Bård Ylvisåker - Norwegian Comedian & Musician (Ylvis) - Fascination Street

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, this is Borded of Soccer. You're listening to Fascination
Street podcasts.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Now will you say it in Northweedjow.

Speaker 1 (00:08):
I have to boller. Do have a Fascination Street podcast
and on the cons podcast Nation. Okay, check it out?

Speaker 2 (00:15):
What did you say?

Speaker 1 (00:17):
I said a lot of foul things about you. My prerogative.
What's up the box?

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Say? Yeah? Anything?

Speaker 3 (00:34):
Yes? The audio that you walk down the most into
the street in the world with my voice te Fascination Street.

Speaker 4 (00:43):
You already know.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Let's get it when you went from the Fascination Street.
Welcome back Street Walkers. This episode is with poorl Socer.
It's written as Barred Elviscer, but it's Poor Ilver Soccer.
Here's one half of the comedy, music and sketch duo Ilavis.
The Ilvis Brothers gained Norwegian notoriety around the year two

(01:08):
thousand with some of their comedy stylings and variety shows
on television and radio, and then in twenty thirteen they
gained worldwide notoriety with the hit song the Fox What
does the Fox Say? As of this recording, that song
has over one point two billion views on YouTube, making

(01:30):
it one of the most viewed YouTube videos in that
platform's history. In this episode, we get to know Boru
and how him and his brother vig Art decided to
get into comedy and music and sketch comedy and sketch
comedy music, and then we talk about some of the
projects that they did early on, some of the projects

(01:52):
that they have done for other countries, even some of
the projects that got shelved. Bortl does talk about a
Norwegian television show. It was called Stories from Norway. You
can listen to the music from that show on Spotify,
but unfortunately, as of right now, the seven episode sketch
comedy series is not available anywhere as of yet, but

(02:15):
keep looking for it because it sounds insane. He talks
all about it and what was the impetus of this
TV show? It is nuts. It's gonna blow your mind.
We do talk a little bit about how growing up
between Norway and Africa and some other countries kind of
helped influence the comedy stylings of him and his brother.

(02:35):
He even tells a saddening story about their first manager
being not such a great person, but don't worry. That
story ends mostly well. All in all, we talk about
a bunch of the things that made Ilavis a household
name in Norway and around the world. He is the
coolest fox on the planet because he lets me play

(02:57):
the fox. What does the fox say? And also I
asked him if I can play one of my other
favorite songs from the band, and he agrees. I won't
tell you what it is because you have to listen.
Elvis is still making music, still touring, still doing projects
and all of the things. Check them out all over
the social medias at ilvis y l v I s.

(03:18):
You can check out bortl himself at b Ilvi Soccer,
so that is b y l v I S a
k e R. And of course ilvis dot com. And
this is my conversation with the Fox himself, bortilv Soccer
for credit, Me fascinating.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
For credit, Me fascinating for credit, Me fascinating.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
Welcome to Fascination Street podcast or Ilvisker. How are you
doing today?

Speaker 1 (03:53):
I'm good? How are you I am?

Speaker 2 (03:57):
I wasn't gonna say fantastic, but if I'm being on
my air conditioner broke and it's one hundred degrees here,
so I'm waiting for the air conditioner repair guy, so
I'm not that great.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
Feel free to strip down, man, I'm not judging. I
can handle a man belly.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
Okay, So, ladies and gentlemen, street walkers, this is this
is bored. That's good, that's very sweet. I can't pronounce
Norwegian stuff, but he has been nice enough to just
let me say whatever. What a great guy. Thank you Borer,

(04:34):
Thank you Bord. I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
Thanks. You know, it's an issue even in Norway, like
East and West Coast, we pronounce it differently, and I
will say to like the East coast, people just say whatever.
So the fact that you're saying bored is great. Most
people say bard so bored as in snowboard cool worse
for me.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
Okay, so you're from Norway, born in Bergen is did
I say that right? Correct? Yeah? Oh. I reached out
to a guy this guests who lives in Sweden and
I said, hey, how do you pronounce this name? And
I sent him your name and he said, no, idea,
I don't speak Norwegian, and I was like cool.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
They claim they don't understand us to some extent. It's true,
but we like we understand Swedish like it's our own language.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
Oh really yeah, so it just kind of goes one way, right,
Like you guys, you're like, no, no, we understand you,
and they're like, no, we don't understand you.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
We're more exposed to Swedish culture, to be honest, so
that might be partly the explanation. But also we're smarter,
let's be honest.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
I love that, Ladies and gentlemen. Board is one half
of the worldwide phenomenon known as Ilvis ilvis.

Speaker 1 (05:44):
That's the one ilvis.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
Okay, great, Ilvis y l V I s ilvis. So
it's you and your brother and his name is Vaigaard. Yeah, okay, great,
now that we've got all that confusing stuff out of
the way. Oh my gosh. Well I don't know about him,
but you were bergen. But then you traveled all over
the place, right like cause you're I guess your dad
was an engineer, and so you kind of grew up

(06:06):
in Angola and Mozambique and among other places.

Speaker 1 (06:09):
Right, Yeah, true. Most people think it was a missionary.
He was not. He was an engineer. He was working
on some what do you what do you say? NGOs?

Speaker 4 (06:16):
No?

Speaker 2 (06:17):
And yeah, non governmental organizations.

Speaker 1 (06:20):
Yeah, so we spent most of our younger years in Africa,
which was great. I mean, people ask us what was
that like? We don't know what the opposite is like,
but it worked out for us. It was it was nice.

Speaker 2 (06:32):
So are you guys roughly the same age?

Speaker 1 (06:34):
He's three years older than me.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
That's so. Yeah, which one is smarter?

Speaker 1 (06:39):
Evidently I am? I have a higher IQ. I don't
remember the exact figures, but we got it tested on
a on a talk show or a TV show in Norway,
So that was a surprise. We've always thought he was
the smarter one.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
Even you thought that. You're like, he's way smart? What
I am? Oh? Cool?

Speaker 1 (07:00):
Yeah, I just I don't know. He's the he's the
older brothers. You just you grow up feeling like an underdog.

Speaker 2 (07:07):
So yeah, minus a sister. But I'm right there with you.

Speaker 1 (07:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
So you're a comedian, a musician, a television presenter. What
is a television presenter? What does that mean?

Speaker 1 (07:17):
TV host?

Speaker 2 (07:17):
I guess, Oh, okay, great?

Speaker 1 (07:20):
Who told you? This is it? Chat? Jpet or Yeah?

Speaker 2 (07:23):
How did you know that?

Speaker 1 (07:25):
No, it sounded like an arbitrary word or a word
that makes sense. It sounds like someone who sells televisions.
It does sound like someone who says up is so,
which I don't.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
It was very difficult to do research on you because
almost everything, almost all of the interviews that you have
done that I could find were completely not in English,
so that made it a little difficult, but I think
we can do this. You were part of a TV
show called nordges Earlist.

Speaker 1 (07:52):
Oh that's an old one.

Speaker 2 (07:54):
Well seven o eight. Yeah, First, how did you and
your brother decide to become not engineer years?

