Latest / Four Finger Discount (Simpsons Podcast) / "Songs In The Key Of Springfield" Review (with Bluey composer, Joff Bush)
Transcript
- 0:00Australia's number one pop culture convention, Supernova is returning once again in twenty twenty
- 0:05three, starting with Gold Coast at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Center on
- 0:09April fifteenth and sixteenth, as well as at the Melbourne Showgrounds on April twenty
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- 0:16Morrison, Stephen Armel, legendary Disney Voice actor Jim Cummings and so much more.
- 0:21So it gets your tickets today at supernova dot com dot au four finger
- 0:32discount. Dude, welcome to four figure discount, where today we are taking
- 0:51your break from the standard episode review and aar instead focusing on the music of
- 0:55The Simpsons and its legacy on pop culture. I am Dando, I am
- 0:58Guy, and we are joined by someone quite fluent in the world of music.
- 1:03We're very, very fortunate to have this gentleman with us. Daniel,
- 1:07would you care to do the introduction to this fine fellow man. It's a
- 1:10man who composes the music for arguably the biggest animated show in the world today.
- 1:12He's music puts smiles on faces and it's rich number one all around the
- 1:17World. He is the composer of Blueish. Jeff Blush, Jeff, thanks
- 1:19for your time. How you doing amazing? What a great intro. Thank
- 1:23you for having me. It's great to meetcha. Now we're just discussing off
- 1:26air about, you know, the preparation for the upcoming second album of blue
- 1:30which everyone is highly anticipating. It's very very exciting times in the bluey and
- 1:34the bluey landscape in the blue World. How nervous are you because the first
- 1:38one. How's the nerves change if any If you are nervous at all,
- 1:41But how's the pressure change between releasing that first one which caught everyone off guarded
- 1:46how great it was, and this new one, which everyone wants to be
- 1:49great. I feel like there's going to be a segment there just waiting to
- 1:51criticize it and compare it to that first album. Oh yeah, I mean
- 1:55it's going to be. It's the first one was everything about We had everything
- 1:59to because it's like an instrumental album. I know the show was popular,
- 2:02but it wasn't quite as popular as it is now. And it's you know,
- 2:09there's one song at the end, but the birth of the album is
- 2:13kind of it's like instrumental music and it's from the TV show and I'm sorry,
- 2:17my dogs just having it. Oh no, it's not anyway, she's
- 2:21just having a mode. She's like, I get to the point. Job.
- 2:24So yeah, that one, the first album, was very we had
- 2:29everything to prove. Really, it's like, no, I think we can
- 2:31make something great. We won't just take the music from the show and put
- 2:34it out. We'll just we'll rerecord it and get string sections and horn sections
- 2:37to this wild thing. And now that, now that that one amazingly did
- 2:42beyond our expectations, So this one's really don't stuff it up. It is
- 2:46a message. So it's a different mindset and we really had to when we
- 2:50were recording it. Really had to just try and get out of that.
- 2:53But I think, like you said, second album syndrome, So hopefully,
- 2:57I think I'm really proud of it. But I hope it's um. I
- 3:00still hope it's got that. You can hear the sense of fun that we
- 3:04still had making it. But you know, we'll see i'd you like it.
- 3:06I don't know. I'm really bad at promo. I will just be
- 3:07like, if you want to, I don't know. Well, Jeff,
- 3:15I've got to say, and this is going to be that wonderful thing.
- 3:16That's more of a statement than a question. But I mean, I'm a
- 3:19middle age comudgeon with no children, and I thought, well, okay,
- 3:23I'll listen to Jeff's album just once to soon if you get up to speed
- 3:25about the Whole Things book, it's been on rotation for the last couple of
- 3:30days. It is utterly, utterly enchanting. Thank you so much. I'm
- 3:36a big Wes Anderson going. I get the feeling that if Wes Anderson made
- 3:38a kid kids movie, this would be the soundtrack to that. That's pretty
- 3:43that's pretty good. I love I love that as two and the and the
- 3:46soundtracks too. So that's that's a that's a massive compliment. Um, And
- 3:52you know it's I mean, it's also just not not just me. I
- 3:54have an amazing team of people are right with and a lot of people bred
- 4:00it on that album. But yeah, it's it's really yeah, it's you
- 4:04know, it's a special show too, So I get to have a lot
- 4:08of fun with that and explore different genres and things like that in't it So?
- 4:13But yeah, I hope it's I'm stoked you like that? Really stoked.
- 4:16Well, I've got two small kids, and I just wanted to thank
- 4:18you for this album because a it's one of my favorite albums, one of
- 4:21my favorite vinyls that I actually own. I wasn't it whenever I want some
- 4:25cheering up boards and escape from the stresses of life, just myself personally.
- 4:29But it's also helped create many memories with my kids that I don't think would
- 4:31have been made had this music not existed. So thank you for creating amazing
- 4:34that's so sweet. You know. We did the first half of it of
- 4:40the album, the first side, and I'm so glad you got the vinyl
- 4:43because we mix it all on like a lot of it's recorded on old seventies
- 4:46gear, and it's very like we almost only think of the vinyl version when
- 4:50we do it, and then we go, oh, we better release it
- 4:54on the platform that most people listen to it as well, and so we
- 4:58do all these other mixing later. But um, the so I hopefully it
- 5:01has that feel like it's a classic album or something. Was what we're going
- 5:05for. Well, we're talking about oh yeah, the first half of it
- 5:10was we intensely made some of those songs a bit longer, than they probably
- 5:14needed to be. So it feels like it's um so it's you can play
- 5:18the games associated with it. The first half was games and the second half
- 5:21was like stories quote unquote, but the first half had some of those UM
- 5:29keep You Uppy, yeah exactly, I think like which personally is one of
- 5:31my favorite pieces of music that I think I've ever heard in my life.
- 5:35I love keep that one. That one was such I love that one because
- 5:40it's reminds me of you know. It was one of the early episodes we
- 5:45did before it was released or anything, and we just wanted it to feel
- 5:49like this big anthem. In the episode, the kids are playing a game
- 5:54we Keep You Uppy, where they try and keep a balloon in the air,
- 5:57and eventually the neighbors sort of join. But I wanted to make it
- 6:00feel like the entire world was playing keep You Uppy with them, big anthemic
- 6:04thing and what I the one. That's why it's special for me because I
- 6:09had learned so much in that process. Because I'd written this track and I
- 6:14got into the recording session and I didn't have much time to organize all the
- 6:19proper parts for the horn players. I thought it's easy enough they'll just be
- 6:21able to work it out. And they weren't picking it up right away,
- 6:27so we just went, oh, it's not it's not catchy enough, and
- 6:30so the melody here now is actually just something we rewrote on the spot.
- 6:34It was just like, okay, here we go, like, I'll play
- 6:36something back until the band actually got it, like immediately, and if it's
- 6:44sticks in their short term memory, it's more likely to stick in there along
- 6:46everyone else's long term memory. So we didn't use any music for that session,
- 6:51and a lot of it was just came out of just having fun and
- 6:56getting everyone to play along, which is very unusual. It sort of leads
- 7:00into something I wanted to ask you job. I mean, I guess this
- 7:03may sound a bit high volutin or kind of wanky, but I mean,
- 7:08I guess the guiding principles of some kind of mission statement behind making the musical
- 7:13blue. Of course, it's got to relate to specific scenes or the themes
- 7:15of a specific episode, But I mean the feeling I got just listening to
- 7:19the whole album, you know, the things that sort of kept sparking for
- 7:24me were like a sense of awakening, like awakening of possibilities, of life,
- 7:29sense of discovery, and a sense of joy more than anything else.
