Bret McKenzie on his latest album ‘Freak Out City’ & upcoming tour
GRAMMY and Academy Award-winning songwriter, composer and performer Bret McKenzie will be touching down in Wellington and Auckland this April to perform live shows with his 8-piece band in support of his latest album, ‘Freak Out City’, following a run of sold-out international concerts. The upcoming shows will feature newly-released songs alongside old favourites, plus hilarious recountings of key moments from his colourful career, songs written on the fly using audience members’ real-life stories, and various other onstage antics.
Best known as one half of Flight of the Conchords, Bret McKenzie has built an acclaimed solo career defined by sharp wit, impeccable musicianship and a deep love of classic songwriting. He chats with us about his latest album, the tour, two Flight of the Conchords shows at the Greek Theatre in LA this May, marking their first live performance together in eight years, and more.
HM: Such a huge privilege to speak to you today, about your latest album ‘Freak Out City’ and the upcoming tour which is all very exciting. I'd love to kick off by asking you how you landed on the concept of ‘Freak Out City’ and what it means to you?
Bret: Yeah, there's one song on the album called ‘Freak Out City’ that is actually more a song called ‘Rabbit Hole’. When we play it with the band, we call it ‘Rabbit Hole’. Sometimes when you're naming a song, you look up how many other songs are called the same name. And turns out there are a gazillion songs called ‘Rabbit Hole’. And I was like “okay, need to come up with a different name of the song’. There's a part of that song, the bridge has this little line “freak out city” in it, and I kind of just loved that. I thought it captured something kind of cool.
That song I wrote in the wake of COVID and when everyone was getting into conspiracy theories, and everyone was dealing with friends and family members and falling into rabbit holes. And there's a little bit of something around there, the idea of everyone sort of panicking and full of anxiety, felt like it captured something of the modern world.
HM: Yeah, I think so many people can relate to that, and also who know of people who really dived into the rabbit hole, as you say, looking into the conspiracy theories (laughs).
Bret: I feel like now we’re in a different phase. Now we're in a place where people know they can't talk about it. They maybe just drop a little hint to see if you're open, if the door's open, for them to continue talking about what they believe.
HM: (laughs) Absolutely, that's so true.
Bret: That's just one song. The album is really a collection of songs I wrote over a year or two, and I didn't really set up with a concept or anything. Those are my favorite songs from that time period, and sometimes I go in the studio, and some work and some pop on your recording, and some I think you're like, “oh, maybe that's not quite right”. And so they’re just my favourite songs.
It was interesting, I was talking to The Beths - I was doing an interview with Liz and we were talking about songwriting and recording and things, and even though I've done music, written songs for years and years now, recording albums is kind of slightly new for me in a way. Conchords albums were TV show related, I did Black Seeds’ album - that was a long time ago, that was kind of cool but also we were just brand new to it. We were just thrilled to be able to record a song. That was just a huge achievement. And so the idea of thinking about the album as a thing is quite new to me, and it's kind of fun. I've worked in narrative a lot, you know, stories and things.
But anyway, long way of saying, Liz from The Beths was telling me how they get the end of the album, and then sometimes they write one more song that ties the whole album together (laughs). And I thought “That's a really good idea!”. If you write the songs, just collect songs, you may not be aware of themes or ideas that are going through your life, and you get to the end and then you go, “Oh, actually, I was kind of really hopeful during this period” or really dark. It's like a cool little trick that I've learned.
I guess I do think the album is kind of optimistic as a general theme. I was really trying to capture a feeling of musicians playing together - that was quite important to me. I was rehearsing the last album to go out on the road with my band. The band's called the Highway Wonders.
HM: So sick! Love that name.
Bret: The band is almost like a Wellington Wrecking Crew, they’re all just heavyweight musos. And so I show up and I've got a song that's like three or four chords, and then they're like a jet plane, and just take it off into the stratosphere. It’s so fun, but I realised with some of the songs on the last album, I had kind of an 80’s synthy type feel, and they didn't really set the musicians free in a way. And so I started writing songs that allowed the band to be a bit more playful, if that makes sense. Allowed a bit more room for the musicians. And so quite a few of these songs are those songs that I was writing with the bands as I developed them.