Speaker 1 (08:01):
Our parents were good at like leaving instruments out in
our house, like just easy access, so we did like
play around with on purpose. Yeah, I think so. They
wanted us to play violin and viola, which we hated,
but the rest of the instruments we were sort of
intrigued by, so we did like mess around with a
lot of instrument was when we were young, and then

(08:25):
we started like a school play thing when we were
in our I don't know, I always get confused, like the
high school and the college stuff, but when we were
around like sixteen seventeen years old, so that was the
start of it. And they were always like fans of
us doing music. But my dad, as an engineer, was
always like it's better to be a surgeon and a

(08:45):
hobby musician than the other way around, which sort of
makes sense. But there was this guy who was watching
one of the school plays and he contacted me. Was
a producer, and he said, hey, you want to do
something professional, and I was like, whoa For an eighteen
year old, that was like as close Hollywood as you get.
So we try to show together and that sort of
worked out and it became a thing, and we were

(09:06):
always like, let's do this for a couple of months,
and then it became let's try it for a couple
of years. And then I was going to be an architect.
My brother was going to be a pilot. But then
it like it never stopped. It just like grew and
we really loved it and somehow it worked out, and
they've always been supportive of me and our parents. But
I think that my dad it took him a while
to sort of come to terms with the fact that

(09:27):
we were actually going to do this for a living.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
Okay, so you guys decided that you wanted to be entertainers,
the two of you. I guess you guys have a
good relationship because not many people want to work with
their siblings if they don't get along. So you guys
get along just great. I guess, yeah, you're not mad
at him right now.

Speaker 1 (09:44):
He's the one who should be mad because.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
You're smarter than him. I mean, is he mad at you?

Speaker 1 (09:48):
No? No, I mean we obviously we found our way.
And it's not like we hang out that much. I
mean we worked together all the time. So whenever we
were like off duty, we I have two brothers, we
have a younger brother as well, and I would go
to like a cinema, go watch a movie with him,
or play games or whatever. But I wouldn't do that
with my with a vaguard because we're like, we get

(10:11):
enough of each other. But we've never argued really this far.

Speaker 2 (10:16):
So how did you guys first come on the scene?
Like I know that you said the producer guy reached
out to you and said, hey, let's work together. But
what did that mean work together? And what capacity?

Speaker 5 (10:26):
Like?

Speaker 2 (10:26):
What was your first thing that you and your brother
did publicly?

Speaker 1 (10:29):
It was interesting because this producer he had just gotten
rid of some other talents, so he was out looking
and he saw the play and it was like, you
guys want to do something first? It was just like me,
I had a meeting with him, and then he said,
I hear you have a brother, why don't you bring
him along? And I was sort of hesitant because I

(10:50):
kind of wanted to do it myself, but then it
was a good fit, Like we were messing around with
music and fun stuff at home, so we might as
well try it on. So we did like a variety show,
and I had no reference because I'd never been to
like I mean, I'd been to theaters, I'd seen plays,
but I hadn't seen like comedy or variety shows or

(11:11):
stuff like that. We didn't know where to start. So
he sort of hooked us up with like directors and
choreographers and musicians and stuff like that. We're basically doing
what we were told. They tried to figure out what
we wanted to do. So in the beginning there it
was musical comedy on a stage, very traditional, which became
a problem as time went by because our audience that

(11:34):
they were so old like, there was a very feeling
of disconnect between us and our audience. We were like
in our twenties early twenties typical audience, like the demography
was probably like fifties and up, which felt weird. But
we did that for quite a few years. Actually, then
we did radio, started to sort of approach our own

(11:56):
demographic and that felt nice. That was like the first
step to sort of I don't know growth, but yeah,
so then we've done all sorts of stuff.

Speaker 2 (12:04):
So when you say your approach radio, that means that
you guys were getting some music on the radio or
was this also like comedy sketches as well on the radio.
I don't know how Norwegian radio works.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
We've done the show or different shows for like three
or four years. We felt like it was a weird
disconnect and then our manager at the time turned out
to be a crook. So we got a new manager
and he was like, hey, what do you guys want
to do? And it took us a while to sort
of allow ourselves to dream big enough, and he was
like pushing us, what do you guys really like deep inside?

(12:35):
What do you guys want to do? And we were like,
maybe we'll be fun to do something to reach people
our own age. Okay, let's do a radio show. It
was a summer show where we did an hour a
day and we did all sorts of stuff, prank calls
and we had like morse code instructional. I mean it
was also it was sort of like a science radio show,

(13:00):
but like sort of comedy version of it, I guess,
and it became very popular.

Speaker 2 (13:06):
How did you guys decide on that? Again, I don't know,
no reason radio, but that seems different. Yeah, how did
y'all decide on a comedy science show?

Speaker 1 (13:16):
I don't quite know. But it was like, because we're nerds,
like deep down and so we're pretty nerdy. And when
we approached the network, and this was a sort of
a young network, it was like very hip and it
was what people listened to back then, typical like an
hour shows with music like pop music inside. And we
didn't think that they wanted us on their network. That

(13:38):
it wasn't like it wasn't a good fit, but they
wanted to try out. So we made a pilot and
then it was like what do we like doing? Like
what we want to do, so we brought like instruments
into the studio. We're messing around with instruments. One of
the most famish things was that we called a hotel
in England and we booked a room, but as a musical,
like an improvised musical, So my brother was playing I

(13:59):
was saying, and we like did it for real, and
we sort of just framed it as like as a
science subject in school and brought sort of that esthetics
and it sort of gave the show a flavor, but
it wasn't really. It was just a comedy prank show,
I guess.

Speaker 2 (14:16):
So at this time were you and your brother were
you calling yourselves Ilvis?

Speaker 1 (14:20):
Yeah, that started from the get go, like when our
first show was just called Ilvis.

Speaker 2 (14:25):
Illness became a household name in Norway long before you
guys blew up on the international spotlight. What do you
think pulled the Norwegian audiences in to the stylings of
Ilvis so early? What was the magic sauce?

Speaker 1 (14:40):
I think it was like a very broad and non
edgy concept that sort of hit like very household. Our
comedy wasn't dangerous in any shape or form. It was
like it was just fun music, very soft, not dark
at all, and we were quickly thrown into TV show
as like acts in bigger Saturday entertainment show. Like two

(15:04):
of the first things we did were like broad family entertainment.
So we became a household name, maybe on a sort
of a wrong premise, but it worked as a promotional
thing because the name got out there, so people knew
who we were. Kids would sort of think that we
were sort of old fashioned and weird, but they knew
who we were, and then at a later point it

(15:26):
was easier to sort of narrow it down and rebrand ourselves,
so to speak. However backwards it seemed at the time,
I think it's a better way to do it than
being like yourself and have like a very narrow demographic
and just like insist on that from the get go,
and you get like, maybe you fill up one show
or maybe two. But we were pumping at shows and

(15:47):
doing two or three years touring an entire country, And
although we hated what we did on stage, at least
we sort of pushed the name out there.

Speaker 2 (15:57):
You say, touring the country, do you mean just touring
Norway of Norway?

Speaker 1 (16:00):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (16:01):
What was the stage show? Was it music and comedy?
Was it were you dancing? Were you doing hopscotch?

Speaker 1 (16:08):
Yeah? We did the whole shebang. And we also sort
of we taught ourselves how to like my brother would
teach himself how to play the shallow and I did
like aerial silk acrobatics from the ceiling, which we had
never done before. We just like practiced for half a
year and that became sort of a comedy act.

