http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nardwuar_t ... _ServietteQuote:
His interview style can be grating and confusing to those who have had no prior experience with him. A typical interview will begin with "Who are you?", followed by "From?" if the subject doesn't volunteer his or her affiliations. The interview will always end with "Keep on rockin' in the free world", and the "doot doola doot doo..." of "Shave and a Haircut", to which the interviewee is expected to reply with the final "doot doo!" before Nardwuar freezes with a wide smile until the camera cuts off.
A somewhat common reply has been "Fuck you!".[11] Other notable replies have been "Help Me" (Tom Morello), "You're nuts" (Glenn Danzig), "You're bizarre" (Jeff Hanneman of Slayer), "Radio free fucking Europe" (Courtney Love of Hole),[12] "Thank you?" (Mikael Akerfeldt of Opeth), "Ka-Boom" (Jello Biafra), "Quack-quack" (Jello Biafra with The Melvins), "Mmm-hmm" (Jack White), "Massive Death" (King Coffey of the Butthole Surfers), "Um bye" (Faris Badwan of The Horrors), "Bang-Bang" (Ice-T), "Funk You" (Afrika Bambaataa), "Will do!" (Marc Maron), "Katmandu" (Daniel Johnston), "Keep taking the pills" (Peter Murphy), "Fuck the free world!" (Tyler the Creator of OFWGKTA), "Bukkake" (Hodgy Beats of OFWGKTA), "Goodbye!" (Pusha T), "Thank you, pleasure" (Dani Filth), "Thank you" (Henry Rollins), and "Lace up!" (Machine Gun Kelly).
Due to his upfront and esoteric style, he has been attacked verbally, physically threatened, and intimidated by people such as Sebastian Bach of Skid Row (who stole Nardwuar's tuque); the band Quiet Riot (who chased Nardwuar and crew down the street); and Dave Rowntree of Blur. Alice Cooper, Travis Barker, Lydia Lunch, Harlan Ellison, Alina Hussain, Beck and others have hung up on him or been verbally combative in interviews.[13] Chris Fehn of Slipknot and Kid Cudi have both left midway through an interview.
Nardwuar's unorthodox approach often ends up in bizarre scenarios. Some of his subjects recognize Nardwuar's eccentric style and successfully manage to reverse the scenario on him, especially Iggy Pop, David Cross, Mudhoney, "Weird Al" Yankovic and Lil B. Some interpret his hijinks as intentionally disrespectful, including Nas and pornographer Al Goldstein. Henry Rollins found Nardwuar to be disingenuous, saying "I like the character that you're playing. I like that you can turn it on and off. That's cute."[14] Nardwuar made several attempts at contacting Courtney Love, first in 1991 over the telephone, talking about Danelectro guitars and asking her about her P.O. box before she ended the conversation.[12] He later was able to get full interviews out of her after sneaking backstage into a dressing room at a 1993 Hole show in Vancouver, B.C., and again in November 1994 backstage at the Commodore Ballroom. Love was also present during Nardwuar's interview with Nirvana in January 1994 at the backstage of the Vancouver Forum.
More often the experience confuses the celebrities. Members of GWAR tried not to laugh while in character. Jello Biafra was impressed with his guerrilla interview style, but became noticeably angered in a 2000 interview when Nardwuar began to cajole Biafra about Biafra's lawsuit against former Dead Kennedys band mates.[15]
Nardwuar does extensive research on the interviewee to confuse, scare or impress them; often bringing up minutia about band members' pasts that they have a hard time recalling, until he coaches them along. Frequently, he will also attempt to make connections, no matter how obscure, between the person or subject at question and Canada. A tribute to his research skills, while interviewing Josh Homme, he produced a grade school class photo of Homme mid-interview, who remained blasé yet clearly impressed. In 'Nardwuar Vs Skrillex', he produced the first CD Skrillex was ever featured on as Sonny Moore, Skrillex's then questioned his manager and then-girlfriend, Ellie Goulding, during the interview who revealed they did not know that era of Skrillex's past.[16] During an interview with Pharrell Williams from N.E.R.D., Nardwuar pulled out a vinyl record featuring the very first recorded track by Pharrell, causing him to pause and state "This is one of the most impressive interviews I've ever experienced in my life. Seriously."[17] During a 2010 interview with rapper Drake and his producer 40, Drake described Nardwuar's interview as the "best that I've ever done in my entire life".[18] Similarly, following an interview with Nardwuar on October 4, 2012 before his show at The Queen Elizabeth Theater in Vancouver, BC, Canada, Ed Sheeran walked back into his dressing room and told the next interviewers that he had just had "the best interview in my life".
Interviews with non-musicians[edit]
Nardwuar has also been known to be a "guerrilla journalist," often sneaking in to press conferences under the guise of a more normal reporter, to confront political leaders or other non-musical celebrities with surreal questions. He has asked Mikhail Gorbachev which world leader had the biggest pants,[19] and Crispin Glover whether he owns a coffin full of tar.[13] On another occasion, Nardwuar persistently asked faith healer Ernest Angley if there was a cure for "the Summertime Blues", to which Angley angrily replied, "Oh I wish you would shut up, man. You know you're not even funny. You're lucky God don't strike you dead."[20]
In November 1997, he cut off all his hair and was able to sneak into an APEC conference to ask Jean Chrétien if he supported the pepper spraying of protesters outside. Chrétien responded with a line that has become well known in Canada: "For me, pepper, I put it on my plate."[21][22]
In June 2004, Nardwuar convinced an amused Paul Martin, former Prime Minister of Canada, to play a quick game of the Hasbro game "Hip Flip" while he was on the campaign trail.[23] After Martin won the election, Nardwuar commented on the great predictive power of the "Hip Flip," because neither of the other two candidates had performed the act. On a campaign trip to Vancouver in December 2005, Nardwuar concluded an interview with the late New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton—who, in their first encounter, had taken the instructions to the game and said he would practice for their next encounter—with a successful, coordinated, swinging of their hips. Current Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper[24] is the only major candidate from the 2004 election who has never performed a successful "Hip Flip" with Nardwuar.
At any rate, he's been around. He interviewed Nirvana. Some of his interviews are really entertaining, like the one with Blur where they seem legitimately hostile towards him. Most people know about him now and have caught on, even to the point of being fans, as that Haim interview illustrates.
