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February 17, 2026 11 mins

Ahead of performing at Electric Ave in Christchurch and at Meow Nui in Wellington on May 1, Bret McKenzie called in for a chat about his latest solo album Freak Out City and the enduring friendship with Jermaine Clement that's seeing them do Flight Of The Conchords again in May.

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Radio hod Keys Off the Record Podcast with
Jason Hoyt Mike Minogue And what.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
A special treat we've got in the studio with us, Fellas.
We don't often get a superstar in the show with us,
do we? And I'm talking superstar doesn't often happen, but
we've got one now, the one, the only Brett McKenzie
get a breat your mad.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
It sounds like there's a lot more of you than
there are. Yes, no, thanks for the thanks for the
big ups.

Speaker 4 (00:33):
Hell of an entourage you brought in with you as well. Man,
you've got that Hollywood atourage.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
There is a beside.

Speaker 5 (00:41):
Yeah, what's going on? You change change deal?

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Yeah, you got hip hop now as well.

Speaker 5 (00:48):
Is that why you're wearing so much bling at the moment?

Speaker 3 (00:50):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (00:51):
On the wedding read and why you got your hit
and you've got the plants as well.

Speaker 5 (00:55):
I mean that's you.

Speaker 4 (01:00):
It's a little bit of working J's plants. What he
means there's corn rows but he didn't know what the
definition was there. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
Yeah, and I'll take my sunglasses off for you guys.

Speaker 5 (01:09):
Bread it as a privilege, listen.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
I I've got to apologize the fellows in the studio
at the moment, we're all running massive zs. So if
we look, if we look a little bit, you can
see the one on my face.

Speaker 5 (01:20):
Mogi's running a couple of.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
Even Keysy're tired, you guys work into her? Yeah, I
think so you need the holiday guys.

Speaker 5 (01:25):
It's only fear even keasy. He's got beautiful skin running.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
You got the biskin.

Speaker 4 (01:32):
He's got good skin. He is a young he's younger
by about twenty years.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
That's a good secret, A good yeah. That pays off
nutri GENA.

Speaker 6 (01:43):
Yeah, it's a moisturizer. But we've got Britain in the studio,
not just to talk about our skin. Felts you going
on what you're down.

Speaker 5 (01:52):
Talking about the how's your skin?

Speaker 3 (01:54):
Well? You know what if you rock a beard through
the years, yeah, it has been on't As I get older,
I can just shave off the beard and I look,
I'm gonna you know, I can carve back ten years.

Speaker 4 (02:07):
You a clean shaven.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
I've done it. I do it once or twice a year.
It terrifies my children and then my wife tells me,
I look weird grow back?

Speaker 6 (02:15):
Is it one of those things? Brett where you grew
a bed because you've got like a weird chin.

Speaker 3 (02:19):
I've got quite a pointy face, right, yeah, yeah, quite
el which was paid off for a very short time.
I was in Elf and Lord of the Rings, like
anyone be sure always if anyone in Wellington was tall
and thin with pointy features, we got where you got
cast in the movie. But yeah, even my kids like, wow,

(02:43):
you're quite pointy. Got quite a pointy, pointy face, yeah,
softens with the beard.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
I didn't even get an audition for Lord of the Rings.
I was pretty filthy about that. I mean, I would
have made quite a great hobbit.

Speaker 5 (02:55):
You could have been.

Speaker 3 (02:56):
You would have been a brilliant hobbit.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Because I've got massive feet, you know, and I'm not
I'm not all they did.

Speaker 3 (03:01):
They did the prosthetic hair on the feet, you know, yes,
you know, so that was glued on. Should talk about something.

Speaker 4 (03:09):
Yeah, let's talk about before it goes on to Jason.

Speaker 5 (03:17):
I have a very I have a very clear memory, man.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
And it was when I was in New York and
I was walking along the street and I saw and is.

Speaker 3 (03:26):
It radio Hall, radio City, Radio City, Yeah, yeah, and
it's a big It's like it's like New York's Civic,
It's like the Meccah. Yeah, it's a big one.

Speaker 5 (03:36):
And I saw Flight of.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
The Concords and this is I'm talking years and years
and years ago.

Speaker 3 (03:42):
You're talking about twenty twelve.

Speaker 5 (03:43):
Yes, and I was like, bugging me, these fellows have
made it. How was that?

Speaker 3 (03:47):
It was unreal because you'd rot, you'd arrive and there'd
be a line around the building of people waiting to
get in to watch us.