Speaker 2 (16:25):
So you just taught yourself how to the silk dancing
or whatever it's called. You just take you That sounds
so dangerous.

Speaker 1 (16:32):
Yeah, probably, Yeah, Well the danger was that I wasn't
physically really prepared for it, so I didn't have the
muscles needed. I remember the instructors that remember to change
the routine every month at least, so you don't do
the same thing because you're going to wear out the
same muscle groups. And I just didn't, of course because

(16:53):
I was lazy. So I did the same routine for
like two years and it completely messed up my body.
But it wasn't like dangerous in the I had some
things where I fell down and it hurt. I'd have
to say that. It had like a lot of marks
and bruises on my body after it. But it was
a fun thing to do. People didn't expect it, so
we did all sorts of weird stuff.

Speaker 2 (17:15):
So you guys toured the country for a couple of
years doing this and then what happened what made you
decide to get off the road?

Speaker 1 (17:21):
It was partly the same thing even when we were touring,
because we did the radio show occasionally, but then we
went back to like doing stage shows, and that was
always sort of I remember we were touring, we were
playing the show. I sort of hated it, and then
I went back on my hotel room. I listened to
Tenacious D and Jack Black, and I was so envious
that you could sort of do that for a living,

(17:41):
like make songs and high quality music that was also
comedy and it was funny, and can do that without
sounding like your dad. So the dream was always there.
And then we wanted to make a talk show and
someone asked us if we wanted to do our own
TV show.

Speaker 2 (17:59):
Was that ikeveled med ilvis.

Speaker 1 (18:03):
Yeah, ikelt equaled means tonight, So it was just a
tonight show.

Speaker 2 (18:08):
And this was on Norwegian television or was this on cable?

Speaker 1 (18:13):
No, it was on Norwegian television. It was a pretty
big show. We were just mocking the talk show genre.
We went to the US. We studied all the shows
we went. We saw Lakona and we saw Colbert. We
saw all of them and we talked to the.

Speaker 2 (18:26):
You mean like you went to the US and you
went to the shows live, like to be in the audience.

Speaker 1 (18:31):
Yeah, we were in the audience, but we also got
meetings with the editors and the staff and just talk
to them about like all sorts of where details were,
like what's the angle between the desk and the couch,
what's the height? All of those things because we wanted
to master the genre and then mess with it because
we didn't want to make a talk show. We wanted

(18:52):
to make fun of the talk show genre. And that
was really fun. And in there we saw that can
we make funny songs with mus videos? Is that possible?
And we did that and the first one was not
the Fox. It was another song, but it got traction abroad.

Speaker 2 (19:07):
Which one was it?

Speaker 1 (19:08):
It was a song called work It, which was sort
of like a hip hop song about Ejacusi. It was
a simple.

Speaker 2 (19:15):
Idea, what is ejacucie?

Speaker 1 (19:17):
E Jacuzzi like a bubble bath?

Speaker 2 (19:19):
Oh a jacuzie? Okay, I'm sorry, yes, I got you.

Speaker 1 (19:22):
Yeah, So the idea was simple. We were sitting there
with chicks and then we were singing about the jacuzzi.
But we're becoming more and more detailed in the nerdy
sense about how the JACUZI has made and also sort
of sex adding talking about the bitches, but also going
into like the vagina, how it's constructed, and like being
very technical about the whole thing. So that worked, and

(19:44):
then it was picked up by you know, Perez Hilton,
you know the blogger.

Speaker 2 (19:48):
Yeah, so that was your first one. The first one
you did was picked up.

Speaker 1 (19:52):
Yeah, and that was a big deal almost to us,
as big as the Fox. Not really, but but at
the time, I remember we had a million views on
YouTube and back in two thousand and eleven, that was
a big deal.

Speaker 2 (20:04):
That is huge.

Speaker 1 (20:05):
It was huge. So that sort of just fueled us
and we wanted to make more. So the Fox was
for the next season twenty twelve. We made that is
just like a scape for the talk show.

Speaker 2 (20:17):
Okay, so the first one work it. That was your
first I guess viral success song video parody sketch. Yeah,
and you said it hit like it reached a million
on YouTube, I'm assuming relatively quickly.

Speaker 1 (20:31):
Yeah. I don't remember exact figures, but I think it
was above one million, and it had like international recognition.
So that was just like super weird.

Speaker 2 (20:39):
Now I don't want numbers because I'm not interested in that.
But at that time, in twenty eleven, your video on
YouTube has more than a million views. Is that when
you guys started making money from social media on YouTube
or was that earlier. I'm assuming you made some money
with a million views. Again, I don't want numbers.

Speaker 1 (21:00):
I don't really think so, because it was always a
secondary product to us, Like we got our money from
the television and doing that, and then we always sort
of we own our own music. Yeah, if we're getting technical,
and which is fine, the videos are owned by us
and the network right because they put in the money

(21:21):
to make the actual video, so they were put on
the network's YouTube channel. That was sort of the deal,
which was to us at the time. We were like, yeah, fine,
go ahead. So I mean, we don't own the the
YouTube channel in which the Fox is Okay, we do
own the content so we get some revenue, but it's

(21:41):
that was never our focus. We were like, we want
to make songs, we want to get them out there,
and TV was the way to do it.

Speaker 6 (21:51):
Hey, street walkers, here's a word from our sponsors. Let's
get back into it.

Speaker 2 (22:01):
Looking back at your early days and performance, what made
you realize that you and Vigard had something unique with
pursuing professionally, like how did you know? I guess, how
did you know that you didn't need to go to
architectural school and him be a pilot? Like when did
you know? And how did you know that this was
going to be a career, that this could pay your bills,
that you could do this.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
I actually think that we never knew because and that
was the good thing, because we always just postponed our
life and pursued this thing and said that, you know,
we can do another year and it's been fun. So
whenever this thing stops, we've had a good run and
we'll grow up. So it was never we're going to
do this for a living, But at a certain point

(22:45):
it was like, I think we're doing this for a living.
It's been like ten years, so it was.

Speaker 2 (22:49):
Kind of an accident. You just backed into it.

Speaker 1 (22:51):
Yeah, just looked.

Speaker 2 (22:52):
Around and went, oh, we are doing this for a living.

Speaker 1 (22:54):
Well, we kept getting offers and we kept getting jobs,
and we loved it. So, I mean, even though we
sort of partly hated doing some of the shows because
it felt weird, like it wasn't our humor at the time,
but still just like the whole lifestyle and being able
to when it was good money and all of that,
so there was nothing, really, no reason not to pursue it.

(23:15):
Even today, we're like, if people are sick of us, fine,
it's been a good run. Let's do something else. But
we still love it.

Speaker 2 (23:23):
So are people sick of you?

Speaker 1 (23:24):
I don't know. Like, we're Scandinavians, and Scandinavians are always
trying at least to be as humble as possible. We
don't have the American self esteem. If that's the thing,
Oh boy is it? At times I'm sort of envious,
But I don't think they're sick of us yet.

Speaker 2 (23:43):
So you said you're Scandinavian, and Scandinavia is Let me
get this right. Scandinavia is Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland.

Speaker 1 (23:52):
Scandinavia is Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.

Speaker 2 (23:56):
Okay, no, Finland.

Speaker 1 (23:58):
And then Finland is then it becomes the Nordic with
Iceland and Finland.

