Description

This band is well-known for their unique brand of quirky humor. WatchMojo chats with Ed and Kevin from BNL about the band's evolution.

Transcript

Rebecca: They are geek pop at its finest. Hi, I’m Rebecca Brayton and welcome to WatchMojo.com. We got the chance to sit down with the Barenaked Ladies at Montreal’s Queen Elizabeth Hotel in the same suite where John Lennon and Yoko Ono held their famous sit in to learn more about the bands evolution. So, we often like to start by getting the origins choice of the bands that we’re introducing so why don’t you tell us how Barenaked Ladies came to be. Ed Robertson: Well, it is such ancient history now that it’s hard to remember; but it was 21 years ago. My high school band had one original battle of the bands and we agreed to play a fund raiser for a local food bank in Toronto and in the intervening six or eight months leading up to the fund raiser, the band broke up. I forgot about the fund raiser and then they phoned me the week before and said, “You’re still on for the fund raiser, right? We’re really counting on you”. And I went, “Yes, of course I am but the name of the band has changed to and I just want “Barenaked Ladies”. And then I called Steve and said, “Do you want to be in Barenaked Ladies? Because I got a gig I have to do”, so that was it. Rebecca Brayton: And who did you guys all grow up listening to individually and how has that come to influence the band? Kevin Hearn: Part of what makes us, makes it fun working together is we all come from pretty different influences. I know it adds more for my country sort of influenced. I really enjoyed Blue Reed and the Beatles and being a keyboardist, I was drawn to things like Divo and craftwork. Ed Robertson: This influenced us so much cooler than mine. Yes, I grew up on sort of old school country music and then got heavily into prog rock. Kevin and I overlapped somewhere in there, in the prog rock ration, Genesis and King Crimson World, we both went down from those labyrinths at one time. Kevin Hearn: As guys do you know Ed Robertson: Yes. Kevin Hearn: Prog Rock, dungeons and dragons. Ed Robertson: Yes. Rebecca Brayton: Discuss the evolution of B and L in terms of philosophy, musically. Kevin Hearn: Musically, it really started in a sort of a root sort of way, a lot of acoustic performances, basking, it really works that way and I suppose as— Ed Robertson: Then Captain Keyboards came along. Kevin Hearn: Well, as the band grew in popularity, the venues grew and it became more electric. Ed Robertson: In terms of writing, I mean it spans from the apropo “Be My Yoko Ono”. Here we are in the John Lennon-Yoko Ono suite at the hotel here. From Be my Yoko Ono to You Run Away and I think there’s been a lot of exploration along the way in terms of song writing and I think ultimately we’re a pop band and we write pop rock songs but I think we’re very diverse in that approach and we’ve always—in a lot of textures. Kevin Hearn: I’m just happy in general that the sound of the band that we managed to make a decent record as the four of us and that stands up and it’s kind of a new sound for us and I’m just happy with the whole thing.