SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Comedian Fred Armisen has just put out a new album. It is called "100 Sound Effects" - and that's exactly what it is. Over the years, fans of Armisen's comedy have come to expect the unexpected - everything from entire shows spoofing obscure documentaries to some of "Saturday Night Live's" quirkiest characters. So while, on one hand, it might seem unusual for the comedian to put out a sound effects album, on the other hand, what took him so long? When we spoke about the album, it became clear pretty quickly that for Fred Armisen, this kind of comedy was serious business.
FRED ARMISEN: A sound effects record is something that I felt like was missing in my life. I didn't hear of any new releases. And I just remember in my life, you know, there would just be, like, a Halloween record that would come out or...
DETROW: Yeah.
ARMISEN: ...Sound effects CDs that would come out. And it was just fun just looking through all the titles and everything and then just, you know, sampling some of them. And it was just like a feeling of, like, oh, whatever happened to those? And then it just occurred to me. I was like, I'll make one.
DETROW: Yeah. Yeah. Do you remember listening to those Halloween ones? I feel like...
ARMISEN: Oh, yeah.
DETROW: ...I remember Halloween sound effect CDs, for sure.
ARMISEN: Yes. And I remember there were a lot of human voices on them, you know, like the (imitating ghost calling), all that kind of thing, and creaking of wood and chains and all that stuff.
DETROW: Is that why you put some haunted house things in here? I think "Haunted House Ghost Going Upstairs But The Door Is Locked."
(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS)
ARMISEN: (As ghost, groaning).
(SOUNDBITE OF DOORKNOB RATTLING)
ARMISEN: (As ghost) Mm?
(SOUNDBITE OF DOORKNOB RATTLING)
DETROW: "Haunted House Ghost But Nobody Is Home."
(SOUNDBITE OF DOOR CLOSING)
ARMISEN: (As ghost, yelling). Huh. There's nobody here.
Yeah, I wanted to do more, but I think that the haunted house ones were harder than I thought they would be.
DETROW: How's that?
ARMISEN: When I listen back to the originals, they're pretty in-depth. Like, there are many layers to them.
DETROW: Yeah. You dedicated this album to the late producer Steve Albini, who did help you put this together. Can you tell me what some of those conversations were about what you wanted to do and how you could do it?
ARMISEN: Well, Steve loved what he did. He loved microphones, and he loved all the technology behind it. So I told him this idea and I asked him for advice on what studios to go to. He's in Chicago, so I couldn't record there, but he was really into it. He made phone calls on my behalf without me asking him to do that. He called Dave Grohl, and I ended up recording at the Foo Fighters' studios. And I wanted to treat it with seriousness as opposed to just, hey, I'm going to put together these sounds. I really wanted to book time at an actual studio. And that's kind of - that's also because of Steve, meaning, like, don't just throw it away. Let's really do this.
DETROW: Did you start thinking, what could I make in a studio? Did you just think what would be a funny sound? Did you just think, like, here's a sound I come across? Like, how did we get this list?
ARMISEN: I think that when I've listened to sound effects records, whenever there are audience sound effects, you know, booing, clapping, cheering, I - those are the first ones I always went to, mostly because I was like, wow, they really got a group together to do applause and laughing. So I thought, what about expanding on that? What about some that are a little more detailed, like supportive booing...
(SOUNDBITE OF BOOING, THEN LAUGHTER)
ARMISEN: ...A Romanian rock crowd?
(SOUNDBITE OF SIMULTANEOUS CLAPPING AND HOOTING)
ARMISEN: As I've traveled around, crowds are different when they ask for an encore. So I thought Eastern Europe, so I did a sort of Romanian crowd kind of stomping a little more.
DETROW: Did you just have, like, a notebook or a notes app filled with sound effects ideas for a while?
ARMISEN: It was a notebook. It's almost like a sketchpad. Like, oh, I'll just have a couple ideas. But then it got really dense. And then there are many that I just couldn't do. There are many that I tried that as soon as I started leaning into the comedy of it, it didn't work as well.
DETROW: Can you give me an example of that?
ARMISEN: Some of those music ones had my voice on them. There was one that - for example, tuning a guitar and, for some reason, it's still out of tune. It's just something that happens to some musicians.