- 7:31Even in the more sort of low key music, it just felt like these
- 7:34were the I don't know, this was what it was sort of sparking in
- 7:40me when I was listening to it. I'm wondering if there's any sort of
- 7:43if there are words written on the ones like remember to be joyful or something
- 7:46like that. Yeah, I mean we have, we do have a sort
- 7:50of like, yeah, there is a bit of that. I mean a
- 7:53lot of it's just keeping a great vibe in the studio really and and but
- 7:58the show is so much about imagine of play and even when we're I'm working
- 8:01with the creator Joe Brahm, or any of the other team, or or
- 8:05the other composers I work with as well, and we I was talking to
- 8:11Joe just yesterday about this and how we would be we would all just be
- 8:18jamming on the piano and trying things and keeping that sense of play and fun
- 8:22while creating it as much as possible as well. And I hope, like
- 8:26I hope that sort of shines through. If if anything, I hope that
- 8:31sense of it chants through. And a lot of that's because when we're you
- 8:37know, we're talking about sounding wanky here, but like high for lutin,
- 8:41we've got the what's called musical dramaturgy, how music tells the story. A
- 8:48lot of the approach we have in creating these blue scores is taking the perspective
- 8:54of the kids and so how they view the game, like it in their
- 9:00head. So when we were talking about Keep You Uppy, there is in
- 9:03their head like objectively, they're having a fun game, and but in their
- 9:07head it's like the whole world is playing Keep You Uppy with them, even
- 9:11though it's only two other characters. So we take that perspective and so hopefully
- 9:15that's maybe what how it sort of shines through is that joy that wandered and
- 9:20excitement about the world that through a kid's eyes. Hopefully the music can help
- 9:26encapsulate that and bring us into their perspective. A bit that was high falutin.
- 9:31Sorry no, no, it was great. No, But is that
- 9:35a tough mindset for a grown man like yourself to sort of to recapture?
- 9:39I mean, not me, I'm not not with my brain. Yeah,
- 9:45with Keep You Uppy, I think I think keep Up is a good representation
- 9:48of just the power of Bluey because it takes games that you know, we've
- 9:50played that entire lives, keeping the balloon, for touching the floor, right.
- 9:54But it's almost like Bluey has claimed it now and that game will forever.
- 9:56It's being unknown as keep you uppy. Yeah, is it that true
- 10:00good got on New Joe brother creator and writer With that, you know,
- 10:05I should just claim every Yeah, Duck Duck Goose is now, it's now
- 10:09Bluie's you know, we could just play every every game. It's a blue
- 10:15And it's all I say now is for real life? I do they really?
- 10:18And that was shown shown Bluey at at Kinder and Dacre before I actually
- 10:22watched it myself for real life and I was like, what are you talking
- 10:26about? And then I watched blue and I was like, oh, now
- 10:28I say it. I see where you got that from. Yeah, yeah,
- 10:33yeah, I've heard a lot of that too, you know, particularly
- 10:35in the US, where you know, kids have been saying donny and things
- 10:39like that, which is great. It's finally we're getting we're getting we're getting
- 10:43our we We're getting what's the word I'm thinking about, Yeah, that slang,
- 10:48that slang we're we I mean, we get so much influenced blay American
- 10:52shows. It's good we're getting back but M Yeah, and and of course
- 10:58Simpsons. M. That's one one show I'm very happy to be influenced by.
- 11:03Yeah, so you were very similar agent in your copy years older than
- 11:05me, What are your earliest memories of the Simpsons? Like, your favorite
- 11:09memories of the Simpsons go for me, it's like, you know, six
- 11:11pm, week night, Channel ten, watching that every night, that kind
- 11:13of thing. So I feel like we're gonna be very similar. What are
- 11:15your favorite memories as the kids? Actually that exactly that? And then of
- 11:18course like quoting everything at school, and and then to the point where I
- 11:26think a lot of people our age or around you know, give a take
- 11:31ten years, I guess is are we get this sense of us like a
- 11:35secret language? It is? It's and I sometimes say quote Simpsons and I
- 11:41don't even I forget that it's from an episode completely because such part of the
- 11:46lexicon. Yeah, it's funny how he said he quote it in the schoolyard.
- 11:50It's crazy to think that now with Blue, right, kids like quoting
- 11:52in the kinder yard like primar school is like how blue is like kinder like
- 11:58primary school. Now Bluey is not maybe it's would you say, God,
- 12:01do you think it's on the level of what the Simpsons were, Like,
- 12:03it's getting close, like it's it's not quite bart Mania, but it's it's
- 12:07it's out there. It really is. I mean, you know, when
- 12:11you're getting think pieces or praise pieces in the New York Times or whatever,
- 12:15or I mean there are a podcast I'll listen to the talk about TV,
- 12:18you know, and these are podcasts from around the world'll be you know,
- 12:20dropping the name blue just left and right and sort of saying wow. Yeah,
- 12:24I know. I initially put it on to sort of, you know,
- 12:26appease the kids, and now I can't stop watching. So it's amazing.
- 12:31Yeah. It really has just infiltrated on so many levels. I wouldn't
- 12:35I wouldn't be surprised. Yeah, I mean, particularly very recently past,
- 12:39even this past few months. For some reason, it's just really taken off
- 12:43in the US. Yeah, the Macy State Parade and things. Yeah.
- 12:46Yeah, yeah, I'm just I don't know why. It's just something that's
- 12:50a maybe it's well, it's great. I love it. I mean i'd
- 12:54i'd watch it if I didn't watch it. Um, two hundred times a
- 12:58day anyway. But it's like sometimes I forget how great it is because you
- 13:05know, we're we deliver an episode a week, so we get really stuck
- 13:07in that yeah zone immediately. So it's yeah, sometimes really hard to go
- 13:13back think bango, how do we do that? Or even like when I'm
- 13:16working with people, I'm like who wrote that bit of music there? Or
- 13:20who played that? And yeah? So so it's wild now that we're like
- 13:26I'm you know, we're between Blue projects and doing this album thing and talking
- 13:31about it a lot, I have know, I'm going, what do we
- 13:33even do there? There was obviously a five hour discussion or something about why
- 13:39we should have this music here, and I can't you know, it's it's
- 13:41you know, but maybe that's good. It's like digging it up and then
- 13:46also coming out of that bubble and seeing how loved it is. It has
- 13:50been amazing. But I think I think you're right, like it's the language
- 13:54of Blue's seeping through. But probably for younger kids, I think, um
- 13:58more than think the Simpsons. You know, it was particularly like high school.
- 14:03Yeah, it was something we could keep quoting for, you know,
- 14:05in high school and stuff like that as well. How the process changed with
- 14:09the second album, because have you had more time to work on this one?
- 14:13In the first one? How long did you work on the first one?
- 14:15And with this second one here we have you have you how much pressure
- 14:18are you under now with this second one? Yeah? Well, um,
- 14:22it was probably a bit tighter for the second one actually, the time wise,
- 14:26because we'd finished work on a bunch of episodes, a batch of episodes
- 14:33this might be season some more from season three or something. I can't remember
- 14:37anyway, but there was like, oh, we've got now, we've got
- 14:39to finish this by this date whatever it sometime in November or whatever. And
- 14:43we go, well, we'll blocked that out and we're going to do nothing
- 14:46but that album. And then we actually did way too much music, like
- 14:52we were to fit on an album, so we were the first one was
- 14:56almost like oh, we've could actually fill this amount of time and and make
- 15:00it all great, and this one is like, oh, we've actually got
- 15:03too many tracks. We had to cut back and then you know, edit
- 15:05a lot and it's actually pretty wild hour, but it goes from every it's
- 15:09it's you know, there's a lot of there's dance music and then there's like
- 15:13episodes like Rain all this chilled music stuff, and yeah, it's a bit
- 15:18all over the place. It's but it's good. I've got an internal story
- 15:22for it. But I promise it's good, everyone, I promise it's good.
