it's um where is oregon just picture the west coast there's california and then as you go towards washington state right in between is is Oregon so just picture pine trees okay kind of stormy and really beautiful but very dense and very green Seattle's like the bigger city to the north of it uh just picture like a lot of coffee and bicycles yeah that kind of place yeah yeah yeah very nice you started doing it when? 2010?

That's right, yeah. Yeah. Do you remember any of the initial spurs for the idea, like seeing something and going, oh, we should do a video about this? You mean for Portlandia in general? Oh, there's so many. Well, the very first sketch that Carrie came up with was Put a Bird on It. And she really just simply said, like, every time I buy something, there's like, now there's like little birds on things.

Today we're going to go to a store on Mississippi Avenue. Nothing has birds on it. But you know what we're going to do? We're going to put birds on things. Spruce it up. Make it pretty. Thank you. Put a bird on it.

Putting a bird on this teapot. It's a bird. I bet you it's flying all over the beach. Put a bird on it. I'm putting a bird on this teapot. It's a bird. I bet it's flying all over the beach. What a sad little tote bag. I know. I'll put a bird on it. Did you see this bag before?

I didn't. Now there's a bird. It's flying. It's free. And then also going to a restaurant. You know, like, there was this thing, and I guess it still happens, where they tell you so much about where the food is from yeah we you know now we all accept it as like part of being at a restaurant but i think at the time it was kind of newer you know we locally source this and this is local and

that's local and so that definitely if you have any questions about the menu please let me know i guess i do have a question about the chicken. If you could just tell us a little bit more about it. The chicken is a heritage breed, woodland-raised chicken that's been fed a diet of sheep's milk, soy, and hazelnuts. Okay, this is local? Yes, absolutely. I'm going to ask you just one more time, and it's local?

It is. Is that USDA organic or organ organic or portland organic it's just all across the board organic hazelnuts these are local there's one that we did whenever i people ask me about portlandia there's this one sketch we did about recycling which was like there were so many colored bins this is for bottles this is and we just made it more and more ridiculous that that to me is like the example of of what the show is about more than anything. Like this sort of, we're trying to do something good, but then you just trip over yourself doing it.

I'm Marcus Harris. And I'm Madeline Harris. And we're here to tell you, Portland, about all the new recycling bins. Guess what? We're twins! You should say we're twins together. Sorry, I know you're right. Sorry about that. Coffee cups, please. Orange. all the new recycling bins. Guess what? We're twins! You should say we're twins together. Sorry, I know you're right. Sorry about that.

Coffee cups, sleeves, orange. Sturdy stick, brown. Cups, periwinkle. Lid, fuchsia. Oh wait. It says lipstick on it, see? Oh. Lipstick lids, rose.

We did it! Once it's all sorted, everything is recycled into one of three categories. Clean air, fresh water, or good vibes. The other 97% of the trash is dumped into the ocean. What is this, the Atlantic? You got to work with a lot of your musical heroes in Portlandia. And were these people that you knew already just through the music scene? I'm thinking specifically of the sketch you did with Henry Rollins.

Oh, yeah. Karen and I have both known him for a little while. Right. Yeah, he was great. No, we had everybody on there. Jello Biafra, Glenn Danzig. That was one of my favorites. They were all, yeah, we really got to work with a lot of heroes on that show.

Yeah. Your band supported Fugazi at one point, right? Yep. So you had a member of Fugazi in that. Yeah, yeah. And that's a real, you know, that's someone I feel like that was an easy sort of friend to say do you want to come up to portland and yeah and do this trench mouth were you called yeah yeah so this was your proper sort of serious band back before in the 90s yeah how long were you together then let's see i don't know six years or

something six years seems about right six or seven years were you doing stand-up at any point? Nope. Then, not when I was in a band. I just did a video where I was interviewing bands, like different characters and stuff. And then after that, I started doing stand-up. And by stand-up, I mean like I would do different characters on stage. Yeah.

What was your transition then into making a living out of comedy? I made this video of interviewing bands and then showed this VHS tape at a club in Chicago where I was living. And then people turned out for it. And then I did it again and then would show the video in New York and L.A. and stuff. And right away there was a sort of, I don't know, like a new interest in what I was doing.