Speaker 2 (24:03):
Okay, gotcha. Okay, let's talk about task Master or as
you know it congan befoller yep? What is that? And
was it just you or was it also.

Speaker 1 (24:15):
Pr it was the both of us?

Speaker 2 (24:17):
Was it both of you? Okay, so what is the
show and how did you come to be a participant?
And then later on the Taskmaster This is.

Speaker 1 (24:24):
Not our format, it's an English format. We were asked
to do.

Speaker 2 (24:28):
It English, like Great Britain English.

Speaker 1 (24:30):
Yeah, okay, so task Master is the original name. They
made versions in Sweden and Denmark and then they approached
several production houses in Norway, but they didn't know Network
picked it up and then they asked us and it
wasn't like we've always made our own stuff, so it
was sort of we were hesitant, but then it was
like it really hit us because the show and it

(24:52):
has aired in the US as well with Reggie Watts.
Oh great guy, and he did the show. He was host.
So the idea is the host gives the participants weird assignments.
Can be anything. It can be here's a cornfield, walk
around in it and try to draw the face of

(25:13):
Mickey Mouse, and then they have a drone to see
how much. I mean, I'm just sure that wasn't really
a thing, but whatever. And then the next task is
just like put as many apples in this jar and
then there's some sort of challenge with that or whatever,
so you do all these things out in the field
and you come back into the studio and you sort
of compare with the other contestants. There's like five celebrities

(25:36):
and you see all their versions of them trying. It's
a funny show. We did season one, we both produced it,
but also participated.

Speaker 2 (25:43):
Season one of the Norwegian version. Yeah, okay, And then
at some point, I guess what was it like, season seven,
you became the task Master.

Speaker 1 (25:57):
Yeah, sort of a substitute task Master. The original task
Master he ended up, you know, sort of a weird
conflict and he was semi canceled there for a year
and had to step down a bit because from some
unfortunate events. And they called me and asked me if
I wanted to be his substitute, and I did. It
wasn't my strongest act, more fun to be a participant,

(26:21):
to be.

Speaker 2 (26:21):
Honest, Why did you say yes?

Speaker 1 (26:23):
I said yes because I know the guy. I love
the show, and I felt like sort of connected to
the show. I knew how to do the job. I
just felt that I was sort of a faded copy
or you know, he's way better than me, which is
fine at that job. Sure, but I did it and
it was fun.

Speaker 2 (26:40):
So you and your brother, your music and your comedy
kind of blends the absurdity with music and theatrical precision.
How do you find the balance between comedy and craftsmanship
without losing your authenticity? Like how do you manage to
do the music and the comedy but still make it

(27:03):
genuine Illavius.

Speaker 1 (27:05):
It's a constant work or like it's a thin line.
I just came from a photo shoot. Now I'm doing
like a.

Speaker 2 (27:12):
Oh because you're a model, you know.

Speaker 1 (27:15):
But I'm going to do a show, so I just
need a poster. But in doing that, I sort of
try to figure out what do I want to portray
or what do I want to show here. I want
to show comedy, but I don't want to be overly
like tongue in cheek or cheesy. I don't know. So
it's the same with our music, Like we want the
production value to be really high. This is like something

(27:36):
is well, We're trying at least, and we work with producers.
I mean, the guys who produced the Fox are called Stargate.
They're Norwegians, but they live in the States and they
normally work with like Katy Perry, Rihanna, the big stars
like they've written a lot of the hits of the
modern times, and they work with Neo and all that stuff.
So when we sort of talk to them, we want

(27:57):
the production to be as good as it can. I mean,
the Fox, it isn't a beautiful ballad, but it's pretty
well made either way. Like it's it's good production. But
then you have to be careful because if you don't
put enough comedy in the song, and then it just
becomes a pop song, right, So we wanted it always
to be as close to the reference genre as possible,

(28:19):
so you always risk if you go too far, then
it becomes cheesy and like typically if you see like
musical comedy, I feel that the music suffers because they're
so eager to do the comedy bit of it and
they are scared to be perceived I guess as someone
who tries to be a musician, So they end up
just like down prioritizing the music.

Speaker 2 (28:40):
Somehow, they make a joke out of it, so that yeah,
if somebody tells them they don't like it, they don't
care or whatever. Yeah, okay, that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (28:48):
It's safer. They don't want to they don't want to
put their head on.

Speaker 2 (28:51):
There it's safer. That's a good way to put it.

Speaker 1 (28:53):
But I always love that with Jack Black and Tanasi's
d that they're the production value is so so good.

Speaker 2 (28:59):
Okay, So that's the second time you have brought up
Tenacious D and Jack Black. Now, from all of the
research that I've done and from listening to hours and
hours and hours of your music, levis music in my
mind is kind of a cross between Tenacious D and
The Lonely Island.

Speaker 1 (29:14):
Absolutely. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (29:15):
But your sketch comedy has been compared to like Monty
Python and Flight of the Concord. How do you feel
about all of those comparisons, And was Tenacious D your model? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (29:28):
I mean they all resonate and they are mentioned for
a reason. First of all, when we grew up in Africa,
we inherited, so to speak, a house from some other
Norwegians who went home, and they left behind two VHS
video cassettes. One of them was Life of Brian and
that was basically all the entertainment we had. There wasn't
any television you could watch or anything, so we just

(29:50):
we watched Life of Brian twice a week for two years.
So obviously that has shaped our sort of absurdity when
it comes to the comedy. And then yes, at a
later point, when I first heard Tenacid, it was like
a light bulb went off. And the fact that you
could do something with such precision and such production value

(30:11):
but still joke with it, it was just like something
I hadn't heard. I listened to it so much and
I watched the show and it was just like unbelievable.
And the fact that they hired like real musicians that
had to grow that the drums producers were great, and
so yes, that became sort of something that we knew
that we'd never come close to, but it became sort

(30:34):
of a guiding star. I think subconsciously that makes sense.

Speaker 2 (30:38):
Why are most of Ilvis's songs in English? Why do
y'all speak English so well?

Speaker 1 (30:45):
Well? Thanks? First of all, English is mandatory as the
second language in Norway.

Speaker 2 (30:51):
So you have to take a second language. It has
to be English, like you have to learn English in
Norway in the school system.

Speaker 1 (30:57):
You have to learn English in Norway up until you're
like college, I mean, or like when you're sixteen, then
you can choose you can do French instead.

Speaker 2 (31:07):
Is it that way all across Scandinavia or just Norway
or do you know.

Speaker 1 (31:11):
Ah, I don't really know, but I think it's pretty common.
Like our kids now, especially my brother's kid, who has
like the youngest kid. He watches so much YouTube. He
speaks like fluently, and he sometimes when he's playing just
switches over to English, which is weird, super weird. That's
not common.

Speaker 2 (31:30):
Is he a young child.

Speaker 1 (31:31):
He's a young child, But even when he was younger,
they had to at some point start to speak more
Norwegian at home, which is weird because he's never left
the country. But the reason we do our music in
English is because we want the music to be as
close to the reference as possible, and pop music is
in English. Now there's more Norwegian music now in the

(31:54):
pop genre. Now there's a lot of people who sing
in Norwegian. But at the time, around like two thousand,
it was all English and if you did Norwegian music
that was sort of weird. It was like folky or
very traditional or very sort of strange. So it was
a non Norwegian thing to do. Like even the fact
that we did sing in English, most comedians, I think

(32:17):
they sort of they were sort of scared of doing
that as well because it came off as cocky, but
we got away with it. Now our audience is I
wouldn't say, all over the world these days. Our core audience,
I would say, is Norwegian. But there's still there's no
reason not to make music that people all over the

(32:38):
world can listen to.