- 15:24Is it a similar format of the first one with all the sort of
- 15:26yeah, the dance songs at the start? Yea one hundred percent similar format
- 15:31where you got the games and the side A and the stories on side B
- 15:37essentially sort of like that. But yeah, um yeah, but I'm really
- 15:41happy with it. Um. But there's also there's also a few tracks I'm
- 15:46going to hell for. There's like, um, it's like there's this there's
- 15:50a track called the Lollipop. It's like lollipop song that was um in a
- 15:56little episode. I think it was Bingo's favorite song and it was purposely written
- 16:00in the episode to be an annoying song. So but and then everyone was
- 16:07like, oh, my kid really wants to everyone's requesting it, and so
- 16:11I've produced into this hopefully slightly less annoying song. But um yeah, I
- 16:18mean, and we kept it short on purpose. I really like it anyway,
- 16:22non ironically, but it's definitely like its origins was to be an annoying
- 16:30song, so I might get some hate mail from parents, but we'll see.
- 16:33How do you know when you've nailed that, when you've nailed up like
- 16:37an annoying song, yeah, you just know, you just know. Well,
- 16:45I know the second one, Dance Mod's got the regular release, plus
- 16:49it's got the record store day one. So I've got the first one here,
- 16:52which is the store day You've got one amazing. Yeah. I managed
- 16:56to get it from JB High five all places. They just randomly had it,
- 16:59and I was like, thank you very really they're printed exactly right,
- 17:03and it was just the shop of JB. I sort of looked at it
- 17:04and I went, something's not right here. Pocked it up as well,
- 17:10so I play the blue vinyl. I keep that one as a collectors edition.
- 17:11So I'm hoping to get the next one because the next record store day
- 17:15one looks amazing. It like plays yeah. In fact, actually, five
- 17:18monuts before I came on, I just got the the demo, the um,
- 17:22the the tester one sent to me from this level and oh it's amazing.
- 17:29I like, get up a show you order tick. It looks amazing.
- 17:32It's um it's a limited run. Again, I'm trying to convince them
- 17:34to print more. But um yeah, and um, you know, if
- 17:37you intend to buy the vinyl, i'd probably it's really worth getting that collector's
- 17:42one. Um, I think because it's it's just a cool it's one that
- 17:47looks really cool. Um it as it spins the characters dance, it's like
- 17:52when you see it on the on the it's like a thing. Yeah yeah,
- 17:56yeah, a little hologram trick of the eye. Yeah. Yeah,
- 18:00it's amazing. Yeah. I think, honestly, I think that the Bluey
- 18:03releases are like the hottest thing on record store Danny, which is just incredible.
- 18:06Yeah right, yeah, I mean that was amazing. Last last time,
- 18:08it was like, you know, um, so I'm pretty sure people
- 18:14will probably want this record state it's all day version A sure five hundreds enough
- 18:18And I was like, yeah, of course that's why they wanted That's why,
- 18:22that's why that's Yeah. Yeah, you can't do more than that because
- 18:26if you know, they if they sit on the shelf, then we're stuff.
- 18:30But yeah, I mean it was really great that I did so well.
- 18:33So um but yeah, yeah, I've actually got some misprint ones.
- 18:40Wow. Sent to me, which say Albion and what goes on? Yeah,
- 18:45thinking, oh maybe I could, I'd be in good collectors one.
- 18:49But yeah, I don't know. Um, I might have to like do
- 18:53something with it. I don't know anyway you're gonna ask something what we're gonna
- 18:57ask? No, No, I just point. It was a lovely bit
- 19:00of synchronously. You're talking about characters moving because you couldn't see this job,
- 19:04and people listening to this podcast and not seeing anything. We're seeing that your
- 19:10greyhound got up from one side of the cat and very gracefully walked to the
- 19:12other side and then just laid down out a nap. It was just beautiful,
- 19:17beautiful Diamond having said that, I'd like to steer this sort of in
- 19:21a Simpsons s direction for a moment, and you know, we're talking about
- 19:23music, but we're a talking about songs, but primarily I mean, yeah,
- 19:27I think they can talk about music and the symptons without talking about Danny
- 19:30Elfman's theme tune. Now, it was a musically savvy gentleman like yourself.
- 19:34I mean, the first time you heard that, I'm I'm I'm wondering how
- 19:37you felt about it, because I'm I'm not musically minded at all. But
- 19:42I hear it and go, this is perfect for the perfect Sympton, It's
- 19:47perfect for Springfield. It sets up, yes, the manic nature of the
- 19:51town and the manic nature of the people in it. And then I start,
- 19:53you know, trying to wrap my head around how do you create something
- 19:56like that? I mean it's like, yeah, did someone yeah, who's
- 20:00musically minded like you go, let's break this down. Did Danny often do
- 20:04this? Yeah? I mean I love it. You know, we've found
- 20:07at Danny Alfman and also alf Klassen who does the general scoring, but not
- 20:12on the film movie. I don't know how why, and he he doesn't
- 20:15do the show anymore either. It's been that which was a tragedy. But
- 20:19anyway, that was a tragedy. I think, like um, particularly on
- 20:23those early seasons, what what they did and what what what alf Class and
- 20:29the team made on'to amazing and just like and it was one of the few
- 20:33shows that had a sorry. I don't know if you can hear that,
- 20:36there's a we're actually getting some curtains installed in the next room and the door
- 20:41is not as soundproof as I thought. I don't know if you could hear
- 20:42that um is that coming through? Oh good, okay, good, Sorry,
- 20:49I didn't really didn't realize it was so loud. Oh here we go.
- 20:52I think we've got a gat um so oh we were Oh yeah,
- 20:56we're talking about alf classes so um. Yeah. It was one of the
- 21:00few shows that still had like a thirty piece live orchestra recording every week.
- 21:03And yeah, it was a real shame when they dropped that. Um and
- 21:07but yeah, back to the theme, I should say, like one of
- 21:11the things I love about it, it's it's reminds me of don'ty often do
- 21:15the Burbs? I think he did? Are we all frandically googling Jerry Goldsmith?
- 21:19That's Gremlins, right, yeah, total recall a whole bunch of other
- 21:23good stuff. Yes, no, The Burbs was Jerry Goldsmith. Ignore that
- 21:27it's not any other So anyway, there's there's something about which which maybe it
- 21:33wasn't the verbs. It's a different soundtrack. We reviewed Peewee's Big Adventure,
- 21:37did you Oh, maybe that's what I was thinking of. Sorry, yes,
- 21:41yeah, that's where I sort of, yeah, feel there is similarity.
- 21:45So it's like you know, a circus gone gone a bit mad.
- 21:48Yeah, yeah, which is very yeah. Yeah, yeah, Well the
- 21:52thing of that, he's got that suburbian um sort of sound. If I
- 21:57get really nerdy, it's called like, uh like a Lidian scale, Lidian
- 22:04dominant scale. You're going to have to cut that out because that's the nerdiest
- 22:07thing ever. But basically, um, if you're on a piano and you
- 22:11play F F F F and you play any of the white notes, it'll
- 22:15have sound like American suburban music from the from the eighties, like when the
- 22:22bite going through. So I'll give you a gample. Actually he'll see if
- 22:23we can actually hear the kids. Yeah, and while we do that,
- 22:26I'm just gonna throw another name into the mix that maybe we'll Beetlejuice maybe oh
- 22:32yes, of course, yeah yeah yeah. So I mean like we've got
- 22:34this, so I'm just playing an F and this is the scale the mode,
- 22:41which is like sort of thing. So if you gets playing, you
- 22:52know, you get that Simpsons turn out tonality just like and so it's based
- 22:56on that, like this whole idea of this sort of the music from that
- 23:00we so associate with, like suburbia and you know, um, the nuclear
- 23:07family, particularly in the eighties. And then so when you've got that.
- 23:11What what Danny often has done has taken that into a sort of into that
- 23:15sort of almost circusy sort of way with his very Uh you can even hear
- 23:19the scale in the Simpsons, so we've got the oh yeah, you've got
- 23:26so you know the bit at the end of the theme where you get the
- 23:30nana, which is like the yeah, that's a big part of the scale.
