Greg Grunberg interview

interview by Bill Palmer

While he’s most broadly known for playing Matt Parkman on the hit TV show Heroes, Greg Grunberg is also the drummer in a band, a longtime Apple fan, and an iPhone app developer – leading to the question of what to even ask him about first. During our interview Greg shared what’s in store for his Heroes character (the new season premieres tonight on NBC) and how he entertains his million followers on Twitter, but first things first…



Before we get into Yowza, I should ask what attracted you to the iPhone in the first place, as an end user?



I’m one of those guys that can walk into the Apple Store, walk up to the Genius Bar, and I’ve heard from many Geniuses that when they hear these words they kind of roll their eyes and go “Oh boy, here we go.” But I’m one of those guys that can say “Look, since 1984…” And it’s true, I have always been just an Apple nut. Maybe it’s because I don’t feel like getting any more involved in the tech side of using a computer, other than just the user experience and how intuitive and easy it is. And I’ve paid more money, I think, over the years for that but I just love it. My whole family have always had Apple products. So when the iPhone came out it was something that I gravitated towards right away. Actually I had a BlackBerry first, to be honest, and I loved how you could feel the buttons, and I’m just a big-thumbed guy. And I was thinking I’ll never be able to type on this and learn. And it wasn’t true. I got over the hump very quickly, like a lot of people did I think, and I started using it. And my wife and I started using it for everything. And then when the apps came out, I was just as jealous as I could be, in the back of my head, kind of going man, I’ve got to come up with a great app. And every time I had an idea I did a search in the App Store, even in the beginning, and there was something already there or it was something that already came with your iPhone.



Cut to a few years later and Twitter starts and I get a tweet from Rick Yaeger, he’s @RickMacMerc and he’s big in the Mac community, and he’s been friends with August Trometer our other partner for years, and August has apps he’s developed, Loan Shark and many others, and he’s kind of a rock star in the app world, and they reached out to me because of Band From TV, this charity band that I have. They thought you know what would be a great thing, is let’s create an app for the band. So you press one button, find out where the band is, look at pictures, here’s some music, and you can buy the DVD on Amazon.com with one button, but you can also donate right to charities that benefit, cause our band makes not a penny. All the money the band makes goes right out to the charities that we support. And they thought it would be a great way, just one push of a button. So they reach out to me. And a month earlier my wife and I were walking into Bed Bath and Beyond and forgot the coupons in the car, and we’re too lazy to go back to the car to get them, and I just thought this is ridiculous. Why doesn’t somebody create an app where you always have your coupons and discounts, and you have them with you all the time. This device knows where you are. It’s GPS geocoded, so why doesn’t somebody come up with this?



So when they approached me, I of course reaching into my iPhone bag of tricks, said hey guys, I’ve got an idea. We were on iChat, and Rick’s in the Vancouver area and August is in Indianapolis so we were iChatting. And I thought my iChat had frozen up, because these guys both their wheels were spinning, they were frozen, both of them. And I was like oh I guess I lost you. They’re like no no no no no, and immediately the wheels were turning. All three of us where throwing ideas out. August is immediately thinking how he can create this and write the code, take the SDK and really manipulate it. Since then they’ve come out with the 3.0 and all the technology has just advanced so rapidly and we’ve taken advantage of it.



But I pitched to them the idea of exactly that. Press one button, all the stores and restaurants around you come up, all their offers come up, you press on that offer, a bar code or a coupon code comes right up on your phone, you save money and you’re on your way. So the real work began months later when all of our ideas kind of came to fruition and August said “I think I’ve got it, let‘s test it out.” We started testing it out with some local retailers that I know and that August knows in his area, and Yowza was born. And since then, we have six sales people and we’ve just been getting more and more great retailers on board and it’s been expanding and we’re now considered one of the top mobile marketing applications, certainly one of the top location-based apps on the market today.



The word “yowza” has been in the lexicon for awhile. How did you come across that as a name?


As a matter of fact the guy who gave me the name, I was on the phone with him last night. I talk to him every single day, he’s my best friend in the whole world, J.J. Abrams. And he said once again last night, “So how much of the company do I get for giving you the name Yowza?” Because we all know J.J.. Abrams needs money. So I’m on my way to the Bonnie Hunt Show. This is an advantage that I have over anybody else that creates an app, regardless of it being an app that’ll save you money or an app that you push one button and it farts, it doesn’t matter. I have the ability to get the word out because I’m on a TV show. I’m very aware of it and I’m taking advantage of that opportunity for all it’s worth cause I’m so passionate about it, and it’s my business.



