LMFAO interview

iProng Magazine chats with electronic hip hop duo LMFAO about their hit song I’m In Miami Bitch and the serious art of being silly…

interview by Bill Palmer

LMFAO can’t help but get labeled as a party band. Maybe because their current radio hit “I’m In Miami Bitch” is about partying in South Beach. Perhaps because their album is called Party Rock. Or maybe just because the name of their band is LMFAO. But while Redfoo and Sky Blu don’t seem to mind the “party” label, the son and grandson of Motown founder Berry Gordy offered up a surprisingly serious discussion of their music and why having fun is hard work.



You’re based out of Los Angeles, so what led you to write a song about Miami?



Redfoo: It’s a traveler’s song. I feel like it was originally meant for people traveling to Miami. So that’s what you say when you’re there, when you’re traveling. “I’m in Miami!” You’re excited. We actually never went to Miami before we wrote the song. We heard tales, we heard stories. The main thing with the WMC. and DJs that went the year before, were telling us how great it was and how the girls had their booties popping and how everybody was drinking all day, and they’d play all night, you know what I mean? And so we wrote the song imagining that this is how we would feel when we were there. And this is what we would say when someone called us from home, “Hey man, come down to the local billiards room and let’s shoot some pool,” we’d say “Hey, I’m in Miami, bitch. Can’t make it.”

I’m sure you’ve spent time in clubs in LA and wherever else. Did any of your own club experiences manage to make it into that song?


It’s factual in the sense that when we drive around, we often say “Hey, you look kind of cute,” you know, we like to scream out and say “hey” and we like to play naked twister. Do we play naked twister all the time? No. But it was more of, really, we put together the song really to get chicks. It was more of this our tool, because we made it, we put out number on the CD, we were saying all these things, “it’s morning time and the girl’s still there,” that was what we wanted to happen. So we figured if we put it in a song, girls would get used to, hey, this happens to them all the time. And it did happen. We played naked twister the first night.



So it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy?


Exactly. It’s almost like the secret to where you just dream about what you want, and so we actually brought a twister board, and we played the first night. Because it’s something, now it’s in a song, it’s something that we do, it’s not weird.



We also drank nothing but Red Bull and vodka. And we had done that before. That’s nothing new. We love Red Bull and vodka. So we just put our whole character into the song, and this is who we are.


We all know what LMFAO stands for, but I’ve got to ask where you got the idea to use that as the name for your band.


We were looking for names when we first decided we wanted to become a group, as most bands do, the first step. And we came up with a name that was, we felt it was good, our friends didn’t like it, our peers didn’t like it, we came up with the name Sexy Dudes. We thought it was silly and right on point at the same time. We were checking with friends. No one liked it. So we were chatting with Sky’s grandma, actually Sky was chatting and I was just doing my thing, and he’s asking everybody so he asked his grandma on iChat, “what do you think of our name Sexy Dudes?” And she just simply put “LMFAO, are you serious?”

And then he said “look what she put,” you know? Then I looked at it and I saw that, and while you’re searching for names you’re looking at any word combination, anything, and when it said LMFAO, I was like oh, that could be our name. And the reason why were were gravitated toward LMFAO is because we felt, and still feel, and hopefully the world feels, is that we’re funny individuals. And we wanted funny to be in our name. It reminds us of our mission all the time. We make music, some songs are serious, La La La is a serious song, but we live life pointing out the humorous things about life. That’s like our fuel. That’s what keeps us going and happy all the time.


Now a lot of people say well why not LOL? Well LOL had been in the lexicon for five years before LMFAO, you know what I’m saying? LMFAO was the latest one, it was the evolution of LOL. LMAO is right before the F, and so that had been out. But not a lot of people were using the F, so we felt that was still kind of new. And then using ROFL would have just been ridiculous.



I saw the MySpace video where you’re playing chess with the CFO of Interscope Records where it’s hilarious. Do you guys sit around trying to think up ways you can take something that would be serious thing and turn it around to be funny?


We’re fascinated with comedy. We’re fascinated with skits. We love South Park. We love Curb Your Enthusiasm. We love The Office, the original version from the UK. We love Saturday Night Live. We were making skits before we were LFMAO. So naturally, any time we do something on camera, on TV, we both studied improv, we are doing our best to make it funny.



And we use the iPhones. For instance we just did something with Tap Tap Revenge. They needed a video cause we’re featured in their game, the new update of their iPhone app, and we just shot it with the iPhone and emailed it. If it’s under thirty seconds, you can email the video. And we just did a couple takes, shot it tot them, they loved it, and boom boom. Instead of using a Flip, a lot of people use the Flip, but you can’t email it.



I know you guys are close in age, but you’re still uncle and nephew. Does that ever come into account where you guys are working together and you pull rank?


Redfoo: I’ve been doing music a little longer, and used to have my own record company label doing independent stuff. So a lot of the stuff is an experience thing. I know a lot of the history of the business behind stuff in music. And so a lot of maybe the pulling the rank is just based on that. And whoever has more experience in a certain thing and knows more history, you know, usually gets to pick the decision. There’s a lot of stuff that he knows more about than I do.



Sky Blu: My dad always taught me a great leader, he knows when to follow, you know what I’m saying? And so me and Foo, for the most part we both are leaders. But I trust what he thinks, and even if I don’t understand it, I’ll be okay, we’ll do it your way because I trust in what you got upstairs. So that’s what it really is. I learn from him. Everything that I know today in this business I’ve learned from him.



Redfoo: And also Sky, since he does these things he doesn’t know a lot of stuff, he has a naive, sometimes dreaming thing, and often times his ideas are way more out of the box because he’ll say something real crazy that we end up doing because he doesn’t know. And that’s often better, is to have a more naive perspective.



If you’d told me that I was going to be talking with a couple of guys from the Gordy family, I would have bet that your music would have some kind of Motown influence. Is it fair to say that LFMAO is actually a reaction in the opposite direction?


Sky Blu: Actually it’s kind of the same model, because they just took dance music and put love songs over it, and most of our songs is about relationships and things like that. So we just took the dance music of today, and just melodies and vocals over it that have to do with situations of our past and things like that.



Redfoo: That’s exactly it. We’re taking the philosophies from Motown. For instance, “logic is the boss,” that’s a quote from Berry Gordy’s “To Be Loved” book. That’s what he did, is he made logic the boss. So we’re taking the philosophies, the psychology, the work ethic, but the music does not sound the same. But the principles are the same. At least the successful ones.



It’s funny how you guys have such a party atmosphere on Party Rock, but when it comes down to it, you are looking at it from a pretty serious angle.


Redfoo: Being silly is a very serious thing because you have guidelines and rules. There’s party rules. For instance when we get to the club there’s like a set of policies and procedures.



I was talking with Nic Adler from The Roxy and he was telling me how excited he was to have you involved in the Sunset Strip Music Festival because of the way you guys progressed up the ranks of the Roxy. How much are you looking forward to that?


Redfoo: Our third live show ever was at On The Rox, which Nic owns, it’s the upstairs to The Roxy. So he gave us a chance, we actually filled in for a group called Hypercrush. And then we did that five times in a row and he gave us a shot at The Roxy. And he has always been a supporter. Actually he let us use The Roxy for our first video, Miami, for free. So really, that is our home stage. That is our home town. The Sunset Strip is where it’s all at.

Party Rock is available in iTunes now. Learn more at MySpace.com/LMFAO