EDIT: headed to rehearsal now, thanks for stopping by--high fives from ny!! will check back in later in case there are belated questions we miss

If you know us, it's probably because you've seen an episode of "Auto-Tune the News" or "Songify This!" Including the Double Rainbow Song, the Bed Intruder Song, and 8 years of other YouTube videos we've posted to /schmoyoho and /thegregorybrothers.

But we just made a new, very different thing! It's called Song Voyage, and it premieres today, Wednesday, December 14 on YouTube. Catch new episodes every other week on our YouTube and Facebook channels, as well as The STATION by MAKER YouTube and Facebook channels. Each episode follows us as we travel to a new country – Australia to Japan, Mongolia, the Philippines, South Korea, and Vietnam – where we bumble through the native customs while writing a song and recording a music video with a local musician. You can also download all the new original songs from the series on iTunes.

Find the first episode of Song Voyage here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYxP4z2Heks&feature=youtu.be

get all of our songs for $2/month here: https://www.patreon.com/gregorybrothers

If you miss us here, holler at us later on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram Ask us anything!

michael is /u/shmoyoho

evan is /u/evanisloveevanislife

andrew is /u/crazydakka

sarah is taking care of her and evan's infant twins

Proof: https://twitter.com/gregorybrothers/status/808790382066733056

Comments: 186 • Responses: 33  • Date: 

Dusty_Dionne20 karma

Do you plan on continuing auto tuning the news during this current administration? Additionally your auto tuning about the legalization of pot is brilliant.

crazydakka12 karma

yes, we do! all the videos we made in the SONGIFY 2016 we see as being part of the series really...but excited to go back to Songify the News where we have to weave together a couple pieces. // did you see Junkie Einstein's non-autotuned take on legalization? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Urx21kpsB40

crazydakka19 karma

hey folks, michael, evan, & andrew (me) are gonna be answering questions - michael is /u/shmoyoho, evan is /u/evanisloveevanislife

evanisloveevanislife13 karma

i'm going rogue with my own proof

crazydakka8 karma

bold

ElPlywood2 karma

How many Sriracha shots did you guys do before this AMA

crazydakka5 karma

the first episode of Song Voyage is about Vietnam so we thought we had to have banh mi for lunch

CharlevilleQueijo10 karma

What is your favourite songify that you've ever made? Do the most popular ones happen to be your favourites too?

crazydakka23 karma

songify the news 3 was a highlight for me because all of the topics kinda wove together and then we made it into this wild fugue, and also because joe biden talks about telling his wife to fire shotgun blasts off a balcony. but like michael said, hard to pick favs even though i kinda did. (STN 5 bonus for redditors: includes Edward Snowden)

PneumaticPtarmigan8 karma

In the correct political climate, when do you foresee one of our congressmen coming back home and building a turtle fence?

CireArodum5 karma

When the rattlesnake fence lobby stops blocking it?

PneumaticPtarmigan7 karma

I dunno if a snake can go over a fence or not...

crazydakka7 karma

REDACTED MANATEE JOKE

crazydakka4 karma

why build a fence for turtles when you can build a fence for men? /u/PneumaticPtarmigan is referencing Pete Hoekstra in Auto-Tune the News #10, one of best eps ever https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qizNQKzatXA

thedangerman0076 karma

I love your song "Hello Again" (and of course dig the guitar playing by Corduroy Cat).

I get a distinct Beatles vibe (maybe because of Hello Goodbye) - but maybe it's just me.

Can you talk about what influenced the creation of the song?

shmoyoho10 karma

thanks! like the rest of humankind i'm a huge fan of the band The Beatles and the song Black Beatles. (i'm assuming you mean Hello Again is like the song Black Beatles. /s /jk /lol )

some of my favorite songs to write are the ones that are harmonically complex but melodically/lyrically simple like that one--and writing in a different style than the usual poppy stuff is like exercising a different muscle. what i'm trying to say is that we now have disproportionately muscular thighs.

BUT I DIGRESS- the inspiration for me was the melody flying into my (& andrew's) head and then staring into the middle distance and thinking about old friends / more-than-friendses

crazydakka6 karma

i had written the first verse of this i think on the way back from a TERRIBLE TRIP to JFK International airport, and after it languished for a while because i wrote this really bad chorus to it Michael volunteered to help me turn the song that had started well but turned sour back into being sweet, which imho is really hard to do.