So anyway I’m on my way to the Bonnie Hunt Show and I’m about to sit on the couch and talk about all things Greg Grunberg and Yowza included, and we had a name, and the name wasn’t Yowza. And I’m just about to leave, it’s a couple hours before I’m leaving, and I talk to J.J. and he’s like “Aw dude, you’ve got to find a better name than what you’ve got.” It was a good name, but still, it was very specific to coupons and saving money, and it was too much. Businesses out there need help, but they do not all want to be known as a discounter. That’s a segment that is thriving right now, but then when we get past this time in the economy, retailers want to go back to doing business the way they’re doing it and have been successful in for awhile. They’ll still offer things, they’ll still have coupons and offers out there. But we wanted a generic name, something that we could put on as we expand in this business to other areas. So anyway J.J. says “You need something like Yahoo or Google, something that you can apply to anything. Something like Yowza.” And I’m like what did you just say? And he’s like “Yowza.” So I check it on the computer, I get ahold of August, I get ahold of Rick, search, search, search as quickly as we can over the next forty-five minutes, we buy the domain, and then on the show we announce it. It was insane. And by the way, many arguments had taken place. One of the hardest things in the world is to name a business. I have three kids. My wife and I didn’t argue nearly as much over naming our kids as I did with these guys over naming the business. And the truth is, they were right.

I see on Twitter, one minute you’re talking about Yowza, another minute you’re talking about Heroes, different people following you for different reasons. And then you’ll throw out something like “I just read the craziest shit in a new script of Heroes ever” and since then TV reporters have asked you about that.


It is a tightrope, I have to say, on Twitter. I’m approaching a million people following me on Twitter. So I think there is something for everybody. But at the same time when I blast something out about Yowza, I get that there are people out there going “Okay, enough, I get it. Yowza.” But it’s what I’m doing, you know? And I’m not being paid to do that. This is my business, and I’m excited when a new retailer puts up a new offer. So I think people are tolerating that, and hopefully a lot of people getting excited about it, and I know the retailers are happy that I’m reaching out to so many people. And yet at the same time I have other things that I can talk about. You know, one minute I talk about farting in the car, and the next minute I’m telling you how to save money at Pier 1 or Guitar Center.



So it’s kind of funny. These are very organic, very real tweets. I don’t have an assistant. I don’t have anybody tweeting for me. So I was reading, yet again, another episode, another script had come from the production office to my house. And I read it and I was like man, I just couldn’t believe it. I’m a fan of the show like everybody else, but especially now, going into the fourth year, it takes a lot to get me excited because there have been some really cool moments. The stuff with me and my dad just blew me away the first time I read it. The stuff with Hayden on the table when her chest is open and she’s like “holy shit.” That was a moment I’ll never forget. These are iconic images. And they’ve had two or three of them this year with the scripts already. We’re on episode seven right now, and I’ve had probably about four different moments where I go “Honey get in here, you gotta read this” and I tell my wide exactly what’s going on. And it has pertained to my character. At the end of season three, Parkman was called upon to switch the memories from one character to another, the brains basically, everything that was in on brain, from Sylar to Nathan, and it didn’t go cleanly. And I was warned of that from Tim Krane, he said “If you think that this happened without a hitch, you’ve got another think coming. And you basically have Sylar in your head. You’re the only one that can see him, he won’t leave you alone, and he wants his body back.” And it is really, really cool because of where they’ve taken this.



I’m a huge fan of the genre. It’s really a difficult genre, I think, when you come out of the gate so big as Heroes did, to sustain. And these guys, Tim Krane and Dennis, all the writers, they’re doing such an amazing job of staying one step ahead of the audience yet not talking down to the audience, not making it so confusing that they’re like “What?” There are moments when I get a call from my seventy-four year old father and he’s like “I don’t understand what’s going on this week” and I’m like hey pop, don’t worry about it, it’ll all make sense soon. But that happens with any show. It’s exciting when I’m in the thick of it, I’m acting it. I’ve acted seven episodes already and yet I’m still excited. And so I love that about Twitter. And it’s a tease, and it’s not fair. But I can follow it up with talking to someone like you and I can say well just wait til you see. I mean the guy kidnaps my baby to get his body back. He’ll do anything to do that. And his reach is only in, so far, that he can talk to me. No one else can hear him. He’s like a devil on my shoulder, and I have to ignore him and live my life. And by the way, my character has taken an oath of you could say celibacy when it comes to using his power. He refuses to use his power because it causes nothing but heartache. So for the first few episodes I’m like “I’m not using my power,” and you can imagine the situations that Sylar is trying to create to force Parkman to use his power. It’s really cool, and that’s creatively a way of getting into manipulating my story arc that I never would have seen coming.