Speaker 2 (32:40):
Well, I agree wholeheartedly. I wish that over here in
America we were a little more open to other music
in other languages, if that makes any sense. I couldn't
tell you that there's ever been a Norwegian song on
the radio.

Speaker 1 (32:56):
Here take on Me, but not in Norwegian?

Speaker 2 (32:59):
Yeah, sure, yeah, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (33:01):
But that also it wouldn't really make too much sense,
and especial for us as we're comedians. We're telling jokes.
If you can't understand the jokes, well then then you're
stuck with the music. And I don't mind doing the
music in English.

Speaker 2 (33:13):
So you guys have explored in your music and comedy
everything from satire to surrealism. And is there a theme
or a message that you guys are trying to get across, Like,
is there a message at the heart of Ilvis?

Speaker 1 (33:27):
I don't think so. We a lot of times I
think we end up making fun of either people or
mostly genres that take themselves too seriously. I think that's why,
like when we do pop music, like even in The Fox,
sort of the idea with The Fox is that pop
music is very often about rubbish, Like the lyrics are
just cheesy, it doesn't mean anything, but it's still sort

(33:51):
of proclaimed as if it's art and where there are
self absorbed faces and all of that stuff. So I
think a lot of times we find common in that,
but there's no theme.

Speaker 2 (34:01):
Now, there's no theme, okay, Listeners Board has mentioned The
Fox a few times. That is to date, I guess
E Lewis's biggest hit it is called The Fox, and
in parentheses it says, what does the Fox say? Now?
You all know this song? You've all heard this song.

(34:22):
This song came out in twenty thirteen, is that right? Yeah,
and it took the world by storm. As of right now,
that video has over one point two billion views on YouTube.
And I know that you said you don't know the video,
but you do own the song.

Speaker 1 (34:40):
Right yeah, and partly the video.

Speaker 2 (34:43):
So yeah, sure, this is a huge ask, But since
we talked about it so much, can I play that song?
Can I play The Fox? In this episode. Yeah, sure,
so that everybody goes, holy shit, that's the guy.

Speaker 1 (34:55):
Yeah, yeah, sure.

Speaker 2 (34:56):
Will you do me a favor? Will you introduce the
song like your radio DJ?

Speaker 1 (35:01):
Sure? Hey, this is border was okay. You're listening to
the Fascination Street podcast and coming up is the song
what does the Fox Say? By Norwegian duo and Brothers.
It is take a look at this one. It's a
nostaltic one kind of right here.

Speaker 2 (35:17):
That was amazing. You should do that for a living. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (35:21):
Yeah, well I'm trying not to, Okay, I try and
not to.

Speaker 4 (35:35):
Go goes move, cat goes now, bird goes tweet, and
mouse goes sweet, Cow goes move, Frog goes close, and
the ellaphant goes.

Speaker 1 (35:48):
To dosy quark steffish blow, and the.

Speaker 7 (35:54):
Seal goes out out out.

Speaker 4 (35:57):
That's who's down the no one? What does the fut saying?

Speaker 1 (36:10):
What the fox saying?

Speaker 8 (36:17):
What the fuck say?

Speaker 5 (36:19):
HATTI happy hat hoo?

Speaker 3 (36:21):
Hatti happy hat hoo, Hatti happy hat hoo? What the foxing?

Speaker 1 (36:32):
What the fuck say?

Speaker 7 (36:35):
Blue eyes, pointing, nose, chasing my standging holes, tiny palls
up the.

Speaker 8 (36:45):
Hill, suddenly standing's hill, your first red so beautiful like
an angel and disguise.

Speaker 4 (36:57):
But if you mean a friendly who oh, will you
communicate by.

Speaker 1 (37:04):
More or as or as more? Or will you speak
to that for or.

Speaker 4 (37:14):
Or what?

Speaker 7 (37:17):
That's a frog say?

Speaker 5 (37:20):
Down?

Speaker 1 (37:25):
What the fox say?

Speaker 2 (37:32):
What the fox say?

Speaker 4 (37:35):
I like your.

Speaker 3 (37:40):
What the fox say?

Speaker 1 (37:47):
What's the fat say? The secret of the fox?

Speaker 6 (37:54):
And mister.

Speaker 1 (37:58):
Somebodynoying?

Speaker 2 (38:05):
What is your side?

Speaker 3 (38:09):
Well?

Speaker 4 (38:13):
A baby?

Speaker 2 (38:54):
I don't know how much you want to go into
detail on this, but you mentioned earlier that one of
your early managers. You had to switch managers because your
first manager was and I quote, a crook. Yeah, is
it the same kind of crook that managers over here are?
Like did they just take all your money and then
gave you a bunch of debt?

Speaker 1 (39:11):
Yeah? I didn't give us a lot of debt, but
he did take our money. If it wasn't for him,
there wouldn't have been any of this. Like, he took
a risk. We absolutely acknowledged that he put up money
for the first show. He had faith and he had
that talent so to speak of like just going to

(39:31):
someone and seeing the potential and nurturing that to some extent,
and then if you don't pay the first couple of
payouts fine, but for years and years and years on end,
and we were working our answers off. And I remember
when I had my first daughter. He was oweing us
so much money, and his way of repaying the money

(39:51):
was making a new tour and not taking commission. So
that was his sort of way of paying back. That
meant that I was way up north doing shows when
my daughter was born and I couldn't be in the
hospital and we still didn't get the money.

Speaker 2 (40:07):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 (40:08):
At that point, we were like running out of gratitude
for the initial call, which we absolutely acknowledge and did
give him. So as a court case, it was an
easy trial.

Speaker 2 (40:18):
So you guys did take him to court.

Speaker 1 (40:20):
We did a settlement, we never reached like it didn't
become public and dirty.

Speaker 2 (40:25):
So over here in America, Like, if let's say you
take me to court and then we reached a settlement,
let's just say I owe you ten thousand dollars according
to this settlement. Just because I owe it to you
in America doesn't mean I actually have to pay you.
Like if I just go, I don't have it, sorry,
then you still don't get anything. In norway do they
make him pay you.

Speaker 1 (40:46):
Yeah, the way he was forced to pay is that
he's given some sort of I don't know the English
word for it, but he has to commit to a
monthly payment and he did that. So after a couple
of years he had paid down what we decided it
was a fair amount, and we had moved on with
our lives, and then he went personally bankrupt. At some
time he kept doing this to other people and yeah,

(41:08):
it was just sure so, but yeah, you're forced to
pay back.

Speaker 6 (41:16):
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(41:41):
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Speaker 6 (42:00):
Let's get back into it.

Speaker 2 (42:06):
You had a photo shoot because you're doing a show.
Tell me about the show you're doing. What are you doing?

Speaker 1 (42:11):
There's not really much to tell. It's sort of backward
to start with a photo shoot, but that's just how
it turned out. So now we're sort of exploring doing
things a little bit on our own. Vigard has done
a TV show without me. I've done one without him.
So we're still doing the Ilvis act, but we're like
opening up for like doing our own stuff, because let's

(42:31):
face it, we are still brothers. But we've been working
together for like, is it twenty five years? It's it's
a long time.