- 23:34It's really part of it that you know, that's the thing that's different
- 23:41to a normal major scale, and that's he's really like hammers home those notes
- 23:45that are really unique to that sound that are a little bit off too.
- 23:48So, um, that's a very that's like the nerdiest like take on it.
- 23:52But I love the theme. I think it's fantastic. Um. And
- 23:56actually did a workshop with Alf Klaussen like in Twitter thirteen, and oh my
- 24:02god, everyone asked him it's like, how did you write the Simpsons theme?
- 24:04He must get it all the time, yea, the full guy.
- 24:07So, um, Well, I won't ask you how you're at the Blue
- 24:10Things. I'm pretty sure I've already read about how you know, Joe came
- 24:12to you with the idea we're playing the statue game and yeah, yeah,
- 24:17but was it a long process? Well, because you like you said that
- 24:19that was the vibe that Danny was going forward the Simpson Well, what was
- 24:22the vibe you wanted to capture with the blue theme? I think we did.
- 24:26You know, we were talking a lot. It was really hard to
- 24:29remember because it was such a no one would have thought it would be well
- 24:33known, like unlike the Simpsons, which you know, they commissioned a proper
- 24:38orchestra and everything to do a theme and you know what it like, you
- 24:41know, they had they recorded everything. It was that's a big budget theme
- 24:47and Bluie wasn't When we first did it. It was you know, the
- 24:51first season was oh it's a new kids show from Australia. See you know,
- 24:55start like we go his you know, oh, oh it's not the
- 24:59Wiggles, we don't care, Yeah, his unlimited capital. It wasn't like
- 25:03that. And and you know the Simpsons obviously had all those it was tested
- 25:08already, so it was going to be sort of popular and they so they
- 25:11had a budget from the start to get a big orchestra to playoffs theme and
- 25:15commissioned Danny Elfman and all that sort of things. So but yeah, this
- 25:22one. It's really hard to remember what we actually did, but I remember
- 25:25we did about maybe I think it was I think this was the eighth version
- 25:30of the blue theme, and it was probably the one of the first ones
- 25:34after we had sort of come up with the idea, well after Joe Brum
- 25:40said it's about musical statues and imaginative play, and so you know, it's
- 25:45a pretty I mean, props to them for going with it, because if
- 25:48you think about it objectively, it's a pretty weird theme compared to most TV
- 25:53show themes, and prettily props to Joe Brum for proving a going with it
- 26:00because it was really like, there's these five four bars in the middle.
- 26:03It features the melodica. There's no actual drums in it. You know,
- 26:07there's there's a lot of things that are not and they're doing they're playing,
- 26:11they're dancing. There's no drums. You know, it's just like this if
- 26:14you put it upon on paper, if I gave it, wrote it out
- 26:17on paper, and so it's going to have these things and everyone will just
- 26:18go, what are you doing? No, yeah, but um it seemed
- 26:22to yes, but you know, they approved it, and once we work,
- 26:27once it played, it back and yeah, I can get does it
- 26:33really? Yeah, some of their patrons say that they're walking down the aisle
- 26:37or once they've said their vows, they're walking out to the bluey thing,
- 26:40or actually they're walking out to keep you uppy. Yeah, oh really,
- 26:44Yeah, that's amazing. I've got to see this. I did not know
- 26:48that. Is that that you serious? Yeah, we'll keep you up.
- 26:52He's just one of those things that just like you said, it just it
- 26:53captures just united, it's it's it's optimistic. Yeah, it really is.
- 27:00No idea that's made my day. Thanks telling me that. Yeah. But
- 27:04with the Simpsons music, Yeah, what stands out to you? Because when
- 27:07people think of Simpsons music, I think it's the songs, but there's also
- 27:11the score as well. And there's a great video on YouTube some fan has
- 27:14put together all the difference or of like transition sound boy of the episodes and
- 27:18you listen to it and you think it's not five seconds of music, but
- 27:19it's so ingrained in your mind as a kid for watching those episodes. Yes,
- 27:22it's just this is like my childhood, this music. But like my
- 27:26favorite songs from the Simpsons, my favorite songs, I've got a lot of
- 27:33favorite songs, you know, songs in the key of Springfield. That whole
- 27:37album is amazing actually, Like I remember thou influential that was to me as
- 27:45a kid, and I hadn't really listened to it for a long time,
- 27:47and I just played it on the way like out to you guys, goes,
- 27:51oh, better catch up. Make sure I'm not you know, talking
- 27:53out my asks too much, and I was like playing her back, how's
- 27:56it going? Wow? This is Um, there's a lot of dialogue on
- 28:00this album. Yeah, I forgot how much of dialogue it was, which
- 28:04I think was a bit of a mistake. But the I you know,
- 28:08my first thing I think of is like the Planet of the Apes musical.
- 28:12Um, I don't know why. That just makes me laugh every time.
- 28:17See as a kid, I don't think I appreciate it as much as I
- 28:18do. One. Yeah, you know what my favorite bit is that that
- 28:23can you play the piano anymore? Of course get before and he plays that
- 28:26like run on a piano and it's just the cheesiest like broad wastive and whatever
- 28:36that that like Scalers plays and I just I don't know, it's just absolutely
- 28:41nailed it. All those musical ones are the Betty Ford musical one. Um,
- 28:47those they're all amazing and I know, you know alf class and probably
- 28:51didn't do the lyrics for them, but um, the way he treats them
- 28:55the lyrics is amazing also, you know them. There's one which I think
- 29:00I think would have been the really one of the hardest ones that for after
- 29:06due would have been UM, Bagged Me a Homer, because I think the
- 29:08lyrics for that are actually like the kind of terrible like in a way that
- 29:14they It's just like it's like it's the first minute of a song is like
- 29:18exposition to lead up to I Bagged Me a Homer, And it's just like
- 29:22it's like he could have just made it really simple. But it's like,
- 29:25but sometimes scriptwriters aren't always the best lyric writers. But that's the one one
- 29:29where I'm going, oh, man, that would have been a tough one
- 29:30to like write music for that keep people engaged. I reckon. I think
- 29:36that one was actually written, maybe it was just performed by but the actress
- 29:38what's her name or really I'm like poo pooing them. Christmas Vacation she played
- 29:45a wife and Chrismas Vacation she and the National and Poot film. She she
- 29:49was the voice actress for Werline Lumpkins. I'm pretty sure I know she performed
- 29:52them. I don't know if she wrote them. She may write I don't
- 29:56make green, I don't make great Mac. That was the only episode that
- 29:59Matt Grenny ever wrote one as well. Really, well, that's the only
- 30:02song where I'm like, oh, but somehow the music fits in and it
- 30:07makes it work because because when I hear the song, I'm like, get
- 30:11to the bag, me a home. It goes for ages. Um,
- 30:15I shouldn't been complaining about Well, you were talking earlier about how you thought
- 30:22there might have been too many, too much dialogue on songs in The Kid
- 30:23Springfield and and the follow up was actually the most critique of solos of the
- 30:27great I didn't mean to do that, you got. The thing is,
- 30:30though, this was at a time what ninety seven when that came out.
- 30:33The follow up was ninety nine. Yeah, that was a time when the
- 30:37episodes weren't easily accessible, so owning, yes, owning the episodes was a
- 30:41big deal. So I think with the Blue One, do you think,
- 30:42like maybe if the Blue One had been released in the nineties, when we're
- 30:45in a time where you couldn't just go on ABC Kids and watching episodes whenever
- 30:48you wanted to a YouTube, do you think you might have been inclined to
- 30:51try and incorporate more dialogue as a result of that too, sort of say
- 30:53you can take home your favorite episodes or your favorite music. Yeah, that's
- 31:00such a good point. And I don't even thought of that, because of
- 31:03course now you can just look up your favorite bits and whatever you need.
