WIERD AL YANKOVIC-POLKAMANIA

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
This Is Later with Lee Matthews,The Lee Matthews Podcast More What You Hear
Weekday Afternoon's on the Drive. WhenI last had him on to talk about
his Weird Al Yankovic story starring DanielRadcliffe, I asked him, Hey,
what do you got in the pipeline? He says He's got a whole new
release. Will it is out today? Weird Al Yankovic celebrating the ten year

(00:25):
anniversary of Mandatory Fun with his newPolka medley pol Come maybe Weird Al Yankovic.
Hello, Hayley, how are you? I'm good. You got a
whole new list of parody songs forus to consume. Well, they're Polka
versions. Over the last ten years, I haven't really had a chance to

(00:45):
take my shot out a lot ofbig hits, and I thought, you
know, someone need these songs.Just sounds better than polka style, So
I thought I would gift the worldwith his Polka edley. I love it,
you know I do that. Maybeit's because I've been in radio so
long and you're hearing the same songsover and over and over again, so
you just start singing different lyrics toit, or thinking I like I like

(01:07):
to take different versions of songs andmake them operatic. You know, yeah,
I just I just I just thinkBillie Eilish sounds better with a tube.
But you know, yeah, that'sjust me though. I'll do like
Rusberry Brie the conjur fly that's fromthe opera. That'll be Prince Prince the

(01:30):
Opera, you see. Yeah,So I know where you're coming from with
this. What are some of thesongs on the new album polk Manbia.
Well, it's not really an album. It's just a single, so I'm
not really anymore. It's just aone off. It's just I spent the
last ten years working on this fourminute of songs, so I hope I
appreciate it all right. So itis a medley along the lines of yah,

(01:53):
yeah, along the lines of BarryMannel, who used to do a
very strange medley in his act wherehe would sing all the jingles he wrote.
That's right, and Barry Manilow's grewup playing the accordion as well,
so we're connected that way very well. Yeah, how did it all start
for you? I mean I mentionedhearing the same songs over and over again,
and then just out of boredom,having to sing different lyrics to it.

(02:16):
Is that the way it worked foryou? Pretty much? Yeah?
In fact, I did a collegeradio That's where I first got the name
weird Al. I needed some kindof wacky air name, and honestly they
are. They're already calling me weirdAl in the dorms in college, So
it was it was a natural fit. And I played the accordion. I
guess that that made me weird.So but the parody songs, how did

(02:38):
that all begin? Well, youknow, I think like every eight year
old of the world, and maybeI made fun of the songs on the
radio, and it's just one ofthose those habits I never grew out of.
And uh, you know, doctorDemetro started playing myself on the radio
when I was in my early teensactually, so I got encouragement there.

(02:58):
And uh, you know, Inever I thought I'd be like doing this
for a living. I didn't think. I thought I'd be an adult and
grow up and get a real jobat some point. But never worked out
that way. No, got youright to the Grammy Awards and the Walk
of Fame on the Hollywood. Yeah, this is polka mania. We're talking
about. Whirred Al Yankovic, thebest selling comedy recording artist in history,

(03:19):
and his new medley, So whoare you poking a little fun at?
Who are you having fun with inthis medley? Oh, let's see it.
It's we got Billie Eilish and Adeleand Taylor Swift and Little nas X
and Cardi B and Meghan the Stallionand Live here Rodrigo and how am I
doing? Like a dozen of them? So it's like all the biggest hits
of the last ten years. Isit easier or harder to make fun of

(03:44):
artists than it was, say inthe late seventies early eighties when you got
when you began it's I mean,in terms of figuring out what to do,
it's a little harder because like backin the eighties when I first started
out, people were mesmerized by MTVand if a video is in heavy irritation,
everybody in the country was intimately familiarwith every frame of that video.

(04:08):
So I think nowadays people their attension has been fractured. Everybody's into their
own, you know, genre,and there's not the monoculture there was in
the eighties. And there's still bighits and big artists, but it's a
little bit harder to say, oh, this is a hit or this isn't
a hit. Yeah, And I'mstarting to at least I feel like there's

(04:28):
more formulaic because the production value isanybody can make any sounds with anything.
It's not like, oh, Gee, I want this certain sound, so
I have to set up a certainrecording in a certain room so it'll have
that certain sound. You can justcreate it digitally, right right, Well,
I still do it old school,like you know, for the polka
medley. I mean, we couldhave done the synthesized clarinets and trumpets and

(04:51):
tuba and all that, but no, it's old school. Man brought I
brought in the same horn players I'vebeen using for forty years into the studio
and got the gang back together.Are these guys polka players on the side
or or they've just studio musicians?They're just a studio musician and my band.

(05:11):
I mean, I've had the sameband since nineteen eighty two and those
are the same guys that are withme the studio and on the road,
and they do everything from polka musicto gangster rap everything between. They're amazing.
So will we see you making thetourist circuit at German festivals, October
festivals. Back on the road.Yeah, I'm sure I'll be putting the

(05:35):
leader hosing on and hitting the roadto at some point we have we haven't
announced anything yet, but at somepoint in the future. I think that's
kind of a given. Polka Maniait's weird Al Yankovic's newest release. It
is out now. We're going totake a listen to it here in just
a minute, and you can getit anywhere you get to your music or
is there a specific place you wantto send people? Any place you want

(05:59):
to find it, Amazon, onApple, you can go to weird al
dot com if you're one stop weirdawl shop, but uh yeah, any
anywhere that music is sold or streamedor stolen. Tragically, I don't think
it can go to Tower Records anymore, can you. Well, you can
go there, but there's nobody hangingout there here where now you Thankovic.
Polkamania a medley of some of thebest hits by Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus,

(06:23):
Billy Eilish, Adele, Olivia Rodrigoand many many more out now.
We thank you for the laughs andfor joining us. Today. Thank you
appreciate it. Thanks for listening toLater with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews
Podcast, and remember to listen toThe Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to
seven and iHeartMedia presentation