The Lonely Island On "Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping" | BUILD Series

ever since I was born I was dope Connor currently is 32 people on his personal favor oh sure connor surrounds himself with people who are agreeable Connor did you take a in the Anne Frank House do not go in there a smidge Sarah is my best friend Maximus he's like the closest thing I've ever had like a little brother if I'd like a mute brother that was hella scaly counter second album drops today out of four possible stars Rolling Stone has given it the emoji so mixed let's call it mixed reviews the record labels concerned about tanky sales parties getting into stage gimmicks now no what is it that's your new head check this out Lisa you're in I feel the real showmanship has been lost to modern pop music I'm trying to brand new magic trick Connor don't worry buddy you were up there for like ten seconds it's a third of the way to Mars Connor we've talked about this thirty Seconds to Mars is the name of a band it's not a fact ash and I have been hanging out for about six months now she's the total package I see a Wednesday those real-world yes is I see oh good are you invited the Brad what's going on will you marry me yes are you okay I've been in this situation before I think I got these guys from wolves now let's get out of it hi hi that's deafening that's literally deafening applause guys if we are deafening I don't want to hear we were saying that this must really suck for all the people that are just in cubicles over there in their offices like every day just screaming and people answering questions this all day every day just this happening usually the crowds don't scream this loudly for the guests let's be friends yeah we went fishing and we caught something let's keep it a little more respectful people are kind of code congratulations on the film's a film guys it's a I was complimenting you backstage but that's meaningless because it's not in public so I'll say it in public it's a hell of a piece of work cuz you thought you liked it I saw it I enjoyed looking I will say it again I endorsed this film Josh Horowitz for pop star yes Oh before we get into the film at hand I know there's a cloud I feel like hanging over us here today we were talking backstage there's a beef brewing and I know yeah I want to talk about it that's right what's going on well I was on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and I played a fun game with Jimmy and Gigi Hadid and Bryce Harper who was supposedly a stand-up guy and then cheated multiple times in the game so if he's out there a few whoa it's like he didn't understand the basic rules of we're calling it Beaver gate because the clue was eager-beaver and he got jimmy to say beaver and then what yes and moved on this is how badly and he wanted to win the game on the tonight champ I just felt bad for my teammate GG who was upset try to focus on the positive this wonderful film yeah let's let's talk about this movie because it seems like the perfect expression of everything that is lonely island it seems like everything you were put on this planet to do is in this film that's why we made it well in all seriousness like how did it come about was it were you looking for a subject for the next film to tackle or was this sort of just an idea that was you were seeing the pop you meant trees out there and saying we should do something with that form first of all thank you for calling them poppy men trees because that's what we've been calling them for the past 10 years there's been so many documentaries that are like puff-piece documentaries that are clearly from like the band's camp like it whether it's like Katy Perry or just favor or JLo or Beyonce they're great films but but we were like this is almost like a new genre of film for for which us to spoof and that's what like that was sort of the original amputee really would just wanted to make a movie that we could put our music into and that was the original kind of impetus work and then I had a meeting with Judd Apatow and it was just a general and he kind of pitched that idea back to me and I was like oh that we've been discussing that and that was what actually got us writing because he offered to produce it so um let's set the scene a little bit I mean we just showed the trailer but to give a sense of sort of the world that you guys have created here we have Conner of course Conner for real with the four in the middle that's important but there's there's a great history to Connor and his associates the style boys can you give a little sense of sort of where they come from and what their background was yes the backstory on the movie is my character was in a group called the style boys and that was the three of us we were kind of like a rap boyband and then I went solo and my first solo record was massive and it sort of broke up the band and that the movie finds us on the eve of Conor putting out his second solo record yeah in general I mean it seems like the film tackles like every manner of like the music industry today and what's absurd about it like what what makes you laugh of that sort of where we're at in music today whether it's like an aspect of the industry or the publicity machine or types of musicians what's what do you find in particular hysterical that's sort of where we're at in music today I mean we Lampoon at all you know yeah we'll give it a vicious poonam any day of the week we always say that everybody says that Andy it's a normal phrase yeah everybody says like a common saying giving something a vicious Puni okay yeah take that industry music industry's right for a vicious Puni hmm please stop saying that I'll stop it you'll keep hearing it because as I said everybody says oh well is it hard to get like the buy-in of obviously you've worked with