For more than 15 years, Brooklyn's John Flansburgh and John Linnell have been writing and playing quirky, clever pop songs as They Might Be Giants. But after countless albums, EPs, compilations, and side projects–not to mention a recently severed major-label deal–the group's future would seem in doubt at this point. Not so, say both Flansburgh and Linnell, who just released a live album (Severe Tire Damage), are touring, and look forward to releasing as many as two records (a conventional studio release and a possible children's album) in 1999. Flansburgh and Linnell both recently spoke to The Onion in separate interviews, outlining the band's future plans, reveling over their place in popular culture, griping about critics' generalizations, and insisting that they're still inspired to keep cranking out They Might Be Giants records.
What's up with They Might Be Giants?
Well, we have a live album out right now, and we're playing a wide variety of shows. We just played Milwaukee last week, at this really strange sort of national gaming convention called GenCon. That was a really odd gig. There were lots of kids wearing capes and Spock ears.
Are those kids They Might Be Giants fans?
Some of them are, it seemed. I think some of them probably didn't know about us and would be interested, so that was a good reason to do that show. You know, it's tempting to kind of sneer at their geekiness, but I think that in the culture at large, we probably are considered part of that same world. I think we consider ourselves to be just existing in our own tiny world that's different from every other subculture, but, you know, it was a good gig for us to play, actually.
Well, I think They Might Be Giants has a little bit of a reputation for being a geeky band.
Yeah. I mean, I'm not happy about that, but I think that we just find friends where we can get them. We obviously appeal to lots of shut-ins. [Laughs.]
You're working on a studio album right now, right?
Well, we're writing songs sporadically this summer, and we are touring to support the live album, which we'll do for about six weeks, and then we'll be out again next year. We haven't really got any schedule for the next record.
What happened to your deal with Elektra?
Well, with Elektra, it was kind of a case of the company sort of shifting under our feet. We signed with Elektra in '89, and put out Flood and Apollo 18. And then, at some point on the heels of Apollo 18, the staff started disappearing. All the A&R people we had worked with, who were kind of our friends, had left the company, and then the president left the company, and then the whole company was sort of taken over by another company called East/West. And that was really a disaster for us, because we were no longer working with people we knew, and I don't think there was very much interest in what we were doing. We had a few discussions with the president about what our best situation could be, and her attitude was basically, "You give us a record and we'll run with it." But instead, what was going on was that we were making these records, and then there would be no budget for promotions or anything. We didn't make videos. The record would be put out, and it would sell kind of a reliable—but not very high—number, and Elektra would make back the money they spent manufacturing it. And they were happy with that arrangement, because it was a very easy thing for them. But it was a real problem for us: We felt like we were standing still.
Well, they probably felt like you were a sure thing, like you would make a little money with your little cult of fans, and nothing more.
Exactly. That was what was going on. I mean, at least we got to make records, but we felt like we could go farther and find people who were more enthusiastic, and who could work with us in a more personal way. So finally, after we put out Factory Showroom, they kind of agreed to end the deal with us, and that actually worked out better than we expected, because we were bought out of our contract. We got paid for the records we hadn't made and were free to do something else, though we haven't quite figured out what that's going to be.
Elektra bought you out?
We were paid out of our contract. We haven't got a record contract right now. We're putting this thing [Severe Tire Damage] out as a one-shot.
So, they were willing to pay to get rid of you?
Well, legally, they had to at that point. It's funny, because there was a point where they could have just terminated the contract; the term of the contract had ended, and they could have not renewed it, and they wouldn't have had to pay us anything. That would have amounted to the same thing, but they wanted to sign a new contract, which they then decided to get out of. They were not particularly clever about what they were doing, but it worked out fine for us.
When do you envision another studio album coming out?
Next year some time. I don't know exactly when, but we are always writing, and we have enough material now to make another record. We just have to get a record deal and record it. That's not… Those are not enormous hurdles.
I would imagine that the interest from labels is there.
Yeah. We have people that we're talking to; we're just trying to find the best deal.
Is the next record going to be with a full band, or is it just the two of you?
Well, I think that with our last record [Factory Showroom], we figured out that we could not really decide that it was going to be a document of a rock band, the way we did with the one before, John Henry. John and I figured out that what we really wanted to do was make whatever kind of records we wanted to make, and not have some formal idea of what it was we were representing. So we had some songs that had drums and bass on them, and some that didn't, and I think we're going to continue with that idea. We can cook it up in the studio however we want, and it's not about trying to make it sound like a band. But the difference now from the '80s is that we actually do have… We kind of have the people skills now to work with other musicians, which we really didn't have before. We were not inclined to work with other musicians so much. I think partly it was a control issue, and partly we didn't imagine… We didn't have this picture of why it would be any good to have other people playing on the records. So we've grown. We've matured.
Are you guys still inspired to be They Might Be Giants?
Oh, yeah. I think so. I mean, there are different kinds of inspiration. I think that we have always been inspired to come up with songs and come up with new ideas, and it happens that They Might Be Giants is a great vehicle for that, because it's this institution now. It's this brand name, so it's a great resource for us for that reason. We kind of set the boundaries pretty wide early on, so we have a lot of freedom within They Might Be Giants to do whatever we want. And the other thing is that we're inspired by the need to support ourselves. [Laughs.] That's very inspiring. That's another resource the band brings to us.
You don't feel like you're growing into other projects?
Oh, I think we're doing that, as well. I don't think there's any necessity to burn bridges; I think we both feel very into They Might Be Giants, and we have a lot of warm feelings about the band. And then, at the same time, we've come up with lots of other stuff. I think that even if we went through a period where we weren't doing They Might Be Giants so much, it wouldn't be because the band had broken up; it would be, like, "This is something we can always return to."
When you look at They Might Be Giants at the end of the band's run, what do you want to have accomplished?
I don't know if there's anything left for us to accomplish. I think we've been doing the thing we really want to do, and there isn't some incomplete aspect to it. We always wanted to make records and have people hear them, and be part of this… I don't know if we ever articulated it this way, but I think that in a personally important way, we have been part of the cultural dialogue. We have been, and we hope to continue to be, part of the cultural world. And that's really enough. That's plenty. I don't think we are embittered because we didn't actually knock Madonna off the top of the charts.