- 31:07Um. And you know, we we we've been really careful with the album
- 31:10not to put too much dialogue for that reason, because it's like, oh,
- 31:14we had people like to us saying, you know that I can't remember
- 31:17one track maybe in the first one or something which had a lot of dialogue,
- 31:19not much when I actually think about it, but they oh, my
- 31:23kid just wants to watch this episode now, and I think the feather of
- 31:27the talking about a feather or something, or the weekend something maybe yeah,
- 31:33something, there's something where it might be that, but I can't remember which
- 31:37one it was. I was like, oh, whenever we play this,
- 31:38they just think I want to the kid just wants to go watch the episode,
- 31:42And I thought, oh, well, that's actually feedback. But and
- 31:47and I can so appreciate now that you say that, how how the album
- 31:51would have been so good? Yeah, like why it was so good back
- 31:55then because you're like, it's just it's just got all the thing. It's
- 31:57it's got all the best because we've just been seeing them so so many times,
- 32:00and when you listen to it, you just visualize it in your heads,
- 32:04these moments where because you know, you could do occasion the occasion,
- 32:07they'd released those sets where it was like four episodes they'd hand picked that were
- 32:09crime related or movie related or something like that in a release them that way.
- 32:13But not until the early two thousands they start releasing the episodes in season
- 32:16mode, so it was impossible to the episodes up to that point. But
- 32:20yeah, we live in a world of streaming now where everything's yeah, yeah,
- 32:22yeah, that's a really good point. But it's such an amazing album.
- 32:27And you know, even when I'm I'm critiquing them, um, but
- 32:31they're every track is amazing, Like even the ones that I'm like, oh,
- 32:35they could have done this or something, when you don't notice every every
- 32:39track is just I love every track actually, And yeah, I was a
- 32:44big fan of the of like the alternate. The alternate takes them the theme.
- 32:47So you had like the yeah so Springfield, the who shot Mister Burns
- 32:52one and two end credits usually yes they shot mister Burns. Yeah too.
- 32:58Yes, you have the Afro Cuban version, and you have like the part
- 33:00one. I think it was like there almost like a just a crime related
- 33:04It feels like a I don't know, just just like a crime TV show
- 33:07related version of the theme. You had the Hill Street Blues theme, the
- 33:09Australia episode part as Australia at the Australian Oh yeah, yeah, yeah yeah,
- 33:14sweat outro, just all those kinds of outros, the end credits.
- 33:16That's what I think. Well, I appreciate the most and I think just
- 33:19as I get older, I appreciate the music side of the album as opposed
- 33:22to the dialogue side, like you yeah, of course, yeah yeah,
- 33:23And there was in the musics. It's such it's what did in the show
- 33:31is actually really really really hard to do. In that um, you gave
- 33:37it a lot of heart but also didn't distract from the comedy, but kept
- 33:42it light because I mean a lot of people when they're trying to write comedy
- 33:45they'll be like building up the drama to hit the punchline and things like that,
- 33:50which is another approach and that's really fun. Or they go, oh,
- 33:52we're going to treat it really seriously, and so you get this sort
- 33:57of parody sort of idea. But I think what if did with all these
- 34:00transitions, particularly, it kept it light but in a place where you have
- 34:05sort of permission to laugh, but you're still in the story. And I
- 34:08would particularly think like the Treehouse of Horror episodes, like the music for that,
- 34:13that's some of the most that's some of the trickiest stuff I think to
- 34:17do. And he sort of took this really sort of shlocky approach almost but
- 34:22um, but it didn't feel derivative or like and it let's the episode brief
- 34:28so much as well and make it feel so classy. Particularly these live players,
- 34:32feels like you're watching some well, you know, you're watching a classic
- 34:36movie or something. Sometimes you know you've got these a live orchestra playing these
- 34:40little these beautiful transitions and some of those amazing players. But yeah, I
- 34:46mean went to his workshop at Everything. I was studying in New York at
- 34:52the time, and he came in to give us a little class on symptoms
- 34:58music, and it was it was amazing. It was like most people,
- 35:02like lecturers come in there, like in their hoodie and they're like, hey,
- 35:06you know what we do? We do this, and they're trying to
- 35:07be cool. He's like in a full on suit at a podium and he's
- 35:12talking like it's like like it's like it's they had this amazing formality to it.
- 35:16He's just going and of course the click track sounds like this, and
- 35:21he will play and then he goes from there. What we do is we
- 35:24get the performer to play along to the click track and it sounds like this,
- 35:30and it was like, what is this? This is amazing. It
- 35:32was like um, Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra or something is so it
- 35:37was just like, um, and he had seemed to have a really great
- 35:39attitude to the fact that he had you know, he he gets asked about
- 35:46the theme all the time. Um, and it was it was It was
- 35:50absolutely charming. It was just so it was it was very refreshing. And
- 35:52I still don't know what he's really like or if that's if I don't know
- 35:59if it was like he was half joking about it, or if that's what
- 36:01he's like, or he's a real formal guy or dot or it was just
- 36:05but it was perfect and I really appreciate it. But yeah, it was
- 36:10great. It's a shame it's not on the I'm not anymore. But job.
- 36:14Did you have like an interest in film and TV sort of soundtrack composition
- 36:19when you first started getting interested in music? As I mean, it strikes
- 36:22me as being a much more sort of I mean, music's collaborative by its
- 36:25nature, well, but putting something together for a film or a TV show
- 36:30seems even more collaborative. I mean, is it something that you was it
- 36:36difficult to get into that grouve. My piano teacher was a TV composer called
- 36:42Ken McClain who sort of he gave me the bug. So I just thought
- 36:45it was like the coolest job ever because I'd come in and I wasn't I
- 36:50was never a prodigy kid. I was never like good at music. I
- 36:53was always dislike And I'm not trying to be false humble here, I just
- 36:58not. I'm just a great nap joy musician. Yeah. I just loved
- 37:02it and practiced in my lunch break at school and and all that sort of
- 37:07stuff, and and you know, can my teacher when I was like thirteen,
- 37:13was doing music for some I can't remember what it was, but anyway,
- 37:17I just thought it was the coolest job ever. And he taught me
- 37:21about jazz and improvising and things like that and composition and I got really into
- 37:25that and and that opened, what, you know, my mind to the
- 37:29possibilities of like, oh, you could you could be someone who actually makes
- 37:34music for films. That'd be amazing. And I always love TV, particularly
- 37:39and I mean who doesn't, but like like obsessed with TV and TV shows
- 37:45and and a lot of my friends while I was studying I started studying piano
- 37:52UM at the Conservatory, and a lot of my friends were actually from the
- 37:54film school and we'd be hanging I'd go hang out with them rather than the
- 37:59musicians and UM. And then from there was you know, we would be
- 38:02a little team of people including Daily you see, executive producer of Blue.
- 38:07We would be all together making these terrible little films UM that were great,
- 38:13but they were terrible. Let's be honest. You know what, what what
- 38:15eighteen year olds could piece together? And I think I was probably just one
- 38:20of the few people who, you know, I did a paper run and
- 38:23I'd saved up all my boddy to buy like a little like box that let
- 38:28me record to film and you know these sorts of things like that. Was
- 38:30probably one of the few people who had the rudimentary versions of that gear and
- 38:36was also lilling to um do these things for free with people. M So
- 38:42this was you know, and this was mid two thousand and ze, so
- 38:44it wasn't like it wasn't like all this stuff was super readily available as it
- 38:47was so as it is now. But um yeah, I mean I think
- 38:52I've always been really interested in it, and I've always loved how music can
- 38:58tell stories in the different ways you can do it, and there's there's so
- 39:01many ways to be right when you're writing music and for film, and um
- 39:07yeah, there's just so many possibilities and so many different ways of doing it.