Speaker 2 (42:36):
It's coming up. Yeah, it's a long time. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:38):
So, and it's weird. It's sort of counterintuitive that what
is normally driving us in Norway is sort of always
keeping like renewing ourselves and doing stuff that we haven't
done before, and sort of breaking into new genres. And
when we're done stage shows, we moved to radio and
then we get sick of that. We did television then,
you know, not changing the actual sort of dynax within

(43:01):
that's sort of weird since we're drawn to doing new stuff,
but we're still absolutely I think that, like Elvis is
going to be the main act always. Yeah, I think so,
but it's fun to do so I'm just doing some
stuff on my own and I've made some music on
my own and trying to just have fun.

Speaker 2 (43:18):
Now. Traditionally, comedy in Norway is pretty dry or absurd historically.
How much of that did you and your brother have
in mind when you were trying to go against that
tradition when you're creating your early shows and your TV stuff,
like when you were coming up with your own comedy.
How present in your mind was it that what you're

(43:41):
doing is unlike anything that has happened in Norway, like
that you were going against the green.

Speaker 1 (43:47):
I think that more than going against the green, we
were following our own voice, and partly because we haven't
been that much influenced by Norwegian comedy, because we haven't
really watched that much. When we work in the States
and people are bringing up all these references, all these movies,
it's always embarrassing because we haven't seen any of it.
I don't consume that much entertainment, to be honest with you,

(44:09):
and I think that's a good thing and a bad thing.
But the good thing is that you don't really get
to colored by it. And so I think that we
just followed whatever we thought was fun, and the most
inspiring stuff to us was always the bad stuff.

Speaker 2 (44:21):
So when you say bad stuff, you mean stuff that
wasn't funny.

Speaker 1 (44:24):
Yeah, okay, then we sort of make parodies of that
or whatever.

Speaker 2 (44:29):
Okay. So what were some of the unexpected challenges that
you face navigating fame within Norway? Now, Norway is relatively small,
but it has a highly engaged audience, like because there's
not a whole lot of breakout stars from Norway. Whenever
there is one, Norway just like clings on to it.
So what do you think we're the hardest things about

(44:50):
becoming famous in Norway? I don't think really, Like, if
you walk down the street right now, will people recognize you?
Do people go oh my god? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (44:59):
But I think they won't necessarily go, oh my god.
I think that it's so common here. It was harder
before because then being on television was actually a thing, right,
and you'd get stopped. And now there are so many
people on TV it's not a big deal anymore, like
reality stars, and there's all sorts of people on TV
and everyone has their own show or a podcast or whatever. Sorry,

(45:23):
you know, so it's different back then we had when
we started, it was like ten famous guys. No, it's
a million. But we've sort of grown into it. I
was nineteen when we had our first show. My adult
life has always been sort of I've always been recognized
to some extent, and to be honest with you, it

(45:43):
doesn't really bother me that much. I mean, if someone
asked for a selfie, just say yes and it's over
in a couple of seconds. It's not like they want
to talk or spend a lot of time, so it's okay.
And also, I think that since I also became a
father when I was nineteen and I have three kids,
I was grounded, if I'm allowed to say so myself,
by the fact that I had to go back and

(46:04):
change diapers and I had to like I was traveling
the world doing the show, even I remember, because like
the Fox was the biggest international thing. And then we
were sort of touring or doing shows outside of Norway
and we went to Hong Kong and there was this
crazy big show had like a billion viewers, and we
were playing alongside Stevie Wonder and lots of people. There

(46:26):
was an after party with all these people, and I
just had to go home because my daughter had like
a trampoline birthday party. And I remember, like all of
the rest they were going with this party and I
just did the gig and just went to the airport
and flew back home. And I think that's been a
good thing.

Speaker 2 (46:43):
I think that's a good thing too. But also, I mean,
you did go to a party, it just wasn't the
same party. True, it was a cooler party. It was
way cooler. I bet there was no trampolines at Stevie
Wonder's party.

Speaker 1 (46:54):
Yeah, Stevie Wonder can't do no tricks, no flicks, so
no flips.

Speaker 2 (47:01):
Now, let's contrast that with your global recognition. So you know,
the fame in Norway, Kip, you kind of grounded, But
how different was it. Let's just say you got to
America and you know, everybody's like, oh my god, it's
the dude from Yulovis. It's it's the guy who does
the fox. Oh Lord, Like, how was it different when you,
you know, the global fame versus the Norwegian fame.

Speaker 1 (47:23):
I think like to us, it just played into the joke.
I feel like because the joke was this shitty song
can be made very professionally and it could sound semi good,
and we can make him a video that looks good.
And the fact that it became famous made it even stupider.
And the fact that we went on Alan's Show and

(47:44):
Jimmy Fallon and all of that stuff, and we did
like book signings, you know, Barnes and Noble at the Grove.
It all played into the joke. So we were able
to laugh about it. And since it was so absurd,
going from like zero to that, it becomes so obvious
it was us. It could been someone else. It's not
about you as a person. It's about the strike of
luck that you had. You made a thing and it

(48:06):
became a thing. It wasn't because of us. Well, we
made it and we did our best. We were an
established gang of people and we sort of laughed at it.
It becomes so surreal that the Hong Kong thing, for instance,
we were like driven around with armed guards and there
was like five cars and you're taking up in your
hotel room in these weird back alleys and their guards

(48:28):
bodyguards outside your hotel room or whatever. And we were like,
can we just go out? And they were like no,
you know, we have to get the guy and you
have to have guards. And we were like, in Hong Kong,
no one's going to know when we were in our
privates that no one knows. So we snuck out and
we just went down into the hotel lobby and we
walked around. No one knew who we were. But then

(48:49):
once we sipped on the suits, then it becomes crazy.

Speaker 2 (48:52):
Was it the fox suits? Yeah, that sounds scary, like
you have to be around guards all it. Like you
guys weren't scared because if somebody tells you no, no,
you can't walk outside without this guy next to you
with a gun, like that would tell me that maybe
outside is scary.

Speaker 1 (49:09):
No, it was. I think it's so obvious that they're
just there's sort of I mean, Lady Gaga was coming
with the next car, right and she needs protection, but
we knew that we we don't need protection, like, no
one's gonna hunt us down. Maybe in our like peak,
if we were walking around with the fox suits, then

(49:31):
maybe it could turn into something hard to handle. But
I remember we were doing an MTV show and the
term to unzip your stardom came about because it was
we were sitting backstage and no one, no one cared,
and then when we're time to go on stage, we
sipped on the thing and it like the circus just started.
So we were able to at any given time just
like unsip and we were then we were crew.

Speaker 2 (49:53):
So unzip your stardom? Is that a phrase that you
guys came up with?

Speaker 1 (49:57):
Yeah? Yeah, I love that.

Speaker 2 (50:00):
That is genius.

Speaker 1 (50:02):
Well it's a great thing though, because you don't want
the personal stardom, not really. You're drawn towards it like
chocolate or alcohol. I s post, but it's not good
for you. I don't think it's good for anyone.