a lot of musicians on the digital shorts over the years and the album's um at this point you have enough goodwill where they kind of trust you when you come to them when you come to seal and say I want you to get eaten by wolves in a movie right is he like yeah I'm in or is it we have enough goodwill that they pick up the phone and go let's hear it what are you guys up to now and then we still have to pitch and kind of make people comfortable right yeah it sort of depends on where they are like SIA was just about to release an album which i think is coming out soon I don't know but like but like but so there was a little bit of a hesitation of like is this the right move nothing but like we know but I can be I'm the one who called him and he was pretty mellow about it he was like I just am really focused on finishing my record but then I'm into it let's do it and I wasn't sure if he had even read the scene we weren't sure until he showed up on the day of shooting honestly and even then we we like rehearsed it once and everyone laughed really hard and we were like well if he hadn't read it before he has now and it went great he was really nice is there one in particular that you're surprised you landed in terms of a cameo or a guest star in this film uh well Ringo Starr in it which is crazy Judd Apatow just was like I'm gonna call Ringo Starr really great and he was into it and Mariah Carey came and did a cameo which is really cool for us so I feel like the the general thinking on Mariah is that maybe she's not self-aware of right but that but seeing her appearance in this film makes me think otherwise she really she definitely was and she was very funny and then but like it's kind of the tip of the iceberg there were so many people who did cameos everyone for like nas to like I mean like there was so many people that we were kind of grew up loving so it was like a little I wouldn't say intimidating to be across enough but just it was very exciting to be across from certain people and have them talk about our characters with reverence of like man I love the stuff I grew up listening to them and we're like that's funny because we grew up listening to you actually is the dynamic there is a I enjoyed Conners just sort of manner his voice he's a very kind of a gentle presence of a gentle voice you say he has a little bit of Alicia Keys vibe well I was gonna ask so what that's all that is Andy just doing Alicia Keys the whole time it was at least a first and foremost in your mind yeah mixed with like everyone we grew up with in the Bay Area basically right like Connor says hella as is evident in the trailer um but yeah it was a no brainer in terms of like were the other two members of the band end up you're kind of like in AI characters very pissed off and so he lives on a farm he's not he's he's given up he's off the grid this guy's kind of the Ryan Lewis to his McLemore right yeah but but I've been relegated to the side cuz you know he ends up getting me a giant helmet which you can see in the trailer that it's like sort of a deadmau5 tile helmet so I'm sort of being relegated to the side getting more pissed which is not to say Ryan Lewis has been relegated to the side I think he has exactly what he wants to be doing in that great be willing guy we just sort of I was just using ashamed horned it onto our story yeah and in terms of the song says there's there's obviously an album that goes along with this and there's a ton of songs I would think some that are obviously in the film but maybe some that didn't even make it to the film like how do you do right with a specific like this is this is what kind of a story point we need at this point in the film like what's the process in terms of writing the songs versus contributing to the storyline of the film in the beginning we were just writing songs based on premises that we thought were funny were ideas that were sparked from listening to different beats and then as the writing process went on we started saying you could have a song here that addresses this or is about this and we sort of reworked some songs to fit the story better so a little bit of both it really is sort of an ongoing thing do you have a favorite among the songs each of you yes okay good moving on yeah I want it yeah I want to I don't want to give them away yeah well what was the hardest one so kind of right I mean are they are they difficult I mean do they come naturally once you kind of add the comedic conceit in mind and and the beat or are they we find generally once we have the idea we like they're not really hard to write because that you just are writing a million jokes and then seeing how you can fit them all together yeah um the hard part sometimes you just figure out the right angle on a joke that's treading that line of maybe it's offensive but it's not too offensive its offensive because the characters offensive but not yeah not open offensive offensive offensive offensive right on the fence it's very rare that we have like a song that we've worked on for more than like I mean we work on all of them for more than a week or so but like but to record to from coming up with the idea to recording is usually about like three days to a week I would say and then obviously all of the like you know mixing mastering is all of the process but there's very few songs that we have had where we've worked on them for there's there certain songs some songs are two days sometimes and then they were likely once on over three hours yeah summer what's another if you get 30 days together what's that called a month I believe oh that's when we've had one song that we've worked on for kind of years and that was Spring Break you guys that was in a year is correct me wrong 365 days yes and it's 12 months also Wow which to read - is this what argue 30 look