By yourself, without a guitar, no one bothers you. Yesterday we were walking through New York and we had our guitars. McKENZIE We’re kind of famous, but not too famous. What echelon do you think you occupy now? You’ve said you felt your fame peaked with the HBO series. Is that a viable strategy for surviving an apocalypse?ĬLEMENT Depends how high the water rises, I suppose, since we’re islands. Their plan is that when the world falls apart, they’re going to fly down there to hide and drink nice wine. There’s a run of random tech billionaires who have gotten what used to be sheep farms, down in Queenstown. McKENZIE Particularly when Trump got voted in, I got so many emails from people saying, “How do I move to New Zealand?” A lot of wealthy San Francisco internet moguls are buying bolt-holes. In fact, they prefer that, I think.ĭo you find that your fans know more about New Zealand now than when you started?ĬLEMENT A lot of Americans are moving there. McKENZIE We’re the only ones who are hard on ourselves. What’s the origin of the song between the father and his son ?ĭo your audiences seem to mind if the newer songs are still being figured out in performances? It was interesting, in the special, to see how much more breathing room you could give your songs. That’s not cool.” We’d never notice that onstage. In the editing room, we’d go, “Oh, right. Some of the songs we were playing, we’re still figuring them out. You just feel it - if the crowd goes quiet, if the song’s not working or it’s not connecting.
McKENZIE Playing live is such a quick editor. We work and work on it, like we did back then. It’s the same as when we were playing little bars. Has your songwriting process changed over time?ĬLEMENT No. It does cloud the friendship.ĬLEMENT Then when we’re doing the show, we don’t have any days off. There’s a list of things we’re supposed to have done - oh God, we’re supposed to approve those photos or whatever. McKENZIE There’s often a bit of baggage that comes with our hanging out, of work and things that need to be done. We’ve also got families - if we weren’t reading our kids stories at night and had nothing to do, we’d go to a bar and play songs. But I find we’re not there at the same time. With all the other projects you now work on individually, is it harder to find time to get together as a band? Does it ever feel like an obligation?ĬLEMENT Theoretically we could do it whenever we wanted, because we both live in the same city in New Zealand. Certainly, making an album now is more of a charity job. I’d recommend it for any band trying to get exposure.
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We were a band first, and then we did a TV show for a little while.” People come to the shows, not really knowing what they’re going to see, and they’re surprised that we can play guitar and sing the songs.ĬLEMENT Someone asked me, “Why do TV shows always tour?” I was like: “We’re a band. We’ve spent so many years touring, but we’re more well known for the TV show, which is actually quite different from what we really do. McKENZIE I like the idea of capturing what we do live, because it doesn’t really exist on tape. Why did you decide, after all this time, to make a live special and album?
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We’ve never figured out how to do it live with two guitars. These are edited excerpts from that conversation.ĬLEMENT Sometimes people request songs we did for the TV show, but we only played them in the studio. McKenzie arrived in New York in late September to talk about the long road that led to “Live in London” and their unexpectedly complicated creative process. (He’s fine now, and the special was recorded in July.)Īt last, Mr. McKenzie broke two bones in his left hand. Then in March, as they were getting to record the show at London’s Eventim Apollo Theater, Mr. They’re family men too, with wives and children, and not always eager to undertake the grueling warm-up tours that precede a big concert taping (which will also be released as a Sub Pop album later this fall). Clement, 44, stars on TV shows like “Legion” and in films like “Moana.” McKenzie, 42, is an Academy Award-winning songwriter for “The Muppets” and Mr. In the nine years since their self-titled HBO sitcom came to an end, their individual careers have blossomed: Mr. Today, corralling the two creative partners for gigs like their coming HBO concert special, “Flight of the Conchords: Live in London,” which makes its debut on Saturday, is no easy feat. How hard could it be to get Flight of the Conchords together for a single show? After all, this comedic folk-rock band consists entirely of Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie, longtime friends from their college days at New Zealand’s Victoria University of Wellington, who hoped their satirical songs and deadpan banter would someday propel them far beyond the bar scene.