Speaker 2 (50:14):
I heard Ben Affleck recently in an interview. He was
talking about if God or the devil ever came in
and offered you money and fame, just take the money
because you really don't want the fame. You don't know it,
but it ruins you, it breaks you, and it makes
you feel like all of this is not on purpose
and you didn't really do it yourself.

Speaker 1 (50:32):
Yeah, so it's good it worked for us that when
needed we could bring it out, but then we could
just to hide away. And that's great. That's the best
of both worlds.

Speaker 2 (50:41):
That is the best of both worlds. That is amazing.
You and your brother you still do? Do you still
do shows?

Speaker 5 (50:47):
We do?

Speaker 1 (50:48):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (50:48):
Is there a website where people would go to to
find out maybe when you're going to be doing or whatever?

Speaker 1 (50:53):
I mean, we do have a website, it's so poorly maintained.

Speaker 2 (50:57):
Where do you send people? Do you send them to
Instagram or where do you Where would people go if
they wanted to find out more about Hill?

Speaker 1 (51:02):
This probably our instagrams and whatnot.

Speaker 2 (51:05):
Okay, what is the most creatively fulfilling project that you
have done so far? Whether it was by yourself or
with your brother.

Speaker 1 (51:14):
That's a tough one. We made a show in Norway
called Stories from Norway.

Speaker 2 (51:19):
Wait a minute, that's also an album, right, I was
listening to that and it's all about Russia people, Right?
Is that the right thing?

Speaker 3 (51:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (51:26):
Well, the album is just the songs from the episodes,
so it was eight no, seven episodes, each a different story.
The one that you've been listening to was a story
about Russia. So there are weird stories. That was a
story when Norwegian scientists sent up a rocket from Norway
and it was mistaken by the Russians as a missile

(51:47):
attack from the US.

Speaker 2 (51:48):
Is that a true story.

Speaker 1 (51:49):
It's a true story. It's scary as hell, oh my gosh.
And it's as close to this world has ever been
to nuclear holocaust because they had three suitcases in Russia
schegets with like a nuclear button. If all three are pressed,
is like eight thousand warheads are just sent towards the US.

Speaker 2 (52:09):
Why are they always pointed at me?

Speaker 1 (52:11):
Man, Well, you do have some pointed at them as.

Speaker 2 (52:14):
Well, only like a whole lot. Yeah. Still, and two of.

Speaker 1 (52:18):
Them were pressed.

Speaker 2 (52:19):
Oh really.

Speaker 1 (52:21):
The last shaggy at that's it's called was Boris Yeltsin.
Do you remember el Sin?

Speaker 2 (52:26):
It was before putin right, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (52:28):
Drunk and crazy because he didn't push the last button.
That's why those were never fired. We had people from
CIA interviewed in the in the story. It's crazy. So
it was just a weather rocket. It was a research
rocket designed to research Aurora borealis. Is that what you
call it? Northern Lights. They do this all the time.

(52:49):
They have to send information to Russia and saying that
there's going to be a rocket, this isn't this trajectory
this and this time it's going to be launched, And
this was done from Norwegian authorities. The mess got lost
in Russian bureaucracy. So they just all of a sudden
had a rocket coming towards them and it fit the
trajectory of a US submarine outside Norwegian waters. Oh wow,

(53:16):
we're derailing here twenty minutes from the rocket launched until
they pressed the button. But luckily for all of us,
Yelsein didn't. That's one of the best things he did
ever in his presidency.

Speaker 2 (53:28):
So do you think he was just so drunk he
didn't do it or no, he.

Speaker 1 (53:32):
Was he Actually he just didn't want to do it.
He didn't have enough intel, so he waited it out.

Speaker 7 (53:39):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (53:41):
Okay, so you guys made that show.

Speaker 1 (53:43):
Yeah, sorry, so we made that show. There were seven
episodes like this, so they are documentary musicals. It was
sort of a genre that doesn't exist and it was
really fun. So we're interview people and whatever they say,
we sort of turn it into musical. It's like drunk
history almost, but musicals. And it was super fun, and
it was picked up by you know, other countries, and

(54:05):
inevitably it was picked up by an American network. And
then we were working on Stories from Earth and that
went sideways for legal causes. Too many NDAs signed to
talk about. But unfortunately five years of making that show
ended up in nothing.

Speaker 2 (54:22):
Hey real quick, if you have to sign an India,
do you get paid to sign that DA.

Speaker 1 (54:27):
You get to keep the job that they pay you
to do.

Speaker 2 (54:29):
Oh okay, So Stories from Norway did TV show? Where
does it live? Where can I see it?

Speaker 1 (54:36):
You can't?

Speaker 2 (54:37):
Oh cool, that's awesome.

Speaker 1 (54:39):
Yeah. It was on a Norwegian network, the same network
that is owned by HBO, so it wasn't HBO Max
for a while if you had Norwegian IP address. But
then they pulled it back for economical reasons. I think
if you pulled down a show after a couple of years,
then you have some sort of upside financially for the network.

Speaker 2 (55:01):
I don't know what.

Speaker 1 (55:02):
So it's not there anymore, and since we don't own it,
to ourselves. We can't publish it either, so there might
be some bootlegs out there.

Speaker 2 (55:10):
Well, now I'm gonna have to search the inner to
the internet.

Speaker 6 (55:13):
Yeah, hey, street walkers, here's a word from our sponsors.
Let's get back into it.

Speaker 2 (55:27):
You have a song called Massachusetts. Now I don't know
if this was inspired by at all, but it sounds
like it was a song that was left out of
the musical Hamilton.

Speaker 1 (55:39):
Yeah. Well it was pre Hamilton, wasn't it. I think
it was.

Speaker 2 (55:42):
I couldn't tell you. Maybe Lynn Manuel heard it and
was like, I've got an idea.

Speaker 1 (55:48):
I'm going to turn this. Yeah, let's take credit for Hamilton.

Speaker 2 (55:51):
That's what I'm gonna go with. What inspired you guys
to write a song about Massachusetts?

Speaker 1 (55:56):
I don't know, man, I think I don't. I think, well, well,
we wanted to make a song because to everyone, and
Norwegians as well. Let's face it, the US is like
the Promised Land. That's where all the fun happens. At
least it used to be. And it was a typical
Norwegian trade that especially creative people would go to La

(56:19):
to write. Everyone's streaming of Hollywood and whenever you talk
about a place in the US that you sort of
want to go to. It's either New York or it's
la and some other places as well, but it's never Massachusetts.
So that was just the whole idea, like the first
lines of the song is far away across the ocean,

(56:39):
an undiscovered paradise to get New York in California. That's
a better place, now close your eyes. And then we
cut to Massachusetts and we were sitting like in a
just in front of just like a shitted location in
the middle of a road, and it's like Massachusetts, it's
the fourteenth biggest state. It's amazing. But I think people
were really confused, and I totally understand to Norwegians. It

(57:02):
was funny. I think people were at that point because
of The Fox that it was released just after the Fox,
so the Fox came first, and all of a sudden,
like we had kids listening to our music, which is
not very good because it's not really PG.

Speaker 2 (57:15):
Yeah. I was listening to a bunch of your stuff
on Spotify, and I was like, if a kid really
liked The Fox, which kids loved The Fox and so
do adults, but if a kid liked The Fox, and
was like I want to hear more of this bad
They were going to be horrified.