And then HBO, I think there was actually a version of HBO called HBO Zone, asked me to do little videos for them. And that first paycheck was like where I was doing comedy for a living. And then I moved to LA. I really wanted to live in LA, did more stuff on stage. And Bob Odenkirk had a sketch show, a pilot he was making, and he put me in that pilot. And that sort of really got things going where I could audition for more shows and i auditioned from for snl from there were you crapping your pants no because i had already been through so much like with the band that it wasn't in my sights you know what i mean like i wasn't like oh someday i'll be what I mean? Like I wasn't like,

someday I'll be a cast member of SNL. I loved SNL. I always did. But it was so insane that I couldn't be nervous for it because it was like, this is crazy that I was just playing drums and that I'm here at NBC Studios doing an audition. This is already beyond my wildest dreams. doing an audition. This is already beyond my wildest dreams. So I really felt like I had nothing to lose. I didn't feel like, oh, please let this be the moment. I was like, I cannot believe I'm getting to meet Lorne Michaels. And you aced it.

I did okay. Do you like those documentaries about the comedy world? Do you ever watch those? The Comedy Store documentaries? I haven't seen it. I was thinking, I wonder if you guys would ever do one of those, or is it too close to home on Documentary Now? Oh, that's a good idea, actually. As you were telling me that, I was thinking,

you know, because people have ideas all the time, and now that you say it, I'm like, that actually would be pretty great. Because they're so full of it. Stand up comedians. Oh, yeah. Especially when they talk about comedy. Yeah. There's nothing worse.

Yeah. Breaking down what works and what doesn't work. I can't handle it. Oh, it's too much. As I wrote down a line from a trailer I was watching. Oh my God, I can't. It's just too much. When Rogan is up and he's destroying and you're after him,

it's hard to put yourself out there and take a risk. I can't. First of all, I don't want to know who said that. But those words are just like it's it's just hell oh my god it's the worst as if you're going into battle yes exactly it's that thing that willingness to take comedy so seriously yeah when the whole point is to take the piss. Yeah, and also that goal of like when you're destroying. Yeah. Who cares?

What does that mean? Oh, the whole room was really laughing. So what? Because there's an argument to be made too. Just, I can't. It's just like when you're destroying. It's just like, ugh. Yeah.

I'm watching comedy and sometimes if it's not that funny it's great anyway How did you like the new Beatles song, the last ever Beatles song, Now and Then? I loved it because it kept us all active in the Beatles. So I like that. I like the sort of like, you know, active listening. Everyone was really like tuned in. Yeah. And that melody is great and

the ring goes drums sound like ring goes drums it was great but i like that original recording too yeah like that's really cool and you must have watched get back presumably oh i couldn't get enough of it i watched every second like i really soaked it in it was very intense wasn't it because especially coming out of the pandemic i mean the pandemic was still going on really when get back yeah yeah but that was one of the reasons it felt like such an intense yes i didn't think about that i guess that would have been part of the psyche behind it i think so just that i mean just by chance but still or maybe they designed it that way they're like let's wait till there's a pandemic and well they had time i suppose to pull all the stuff together yes fine yeah yeah and pay attention to it yeah but i god

i loved it i loved i was just seeing ringo like just being reminded that he's like a drummer. He's just listening all the time. He was just listening and so patient. What a great drummer. So you never had any time for that whole thing of, he wasn't even the best drummer in the Beatles. No. And I think I have an opinion that it is a myth

that people don't think he's a great drummer I think that's like it's it's own made up thing of like that he's ever criticized I think that drummers when they speak privately you know like with comedians you speak privately like I don't think so and so is very good

or like in like in silence or whatever in private moments every drummer is like that guy is the best he's so musical and we all know those drum parts we all you could picture them in your mind that i think everyone agrees that he is great the fact that they were so good on the rooftop. Oh, man. I got a little emotional. I got very emotional. I've not experienced that very much, you know.

Just because they were so tight. And, I mean, it was amazingly, beautifully well recorded. Yeah. Glyn Johns down there with... Yeah. Oh, and also, like, you felt like you knew them better and that it really was a victory to like actually get somewhere and actually play it was a very satisfying yeah journey yeah but it was a satisfying journey and uh it made sense like because there's that part where they're

talking about like let's go play in a boat somewhere and george is like who's paying for that yeah i like the idea that they're not so trippy that they're like yeah whatever that someone was like no that's something too expensive to do but if you look at the footage from the rooftop something i didn't notice before is that they had built someone took the time to build a stage on there you know there's like new wood so when you're a kid you think let be. They just went up there with guitars. And I like seeing the sort of show business part of it, of like someone actually took the time to like make it a proper stage. Yeah, to reinforce it.