- 39:10So I'll find that really all fascinating. Do you think the bluey style
- 39:15is going to be your style going forward or you're looking forward to the chance
- 39:17of potentially something different where you can just sink your teeth into something that's the
- 39:22opposite of bluey. Yeah, that's a good question, because I mean,
- 39:25I think there's certainly you know, after doing Blue, mostly just doing Blue
- 39:31and there's a few other things I've done it, but mostly just doing Bluey
- 39:36for the past five years. Is that the style that sort of developed for
- 39:42Blue has become so much part of what my musical style is. Yea.
- 39:47So maybe I've been typecasts. Maybe this is all I can do now,
- 39:50but I do, I do, I've been I'd love to do like like
- 39:55a historical drama or something particularly. I think that'd be really fun. And
- 40:00but I mean, the good thing about Blue is that, I mean there's
- 40:04certain things. We can't really push anything that's too ambiguous with the music in
- 40:09a way because you don't want you want a sense of clarity with the intention
- 40:14of a lot of the music that's in there. And you can't go too
- 40:19scary, of course, because you know, you can't make anything into a
- 40:22nightmare. But and we you know, we have to do it all that
- 40:28low notes pretty going to be like we don't you know that scene there,
- 40:30even though it's scary, we can't actually make it scary. You know.
- 40:34There's some some things like that. Those are the only really the two things
- 40:38that are really holding me back, because we get to explore all sorts of
- 40:42different types of telling a story with music and Bluie, which usually with other
- 40:45shows you just pick one theme and one stylistic idea or concept with music and
- 40:52storytelling and you stick to it. But yeah, I mean that's the fun
- 40:58of Bluies. We get to do like something else, maybe even more that
- 41:02plays a character's perspectives a lot, or maybe we do something that's really like
- 41:06philosophical, like like Bike, which is just like the music doesn't necessarily play
- 41:12the character's perspectives so much, and or yeah, all these different episodes that
- 41:16we can explore different approaches to writing music. Well, I know you are
- 41:22Joe when you're writing the music. You're coming up with the music. You
- 41:23watched the episode and you think, how how are the kids feeling and thinking
- 41:25at this point in time. Have you ever written a piece of music though,
- 41:29and gone, I really like what I've written here? Can you write
- 41:30an episode around this? Oh? No, not so much. There's definitely
- 41:37a few that wouldn't mean cool, But there's definitely a few things where I
- 41:42will send a piece of classical music, particularly or something to Joe in that
- 41:49is this is something that you know, I feel like this will work really
- 41:53well on this episode that you're in the middle of writing, or there's a
- 41:58script four but no one started animation or anything like that. And I'll give
- 42:02you know then there because um, this this tune is blah blah blah,
- 42:07and it represents this and or whatever, and I feel like we can bring
- 42:10that out there. Um. And then sometimes he'll just ignore that and then
- 42:15and then bring it back. He'll go, Who'll write a whole new script
- 42:20based with that in mind? You know? But no, nothing that I've
- 42:22actually written that's original that I'll send to Himan. Um, he'll write an
- 42:28episode around Yeah, why isn't in on that? Do do you feel like
- 42:35subconsciously the music of the Simpsons? It's probably the show we've all watched.
- 42:38From the show we watched them the most more than any Do you think it's
- 42:42subconsciously influenced your style in any way, because I know there's a lot of
- 42:45Simpsons references in Bluey from a writing perspective, but from a music perspective,
- 42:49yeah, I don't think so. Um, in terms of like how the
- 42:53cues work and that approach. There's maybe one or two episodes that we took
- 43:00a bit of the musical dramaturgy approach of The Simpsons with these sort of like
- 43:05in like um, particularly those transition things that take you into the mood and
- 43:09then you just have the dialogue let it speak it for itself. Bluie is
- 43:13often the music is pretty wall to wall. There's a lot of music in
- 43:16it, so we don't usually take that in terms of that approach, but
- 43:21I think in terms of that sound particularly, you know, I think Simpsons
- 43:27was used a twenty or thirty piece orchestra, so it's not a full orchestra
- 43:30and it's all live players. And when you're writing for a smaller ensemble,
- 43:36because a normal orcaus is like eighty pieces, when you're writing for a normal
- 43:38on a smaller ensemble like that, you get a more human, smaller sound.
- 43:44You hear certain instruments actually feature from the actual player rather than a big
- 43:49ensemble sound. And I think that sort of sound. I love that sound.
- 43:53I like it more than an orchestra sound most cases too, like a
- 43:58big orchestra sound, and I think that sound probably influenced a lot like that
- 44:04the textures that the humanity are of the players shining through. UM. Yeah,
- 44:09there's definitely something that we do a lot in Blueys. You know,
- 44:14we feature the musicians, we get to have him. It seems to me
- 44:16though, right now is the perfect time for a Simpsons Bluey crossover. Right,
- 44:22it's just gone on, even if it's just a couch gag of some
- 44:25kind. Right, yeah, yeah, How excited would how excited would it
- 44:29be for you to write a Bluey esque version of the Simpsons theme for a
- 44:31couch gag? It would be amazing. I wonder if they'd ever yeah,
- 44:36wait that I don't think that. I don't think they call me, but
- 44:38I think that would be an amazing thing. If you want to take the
- 44:40Internet by a storm and to own the Internet for the day, a Bluey
- 44:45Simpsons cross our couch gag, that's where it's at. Well, I've got
- 44:47news for you, Nada. Every character in the intro is all blue blue
- 44:52eyes or what if you want to call it would be perfect. It's just
- 44:55now's the time to do it. Yeah, Who's who's in charge of this?
- 45:00Who make our pals over at the Simpsons today? I'll make it?
- 45:04Yes, please, yes, let's make it make it happen. M Yeah,
- 45:08I'm one hundred per son. I'm bored. If anyone if I think
- 45:14they'll probably just use like, I don't know who does the music, Yeah,
- 45:19I don't. I saw that. Um weird All just had a recent
- 45:22one, right yeah, yeah, he did it himself. He did himself.
- 45:27I mean. One of the things I loved about that I'm getting back
- 45:31to the Blue album, right, was You've mentioned in a previous interview that
- 45:36you wanted this to be the first album that a kid owned not streamed,
- 45:38And I love that because it's one of those things. I love that the
- 45:42fact that one of the first albums I've owned was the Simpsons album Amazing Yeah,
- 45:46and this this one here is the first vinyl that my son's ever owned,
- 45:51my son Elliott, and he loves just putting it on. It's like
- 45:53like you said, it's like an event putting the record on and putting the
- 45:57little needle down, stuff like that. And he loves the blue I'm always
- 46:00asked us to put it on, but he doesn't want me to play it
- 46:01on the on my phone. It's got to be the vinyl. Yeah,
- 46:05I mean, I'm I'm so happy to hear that. That makes that makes
- 46:08my day, Like there's something it does make you listen to things differently when
- 46:15it's on vinyl, and it's anything that you have to put any ounce of
- 46:17effort in makes you really appreciate things a bit more. I think, um
- 46:22so yeah, I mean, I love the vinyl thing. I know,
- 46:25not everyone can have a vinyl player, or it's not practical and all those
- 46:30sorts of things, but I do love the idea that people get to um
- 46:36uh, you know, you don't actually have this thing they can hold and
- 46:39it's and it's like this is my yeah, the idea of it being someone's
- 46:44first album. I don't know when the Simpsons album came in in my in
- 46:47my canon of first albums, but I know it was because my first album
- 46:53was He's seventeen m Stein. I think my first album I ever bought,
- 47:00my first single ever bought was U backfreece Back I Quit playing Games in my
- 47:06heart, that one amazing first single. I don't even know when the when
- 47:12the Simpsons album arrived. I remember I had a few. Yeah, no,
- 47:16I would have been was I eleven or twelve then, so yeah,
- 47:22I probably wouldn't be in the first album for sure, but it was some
- 47:27of there. I remember, really, there was a few. I had
- 47:30it with a bunch of other soundtracks. They're like the Red and Stimpy album
- 47:36and things like that. Yeah, so well, we just recently reviewed them
- 47:38on our South Park podcast chef Aid Chef When the chef Aid album came out
- 47:44that was huge in Australia. This one here, Yeah, I haven't you
- 47:46know what, I've never heard of that one? Chef Aid really Yeah?