Speaker 5 (03:54):
Yes, it was crazy. Were you're sort of crapping yourself
a little bit?

Speaker 3 (03:59):
Well, yeah, it's quite freaky. But luckily our fans are
really nice, generally pretty sweet, yeah, lovely people who would
bring us things that made they were quite There was
a big crossover of people who liked doing craft like
the concourse. So our fans, you know, they didn't so
much want us to sign their breast, but they would
give us something they crocheted.

Speaker 4 (04:20):
Even better, and crossover real Ni with Wellington Paranormal and
they give you this all the stuff, you know, because
you go to the fans sort of things and then
they give you these things that they've crafted and they've
spent hours on them, maybe days. What do you do
with them because the feeling is that you don't want
it well, but if you throw it out, will you

(04:42):
go to hell? That's the sort of battle that they're feeling.

Speaker 3 (04:45):
You have on the last day of the tour in
the hotel room.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yeah, when you're trying to pack your suitcase.

Speaker 3 (04:51):
Yes, and it's like can you fit and what do
you do with it? Can you fit? The unusual portrait
that someone's done of me and Jermaine's sheep, Yeah, in watercolors.

Speaker 6 (05:00):
I'm patching like you've got like ten doily's in your
bag that you're trying to get rid of. A crochet.

Speaker 3 (05:06):
I do have a few boxes of unusual fan art
in my mum's garage. Yeah, yeah, that I don't know,
maybe an exhibition one days to Papa.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
Radio, hod Keys Off the Record podcast with Jason Hoyt,
Mike Minogue and Kesy.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
The One and Only Brett McKenzie. A genuine question here
with you and Jermaine and Flight of the Concords. Have
you been surprised at how massive you became?

Speaker 4 (05:34):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (05:35):
I mean yeah, it was quite gradual. So but when
the TV show, the power of a TV show is
something else. Yes, I got if you're if you're a
young band out there and you're looking to if you're
looking at ways to get a bit of impact, get
a TV.

Speaker 4 (05:49):
Show would be hugely successful.

Speaker 3 (05:51):
To make a successful show on a masied big yeah
cable network. Yes, I do remember this. You've got this
the wind behind you with someone like that. Because HBO
suddenly there were there were boasts, there were posters in
the subway, there were there was a billboard.

Speaker 4 (06:08):
Yeah, yeah, you know, and you.

Speaker 3 (06:09):
Don't get a billboard normally for things you're making. Yes,
so there's this the engine of this giant jumbo jet
kicks and them. Yeah, with the show that we were
lucky because the show worked and everything, But we're also
lucky because it was also pre streaming, if that makes sense,
you know, so it's Netflix at that point was a

(06:30):
video delivery envelope, these red envelopes in America you get
the videos your DVD sent to your house. And so
it was not quite as old school as New Zealand
in the eighties where it was just two channels, but
it meant on Sunday nights there were a few things
you could watch and we were one of them.

Speaker 6 (06:46):
Well, and also the timing of this too, I vidly.
Remember I was in high school and I think I
had a Flight of the Concord video on my Bibo
site or my MySpace.

Speaker 5 (06:54):
Or my space.

Speaker 3 (06:56):
Jermaine was really into my space. Yeah, it was a
big MySpace some.

Speaker 6 (07:01):
Yeah, because it's such a bizarre like couple of years
there where everyone was on MySpace and I got seen
and I used to see in videos of you guys
in your first massive performance. I still remember, like what
I think Jermaine's wearing blue or something and you and
it just blew up at my high school and all
of a sudden, your videos is being sent to everyone
because of you guys being successful and brilliant, but also
because my Space was so massive all of a sudden.

Speaker 3 (07:20):
Yeah, and we it was that's it was sort of
a different kind of time. I remember YouTube was new, yes,
and then we had a song. We had the song
Business Time became a YouTube sort.

Speaker 5 (07:30):
Of same shit.

Speaker 3 (07:32):
Yeah, I mean it wasn't it wasn't. It went minor.
It was a minor viral sensation, but it was. It
was out a time when not everyone knew what YouTube was,
which is hard to imagine now. Yes, but yeah, it
was amazing. And one thing that's weird though, Jason is
we got we did these shows. You remember, we used
to do comedy shows at the Classic. We were doing

(07:52):
shows with you there, and we're still playing the same songs.
You know, we're still singing about David Bowie's in Space
and the next thing. At Radio City in New York,
there's five or six thousand people there. They're laughing at
the same thing. Yeah, and the same moment, and the
song that was good at the Classic is really good
at the big venue. So it's really weird because it

(08:14):
doesn't you still of don't change what's happening on stage
and what's happening. But yeah, it's really cool seeing how
it can translate the same. If something's funny in a
room of people, it's going to be funny to ten
thousand people.

