Interview With Bah and the Humbugs
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: By now, you should be feeling the stress of Christmas. If last minute shopping, crowded malls and annoying in- laws are already weighing you down, boy, do we have a treat for you. Meet Bah and the Humbugs, an irreverent musical group said to be burning up the charts at mp3.com. Hi, guys.</s>AMY GUSKIN, BAH AND THE HUMBUGS: Hi. How are you?</s>LIN: I'm doing great. Amy, do a quick introduction of everybody over there.</s>GUSKIN: OK, to my right is Paul, my husband.</s>PAUL NORDQUIST, BAH AND THE HUMBUGS: Hi.</s>GUSKIN: Vance, not my husband. Rick, equally not my husband. Gaydon (ph), also not and Mike, again, not my husband.</s>LIN: We're relieved, OK. Hey, Amy...</s>GUSKIN: Yes?</s>LIN: You know, some of the -- I asked the audience to pay attention to the lyrics because these aren't just ordinary jingle bells. I mean the kinds of holiday songs that you sing about -- I mean, you talk about -- you sing about exploding holly. You talk about Santa as a thief.</s>GUSKIN: Well, our Christmas experience is a little different than most people's, it's true. And I think some of us are tired of the standard holiday fare. And so, over the years, we've just done our best to raise the bar a bit.</s>LIN: So Paul, who comes up with the lyrics?</s>NORDQUIST: Every member of the band is a songwriter. So we each come up with a song or two and then we, you know, just put them all together.</s>LIN: And what's your favorite one?</s>NORDQUIST: My favorite one?</s>LIN: Now what really...</s>GUSKIN: Capture many?</s>LIN: Yes, I mean, what captures the holiday spirit to you?</s>VANCE: Christmas and Noel. [laughter]</s>NORDQUIST: This year I'd have to say "Santa Pulled my Icicle Lights."</s>LIN: What is that about? That's so hostile.</s>NORDQUIST: It's...</s>GUSKIN: Not exactly. If you listen to it, it's really not hostile.</s>LIN: How do the words go?</s>GUSKIN: It's just a total accident, actually. It talks about how this person's icicle lights got mistakenly pulled down. And they're conjecturing all sorts of ways that might have happened. And it's a little bit of a poke at people who have icicle lights of strange colors at all times of year, which seems to be a trend now.</s>LIN: All right...</s>GUSKIN: An unfortunate trend.</s>LIN: "Christmas Trees from Hell?"</s>GUSKIN: Oh, yes, that one.</s>NORDQUIST: "Christmas Tree from Hell," well, everyone just assumes that Christmas trees are beneficial, but you never know.</s>GUSKIN: You might get the wrong tree.</s>LIN: What could possibly happen?</s>NORDQUIST: Well...</s>GUSKIN: What could possibly happen with a Christmas tree?</s>NORDQUIST: If in the case of a song like that...</s>VANCE: I'm glad you asked. Let me -- we trim the tree at night. Then we noticed something well, we're not actually going to sing that.</s>NORDQUIST: Okay, but yes, there might be a demonic entity in your Christmas tree and...</s>GUSKIN: It's just something amiss, you know? And how many of us haven't felt bedeviled by trying to put the tree up at one point or another? So...</s>NORDQUIST: Yes.</s>GUSKIN: So you know, it works.</s>LIN: Yes, I have a hard enough time just getting rid of the tree once I'm...</s>GUSKIN: Well, yes, yes. Well, that's being bedeviled a little bit, isn't it?</s>LIN: So how do you get your inspiration?</s>GUSKIN: Uh.</s>NORDQUIST: Well, we just look at every aspect of the holiday season and see what there is about that hasn't been talked about.</s>GUSKIN: And also, it's kind of a one upmanship as well, because no character is safe with us. We found out at one point we realized that there were no songs about Mrs. Claus, so I took up that one. And I did a little song about how she has this annual infidelity on Christmas Eve when her husband's out working.</s>LIN: Oh, say it isn't so!</s>GUSKIN: Oh, but it's very sweet. It really is.</s>LIN: Oh, yes. No problem there. All right, let's hear one from you?</s>GUSKIN: All right.</s>NORDQUIST: All right.</s>GUSKIN: Okay.</s>LIN: That's great, guys. That is so great. Are you going to come out with a CD? Or we just going to have to download you?</s>GUSKIN: We have a CD in fact. If you go to mp3.com/humbugs, you can link to our web site from there. You can buy the CD on mp3.com. If you don't want to download it, you can buy it directly from us. And that's mp3.com/humbugs.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you don't have to buy the CD. You can download the songs for free.</s>GUSKIN: For free. So you can get all sorts of Christmas cheer for absolutely no money.</s>LIN: Yes. Well that is the Christmas spirit. Okay, you guys keep it up.</s>GUSKIN: Thanks.</s>LIN: Sing us to the break. Thanks so much. Great to meet you.</s>GUSKIN: OK.</s>LIN: Merry Christmas.</s>GUSKIN: You, too. Happy Holidays.</s>LIN: Hit it folks.