“In an interview John [Linnell] said, 'At a certain point you just get tired of the way the other person breathes,' and I took that pretty hard because I, personally, am infatuated with the way John breathes.” WayPersonsSaidHardCertainTiredBreatheInterviewsInfatuated Author:John Flansburgh
“It's hard to tell a shallow person that they should care more about the feelings of the awkward and the alienated.” ShouldPersonsHardFeelingsCareAwkwardShallowShallow Person Author:John Flansburgh
“Have you heard Alanis Morisette trying to play the harmonica? She doesn't know how to play the harmonica. Well guess what, Alanis, I INVENTED the 'don't-know-how-to-play-harmonica-harmonica-solo.'” KnowsTryingWellsPlayKnow HowHeardSoloHarmonicas Author:John Flansburgh
“That's what I call 'Guiliani Time', my friends. 'We've got a problem. Let's kill it.'” ProblemMy Friends Author:John Flansburgh
“Worlds going to hell anyway, have a good time.” WorldHellGood TimesHaving A Good Time Author:John Flansburgh
“I wrote a thirty-second song that I couldn't finish for a year.” YearsSongThirty Author:John Flansburgh
“We've been a band longer than most of the people reading this have been alive.” PeopleReading Author:John Flansburgh
“I feel like musicians have such a precarious place in the political discourse, because musicians are, sort of just by nature, people-pleasers.” PoliticalMusician Author:John Flansburgh
“A lot of times I'll post things on Facebook, and the immediate response will be like, "Stick to the music!"” Response Author:John Flansburgh
“So we've done science songs. We've done historical songs. A lot of people would like us to do more historical songs. Our history record would probably be like the people's history of the United States, set to music.” PeopleDoneSongHistorical Author:John Flansburgh
“If you do believe in science, you really have to actually stand up and make a stand for it. You can't just say, the facts aren't in. Science is always looking for better explanations to everything, but that doesn't mean that when we get on a plane we don't know what's supposed to happen next. And if it doesn't go the way that it's planned, that's a big, big problem. The culture wars are very tricky and make me a little sad.” BelieveMeanWarProblemCultureExplanationTricky Author:John Flansburgh
“I think that the most effective social protest that any artist can do would be things that come naturally and feel obvious. I think the Resist movement will continue among people who believe in science, who believe in rights for women, who believe in civil rights.” PeopleThinkingBelieveArtistObviousCivil RightsProtest Author:John Flansburgh
“I don't think bands should feel compelled to speak out unless they actually have something to say. I think that's a big mistake, where you're turning into a coyote running off the edge of a cliff. Too often, people just feel like something is happening and they want to be part of this thing, and it's just, there's sort of a "me too!" and that's about it.” PeopleThinkingRunningSpeakMistakeBig Mistake Author:John Flansburgh
“It sucks to think about, honestly, but when you really consider the resources that it takes to press vinyl records, or the amount of gas that it takes to tour, it's really quite scary.” ThinkingScaryHonestlyGasVinyl Author:John Flansburgh
“I guess the revival of vinyl records is not helping the environmental problem. Although, in some ways, people don't throw records away - I mean, I still have records from when I was 5. So it doesn't seem quite so wasteful. But maybe I'm just lying to myself.” PeopleMeanHelpingProblemLyingEnvironmentalRevivalVinyl Author:John Flansburgh
“I don't lose a lot of sleep worrying about aliens, but I think it seems possible that there's life forms beyond our solar system.” ThinkingSleepWorryAliensSolar System Author:John Flansburgh
“There's so many simple things that can be done to change our carbon footprint, and to reduce our carbon footprint.” DoneSimpleSimple ThingsFootprint Author:John Flansburgh
“The simplest app on your smartphone requires 40 peoples' purest imagination. The challenges with people on environment, we just have to open some of that creativity. But I don't think it's necessarily about heating clouds or enormous chemical changes in the atmosphere.” PeopleThinkingImaginationChallengesCreativityEnvironmentAtmosphere Author:John Flansburgh
“The main thing that we're doing is thinking we can control anything, which is the biggest false assumption we can make. I think we can figure out how to tread a lot more lightly on the environment, and we'll be a lot better off.” ThinkingEnvironmentAssumption Author:John Flansburgh
“I feel like the future is unwritten. So many of the things that we write now haven't been about educating people on the environment, they've been about disseminating facts. But I feel like it could be productive to write something that explored directly the idea of fragility.” PeopleWritingEnvironmentProductive Author:John Flansburgh