HM: And I was going to mention “All the Time” with that sax solo and the instrumental break at the end, I love listening to that and being like “wow, that really gives them space”.
Bret: Ohhh, I love that bit. And we do that live and obviously Louisa is in the band. The band that plays on most of the record are playing on the tour. Louisa Williamson is the saxophone player, absolute monster of a muso, and she just takes off. And you watch the audience. You just watch them, like their jaws drop when they're like “what the hell?!”. It's one of those moments where you get like goosebumps because just she blasts off.
And that was slightly inspired by a Paul Simon song that ends with a little random saxophone solo, and I was like “that's kind of cool that you don't hear the saxophone through the song” and then it's like a new element. So I was like, “let's try that” and I literally said to Louisa, “what about a saxophone?”. And she goes “okay” and she's just in the studio, just starts blasting off. There's literally just two takes, and I'm pretty sure that is the first take. She was like “what do you want me to do?” and I said “just go up and down a lot”. She just took off and I was like “wicked”. I think it does really capture that alivenes.
HM: Oh yeah, for sure. And that brings me to the tour as well. You said you're going to bring an eight piece band! How exciting. What are you looking forward to most about that aspect of it?
Bret: The band is so fun. We went across America on a bus, and we've been to London a couple of times. It’s so fun. It's just ridiculous having such a giant band. It's financially highly irresponsible (laughs). Management just keeps telling me “Bret, can you play with a smaller band?”. But it's so fun. So anyway, I'm trying to find a way to tour with the giant band playing small venues, and for it to pay the bills. And I haven’t quite got their yet, but I'm working on it. I'm making T-shirts.
HM: (laughs) That’s okay. Hopefully the merch sales will do it (laughs).
Bret: But the band is just so fun. And I guess, what am I looking forward to? It's just so joyous, when you've got songs and you sing your songs, and the band come in. They make everything sound so beautiful and full of life. And it's just such a joy. And so for me, it's really fun. And I think for the audience, it's kind of jaw dropping to hear a really great eight piece band. There's nine of us, New Zealand and Australian tour we’ve got nine. I'm bringing a trombone as well. I just really love it.
The show is kind of hard to describe, but it really is a mixture of a music gig and a comedy gig. It really is. You know, the last album I said I'm trying to do just a music gig, but I can't help myself telling my ridiculous stories. And then I started doing gags, just telling anecdotes from my life or about the songs. I just gravitate towards funny stories. I do love funny stories. It's not like the show's full of jokes, but there is funny and playful and I like cracking the band up.
HM: I feel like it’s a refreshing take having that intertwined, the music and the comedy.
Bret: Like the songs, some of them are heartfelt and serious, and some of the songs are ridiculous and funny. I've managed to sort of build a show that goes between all the different tones quite well for the audience, so they can enjoy all the different layers. The general feedback from the audience is that it’s a very joyous show because you've got this big band, it's playful. There's a lot of laughs and a lot of magical, beautiful musical moments. So it's quite a rich show - when it works, on a good night (laughs).
HM: I bet every night! Yeah I’m looking forward to seeing it.
Bret: One challenging thing in New Zealand is you don't get to do many shows. You do a New Zealand tour, and it's over in like two weekends or whatever. Bands are not really touring the way they used to. But one of the magic things is by getting to do some shows, we’re gonna go to Australia, by doing the US, we've done it a couple of times now, the band starts to glue together. One of my favourite things is when a band has played enough that they start to have a sound and the musicians start to work with each other. You can hear it when a band's played enough, they get a thing happening.
HM: Oh absolutely, the connection going. So good, I can’t wait. And as a New Zealand music platform, I'd love to know who are some of your favorite New Zealand artists at the moment, or are there any songs that you love?