MaxAlphaBeta6 karma

So, did someone finally call Sean Hannity ?

crazydakka8 karma

no

crazydakka9 karma

oh wait oh wait, nm, someone did, here is a video of it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9de0npGME6E

kilpa6 karma

Hey guys, big fan (from Australia - currently wearing nothing but my jocks)

I'm curious at the start were you more of a 'serious' band, and was there any tension in the band when you took a more comedic route (particularly as the comedic stuff took off)?

Cheers!

crazydakka7 karma

we do have an EP from 2009 of non-autotuned songs. it did not cause a lot of friction when we switched over to doing YT stuff, because we found it very fun. we have all kept working on other musical projects too tho.

the australia episode of Song Voyage will be up in a couple weeks! it's awesome.

shazzam325 karma

Does any part of the Milk Thug mythos have some basis in reality? How does Micheal really feel about skim milk?

Stoked for the Song Voyage, looks awesome!

shmoyoho7 karma

yes-

(1) i despise skim milk; get it out of my face

(2) when the milk is gone, i feel like my spirit and power is drained

so, yeah, there's enough there for a tv movie to say 'based on a truethingmaybelolyeahrightayyy

crazydakka7 karma

is skim milk even milk

cwcoleman4 karma

What is your favorite sport? Why is it /r/ultimate?

crazydakka4 karma

first of all chris, big ups on having your reddit username be your name that is BOLD. 2nd, my fav sport is ultimate. 3rd, because there is no other sport in which the object of the sport flies using bernoulli's principle. i haven't played in a while though because i have broken both my knees so it is not so smart to run a lot. :'(

evanisloveevanislife4 karma

bc all 3 of us play ultimate

crazydakka6 karma

we can wreck some chumps in a 3v3 pick-up park game

paulgp3 karma

Do the Gregory Brothers have a preferred board game to play together?

crazydakka3 karma

evan & I have been known to play Dominion against each other on cross country flights. if we are in a bigger family setting Anomia is a big winner.

brainscraps3 karma

What producers and musicians do you love and/or draw influence from in crafting those organically raised, unbearably torrid beats?

crazydakka7 karma

we check out the iTunes charts to see what current sounds are like a lot. if we're writing something specific will try to match sounds/vibe. if we want to hear what the charts will sound like in 2 years we just listen to Kanye's latest album. // personally at home been spinning Frank Ocean's Blond/e, Childish Gambino's new record, Sufjan on repeat.

ElPlywood3 karma

What was the rough timeline for that episode? Planning, writing, shooting? A month? 6 weeks? How'd you find the two rappers and the motorcycle guy?

crazydakka6 karma

we shot this episode in 5 or 6 days. the whole trip took was a little under 6 weeks to 6 countries to make 6 episodes. we were able to do it so fast mostly because of great planning by our fantastic co-creators, Portal A, who produced the show. They were in touch with all the musicians in advance so we were able to plan the song some in advance as well. Although there were lots of hotel recording sessions. Gotta call the front desk and ask for extra pillows.

ElPlywood3 karma

holy shit that's a crazy schedule

you must've gone through 17 to 34 pairs of flip flops

crazydakka3 karma

tbh don't wear flops when you're carrying camera gear and running around, but also i own awesome flip flops that can take a lot of wear and tear

Freddicus3 karma

Huge fan! I think you're all very talented, and I'm glad you're around doing what you're doing! I always wondered... Do you all live together, or do you just have an "office"? Thanks!

crazydakka9 karma

Michael & I used to live together in the apartment you see in our earliest videos. We all used to live together, except for Sarah, because we didn't know her yet, when we were tiny brothers in VA. and now evan & sarah live together because they are married. but the big loft you see in our videos is our office.

droo463 karma

Do you feel like your political leanings influence the music to a large degree?

And what news show would you say is the most neutral?

crazydakka7 karma

the news show that is the most neutral is c-span 3, closely followed by c-span 2, closely followed by c-span. // our political leanings probably influence what clips we pick? but we are usually trying to just pick news stuff that has the absolute value of ridiculousness, we not trying to mock one side or the other.

metalfreakneo3 karma

Oh, I forgot to ask most important questions: 1) Has Senator Einstein got his right to consume his God given pharmaceuticals back? (And how did his dentist's appointment go?)

