I am the Dad in the "Oven Kid" videos... AMA!

How an earth did you come up with such a crazy idea? The while oven music thing.

The song we parodied was "Freaks" by Timmy Trumpet (Aussie DJ). The week we made the video, that song had been played over and over on local Brisbane stations. I play trombone, so I had a go at playing the hook while Toby searched the kitchen for the classic doof-doof sound. Pots & pans just didn't cut it, so he tried the oven door...

What did you eat for your last meal ?

My son actually cooked dinner tonight; we ate just 30 minutes ago. He made a mixture of chicken, pasta, bacon & egg sauce.

I have been looking for a good egg sauce. Can you get a recipe from him?

Ha! I'll ask him when he wakes up for school. I know it has lots of cheese...

How many tries did it take to capture that?

We can't remember whether it was our 4th or 5th take. I cracked one note real bad the first time, then the trays inside the oven rattled loudly on another take. We're glad it took us a few goes, because on the last one, Toby decided to end with this sudden head-flick, and it became our favourite part of the clip :)

Haha. Great to hear :). Best of luck for future projects

Thanks very much.

Has your daily life changed in any way?

In the first month of the video going viral, sure (November 2014). The Ellen Show phoned us, morning TV in Australia filmed live from our kitchen, TFI Friday in London filmed live from our kitchen... we still get recognised occasionally, but the 'oven kid' has just started hitting his growth spurt, so in another year, he won't look much like the kid in the video.

I read somewhere that the "mama" was actually home, in fact she was the one shooting.

Is that correct?

No, 'Mama' was sitting on the lounge chair laughing at us. My daughter Jessica filmed the duet on her Canon.

So she was home...

Uh huh! :)

Does your son play any instrument, if he does which one?

Thanks for this question. Toby plays the French horn and trumpet, and is teaching himself guitar, drums and keyboard. He loves to sing as well.

But obviously the first instrument he learned to play was Oven

Well, he learned drum kit when he was about 9, so that gave him good rhythm for the oven a year later.

French horn master race, represent!

I salute you!

Is the French horn blue? And stolen? Some guy keeps steeling the blue french horn from my restaurant. I was wondering if that's you

Ask Ted...

Are you worried about damaging your oven door?

This is the last 'oven' video we ever recorded. It was in public, with a portable oven on wheels. You'll see some damage in this clip! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QM2ZlRftCWo

A god amongst men... How long did it take to make that tune? I tried it myself as I used to play trombone, and it's fairly difficult and fast.

EDIT: how long did it take to get the tune down?

It's all just lip work, there's very little slide movement needed (e.g., you can do almost the whole hook in 6th position, with only a few 3rds, 4ths & 5ths). The low register gets some trombonists...I'm lucky there, because tuba is my main brass instrument, so my lips prefer the lowest notes! It only took me a few minutes of working out the notes, then we were ready to record (with oven) within half an hour.

Ok! Thank you for your viral sensation.

Our pleasure.

Would you rather fight 100 duck sized horses or one horse sized duck?

The horse-sized duck, every time

hi there! what other instruments do you play? any knowledge about the bassoon? (that last question was a joke but you can answer it if you want) also you and your kid are cool!

Hi! I don't pretend to be brilliant on lots of instruments, but I can 'fake' my way on quite a few... piano, trumpet, trombone, tuba, saxophone, flute, clarinet, French horn. Love playing rums & percussion. I suck at guitar and violin.

well hey, that’s a music teachers job right? thank you for answering me!

No problem! And yes, I'm currently the Director of a Music Conservatorium in New South Wales (Australia). I get to play a lot of instruments in my job.

i’m jealous! i want to have a job somewhere in music when i get older, as i’m pretty young.

Keep practising, you can get there! When I was a boy, we lived in the country and only had an old out-of-tune German piano. I played that every day from age 5 to 17 until I moved out of home.

wow that’s insane! i’m in my school marching band so i practice every single day. i hope my practice pays off like yours did.

Stick with it!

How do trumpets make so many notes with just three buttons?

(I'm totally stealing this question from Pete Holmes, but it's been puzzling me since I heard him ask it.)

A trumpet can play six different notes with different combinations of just three valves (e.g. all three down, all three up, just the first one down, just the 2nd one down, etc). Then when you want to go higher, you adjust your lips (people think of it as 'tightening' but it's also to do with the speed of the air-stream) and you move into the next range of notes, whereby you use similar combinations of the three valves, etc etc

Thank you, I didn't realize you changed your lips to change octaves!