Bret: Oh yeah, I’m a big fan of The Beths at the moment. I opened for them in Los Angeles, and it was such a fun night. On the new record “Straight Line Was A Lie”, there's a song called “Mother, Pray For Me”. That song is super special. Liz did a little warm up show at a theatre in Los Angeles called Largo, and I did a spot there, there were like four different acts, and I sang a couple of songs there, and that was the first time I heard that song. Sometimes you hear a song and it just freaks you out how amazing it is. And because not only is that a beautiful piece of songwriting, she's an amazing singer. I was like “damn, that is so good! That's not just good, that's really good” (laughs). And I've heard the band play it, and it sounds great, and the record. The recording of that song, I think, captures the magic of the song as well. So that's a big highlight. I love Mel Parsons, one of the greatest voices and great songs. And then Tammy Nielsen, another heavyweight. It's astonishing that Tammy Nelson isn't like a global superstar. If you’ve seen her live show, I think she does the best live show you can see.
HM: Yes, so many good picks! And so many talented people in New Zealand. And something I also wanted to chat to you about, you've got two Flight of the Conchords shows in May at the Greek Theatre in LA. How exciting! I've heard you're reuniting for the first live show together in eight years. So that's a long time coming. How did the conversation start about doing those shows?
Bret: Well, we started jamming last year just trying to write some new songs for fun. And then that stopped, because Jemaine went to London. It's quite often we're not in the same town. Anyway, we managed to get a few jams in. That was quite fun. And then we just got offered this quite cool gig for this comedy festival (Netflix is a Joke. Fest) and we thought it'd be quite fun. So we just thought we'd give it a go. But hilariously, we had our first practice last week, first rehearsal. And it's so funny trying to remember songs you’ve played. I mean, we literally haven't played the songs for eight years. Sometimes we're like, watching YouTube clips of ourselves to remember what we did. It’s outrageous.
HM: (laughs) Oh, that's so funny. But I feel like you'll definitely get there. You’ll absolutely smash it.
Bret: We’ll get there, yeah. We’ve done thousands of shows, so there’s a lot of muscle memory there. If not, the crowd can just sing.
HM: You know, the classic take the mic to the crowd.
Bret: How much of the show can you just give to the audience (laughs) before they start going, “hang on a minute ..”. Anyway, it’s going to be really fun I think, it’s going to be cool.
HM: (laughs) Yeah amazing. And I wanted to ask a question for the other musicians, creatives, and dreamers out there - what's one of the biggest lessons that you've learned in your career so far, or what's one of the best pieces of advice someone has ever given you
Bret: Wow, so many. You collect them up as you go along. People say something in passing and you go “that's a really good idea”. Sometimes people who maybe don't work full time in the creative industry, if you're not a writer full time or making stuff up is not your job, some people think a little bit like you're going to be struck by lightning with your ideas, right? And they're like, “what do you do in between?”. But if it's songwriting, you want to be just constantly songwriting and you don't know which one's going to be good. You'll get a good one, but you can't be like “Do nothing. Do nothing. Do nothing. Awesome.” You’ve got to be like “Keep writing. Keep writing. Keep writing. Oh, that one's really good”. I think that's a pretty good lesson. So every day I try to be the piano and my guitar, and do some playing, and some work on songs. It's like, if you do it all the time, you'll get some good ones. For me anyway, I don't sit down and go “Okay, what have I got? Come on brain!”. I sit down and I play the piano, or I play the guitar and just play around, and then half an hour later, something popped up and you're kind of on a little journey. You don't go from “it’s nothing” to “it's on”. You've got to get the brain and your mind into a kind of playful state, for me anyway, and then something will emerge. That would be my advice.
HM: Yeah, that's great. I love that so much. And last question that we always ask all our guests, if you could say one thing to every person in the world right now, what would that be?
Bret: Wow, I would say, enjoy your life. I think everyone gets so worried and stressed, and I think much greater things come from enjoying your day than they do from worrying about your day.
Thanks so much Bret! Make sure to catch him on his tour in April, and keep up with him on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Spotify & Apple Music.
