The A.V. Club just posted a great interview with The Apples in Stereo’s Robert Schneider. Fortunately for the fans, he dishes on the good times at The Colbert Report.
Robert Schneider of The Apples In Stereo
Interviewed by Jason Heller
February 13th, 2007AVC: How did it feel to jam with Rick Nielsen and Peter Frampton on The Colbert Report?
RS: Oh my God, it was great. The whole experience was incredible. I wrote that silly song about Stephen just to be cute, just hoping I’d get a mention on his show. The week that I was writing it, he sparked up that controversy with The Decemberists, so I kind of rewrote the lyrics so the song had his back against his detractors. [Laughs.] Then I sent the song off to him. Apparently he had a writers’ meeting, and the whole thing consisted of him singing and dancing along with it, and a couple days later I got the call asking me to play on the show.
I knew that Peter Frampton was going to be the stand-in for Stephen, but I didn’t know Rick Nielsen was going to be there until my wife and I walked into the dressing room. Rick Nielsen is the reason I even took up music in the first place. When I was in sixth grade, [Neutral Milk Hotel's] Jeff Mangum and I went to see Cheap Trick play. It was my first concert. We met [Olivia Tremor Control's] Will Hart at that show. That was a seminal show for Elephant 6. [Laughs.] I stayed over at Jeff’s house, and we rocked out all night to Dream Police. I think he had a baseball bat, and I had a tennis racket. I remember holding the tennis racket and thinking, “If I can do this, I can probably play guitar.”
I’d just like to state for the record that I now have my own little mental image of Stephen (Stephen . . . ) singing and dancing his way through that writers’ meeting, and I feel certain that it’s going to bring me through many a tough day with a smile on my face.
“Apparently he had a writers’ meeting, and the whole thing consisted of him singing and dancing along with it, and a couple days later I got the call asking me to play on the show.”
That is SO adorable, I can’t stand it.
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SO-O-O-O hilarious AND adorable!
Thank you SO MUCH for finding these things for us!!!!!!!!!!!
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what? not a single writer had a dv camera??? SHAME!!!!! FOR SHAME I SAY!
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I’d just like to state for the record that I now have my own little mental image of Stephen (Stephen . . . ) singing and dancing his way through that writers’ meeting, and I feel certain that it’s going to bring me through many a tough day with a smile on my face.
Word for word exactly what I was thinking. OH, MAN. I may die from the cute.
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Motivation to persue comedy writing if I ever heard it! =)
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Thanks, wordswithgrace! This stuff is too delightful to keep to myself; I’m just grateful that this site gives me an outlet through which to share all these charming little anecdotes.
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