Wednesday, June 9, 1999 | 3:03 a.m.
This article first appeared in December, 1995.
While we talk about expanding our horizons, They Might Be Giants, Brooklyn's Ambassadors of Love, are actually doing so. The new record, "John Henry," is an honest-to-God rock record from the former quirky pop duo, now a tough-sounding quartet. The core duo of John Linnell and John Flansburgh are now fortified with a live rhythm section featuring Tony Maimone on bass and Brian Doherty on drums, and the resulting music proves that giants still walk the earth. One of the two Johns-the bespectacled Flansburgh-relates the view from Up There.
Q: How's the expanded band working out?
A: It's good. On a personal level, it's really challenging to deal with being a full band, from my perspective and John's perspective, because it makes us have to be band leaders. There's a whole set of odd, boss-like responsibilities that are ill-suited to us and our situation, which is really chaotic.
Q: Tell me a little about the kids tossing the skull around on the "John Henry" album cover.
A: Just an image...there's no greater significance there. Some were friends' kids, some of them were actual, hired, "professional kids." Having done a bunch of shoots with kids, you actually become grateful for stage mothers, just for being there and saying [firm tone], "She's fine, she's happy." A lot of times, regular [parents] will be like, "She doesn't want to throw the skull up in the air."
Q: Let's go back a few years...I heard you were planning to cover Queen's "We Will Rock You/We Are The Champions" for the Elektra Records tribute album Rubaiyat. What became of that?
A: We were never going to cover that. We were asked to, but we never had any intention of doing it. It seemed like a bogus idea to me, actually. "We Will Rock You" is really an amazing recording. It would be difficult to recapture what was good about that song; it's kind of like covering "O Superman" or "In The Mood", something that's got its own distinct vibe. Seems pointless to try and do it again.
Q: You're very prolific (TMBG has recorded over 100 songs). How often do you write, and how do songs get developed?
A: We write songs as often as we have ideas for songs; there's no schedule. You have a notebook with fragments of ideas, and if you have a day free, you'll just expand on it, and try to finish a song. Dial-A-Song [TMBG'S free song preview line, 718.387.6962] is probably the most fruitful outlet for our demos, and has probably helped us keep active in song writing. It's a nice destination for a song other than a record.
Q: My friend the Professor wanted me to ask about "I Palindrome I." Any thoughts?
A: I was talking to John about how palindromes have this unique cadence to them. There's this way that palindromes sound that basically reflects the fact that they're symmetrical; the first half usually works pretty nicely, the second half works in this really lumpy way. I wrote a song called "I Palindrome I" that was slightly different, but had a similar "I always repeat myself" kind of theme. I kind of handed off the title to John, and he cooked up this song...it's kind of impressive, actually. At the time, I was reading Greek mythology, and there's this motif in a lot of Greek stuff of snakes eating their tails...the thing that makes you great is the thing that brings you down. I was kind of amazed that when John finished writing the lyrics to the song, it had those elements in it.
Q: How was working with Frank Black?
A: Our first real collaboration was on these two videos we did for his first album, "Los Angeles" and "Hang On To Your Ego." I was kinda trepidatious about going into it because he's a friend. It's hard to work on creative things with friends. You just have to have a certain kind of rapport with somebody to have it keep on going smoothly. I was scared that if the video didn't work out, or if there was a big disaster, that it would somehow screw things up. They came out really well, and everybody was happy with the outcome. He's a really cool guy.
Q: What do you think of hip-hop? ("Snail Shell" was recently remixed by hip-hop producers The Dust Brothers.) Have you ever tried to incorporate a hip-hop vibe into your music?
A: From the beginning, we were very aware of the way in which hip-hop records were made; that was a springboard for us to start working the way we did. When we first started doing this band, we were two people with a home stereo, a four-track tape recorder, a really basic synthesizer, and that was pretty much it. There was a lot of music around New York City-popular music coming out of people's cars, being played on the street-with exactly that kind of equipment. [Hip-hop] was very inspiring to us, because it was electronic music that wasn't trying to be a band.
Where we live (has affected us). People ask me, "What do you think of this alternative rock band?" Pretty much ninety-five percent of the time, I've never even heard them. It's not like I'm avoiding them or think ill of them, but there's very little exposure to them. There's not a lot of white, angst-filled teenagers running around our neighborhood! A lot more black and Hispanic angst-filled teenagers running around.
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