- 47:50Well was it really made it one in Australia? Yeah, you're kidding.
- 47:57Okay, we better ticket. But are you a scores kind of guy?
- 48:00Like do you do when you buy vinyl? You buying albums or are you
- 48:04buying music soundtracks and music scores? Look, what's your sort of preference?
- 48:07Um, A bit of a bit of everything. I like for particularly for
- 48:12vinyl, you know, I try. I try to find things that are
- 48:14a bit things that I might not have get anywhere else, or like it's
- 48:20hard to find on streaming, or just things based on their cover if it's
- 48:22secondhand, you know, like oh what's this? This is a um yeah,
- 48:28you know, a Bulgarian choir or something like that. And I was
- 48:30like, and then I get to hear something really novel for me. Obviously,
- 48:35I do have a few soundtracks as well. Um, I don't I
- 48:37really enjoy. When I listen to music at home, it's always on vinyl
- 48:43because I don't listen to much music at home because I'm in the studio all
- 48:46day. Sometimes I was like, I just want to hear someone talk or
- 48:51like, you know what I mean, or it's just I just need to
- 48:53get away from that headspace or so you put on various bluey podcasts. I'm
- 48:58sure exactly, yeah, if I If I'm yeah, I mean like because
- 49:01I'm in the studio all day, and this particularly if I'm mixing music.
- 49:06Sometimes if I'm listening to music, I really love. It feels like work
- 49:10and I love it. But if you're doing it for sixteen hours or something.
- 49:14If I've been in the studio of sixteen hours recording or listening or mixing
- 49:16and stuff, the last thing I want to do is hear something I love
- 49:20and then like compare myself to it all, like hear the tweaks or anything
- 49:23like that. So I usually try and listen to things that are a bit
- 49:25more novel to me, or something that I'm excited at because it is different,
- 49:31or something I wouldn't have thought of like that. Yeah, this may
- 49:37be a bit of a big ask given that job. But I mean,
- 49:38yeah, people who are fans of Bluey music, people who are fans or
- 49:43Simpson music, are the three pieces of music, maybe three soundtracks or three
- 49:45songs or three albums that you would recommend to them as like, well,
- 49:49if you do the human human algorithm, if you like this, you may
- 49:52also like this. Yeah, that's a real I should have thought of that.
- 50:01I really can't. I've been asked this similar things before and I've never
- 50:07ever had a good answer. Um, And it changes so much to so
- 50:10much that I get really into a particular day even I'll be like, oh,
- 50:15this is the greatest thing ever. What's interesting you say that with the
- 50:17Blue music actually, because sometimes I put it on, I'm like, it's
- 50:21making me feel so happy. Maybe I'm just in the right kind of frame
- 50:23of mind, right, But like songs like getting going Back to Keep You
- 50:27Up and fruit Bat? I love that. Did you write fruit Bat?
- 50:29Because you're got to credit it on the album with fruit Bat? Yeah?
- 50:31Fruit Back? Well, I that was originally I worked on an episode that
- 50:37episode with a composer called Pluto Jones, and that that song, I have
- 50:40to say, is mostly his okay stuff. I think what I added with
- 50:45some melodica parts to it, like okay, and so technically I'm down as
- 50:51like a co writer, but adding those little things and all that stuff,
- 50:54but like the main hook and stuff is just like it's it's his from his
- 51:00brain. And that's one of my favorite ones as well. And yeah,
- 51:05he always comes up with such a great little's great hooks. Yeah. And
- 51:09usually when I'm working with someone, I'll play a little piano thing in and
- 51:13they'll send it. You go, I'll do something like this or this is
- 51:15a vibe, or maybe i'll write something. Sometimes people take that news it
- 51:20or they don't. But for this one, it's very much just like completely
- 51:24ignored what I said through and the own thing is thank goodness he did because
- 51:29it was so it was so good and um yeah and the and yeah,
- 51:34that one's as great. I love the bass sound in there too that I
- 51:38got. Yeah, well I described that as to me that and I've tricked
- 51:43my sister into this, right. I listened to it and I was like,
- 51:45you could tell somebody that this is a hidden track on a Sergeant Pepper
- 51:49album, right yeah, right has the Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band kind
- 51:52of vibe to it like that ear of the Beatles, and I told him.
- 51:55I told my sister, I said, oh, they've just discovered a
- 51:58Beatle song that they didn't find. I didn't tell her how she didn't pay
- 52:01much attention. I really cool, play it. I played it and she
- 52:05started tearing up, thinking it was an actual Beatles track. That's how good.
- 52:08That's how good fruit Bat is. In my opinion, I'm gonna I'm
- 52:12going to pass that through through to Pluto, like, um, he's going
- 52:15to be Oh yeah, I know. One of the things we talked about
- 52:20for that episode when we were doing that episode, and this was also before
- 52:22Blue He came out, so no one had any idea about any of this,
- 52:27but we was it was a dream sequence, and I didn't want it
- 52:30to be any dreamy at all. I wanted it to be like a night
- 52:35out, like at a dive bar. And so it was very much like
- 52:38we talked about White Stripes. We talked about like these sorts of bands that
- 52:43you might see like in a dive bar at like two AM or something like,
- 52:49and that's that's what And they're having just a really fun time and it's
- 52:53sort of messy and bar like a bar a rock band from a bar and
- 52:58tsam kind of song. Isn't everyone's just arm in arm Yeah, And then
- 53:04got to hate Jude vibe to it. Yeah it does actually yeah yeah,
- 53:07and it's it's very um yeah. So so that's I mean, that was
- 53:12the influence for that track particularly, And then I would have to ask I
- 53:15have to ask Pluto more about like where the rest of that vibe from?
- 53:22Yeah, how we came up with that sort of thing, But it was
- 53:24definitely it was I think it was the first episode we worked on together.
- 53:28Well okay, and I was like, well, why don't you have a
- 53:30crack at this dream sequence? They nailed it? Yeah, you know really,
- 53:37you know, there wasn't. We go through a lot of drafts and
- 53:39blue we were very particular and even the first draft was really close, like
- 53:44it was pretty amazing, so um on that one. So yeah, point
- 53:50my point was sort of straight away from my love with the song. But
- 53:52my point was going to be that, you know, we're two small kids.