2) Is the gorilla still angry over "the machines"?

crazydakka7 karma

i'm pretty sure that Senator Einstein doesn't care about the law of the land, and if arrested on possession charges, would argue his god-given right to do whatever he wanted so persuasively that the jury would whole-heartedly go in on jury nullification and let him off scot-free.

martinswifeishot3 karma

I remember a video where you songifyed a martin luther king jr speech but i cant find it anywhere, is it still up?

crazydakka2 karma

we had to take it down :'(

here is a reupload: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbmUXhZlYHc

notlibvalance2 karma

What was the Comedy Central show you did a pilot for w/ Scharpling about?

crazydakka3 karma

it was a sort of day in the life look at The Gregory Brothers pre-youtube success - making videos, working odd jobs, playing music. we all lived together in this amazing portlandia-esque loft that now weirdly i live right next to in real life. Scharpling was awesome to work with and we were, of course, bummed it didn't get picked up, but very proud of what we made. I still call into the best show sometimes, but AP Mike will never let me through. One bonus from pilot is we made this video for it and then just posted it to our channel when it didn't get picked up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4DAkW4VwfA

notlibvalance3 karma

It sounds like it was really just a version of the Monkees in a way, just for a Youtube generation. Also tell Mike you'll give off the URL to APMike.Bandcamp.com and he'll let you through.

crazydakka3 karma

that is often how we pitched it - "the monkees for the year 2012." i think we can't crack thru to AP Mike because Dudio has turned him against us too hard. We grew up in Virginia with Dudio, so we know the true story behind his real nickname, "slaw dog," and he's told AP Mike all these terrible lies about us to make sure that AP Mike will never let our calls through.

arockbiter2 karma

Where's the gold at?

crazydakka3 karma

i would like to know where the gold's at.

nbafan75752 karma

Who are you excited about collaborating with in the future? Any big plans for future songifications?

crazydakka2 karma

we working on one now we tryna get out before Christmas. it's gonna be fun and different. don't wanna spoil the surprise.

CireArodum2 karma

Love you guys. Einstein 2020.

I've gotten the impression that there is a big community of YouTubers in LA. I remember a few YouTube personalities talk about moving there. It's nice to have you guys and others (Barely Productions comes to mind) in NYC. Would you say there is a "community" of YouTubers here?

Thanks!

crazydakka4 karma

if Einstein runs in 2020, will be running to the left or right of Donald Trump? can't tell anymore. There is a great community of YouTubers in NYC, and although it's smaller than the one in LA, we love living here!

Garacious1 karma

What do you take/smoke before making an auto-tune?

crazydakka3 karma

i suggest watching 10+ hours in a row of c-span / fox news / msnbc / donald trump rallies to put yourself in an altered state

SullyGee1 karma

Hey guys! I had the pleasure of meeting you back in 2011 on the Digitour, and you were all so kind! Anyway, what was it like working with Weird Al on the third debate song?

crazydakka3 karma

it was basically a dream come true because he is a hero to all musicians and all comedians. he was an incredible pro, knocked the singing & the video out beyond anything we could've expected. we also owe Nice Peter of ERB a huge shoutout because he shot it all because it had to be done in LA.

politikamusic1 karma

  1. Merry Holidays

  2. Super excited about the new show, just about to watch it!

  3. Are you aware that "Nobody's drinking Pepto-Bismol right now" is the single greatest edit you've ever done?

  4. Crunchy Nut - thoughts?

crazydakka2 karma

  1. thx

  2. enjoy!

  3. donna brazile talking about emails making me shed spontaneous tears

  4. almond?

politikamusic1 karma

Tears of nostalgia, joy or deep sadness?

crazydakka2 karma

sadness

Freddicus1 karma

For collabs, who usually reaches out to whom? (e.g. Darren Criss, JonTron, Blondie, etc.)

crazydakka2 karma

it has gone both ways! sometimes we find out that someone is a fan of ours, sometimes we run into someone and fanboy all over them and they somehow agree to be in a video. as an exception, actually, one time someone slipped on a banana peel and just FELL into one of our videos.

jurksoffenhye1 karma

Was at Bonnaroo '11 and saw you guys perform live. Unfortunately the projectors showing the synced viral videos seemed to burn out and never recovered throughout your performance. First of all, kudos on playing your show regardless (the show must go on!) as the music still was spot on. I always felt like I missed out on an absolutely genius intramedia experience. Are there plans on making a live show like that on tour or maybe as a Netflix special?

crazydakka1 karma

oh man. this was a disastrous performance. when we showed up to perform at the Comedy stage, which was basically all stand-up comics other than us, the sound guy was really surprised that we had instruments and backing tracks. there were almost no monitors on stage, and because it was inside a tent, there was this insane reverb and slap back and anything we heard had this weird delay and echo on it. basically we couldn't hear anything and then the video projector and backing track broke. whoops. we still do this show live a couple times a year, mostly at VidCon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-IGe-jWdk8