Comedian, actor and musician Fred Armisen has just released a new album, 100 Sound Effects, and yes it’s exactly that — an old school sound effects album, but one only Fred Armisen could make. It also proved harder than he thought. “The more jokey I was, the more I tried to lean in on something being comedic, the worse it came out,” Fred told us.” The colder I made things, the more I sort of kept things, I’d say even boring, the better, the funnier.”
Fred says the late Steve Albini was instrumental in the album’s creation, even if it didn’t end up being made at his Electrical Audio studio in Chicago. “I asked Steve for advice, and he really helped me organize a lot of that,” Fred says. “It pushed me to really complete it.”
He also got some help from Bill Hader, Tim Heidecker and more. On this week’s episode of the BrooklynVegan Interviews podcast, Fred tells us all about 100 Sound Effects, and along the way there are digressions into ’80s “marimba wave” and Sophistipop, singing Foreigner in an episode of hit Netflix series Wednesday, the show’s upcoming Uncle Fester spinoff, five records Fred thinks everyone should own and more.
You can listen to our whole conversation on the BrooklynVegan Interview Podcast below or wherever you get your podcasts.
There is also talk of making a Marimba Wave playlist in the episode and I did that — check it out below.
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