- 53:55They go through phases, you know, one week it's the Muppets,
- 53:58then it's Poor Patrol, then it's or whatever. They love listening to the
- 54:00songs on repeat, and I get sick of the songs by the end of
- 54:04the week. But it's not so much the mumps, because a lot of
- 54:06the mumps and the mupp It's Kid, yes, but Bluey Blue you just
- 54:10never seem to get sick of the songs like a rotation. It's just just
- 54:15beautiful music. Oh, thank you so much. Yeah, I mean,
- 54:17it's just I mean, we do put a lot of time, a lot
- 54:21of love into the soundtrack stuff. People say it's unnecessary amount of of work
- 54:27that goes into it, but then you put out a number one album,
- 54:29so you kind of see see it was fine. But you know, I
- 54:34mean, I think originally we were probably you know people, everyone was expecting
- 54:37us just to take what was on the TV show and just put it in
- 54:40there, which is what I thought it was going to be. Yeah,
- 54:43yeah, and so we but I think, yeah, hopefully that I think
- 54:46the repeatability of it is because because we you know, there's live players and
- 54:53we spent ages on each track. It's like we're not quite like I think
- 54:58it wasn't metallic. I had that someone them, you know, reading auras
- 55:00and stuff. We didn't get it there. But like there's definitely some things
- 55:06where we're going. It needs another trumpet um and us that you can't get
- 55:10from watching the show. That like you said, you took the music that
- 55:13you had that were in the episodes and you extend them and made them you
- 55:15know, unique to the album. So if you want to hear the music,
- 55:17you have to buy the album where the Simpsons albums were. If you
- 55:21watch the Simpsons, you probably heard all these all this music before. It's
- 55:22just music that's the show is that's that's you know, being as appeared on
- 55:28the show. But this is the full version. Yeah. And a part
- 55:30of that is because when we're doing in the thick of writing music for the
- 55:34show, we don't have time to be like, let's do everything we wanted
- 55:38to do with it. It's almost like we're trying to correct all the things
- 55:42we wish we had time to do on the show as well. Um where
- 55:46particularly for the first season because it was such a tight turnaround and it was
- 55:52you know, didn't have the same budget and we didn't have as much scope
- 55:55for live players and you know, believe lots of faith evers and to get
- 56:00it there too. When we finally got the album's thing, it's like,
- 56:02no, this is I love this show. It's beautiful show. I really
- 56:06want this to be where we really want to do everything we can't want it
- 56:09to do. It's in the show. It works fine because there's often dialogue
- 56:14over certain scenes and so the bits that are underneath everything. Yeah, it's
- 56:20it's fine, Like there's there's space there. You don't want it to um
- 56:25yeah, and you're you're like like it says you know it needs to fit
- 56:30in with the whole picture of what's going on there. But um, yeah,
- 56:34no, I'm so. I'm so stoked, so stokes. You don't
- 56:37get sick of it. That's that's actually huge because you know, um,
- 56:42it's one of the things I often worry about with parents having to um if
- 56:45Blue is playing two hundred times a day, I always worry they got it.
- 56:52You've got a room full of kids and you want their attention. That's
- 56:53not listening. Put the Blue theme on. Within two seconds they all just
- 56:57got It's like just cat debates the room. But guys, guys, anything
- 57:01else you want to ask Jeff before we send him on his way to go
- 57:05work on some more bluey music. I think we better get back to att
- 57:08actually taking so much your time job. I loved it. That was great.
- 57:14I'm I've got like this whole I'm like this is we were like this
- 57:17afternoon, Clarrett, We're talking about one more final Simpsons question then all right.
- 57:24Yeah. One of the best things that being a kid in nineties were
- 57:27Simpsons marathons Channel ten Super Simptons weekends under they had Fox Tells a Kid,
- 57:31But Saturday Sunday mornings we were just filled with the Simpsons. Right when the
- 57:36Olympics are round. My parents watched the Olympics. I watched Simpsons marathons around
- 57:38Fox eight. You've been given control of a Simpsons marathon. It's nineteen nineteen
- 57:43eight. You chat and control Channel ten. You get to pick five Simpsons
- 57:47episodes to put at your perfect Joff Bush Simpsons marathon together. Which episodes are
- 57:52going in there? Oh, that is a tough question. The first one
- 57:55has got to be um. I actually can't remember the names of the time
- 58:00the Bleeding Bleeding Gums round Springfield, which is one of my favorite parts of
- 58:05the songs in the care Springfield just so much joy, isn't it. So
- 58:07it's because you know, as outrageous as it is, at least as talking
- 58:10to a cloud, she's living a moment that we all wish we could with
- 58:15people we've lost in the past. It's like almost so uplifting in her version
- 58:19of jazz Man. It's just fantastic. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
- 58:22it's um and even Yeah, and not just because it's the music themed
- 58:25episode. I don't think it's it's just so sweet anyway. Yeah, the
- 58:31monorail episode, Monorail, my dress of the monorail round Springfield. Yeah yeah,
- 58:37stone Cutters, that's just going off my favorite tracks. Yeah. Um,
- 58:45I finally got two left? Or what treuse of horror would snake its
- 58:49way in there if you had to put one? Oh um, okay,
- 58:52a treehouse of the definitely need a treehouse of horror? Um, you going
- 58:55the shinning? I'm which one is the one with the h Maybe this is
- 59:05not a treehouse of horror? What's the one that's like the X Files?
- 59:07He's just an X Files As a sci fi fan growing up, that was
- 59:12like my favorite. That one blew me away when it first came out.
- 59:15Yeah, one more, okay and then ah no, no, no,
- 59:22I have to choose one. You've got you've got half Out, you've got
- 59:25Whacky, you've got the stone Cutters, You've got sci fi with the Springfield
- 59:29Files. Yeah, yeah, yeah, this is a tough, tough question.
- 59:32I'm trying to think of what a putting can I borrow a feeling?
- 59:37You know? You want Tony Tray. I'm going to go, oh hey,
- 59:44I think I'm just going to have to go the one with all the
- 59:46Broadway hits in it? What's it called again? Um? Broadway hits?
- 59:50Oh? I mean the when Marge does the street kind name desire? Yeah?
- 59:53No, um, the one where they go to hang on? Which
- 59:57one's one? The one we've planted the apes? And that is that the
- 59:59same one that well, that's that's why Trum McClure is dating. Yes,
- 1:00:02yes, yeah, the Selma dating one saying film at that one? Yes,
- 1:00:06okay. A fish called Salma, You're amazing, fish called Salma?
- 1:00:10Yes, yes, I'm going to have to go that one, just because
- 1:00:14I quoted that for about like I'd see it, I'd play it on the
- 1:00:17piano, all of those. But yeah, I'm sorry, I'm so bad
- 1:00:22with these names. There you go. So Jop's Springfield Simpsons Marathon is round
- 1:00:28Springfield. We've got the Springfield Files, got a fish called Salma? What
- 1:00:31else would be trying it the marg best of the Monorail and the stone Cutters
- 1:00:36episode. I'm going to lock that in and then I'm going to message you
- 1:00:38in like a day ago. What was I thinking. I'm so sorry,
- 1:00:44but thank you once again, Joff. It's been absolute pleasure to have you
- 1:00:45on the show. Thank you so much, lovely to lovely to meet you
- 1:00:49and chat and and thanks all the great questions and yeah, I hope the
- 1:00:52hope think something useful there there will be and I'm all the best with them.
- 1:00:57With the release of Dance Motel shure it's going to go just as good,
- 1:00:59if not better than fingers Cross. I'm swearing, I'm sweanning. Thank
- 1:01:04you so much. Take thanks, Bake. What a lovely gentleman, mister
- 1:01:14Joff Bushes. Hey, mister Davis, Oh my gosh, a creative giant
- 1:01:17and a very very nice gentleman. We will so so pleased to have a
- 1:01:23bit of time with him this afternoon. Yes, and al Jeane, Matt
- 1:01:27Salmon, whoever we're out there listening, Simpson's Universe, Simpson's HQ, Bluie,
- 1:01:30Simpson's Crossover. We want it to happen. Joff wants it to happen.
- 1:01:32I'm sure the creator Joe wants it to happen as well. Everyone wants
- 1:01:36the Simpsons Blue crossover. Let's do it, the Blueye Simpsons couch gag.
- 1:01:39I want it to happen, so let's make it happen. Indeed, get
- 1:01:43cracking on that one. Yes, that's right, goes, don't forget.
- 1:01:45Also make sure your preorder your copy of dance Mode is the second release of
- 1:01:50the Bluey music. You also get the Record Store Day version as well that
- 1:01:52Joff was talking about. I'm gonna be trying to get my hands on that
- 1:01:55one. I put my hands on the first Record Store Dave release of Bluey,
- 1:01:58but maybe not be as lucky with this one. And we'll see,
- 1:02:00We'll see what happens. But also please don't forget to our rate and review
- 1:02:04us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, whereview do you find this your podcast?
- 1:02:07And also follow us on social media at four finger Pod on Twitter and at
- 1:02:10four finger discount on Instagram. Thank you so much for listening to our conversation
- 1:02:15here with Jeff Bush from Blue It's been an absolutely delighted to have you guys
- 1:02:17all on board with us today. But mister Davis, any final words for
- 1:02:20those incredible listeners out there for real life