“There is a fact-based belief system available to you if you want to believe in facts. But this is the weirdest time. I mean, after Nixon I thought nothing could be weirder. Then there was Reagan, and after Reagan I thought nothing could be weirder. Then there was Bush and Bush's son, and it all just seemed like nothing could be a badder joke than George W. Bush. And now we're here. It seems to just yo-yo around, but hopefully we'll get to another level.” BelieveMeanBeliefSonJokesHopefully Author:John Flansburgh
“When we're on tour, probably we don't go 24 hours without someone asking us where we came up with the name They Might Be Giants. Which, on one level, seems like a completely legitimate question. If I think of other bands, like The Beatles, it would explain to me that John Lennon had a proclivity for slightly cheap puns. But I'm not sure how much insight that would give me into what's actually good about The Beatles' music.” ThinkingGivingHoursInsightNot SurePun Author:John Flansburgh
“We're affable guys in They Might Be Giants. We're not gonna do the periscope-down thing, but it's a little bit mind-bending. The biggest struggle is trying to figure out a way to back up far enough in your answer that it can be read without the context of the question. Every declarative statement you see that comes out of an interview with somebody is actually in response to a question. So it's sort of like this very real interpersonal dance where one of the people involved is invisible.” PeopleTryingRealEnoughGuyStruggleResponseInvisible Author:John Flansburgh
“Sometimes people will ask a real "Why are you beating your wife?" question where there's some assumption built into it, and all you're trying to do is kind of re-contextualize it with some element of truth, and it comes across as incredibly defensive, or just really weird.” PeopleTryingKindRealSometimesWifeAssumptionReally Weird Author:John Flansburgh
“For instance, our music, They Might Be Giants, has this element of humor, which is probably the most uptight part of what we include in our music, because we're in part very self-conscious guys, and we want our music to stand up to the test of time, not just be visceral comedy records. We love humor and comedy, but there's this aspect to it that runs counter to what is included in most music.” RunningGuyComedyMusic Is Author:John Flansburgh
“Actually, on a slightly more serious but kind of parallel level, I remember being on Loveline before both hosts ascended into loftier places in the culture. But I remember being shocked by Dr. Drew. He went into this extended monologue about how anyone with a baby voice is probably the victim of child abuse or has some daddy issue. As an intellectually curious person, all I could think is that there isn't any clinical evidence about that. But to be the guy wearing the doctor's hat on the radio and teaching everybody about this? It just seemed like a parody of good advice.” ThinkingKindChildrenRememberGuyCultureTeachingAdviceSeriousBabyEvidenceAbuseVictimCuriousHostChild AbuseDaddyGood Advice Author:John Flansburgh
“You have to define how much of a cultural politician you are as a performer. There are times where I just want to remain a civilian.” Politician Author:John Flansburgh
“You're like, "I don't want to argue with Dr. Drew on national radio." You're like the invited guest. But at the same time, as a thinking person, it's very difficult just to stand by and go, "Yeah, man, it's cool."” ThinkingMenDifficultArguing Author:John Flansburgh
“It's always interesting to me when one platform of media crosses into another. We've been on the Terry Gross show Fresh Air a couple of times, and I suddenly felt like we could actually represent ourselves as exactly who we are, in this sort of ultra-vivid way. But the weird thing to me is that the questions she asks are in some ways no different than the questions the guy from the high-school paper asks. She might even ask us where we got our name. But something about it, it's like the pH balance of the trajectory of the questions. Maybe it's just her voice.” DifferentGuyInterestingCoupleBalanceGross Author:John Flansburgh
“Every declarative statement that comes out of an interview with somebody is actually in response to a question. It's like this very real interpersonal dance where one of the people involved is invisible.” PeopleRealResponseInvisible Author:John Flansburgh
“I think the biggest wrestling match-up I have is how to respond to the word "quirky." Or the alternate, "nerdy." Both are essentially benign to the reader, but if you're a writer just sort of involved in your creative process, they seem like very small motivations.” ThinkingMotivationCreativeWrestlingCreative ProcessQuirky Author:John Flansburgh
“We want to be original. To express our most interesting stuff. But you don't see the word "original" come up very often to describe big bands. Our job isn't to pigeonhole ourselves or describe where we fit in. Our goal isn't to fit in. Our goal is to be free of all that stuff.” GoalInterestingFitMost Interesting Author:John Flansburgh