(SOUNDBITE OF GUITAR NOTES)
ARMISEN: Then I had my own reaction to it. And I thought, well, if you're going to use this as a sound effect, you don't need someone's voice on top of it. So I had to sort of scale back a little bit and treat them kind of coldly.
DETROW: Yeah.
ARMISEN: And then some were pretty layered. Like, all the airplane ones are really layered with sounds of ambient noise.
(SOUNDBITE OF FLIGHT ATTENDANT CALL BUTTON PINGING)
ARMISEN: OK.
(SOUNDBITE OF METAL RATTLING)
ARMISEN: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR #1: (Inaudible).
ARMISEN: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR #1: (Inaudible).
ARMISEN: (Laughter) OK.
The sounds you hear of people chatting are me and a couple of other actors. You sort of take for granted how much sound happens on a flight.
DETROW: It's a lot.
ARMISEN: It's a lot.
DETROW: Yeah. Can you tell me about one of these sound effects that is still making you laugh months later - that you're like, that was a good one?
ARMISEN: The ones related to film. There are some that are a well-reviewed movie - meaning, like, you know, it's up for an Academy Award. The sound volume of household chores, like chopping vegetables and farm work, for me, it's always too loud in the mix. So those movies seem to be saying, this is hard work. So I did one of a sort of washbowl and I'm washing clothes by hand.
(SOUNDBITE OF WATER DRIPPING)
ARMISEN: And then there's one of an important film. 'Cause usually if someone says to you, like, hey, there's this really important film, they seem to be from the 1950s and from Italy.
DETROW: Yes.
ARMISEN: So I had a friend of mine record - she's from Italy - herself being, like, in a sort of town square. Or, you know, like, in a town square where the window is open, someone's shouting out the window.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Italian).
(SOUNDBITE OF METAL TAPPING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Italian).
DETROW: There's a lot of really funny sound effects, but there are a lot of ones that seem more wistful or nostalgic and a lot that have to do with travel.
ARMISEN: To me, travel is sound. It's like, when you check into a hotel, it's the feel and sound of doorknobs. You know, so in Europe, it's that lever as opposed to a doorknob. Even I feel like the quality of doors is different there. Like, they're thicker.
DETROW: Thicker.
ARMISEN: Like, I think those doors are like (imitates door closing). It's, like, heavy wood.
(SOUNDBITE OF HEAVY DOOR CLOSING)
ARMISEN: So it's those kinds of sounds, the sounds of, you know, elevator buttons...
(SOUNDBITE OF BUTTON BEEPING)
ARMISEN: ...Washing machines, dryers.
(SOUNDBITE OF WASHING MACHINE RUMBLING)
ARMISEN: Yeah, I guess it is nostalgic, and that's the fun part of travel.
DETROW: Yeah. How do you envision people listening to this, interacting with this? Like, what's in your mind as you put this out there?
ARMISEN: For this year, I hope it's fun. Like, people just sort of play it for their friends. Like, hey, did you hear this? And they play a couple tracks and then they go on with their day. But I'm hoping that in, say, 10 years, someone does reach for it in a way that's, like, I really actually need this sound of breaking glass.
(SOUNDBITE OF GLASS SMASHING)
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR #2: Oh, don't worry about it. Those are cheap.
ARMISEN: Especially there are some that are the other side of a performer, meaning a audience is saying to the performer, hey, your mic is off.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ARMISEN: The mic's not working.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR #3: Mic's off.
ARMISEN: We can hear you fine.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR #2: You don't need it. You can just use your...
ARMISEN: We can hear you.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR #2: ...Regular voice.
ARMISEN: Yes. Sounds good.
So that's one that I'm like, that would be good for, you know, if you want to, you know, do the other side of a comedian or a one-person-show person talking on stage. You could just use that for, like, hey, your mic's not working.
DETROW: I'm really tempted to, like, crackle my script paper and, like, do some sound effects right here. I don't know.
ARMISEN: Do it.
DETROW: Do it?
ARMISEN: That's - yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF PAPER RUSTLING)
DETROW: Now I feel underwhelmed. I feel like I've crinkled it (ph).
ARMISEN: No, no, no, no, because you can title it. You could say, "Radio Host Shaking A Piece Of Paper."
DETROW: I'm on my way. That is Fred Armisen, the actor, comedian and musician on his new album, "100 Sound Effects," out now. Thank you so much for talking to us about this.
ARMISEN: Thank you so much.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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