Speaker 1 (57:29):
Absolutely so I think there were lots of parents who
sort of had to go.

Speaker 2 (57:37):
What did they have to do?

Speaker 1 (57:41):
And at the end of Massachusetts it turns out to
sort of this gay anthem that we just thought was funny,
and people try to, like, with reason, understand why we
chose to go down that path because Massachusetts was one
of the first states to legalize gay marriage or I
don't know, I think there's something there. We just turned
the song into two guys liking each other and you know,

(58:05):
just because you're kissing a guy doesn't mean you're gay,
and we just thought that was funny, so we leaned
into that. It wasn't anything more than that. But people
are like, Okay, the first they made the Fox, now
this song about Massachusetts and guys who are doing gay
stuff but not being gay. What what are they trying
to say? Obviously we're not trying to say anything, man,
We're just trying to make you laugh for three minutes

(58:26):
and then you can go about with your life.

Speaker 2 (58:28):
Well, let me speak for all of America. You do
make me laugh, so keep it.

Speaker 1 (58:34):
Well. Thanks.

Speaker 2 (58:35):
I think it's hilarious again. You could say no, can
I play Massachusetts? I won't make you through it.

Speaker 1 (58:41):
No, that's good, go ahead.

Speaker 2 (58:44):
I love that song so much.

Speaker 3 (58:55):
Our way across the Yo Shans undiscovered head die forget
New York in California.

Speaker 1 (59:08):
It's a better place.

Speaker 4 (59:09):
Now, close your eyes.

Speaker 1 (59:12):
Take my hand. We are on those days, a favorite place.

Speaker 5 (59:19):
On ner.

Speaker 7 (59:23):
Messachees said, that's the forty biggest stadies.

Speaker 1 (59:28):
Juice just four hours from New York.

Speaker 3 (59:32):
Read amazing books for free at the Bust Library.

Speaker 2 (59:36):
Will try the Lord.

Speaker 6 (59:41):
Passage.

Speaker 5 (59:42):
Juice said, it's somebody for my Juice said.

Speaker 3 (59:47):
So many counts hand in imperphond me.

Speaker 1 (59:57):
Welcome to all the massage ses. I'm not about.

Speaker 3 (01:00:06):
Come on boys on that bor.

Speaker 2 (01:00:10):
I'm like Breeze off heav.

Speaker 1 (01:00:15):
Starring dogs off the Stuff Country.

Speaker 4 (01:00:19):
Local dance group of by.

Speaker 3 (01:00:24):
Everyone living side by side in the state of the.

Speaker 1 (01:00:34):
Message.

Speaker 7 (01:00:37):
I can't believe this place is reals.

Speaker 1 (01:00:41):
Can describe the way appy it with Stephen John Marko
and Christopher and Tom Eddie b and Bir.

Speaker 7 (01:00:52):
Sasage on famous Massachusetts Bay Jee.

Speaker 5 (01:01:00):
I Am Kennedy the Tragic Bewah.

Speaker 3 (01:01:06):
Describe a friend and with drive and drive across the Massachusetts.

Speaker 4 (01:01:14):
Just two friends hanging out to get there, but never
across the island, going up in the phrase, now.

Speaker 5 (01:01:28):
You'll see lah and high army, go see your ahnd.

Speaker 1 (01:01:35):
And I go I a double.

Speaker 5 (01:01:37):
Okay, okaytay, mass change doesn't sound right and me love
wood so many Carrie.

Speaker 1 (01:01:52):
Should be mass and shoes like the.

Speaker 2 (01:01:55):
Massive mass produce, but with out road to.

Speaker 1 (01:02:01):
Pass instead I'm talking about and.

Speaker 7 (01:02:08):
Show it down and you can see it's a paradise.
Cheer Massachusetts, paradis on earth.

Speaker 5 (01:02:24):
Bust you see a skyline or a picnic in the park,
bigging out in my life.

Speaker 7 (01:02:31):
Suddenly it's get on a car, Massachusetts, great estate of
a try just because you're kissing a man, just make
you gay.

Speaker 3 (01:02:42):
Thanks.

Speaker 5 (01:02:43):
When the Pilgims came to tell me sometimes of what's
the king and a crown of passing, that should.

Speaker 4 (01:02:51):
Tell us.

Speaker 8 (01:02:55):
Who has.

Speaker 2 (01:03:19):
Okay, So everybody can go to the social media's and
look for Elvis y l v I s. That will
tell them where you guys are going to be and
what you guys have coming out as a as a group.

Speaker 1 (01:03:30):
Yeah, apparently we're not very good at updating our fans,
but we're trying.

Speaker 2 (01:03:34):
Oh, fantastic, and then to find out more about you personally.
Everyone can go to the soccer on Instagram yourself and
then you have things that you do that you post there.
That's just you. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:03:48):
The handles is bilvis soccer. Doesn't make any sense. B
Y L V I S A K E R.

Speaker 2 (01:03:54):
Oh yeah, yeah, it's b soccer. Okay, gotcha. Yeah, there's
letters in this name that are not on your keyboard,
my friend, we apologize, don't apologize. Did you know that
if you push I think it's alt one three four, Yeah,
then you get that A with the little circle on

(01:04:14):
top of it. Yeah. I had to learn that.

Speaker 1 (01:04:19):
I love the good old. Now I'm back on a PC.
Couldn't do those codes on Mac for many years, but
now I'm back on PC.

Speaker 2 (01:04:25):
Oh. Interesting, there's not a Norwegian English keyboard.

Speaker 1 (01:04:29):
Oh yes it is. We have it right here.

Speaker 2 (01:04:32):
Unk wunk fantastic. All right, Well, thank you so much
for taking the time out of your busy day and
your hectic, hilarious songwriting schedule to hang out and let
us get to know you a little bit better on
Fascination Street man. I really appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:04:46):
Well, thanks for having me, dude.

Speaker 2 (01:04:48):
This was one hundred percent my pleasure and I can't
thank you enough.

Speaker 1 (01:04:52):
Well, it was super nice. It's always good to It's
not that many American podcasts who calls, so that seems weird.
I like doing podcasts. I like doing international stuff because
we don't do it that much. We did for a
while and now it's been a while and now yeah,
I like it. It's interesting to see what your take is.

Speaker 2 (01:05:11):
Thank you again, dude, I really really appreciate it, and
you have a great rest of your week.

Speaker 1 (01:05:16):
Likewise, and summing the link when when it's.

Speaker 2 (01:05:18):
Done, I will absolutely do that. Thank you so much. Man.

Speaker 1 (01:05:21):
Cool bye bye, oh I tink.

Speaker 2 (01:05:31):
Opening music is the song fsp theme, written, performed, and
provided by Ambush Vin. Closing music is from the song
say My Name off the twenty twenty one album Underdog Anthems.
Use with permission from Jack's Hollow. If you like the show,

(01:05:53):
tell a friend, subscribe and rate and review the show
on iTunes and wherever else you download podcasts. Don't forget
to subscribe to my YouTube channel. All the episodes are
available there as well. Check me out on the video
at Fascination Street Pod and TikTok at Fascination Street Pod

(01:06:14):
and again thanks for listening.

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Bård Ylvisåker - Norwegian Comedian & Musician (Ylvis)

Episode Transcript

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Bård Ylvisåker - Norwegian Comedian & Musician (Ylvis)