Speaker 5 (08:26):
Yeah, so weird, right, yeah, good.

Speaker 6 (08:28):
The classic joke I remember from the start of the
set was like, it's really nice to be here, and
then Jermaine looks at the back of his guitar and says.

Speaker 5 (08:33):
Now America.

Speaker 6 (08:34):
Yeah, yeah, you know, like you couldn't remember the country
he was in that stuff. You would have done that
the Classic and stuff back in the day as well.

Speaker 3 (08:40):
Oh, yeah, we spent quite a long time pretending to
be David Bowie. I remember did a get Awkland We're
like to begin with, we used to be.

Speaker 5 (08:47):
Like, yeah, are you running to rock Auckland?

Speaker 3 (08:51):
And then we'd start playing a little folk song right
and then but we did that and we I remember
one time we did a shot up here and by
the next day Jermaine didn't have a voice. So the
next show he didn't talk at all for the whole
show or scene. You don't know what he did.

Speaker 4 (09:04):
He must be a mild, mildly annoying person to tour
the world was because, of course he doesn't drink, but
he also doesn't drive.

Speaker 3 (09:12):
Oh yeah, I know you've touched a nerve there.

Speaker 4 (09:14):
It's a real combination.

Speaker 3 (09:15):
One is it's okay, except often, you know, socially, someone's
gotta have a drink. Yes, I welcome to town. We
want to take you out of a drink? Great, what
can I get you of an orangejuice or a glass
of water? And then they'd be like, oh, Jude, this
isn't gonna you know that weird think it's not this
case anymore. I think it's softened now. A lot of
people have like zero our cold beers and everything, but
often it felt like there was a bit of pressure.

(09:36):
I'd have a beer.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
Just so just give me a bottle of couplet, a
couple of bottles for it has been a busy day,
hey man, because you've got a tour coming up. Yeah, yeah,
I've already seen that you're sold out in some well.

Speaker 3 (09:52):
A surprise, I've had another show sense, yes, there's something
gets and then there's an Auckland show at this cool
theater called the Hollywood, which is movie theater. And then
Evan it's we were just there this afternoon.

Speaker 5 (10:04):
It's so beautiful mate.

Speaker 2 (10:06):
That's in my homehood or it used to be able
to move now but that is a fantastic.

Speaker 5 (10:12):
Beauty. So no beauty.

Speaker 6 (10:14):
Well, if you want to see Britt mackenzie doing his
freak out to the album tour, as mentioned, the gig
on Thursday, the second of April at Meol Louis down
and Wellington has sold out, but there's one on the
Wednesday night now, first of April, and on Saturday the
fourth you'll be at the Hollywood in Auckland. For tickets, Britt,
should they go to your website?

Speaker 3 (10:30):
Yeah, you can go to I've built a website. Guys.
You can press a button and it links through us
that I've got the latest in technology. Good yeah, Brit
McKinsey dot com calm, yeah, yeah, you got you got
a win. No global, I've gone global.

Speaker 2 (10:50):
Good stuff. Hey, no, Britt, that's fantastic man. Thanks for
spending some time with us. Well down on your success
man as well.

Speaker 5 (10:56):
That's all.

Speaker 4 (10:57):
Thanks.

Speaker 5 (10:57):
Can I get a ticket or something for this Orkland
shot cut?

Speaker 2 (11:00):
Maybe you're doing a couple of tickets you want to go,
but you know you just have the ticket.

Speaker 5 (11:04):
Well, I'll probably sell them off to other people, you know.

Speaker 3 (11:07):
I mean, I love your work, make money on that.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (11:11):
I'm not very social. Yeah, so I don't want to mix.

Speaker 3 (11:14):
Find some people who like to go out, yeah exactly,
or you're some.

Speaker 2 (11:18):
People who like people exactly those times I don't like people.

Speaker 5 (11:22):
So hey, it's been a pleasure. Brett mackenzie, Thank you.

Speaker 1 (11:26):
Radio hod Aches Off the Record podcast. Why not subscribe
so they download automatically and don't forget to rate us
five stars? Thanks mate. Find out more about this podcast
and the people who make it at hodache dot co
dot m Z
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