like on the set out normally arms being viciously pruned right yeah he was I don't think that is not that vicious of Pune darling I've been viciously pinned before what was the most vicious spooning on the set of this film was there was there a big disagreement or Pune to use the modern vernacular I mean once again the music industry was really what got the most vicious pruning but as co-directors I would think there must be some some pune it always it changes off who gets the the punning but it's always two against one less vicious pruning more gentle razzing yeah that's fair yeah um let's talk about division of labor a little bit because you guys are the co-directors on the film the three of you collaborated obviously on the writing um once you get on set what does that look like in terms of the the mind meld that is Lonely Island I mean are you kind of someone handling one aspect versus another or what we would trade off like occasionally I would say action and he's a cut and then occasionally he was a cut and I'd say action but then occasionally yeah and this made everybody just crack up we both say act yeah we say once oh and everybody must be laughing in action and then we would say and for you as an actor is it upsetting when you see your co-director is kind of going back and forth like that or do prefer one of them to say action or cut ah I liked it better when a kiva and cut yours a little fast on the cuts yeah yeah um you guys have been collaborating since well you know each other since what you were 13 14 years old what am I getting the math right there approximately um so if I looked at your first collaborations whatever that looked like versus now is the is the actual kind of discussions the kind of like nature of the way you guys talk to each other that much different what's the biggest difference in the way you guys talk to each other now versus way back when the way we talk to each other like while making a thing or making a thing like like just coming up with like shooting the and coming up with an idea oh ah it's that difference not that different yeah it's like what our shorthand is maybe a little shorter now right yeah we have people to like hold the microphones and Amber's a Jeff that's helpful right but generally it's the same thing as we sit down and in a room and go what do we find funny about what we're gonna make right and sort of just go to town on it yeah yeah and then we just talk about how much money we'll make from it and which we didn't do as much a lot of talk about money yeah what is the ratio of discussing the actual product watch this anytime after we think of a joke I go we have to decide what percentage each of us wrote so we know what percentage of the money today so it takes much longer to write a script because we have to go line by line kind of arbitrating out yeah like well I wrote the first part but do you remember I came up with a punch line and to me the punch well now that there's publishing on jokes you got to be really diligent with that stuff the important again it's really the writings the same but that's maybe 5% of the time the other 95% of the time is totally different and you guys decided that mocking of the pop you mentor E is where the money is that that's the most lucrative kind of job that's you know we just I don't know decided the money was getting in the way of our friendship so we went we just went pure art okay okay you consider this like the first like actual I mean hot rod was a Lonely Island film would you consider that a lonely island film in a way yes but we didn't write it initially we rewrote it so this is the first one we've made from the ground up got it what are the lessons learned out of something like hot rod which people love but at the box office didn't succeed at the time yeah is that something that you applaud I'm sorry or might I didn't mean to and I just I didn't check the opening weekend so I don't know why well it's a fine that's it fun that was that was a bit I did we're buddies with like Jonah Hill and Michael Cera and those guys and Superbad came out the same summers hot rod and the weekend after super bad came out and just annihilated I texted both of them being like hey I've been out of town how'd our movies do did they do the same did they do the exact same yeah are there actual lessons to be learned from an experience like that or is that just sort of the walk of the marketplace and marketing and all of that I mean I would think you're proud of that film you're proud of it yeah I mean honest honest lesson was that it bummed me out for like three years that and that if I wish I could go back and be like don't be bummed out it's fine people will find it in ten years from now they'll like it the important lesson is never open your heart ever I never care about anything and Oh make money make dad with money sell tickets make that money argue about who gets what to have a great lawyer you guys separate three separate great lawyers let's go back a little bit we're gonna go to some questions from the audience in a few minutes but I want to talk about sort of the early beginnings of Lonely Island and obviously most people sort of came to know you guys through the digital shorts at SNL and lazy Sunday was the first one that exploded give me a sense of sort of like day before lazy Sunday is out and day after lazy Sunday gets out into the into the internet sphere did feel like the world to change to like a Saturday and then Sunday well like if you want to put in those terms before Andy had bought a jacket he was really proud of that had kind of a furry collar mmm yeah he felt like he couldn't wear that jacket anymore yeah yeah he didn't I was in wardrobe yeah yeah but it was that was he was like oh I just bought it right um but that was a big change I used to shop at the gap