Make sure the Beatles didn't just fall through the roof. They're like, let's take this seriously and make it look last minute. But there's some planning. It would be a shame if one of them died. Yes. How do you feel about the technical trickery, though? The extent to which from now on, there's no such thing as the past anymore, that you'll be able to revive anything and tweak anything.

I know. That's just, we have to accept it. Yeah. You know? Maybe they'll do that with this podcast with this interview they'll do it you know and i mean could you imagine what it's going to be like and what they'll be able to do in 20 years it's wild it'll be possible to have sampled your voice and all the impressions that you've ever done yeah and then just write new sketches yep and get that voice to perform them,

whether you've signed a waiver or not. They could also maybe improve some impressions. Maybe they could take some accents I've done and just tweak them a little. I wish I could do every British accent. I wish I could do all of that stuff. Well, you have a bit in your show, the live show,

where you go through the whole of the american yeah but i wish i could do britain i you know i watch videos of it yeah and there are people who can do it and it's amazing yeah it's brilliant birmingham liverpool wales oh my god do you have an accent at the moment that you particularly enjoy doing oh i really like breaking down new york city but i like doing even like smaller parts of it of of new york city and manhattan and stuff but uh new york because that's where i grew up so it's like a little bit like i can you know i like breaking that down yeah can I put you on the spot and ask you to take a little New York tour? Let's see.

When I do New York, I usually do Brooklyn. Brooklyn, I think of as in here, you know, kind of it's tough. But then the Bronx is more from the lungs. There's more pride in the Bronx. And Manhattan, I think of people who are in the medical community who had a procedure done. Queens is more high-pitched. Nobody told me. Queens.

Sometimes if I do Greenwich Village, I think of people In Greenwich Village Or People who've lived there A long time I mean Speaking of this volume And then

When I think of Long I grew up in Long Island So Long Island I think Is the most New York Of all the accents You know

They Stole for time. That's where I grew up, Valley Stream. And then as you leave New Jersey, you start to lose the accent a little bit, but there's still a little buzzing. And yeah, that's just some of them. That's great, man.

Thank you. So where are you off to next? That was the first night of your tour last night. Yeah, Birmingham. just some of them. That's great, man. Thank you. So where are you off to next? That was the first night of your tour last night. Yeah, Birmingham. We play there tomorrow. The one thing I had to do today was this. And they really had to push me. They were like, you got to do it.

To be honest, a friend of mine from Australia told me about this. Saya. She was like, she really really this was like during the pandemic just really into you and into this and you know that you're so funny and i was like great and then so i started listening and then by luck or whatever you know i guess it's maybe it's a year ago then you interviewed paul mcc Yes. Gosh, you did a great job. Thanks, man. I was absolutely.

Was that here? Bricking it. No, that was on Zoom. Okay. Yeah, because that was, that was in the pandemic. That was at the end of 2020. It was? Yeah.

I feel like it's more recent. I think you're wrong. No, I think it's 2022. He just released mccartney three oh that's already that wow that's right 2020 god everything goes so fast have you met him yep how was that oh a dream it was awesome a bunch of times because of snl right his friends with lauren michaels and he hangs out he likes people's company he's funny he just likes talking oh it's the best it's the best and were you able to ask him nerdy beatles questions or were you playing it cool i played it cool by not bombarding him with

uh only i think you're great or I know this song or that song. I asked him about Harry Nelson. And then I asked him about his bass because he uses that Hoffner. And he was just saying that wood just becomes so much more resonant as it gets older. So it felt more like a conversation as opposed to just I think you're great.

Yeah. it felt more like a conversation as opposed to just, I think you're great. Yeah. You know? And, oh man, it's the best.

He's just like, I think also because of SNL, I think he likes the environment of comedians. So, well, there is that mutual appreciation society between musicians and comedians. Yeah. They envy something that the other one has always and i love it i love seeing old pictures of did the beatles of peter sellers or yeah but um yeah oh

it was he's he's the best great wow that must have been an amazing moment. Yeah. Who are you listening to at the moment? There's a band called Deaf Rain, who I love. D-E-F-R-A-I-N. A band called Real Estate. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Are they still putting stuff out? Yeah. Right.

