Fred Armisen is prepping to debut his newly formed 8G band on Late Night With Seth Meyers February 24. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the SNL alumnus talked about role as bandleader on the new edition of the show. Here's what we learned.
On the similarities between and new host Seth Meyers' taste in music:
"Seth and I share the same taste in punk-rock music. We'd turn each other on to bands, and late in my tenure at Saturday Night Live, he came up with this sketch idea for a British punk guy named Ian Rubbish, who loved Margaret Thatcher. It was a brilliant idea. I would love to have said that I thought of it, but I didn't. So, Seth went off to write the lyrics, and he nailed it. Nobody would have guessed he's got this secret punk living inside of him. So, that's our musical history."
On how he got the gig:
A couple of weeks ago, Lorne Michaels called me and said, 'What would you think about curating a band for Seth's show?' I loved it. I had a meeting with [Late Night producer] Michael Shoemaker and Seth, and they said, 'Maybe you can come up with a theme song.' That's been a dream of mine. I thought, 'I could start up a band, write a couple songs and then just send them on a trajectory.' We've been rehearsing, and it's been really fun.
On what we can expect from him each night and who he looks up to:
"We talked about me not really talking very much. I didn't need it to be my show — Seth has that covered. I'll do anything for Seth because he's my friend and he's brilliant, and my answer to things is usually, 'Yeah, let me try it. This is new to me.' I like to think, 'What would [Flaming Lips frontman] Wayne Coyne do?' I love how he lives his life and I think he would have done this. Also, and I really mean this, 'What would James Franco do?' because James Franco has turned his life into a real art project. In my opinion, that's the way to live.
What would you like to see from the new 8G bandleader? Let us know in the comments section below!
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