Lips and air-stream / pressure

Do you play any other instruments and can we hope for a sequel video?

We actually made six videos in all. Try searching for "When Mom Isn't Home" on youtube and you'll see them pop up. This is one of our faves :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPXVaJKvSzY

Did you move house? This oven is different!

Yes, we've been renting homes for a while, and have moved around a lot with my work.

Was it fun for you?

Once the viral aspect died down, it became fun. In the first fortnight of the clip going crazy, we had weird people contact us, wanting to manage Toby, wanting to harm him, wanting to sue us (?) etc. And of course, you learn to put up with the trolls in the comment section. It has been 90% fun, sure.

Did you used to host America's funniest home videos? You look quite like Tom Bergeron

Ha! People have told me I look like several other people, never had Tom before.

How was it to perform with Timmy?

Timmy has actually been very nice to us; he once rang Toby on his birthday, and then invited us to join him on stage at a resort on New Year's Eve, playing in front of 4000 people. He's a brilliant DJ.

That's really awesome, thanks for answering and thanks for the AMA!

No problem at all. Bit hard to sort out the time difference, just woken up here in Australia (6.50am), but it was a pleasure answering some questions.

Hey my cousin showed me your video and I found it hilarious, but can I ask... would you ever consider doing one of the following renditions in your glorious style? - Rick astley - never gonna give you up - Game of thrones theme - Ghostbusters! :DD thanks, youre awesome. A living meme.

We actually tried a Rick-roll version of 'Never Gonna Give You Up' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7g_4lMMeFbs

Do you get recognized on the street? Does one simply become famous from infamous short vids like these? Pardon me if you have had popular vids in the past!

I think it's because the video and image got shared by so many other you tubers & websites... for a while, it was showing up on our own Facebook feed a few times a week. We don't get recognised much anymore.

Thanks for the reply! Made any money off the views.

We did for the first 6 months, then in May 2015 a representative from Sony (and a heap of other claimants) contacted us and pointed out that we had recorded copyrighted material. No more soup for us.

Would you ever do something like this again?

I think it's had its run now, so we've retired the idea, although we would like to do one more oven video, when Toby is around 16 years old (in three years time) and about 6 foot tall, just to show the 'oven kid' grown up.

Hello! Has Jess making videos on YouTube, and being successful at it, changed how you all interact? Were you supportive in the beginning?

Jess' success has now taken her to Los Angeles and a new life for her, so it has changed the family dynamic quite a lot. We still chat regularly, and we watch her channel a few times a week. She has inspired Toby (oven kid) to start his blog / blog channel.

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Because Toby is taller and is now a teen (you know, with cool hair and stuff, just ask him) he doesn't get recognised as much. One time though, we went to Movie World (here in Australia) and we had a heap of 'selfie' requests. Generally, it's just once or twice a week, but slowing down now.

On a personal level, what are some of your favorite films?

Fave films... mixed bag. Dark Knight Rises & Inception Dead Poet's Society Strictly Ballroom (Aussie film) The Man From Snowy River (another Aussie film)

Do you plan on making other youtube videos?

There's one more that we wouldn't mind making, but generally no, we've retired the oven videos. Toby has his own channel where he is starting to blog and make music videos, and I occasionally post clips of me playing covers on piano. Our daughter Jess (channel: Jess and Gabriel) has made a business out of online videos, so we keep track of her progress now.

Did you expect all of the fame from the video?

The fame thing has really died down, but we didn't expect it to blow up as quickly as it did.

First off, your son is my Hero, if I am correct, he's around 13-15 like myself, and I have to say your video made my day and still continues to every time I see it.

1.)I saw someone ask what your son plays, but you play any other instruments?

2.) Where did you come up for the idea, I know it was a rendition of "Freaks", but how did you think that up?

3.) How often do you guys mention that or get it mentioned in your lives?

Yes, Toby is 13. Glad you love our video! 1) I play piano, most of the brass instruments, and percussion mostly. 2) We listened to the song and thought, it's really just a low brass pattern with a doof-doof drum beat 3) It's slowed down now, but for 6 months from Oct 2014 to mid 2015, we would hear about it every day.

what is your proof?

Happy to give you a shout-out on our Facebook channel, mattsucksballz

No one cares. Why are you here?

I realise nobody cares. Now please let me get back to answering the other 17 questions that have just come through.