They're great. Kurt Weill. Yeah, he's fantastic. He's great. Courtney Barnett. Have you done albums of your own stuff the way that Tim Heidecker has? Nope. I don't think I have the capacity.

I don't have that urge. I don't have that want to make... That's not in me. But if it's a parody of something, if I am asked to do a parody or if I want... That flows so easily that I just, you know, I'm like, that's where I should be. That's what I can do. Yeah.

Because of the ease of that. Do you enjoy doing that? I love it. Yeah. I love it. If it's something that I like, like Talking Heads parody, yeah. I think I want to work on a sound effects record next. Like, you know how the sound effects records we used to have when you're a kid and or even for like production, there used to be sound effects records, like a bottle breaking and stuff like that.

I want to do one of those. But it's, you know, that I did it, that I break the glass or whatever. No disrespect, but how is Fred Armisen breaking a glass going to sound different to someone else breaking a glass? That's, you know, that's like saying, how does George Harrison playing a guitar

sound different than someone else playing a guitar? Or Johnny Marr playing a guitar? So that was disrespectful. Okay. Yeah. Well, that's great man that sounds really exciting that was more supportive thank you yeah and what other sound effects will you have on there i think i do want to do like um crowds so like uh an audience of you know eight people at an open mic so i could overdub like you know like different

or like you know a bigger crowd or or is this you playing every member of the crowd yeah i would just overdub it so it's like multi-tracked have you got do you do stuff on Logic or on other? Yeah, Logic. Yeah. It's not easy. I'm really excited about this record. Yeah. It's not easy. Yeah, because you've got to double up all that. You've got to create a new track. Yeah yeah and make it sound convincing and good yeah yeah there's a guitar over there fred you don't fancy is that a gift

you could have it That sticker's Oh it's in tune Yeah I tuned it In case you fancy playing something What would you like to hear? What is there? I mean How about something What I'll do is

Since you said Do you ever play serious music? I said no So why don't I Come up with What I'll do is, since you said, do you ever play serious music? I said, no. So why don't I come up with an earnest, earnest song? And I will do no tones that sound jokey. I'm going to really, just for a verse, try my best to write a serious song with serious lyrics serious lyrics

there's a man speaking on There's a man Speaking on his cell phone again It sounds... That was good. It's impossible to do, though. It's impossible not to be jokey. You've set yourself an impossible challenge for... This is the challenge that I've had.

I've been making an album and it wasn't supposed to be a comedy album. They just said do an album. And so I was like, shit, I love music. So I've got an opportunity to write some actual sincere music. So I tried and it was really, really hard. I was beaten by it in the end. Really?

Yeah. I had to just go stupid again. See? It's like you're just falling into like a groove of some kind. What is it though? It's a fear of being judged, isn't it? Isn't it? It's a fear of...

I don't think it's fear. I think it's just like... Oh, I think it's fear i think it's just like oh i think it is oh i'll debate you on this oh i love a good debate yeah no i i think it's i don't think it's fear i think it's just like not being able to like paint something in a certain way and then it's just like it's just like oh that's not that this doesn't come naturally to me. That's what I think. I think that it's... Because you don't seem like you have fear. You're not like, I'm worried. You don't seem like a worried person.

You get it together to do this. You haven't listened to enough episodes of the podcast. Well, I don't know. I think it's just like you either want to do something or you don't. I'm just going to play a rock and roll song. That's it. That's the entire... Wait, this is an advert for Squarespace. Every time I visit your website, I see success.

Yes, success. The way that you look at the world makes the world want to say yes. It looks very professional. I love browsing your videos and pics and I don't want to stop. And I'd like to access your members area and spend in your shop. and spend in your shop. These are the kinds of comments people will say about your website if you build it with Squarespace. Just visit squarespace.com slash buxton for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, because you will want to launch, use the offer code BUXTON to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. So put the smile of success on your face with Squarespace.

