The Lonely Island comprises Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer—all friends since their formative years growing up in Berkeley, Calif. Moving in together after college, the guys began posting satirical shorts on their website, thelonelyisland.com, buzz began building and, in 2005, all three were offered gigs with Saturday Night Live (Samberg as a player, Schaffer and Taccone as writers). Suddenly, SNL was funny again thanks to the trio’s Digital Shorts (and the Internet even funnier, it seems—the group’s most recent hit, “Jizz in My Pants,” which aired on the late-night institution in December, has been viewed close to 22 million times on YouTube).
“The idea was that if you kept the three of us together you get the best out of us,” Samberg says of the SNL setup.
Now the dudes, as they refer to themselves, are dropping a debut comedic/musical album, Incredibad, on
Feb. 10.The record is heavily rap and R&B influenced and quick to
embrace the “fat kid” quandary —Incredibad’s funny enough to dispel
some of the tracks’ obese musical flaws. Still, enough of the tracks
have surprisingly catchy beats and are spiced with the musical helpings
of Norah Jones,T- Pain and The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas, among
others, that some head bopping is not out of the question.
Monte Lipman, president of Universal Records, had been chasing the California natives to do a record ever since he saw a SNL skit called “JJ Casuals” in which Samberg spoofed Universal artist Jack Johnson.
“I
am obsessed with these guys,” Lipman says. “I was trying to get the
ball rolling when ‘Lazy Sunday’ hit and all hell broke loose,” he
explains, referring to the group’s breakout rap about Magnolia
cupcakes, Google maps and The Chronicles of Narnia.
This
past year, Lipman finally managed to get the dudes to settle down on
the West Coast for the summer to produce his much sought-after album.
The next step for the trio and label was figuring out how to get the general public to connect the dots between the group’s SNL hits and The Lonely Island as a (somewhat) independent entity.
“Right
now it’s an education process because a lot of people will watch the
skits but not know [what] The Lonely Island is; or a lot of people will
recognize Andy Samberg but there’s also the genius of Akiva Schaffer
and Jorma Taccone,” Lipman says. “As part of the education process, a
lot of times, whether it’s radio or retail, we found ourselves
describing these guys as, ‘Hey these are the guys that did ‘Jizz in My
Pants’ and ‘Dick in a Box.’”
To help, the album is plastered with a
big, bright “As Seen on SNL” sticker and includes a DVD of some of the group’s top Digital Shorts.
And while Lipman hopes to eventually air videos for all 19 of the album’s tracks on SNL, he
acknowledges the importance of establishing The Lonely Island brand
(which might explain why Samberg, Schaffer and Taccone’s personal URL
addresses all link up to theonlonelyisland.com).
Part of the problem in solving this disconnect undoubtedly exists in the fact that Samberg is the only easily identifiable SNL cast member, although Joel Stein, who wrote about Samberg for Time in 2006, blames the hippies.
“They
have weird-ass names. They all have crazy-hippie Berkeley names except
for Andy, right? I only remember the Jewish ones,” Stein said (although
we’re pretty sure that Schaffer falls into that category, too).
The dudes’ roles are much more fluid, however, than the SNL setup would have one believe. Jorma’s father, Tony Taccone, adds that all three members have a hand in the acting, writing and directing of The Lonely Island material. “I never met an artist who didn’t want to do everything…your generation doesn’t want to ride on the bus, you want to own it,” he says.
For now, the guys’ set-up seems to be working,
although each will pull the occasional Beyoncé—but never without the
blessing of the other two. Both Samberg and Taccone have movies coming
out this spring and Schaffer has directed a number of music videos for
the likes of indie groups We Are Scientists and Eagles of Death Metal.
“As
they become adults, they are feeling that they have different interests
at times, and they all realize that it is healthy [to] go and do
individual stuff,”Taccone explains. “But I feel right now that they
really enjoy being with each other and really respect what each member
brings.”
As for avoiding the pitfalls of rehab and sex tapes
that inevitably come with musical fame? Samberg just hopes to “try to
get it over quickly and explosively.”
“I don’t want to keep it
at bay. Bring it on,”Taccone said. “I want to leave behind a young
corpse.”
But not before they at least muse over the possibility of a Lonely Island tour.
“We’d probably have The Boss,” Schaffer said when inquired as to who the opening act would be. “He can bring in a good crowd and really get amped up.”
