If you’re here looking for the new single from The (John) Candy, well, “Merry Christmas, ya filthy animal.” The Orange County Samplecore maestros’ new tune, “Lost In D.C.”, is now streaming, and Noisey has the exclusive early premiere!
Along with the “Lost In D.C.” exclusive premiere, I also spoke briefly with The (John) Candy vocalist Brannon Means. I picked his brain about the new song, video, and how they settled on that incredible band name…
So this new song is a real auditory bulldozer. Can you tell me a little bit about it?
Recently, we’ve been interested in doing sequel songs. So, we thought it would be fun to do a sequel to our first Home Alone-inspired track, “$122.50+ Tip.”
We always love the juxtaposition of making heavy, super fun, tongue-in-cheek music that weaves together these themes and plays them off of each other. It’s a challenge for us to “make it all work,” if you will. We are also big Synthwave fans, as evidenced by our ongoing work with our friend Davey Oberlin of All the Damn Vampires, because after all, we are 80s kids.
Do you have any particularly favorite samples in this one?
Hands down, my favorite sample is the Krusty the Clown quote, “Now for my favorite part of the show.” He’s just such a lovable degenerate. Having to be told what his “favorite part” is, then openly disparaging it, kills me every time.
The Simpsons has been my favorite show since I was a kid, and seasons 3 – 8ish are infinitely quotable. The song also has many call-back quotes to previous songs we have released (another notable being “In the Air Tonight” by Phil Collins).
We also have to talk about this incredible music video. What’s the story behind it, and how much of that boxing was real?
We reached out to our go-to music video gurus, Javi Ben Bueno and Ian Norum, with Just2Boys Music Videos. They are insanely creative and, per usual, only took a couple of days to come up with a full storyboard and concept after hearing the song. Essentially, it’s our “new mask” vs. our “old mask” in a boxing match inspired by all the antics Kevin McAllister dishes out in Home Alone.
Our videos are generally a reflection of who we are as people, as well as our tastes. We don’t take things too seriously and love to just have a good time through a heavy music lens. None of the boxing was real. But what WAS real was when “old mask” Kyle Steiner fell through the boxing ring’s ropes. We are so fortunate that there was a stool on the ground that broke his fall!
For people who may just be discovering The (John) Candy for the first time, I feel like I have to ask you how you settled on that band name.
We have always been big fans of the late, great actor John Candy. In 2005, our bass player, Brent Tarquin, and drummer Erik Tinajero wanted to start a throwback hardcore band with all John Candy movie quotes. They brought me in for vocals. We recorded a three-song EP, then did nothing with the band until 2017.
When we revived the band, we realized we wanted to expand into full samples for all aspects of the band besides vocals (you name it – guitar, bass, drums, all pop culture), and we went from there. It’s extremely important to us to do whatever we can to help introduce (or reintroduce) people to John Candy and his legacy. He holds a very special place in the collective hearts of so many.
[All images courtesy of The (John) Candy]
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