Heroes is going to end someday, House is going to end someday, and those aren’t things that you and your bandmates have control over. But you can keep doing Band From TV as long as you want to. Is that something you think you’ll keep doing until you’re old and grey?


Most of us are already old and grey. Hugh Laurie uses a walker. I don’t know if people know that [laughs]. I’m so lucky to have these guys in my life, and so generously wanting to donate their time. It takes a lot of work, man. You don’t just show up and say a few lines. This is like rehearsal after rehearsal, and you’ve got to fly.



It costs a lot of money to get ten people from here to the Bahamas to perform and back. The hotel puts us up when we get there, but that flight can eat away all the charity money. And a company like ExpressJet, they said no, we love what you’re doing, we’ll fly you. So it’s that kind of thing that fuels us. Everybody loves the idea. Everybody love what we’re doing. The DVD is selling well on Amazon.com, it’s called Hogging All The Covers. All the proceeds the band makes goes to charity.



Every time I get a letter from the Epilepsy Foundation of America, from CURE, from Save The Children, from Talk About It, this charity I started. Any time I get a letter saying thank you for your ten thousand dollars, thank you for your twenty thousand dollars, it’s like how can you stop? There’s no way. The last place people are putting their money right now, and not rightfully so but you’ve got to take care of yourself first, is charities. Charities are suffering more than anything else. So to create a product, to create a revenue stream for these charities is so important. And I’m so proud of it, I can’t even begin to tell you. It’s selfish on many levels, I have to admit, because I love playing music, the thrill of being on stage as a drummer on stage and singing and playing with my friends is beyond anything. But also, my son has epilepsy. And to sit and watch him have a seizure where I have no control whatsoever over what’s happening, I have to wait thirty seconds until he stops shaking, is terrifying. And I’m a control freak like everybody else. So when I can go out and do something, and make a real difference where I control what’s happening. And there’s fifty million people around the world that have epilepsy, and I know I’m helping in some way with TalkAboutIt.org and with the band. It’s something that I’m never gonna stop. We love playing together. So as long as House is a hit, he will have a band to play with. Once that show goes off the air, I don’t care about them [laughs]. They can go play in some supper club somewhere, I don’t care. You’re not in Band From TV unless you’ve got a hit show.



So after House is done you’re going solo, right? Grunberg From TV?


That’s right, exactly. Man From TV.

TalkAboutIt.org struck a chord with me personally, because if you want me to talk about it I’ll talk about it, eight years ago I was in a Wendy’s and I had what may have been a seizure or may not have been, because I fell and hit my head and woke up three days later. They did all kinds of tests and finally came back and said we don’t know what’s wrong with you. If you have another one we’ll say you’re epileptic and put you on medication, and if you don’t, you’re not. And it’s not something that I would really want to go tell anyone.


Yeah, there’s a stigma that’s attached and it’s inherent to seizures. It’s such a mystery. It’s such a scary thing, first of all, when you see someone having a seizure. But also it’s so unexplained and weird. When a doctor tells you, and I’ve had this experience and now you have, when a doctor says “Eh, we don’t know what happened.” That’s insane. That’s like, what do you mean you don’t know what happened? Where’ the pill?

Two or more unexplained seizures and you get the label of having epilepsy. It is something I can completely understand people not wanting to talk about it. You talk about it in the workplace and suddenly you become uninsurable.



My son, we tell his teachers, when he grows up and has a job he’s got to let everybody know because if he has a seizure, everybody needs to know it’s okay, you’re gonna be fine. And that’s the part that I’m trying to get across, is we should be talking about epilepsy in the same way that we talk about AIDS or cancer or anything, openly and not be afraid to talk about it. Because then people will donate their time, their money, and we’ll find a cure. It’s just a really tough not to crack. And I think I’m making a difference. I really do. You go to the website and you see all these people that you’re familiar with, that you like, and that you’ve grown up with, and you go okay, if Jack Black’s talking about it now, it’s okay, I can talk about it.

Season four of Heroes debuts tonight on NBC. Yowza is available in the App Store. Band From TV has live performances in October and November.