“This happened years and years ago, right as our videos were first being played on MTV. The interviewer said, "You guys are getting famous now. Are you going to be riding around in limousines, doing drugs, and sleeping with beautiful women?" And I was a precocious young man, and my snappy comeback to that cheerful question was, "We're willing to sleep with beautiful women." But no part of the question was in the article.” MenBeautifulGuySleepDrugCheerfulBeautiful WomenComeback Author:John Flansburgh
“Bill O'Reilly knew he could just filibuster and enjoy all the airtime that a full interview would give him, and then also grab the sensationalist headlines that he enjoys creating. He used this as fodder for his show for weeks. I wouldn't want to be on the bad side of Bill O'Reilly. But then again, maybe I am now. By giving this interview.” GivingEnjoyWeek Author:John Flansburgh
“Between me and my wife, there's this joke where I'll be doing some fun interview, and I'll get off the phone and be like, "That guy was an idiot." A lot of times, interviews are like being asked a list of questions. Invariably, there will be this part where they think you're a writer for Letterman: "Just off the top of your head, tell me the 10 most influential bands on you." And you're actually asked to come up with a spontaneous list. It's like, "Dude, I'm not living in High Fidelity."” ThinkingGuyFunWifeJokesMy WifeIdiotSpontaneousInfluentialFidelityLetterman Author:John Flansburgh
“I read The Onion, and I've read a lot of interviews that are very direct, often with people who are never direct. Which is interesting. But somehow the A.V.Club part of The Onion, I don't think is telegraphed into the popular culture.” PeopleThinkingCultureInterestingDirectPopular Culture Author:John Flansburgh
“Any time having international interviews is a language barrier, you don't know how much you need to simplify what you're saying for it not to be damaged in translation. But culturally, there are some interesting phenomena. I get the feeling that the way rock music gets described in Germany, it is all like Rolling Stone circa 1975, taken to the 10th power. If you're a rock musician, you're part of the counterculture. Your music is like a critique of everything that is wrong with America.” FeelingsLanguageInterestingTakenMusicianMusic IsBarriersTranslationsCritiqueSimplifyRock MusicRolling StonesSome Interesting Author:John Flansburgh
“In Germany there's something about rock music much more political than it really is - like everything you were doing was an indictment of the American culture. I read an interview with one of the members of Sebadoh. He was saying he had just got back from touring Germany for the first time in five years or whatever, and one of the interviewers asked him, "Why aren't you still relevant?"” PoliticalCultureFirst TimeRelevantAmerican CultureRock Music Author:John Flansburgh
“That really sums up the strange bluntness that a really prime German interview can have. They're really interested in your cultural velocity in this way that I don't think people in the United States even necessarily think about alternative-rock bands. So it's not like we're against regular rock. We're not like a battling army shaking our weapons against The Rolling Stones.” PeopleThinkingStrangeArmyShakingRolling Stones Author:John Flansburgh
“Being in a band, a lot of times people think of what you're doing in terms of a competition. They talk about where you are professionally in your career, and all this other stuff. And if you're a lifer, you know it's going to be ups and downs. It's not like anybody is always just steady on.” PeopleThinkingTermCompetitionSteadyUps & Downs Author:John Flansburgh
“Sometimes you have to wonder if there isn't an ejector seat built into having a popular-music career. We were lucky when we started. We were already old when we started - you could have described our first album as "aging Brooklyn guys." We were in our late 20s. We weren't octogenarians, but a lot of bands were already younger than us. Fortunately, we've held on to our manly good looks.” SometimesGuyWonderLuckyAgingLooking GoodManly Author:John Flansburgh
“There have been times I wanted to cry on interview, but it hasn't been because that's what they're trying to conjure. No. I think you have to graduate to some higher level of TV IQ for people to actually want to see you cry.” PeopleThinkingTryingCryGraduates Author:John Flansburgh
“If you're looking at the array of performers, there's just a lot of people that it's about getting closer to them. That's not really our focus. It's funny, with the kids' stuff, we really sell ourselves as the MC, but it's much more like we're Ed Sullivan than we're like Sting. We're just the presenters. And that's an idea that we're very comfortable with.” PeopleFocus Author:John Flansburgh