Yes. Continue. continue hey welcome back podcats that was fred armisen talking to me there his beautiful relaxed energy and i'm very grateful to fred for making the to talk to me. It was good to meet him. I have stuffed the description of today's podcast with a load of links related to some of what we were talking about. You've got, well, obviously I've got to put my Bowie and Eno and Tony Visconti sketch in there with animation by the Brothers MacLeod,

just in case you haven't seen that one. I've also put the video of Tony Visconti and Erin Tonkon talking about recording Heroes with David Bowie. That's a clip from a BBC show called Music Moguls Masters of Pop from 2016 but it's very similar in form to an episode of classic albums which for me is just about as good as it gets for visual comfort food I've also linked to the show that I got that Matt Berry clip from,

the clip of Matt Berry doing a pastiche of a track from Low by David Bowie, comes from a show he made for Radio 4 called Matt Berry Interviews Brian Eno. I think it was 2018 that he made that, and it is one of those shows in which the host has inserted themselves into interviews that they've chopped up and reworked quite good because there are some funny jokes in there

as well as some genuinely interesting bits of interview with brian eno and then matt does a few musical spoofs you will also find links to to the videos of those Portlandia sketches that I played short clips of. There's a link to the History of Punk sketch with Ian Rubbish from SNL. And there's also a couple of other SNL clips of Fred with Kristen Wiig doing their Garth and Kat improvised song sketches, which I really love. There's a link to Canadian pranky journalist Nardwaur interviewing Fred back in 2013. Are you familiar with Nardwaur? I think he's Canadian. He wears a tamashanta and he's a bit like a cross between dennis pennison a music journalist although that makes him sound prankier than he actually is he's definitely a huge music

fan with deep level knowledge that he wields in his interviews but i think sometimes you know it's a quite extreme style that he has and it's hard to tell if he's winding people up or if he's just playing an extreme version of himself and there's a few clips on youtube of some of his interviewees getting quite annoyed with him but he has a good chat with fred armisen i've also included a link to a book by someone i met towards the end of last year, a London-based ICU doctor called Jim Down. If you listen to The Rest Is Politics, then you might sometimes hear Alistair Campbell mentioning Jim Down. I think they go swimming together in the Lido up in North London. Lido up in North London and actually I think they met there when Jim was coming out of a period of depression following the pandemic when for various reasons he found himself

pushed to the brink like so many others especially in the NHS. Anyway Jim has written a book called Life in the Balance it's not just about that although he does talk about that part of his life in there but their stories from his life in icu so far i'm quoting now from the blurb with honesty and a dark streak of humor dr down describes the quietly heroic work of doctors and nurses on the ICU, a place which sits at the cutting edge of medical technology and where a split-second decision can make the difference between life and death. From headline-grabbing cases like that of Alexander Litvinenko,

poisoned by Russian agents and admitted to Downe's ward, to the appalling aftermath of a train crash, Life in the Balance offers an inside glimpse of intensive care medicine, its immense challenges, deleterious effects on doctors' mental health and enormous rewards. I really recommend it. Jim writes very well. And it's interesting that for someone so accomplished and skilled, he still struggles with such a lot of doubt in his life. And he writes about that brilliantly, too. I met him towards the end of last year when I went to see a play, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, which had been adapted by Tom Basden, who I hope will come on the podcast one day.

Anyway, Jim Down was there and introduced himself. And I read his book and I thought it was really good. It's out in paperback towards the end of this month, February 2024. Link in the description. All right, podcats, that's it for this week. I'm hoping to put out another episode within just a few days I thought it would be a good double header because last year I also recorded a conversation with Tim Heidecker of Tim and Eric and Tim was mentioned a couple of times in my conversation with Fred I've described

Tim and Eric before as a bit like Vic and Bob but it's a very different sensibility whereas Vic and Bob I think are quite sort of end of the pier and music hall-ish Tim and Eric are a bit more kind of art school-y or film school-y they went to film school and they never really used to give kind of straight interviews they were always quite arch and in character and weird my conversation with tim was him more or less being himself i think and again it was recorded the day after i saw him do a show which i mentioned to fred there anyway i was able to grab him for a brief ramble so that is coming up next on the podcast thank you very much indeed to Seamus Murphy Mitchell for his production support conversation editing etc

on this episode much appreciated Seamus thanks to everybody at ACAST for their continued sponsorship liaison assistance thank you to Helen Green she does the beautiful artwork of my great face which probably needs to be updated at some point but thanks most of all to you for coming back for listening to the end again oh you're just terrific come here come on hey just think everything that you're doing at the moment is working and keep doing it not that stuff no you should stop that but the other stuff the good bits all right take care i love you bye Bye! Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. Please like and subscribe.

Give me like a smile and a thumbs up. Nice like a five for me, thumbs up. Give me like a smile and a thumbs up. Nice like a five for me, thumbs up. Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe.

Give me like a smile and a thumbs up. Like and subscribe. ស្រូវាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រ Thank you.