In a neat little geographic coincidence (Freaky Friday what!?), rapper Lil B wasn’t the only Bay Area icon we had the pleasure of speaking with today. Prior to that we caught up with Berkley-born brethren and dick joke merchants Andy Samberg and Jorma Taccone of Emmy winning comedy troupe The Lonely Island.
The longtime friends and former SNL players are set to release their third studio album, The Wack Album, centered on pervasive Gen Y social issues such as the proliferation of the word YOLO, the golden rule of three-ways and excessively drinking alcohol at Spring Break.
But it’s not all frivolous, at least not when considering the group’s collaborators which on this album includes Pharrell Williams, Justin Timberlake, Adam Levine, Kendrick Lamar, Solange, T-Pain and Billie Joe Armstrong as well as showtune-prone Aussie actor Hugh Jackman.
As patriotic Australians, we honed in on that last one to get a better understanding on what it was like to work with Wolverine.
Pedestrian: Can you tell us about the track with Hugh Jackman?
Jorma: It’s the one we’re most excited about.
Andy: Golden Globe winner.
Pedestrian: Academy Award nominee.
Jorma: He was robbed.
Andy: He was totally robbed.
Jorma: Who won?
Pedestrian: Daniel Day-Lewis?
Jorma: Oh he’s a good actor. Maybe he wasn’t robbed.
Andy: He wasn’t totally robbed. Maybe it was a tie. That song is called “You’ve Got The Look”. It’s with Hugh Jackman, the three of us and our good friend Kristen Wiig. It’s in the style of this old R&B band Cameo who were big in the 80s and 90s that we used to love. We sang the temp vocals for it and wanted a guest in that style. We were talking about who would be awesome and surprising to get for it and we thought of Hugh because I used to do a really horrible impression of him on SNL. It was terrible but the joke of it he really liked. It was a talk show called Two Sides because Hugh Jackman has two sides of his career. The more elegant, operatic singing musical side. And the rough and tumble Wolverine action side. And he was tickled by it and actually came on SNL to do the sketch with me which was a lot of fun. So we were friendly from that and we knew he could sing, obviously, we’d all just seen Les Mis and enjoyed it so much. We wanted a guy who had gravitas and talent and a sense of humour who could joke around with their image so we asked him and he said ‘yes’.
Pedestrian: What’s the song about?
Andy: Without giving too much away it’s basically about a new trend that ladies may or may not be wearing at parties.
Jorma: I’m going to say with authority that it’s Hugh Jackman as you’ve never seen him before.
Pedestrian: How did you record him?
Andy: I feel like the majority of the guests on this record we were in the room with them, but Hugh was an exception because he was in Canada shooting something. But we video Skyped so I was looking into his eyes when he recorded. I’ll tell you this, I saw no fear.
Look out for the full interview next week.
THE WACK ALBUM TRACKLIST
01) Dramatic Intro
02) Go Kindergarten [ft. Robyn]
03) Hugs [ft. Pharrell Williams]
04) Diaper Money
05) YOLO [ft. Adam Levine and Kendrick Lamar]
06) You’ve Got the Look [ft. Hugh Jackman and Kristen Wiig]
07) Spell It Out
08) Semicolon [ft. Solange]
09) Where Brooklyn At? (Interlude)
10) Spring Break Anthem
11) I’m a Hustler
12) We Are a Crowd
13) I F****d My Aunt [ft. T-Pain]
14) Meet the Crew
15) 3-Way (The Golden Rule) [ft. Justin Timberlake and Lady Gaga]
16) I Run NY [ft. Billie Joe Armstrong]
17) I Don’t Give a Honk
18) We Need Love
19) The Compliments [ft. Too $hort]
20) Perfect Saturday