and then the next day I just shop went straight to j.crew just just has a bit of a lateral move but I could look for just about yours taste and the seasons now look at me Zara straight to the side did it feel like there was kind of immediate pressure to kind of keep that momentum building because it seemed like it was building at that time and it did and you had success after success and people were so anticipating the next one were you to do feel like you were in kind of a cocoon at SNL where you could kind of just do your thing or did you feel like there was a lot of outside pressure on you guys we were so new still I mean I was halfway through our first season that just getting anything to air felt like such a huge relief and victory for us that it was I think even though there was press around it and people telling us like hey this is really like getting a lot of tenshun for us we were like oh cool so we're not gonna get fired like we still didn't get that it was something that was like solidifying a spot for us for a while um so we were more just like let's do more of that so that we can keep being on the show right yeah yes that's correct and and how do you how do you guys respectively because you all didn't leave at the same time was it an easy decision at the time to know when to leave SNL and to try other things or is that sort of something that feels no it's not it's hard it's a very hard you never really leave like it's you're part of that forever if you've ever worked physically you do you yeah for clarifying yeah you when you leave the building that's true well yeah I was being like poetic he's got a point - that's - I think I left with with everything I needed you know like physically yeah you didn't leave your clothing no I'm you went back for it yeah I think you're left a pack of smokes hidden in the bathroom ever right this guy's a cigarette smoke and rebel I'm not saying all I say is I'm only one of you has a beef out there do you guys have beefs with anyone you need to air out because Andy already got his out with one of the preeminent baseball players on the planet he's just say Bryce Harper oh so so we're friends what's that gonna say be my good friend and say Bryce Harper - that you got my back and Andy of a microphone in front of your face would ya Andy's beeps are also garbage yeah yeah you hear that Bryce Harper come at me I got skill wide you got to come through us first you want to get to Andy yeah i'ma lay your ride on you hey never my friend no but while we're on the subject he did do a video for my friend's dad that was really sweet so just want to say thank you for that Bryce it was really sweet of you a weird beef you got go on hey no I don't know how to beef right um what's the future for style boys or Conor you think is this a character at a world that like you would want to explore whether it's in future shorts or films or whatever I can say with full clarity if the movie does well we would love to do more of it and if it bombs we are done with it and we've said everything there is to be said about it and you know it also feels like that is universal they also feel it feel exactly like that it's good to be on the same page with collaborators and feel like you're absolutely right I'll put yes that's great well it's gonna be a huge set so we're gonna see six more of these films it's all gonna be good eh don't up in your heart man sorry I forgot number one we like to think it's the new maze runners but do I do appreciate as someone that's covered my fair number of why a material is easy the cube theorem looks like an amazing franchise you created in the film you theorems the fake why a franchise in the movie yeah have you trademarked that could you create your own that's like the money maker that could be the thing by the way we definitely pitched pop star the Scorch Trials as a title pops our scorch trials and it didn't go over well yeah uh yeah but yeah sure cube theorem let's do it why not right yeah what is it came came up with names for all three of them didn't we wayward Paradise was the one that was good cube here in wayward Paradise yeah you split the last book it's a two obviously uh you gotta write pop it the out of that let's go to this wonderful audience with some brilliant questions I think there's a microphone or two running around we're gonna start with a question from an online viewer Oh rachel says andis looking pretty buff on the movie poster is that hard work or Photoshop uh that's not Photoshop Photoshop Photoshop it's not hard I mean obviously you can see the difference of what sits before you versus the posters I have let it go since then but I lost a lot of weight for the movie yeah because I knew I was gonna be like shaving my whole body and being shirtless a lot so I did it yo he had to shave for tattoos and stuff he wasn't just doing the shaving for no reason yeah yeah guys you're my boys I can't tell you the amount of times I've been on cruise ships and getting a little cray-cray Yellin I'm on a boat clearly uh I so badly wanted to say like I've been on a boat and been just like Jews in my pants ah just my pants so many times on about um yeah um watching the trailer I know you guys were talking about basicness and when I think of that I think of words like wanderlust and fitness so what's the most basic things you guys have ever heard but uh well question wanderlust and fitness when he thinks of the word basic um what was the question on top you know what do we what do you think is basic oh uh smoothies yeah the normal answers what are what are basic things like you know like um like Trump's pants yeah like mocha frappuccinos yeah the gap huh I mean not a crew is like uh no Jess you said it was not a Zara forget about it you're gonna be famous if you want to shop there this guy's left the gap in the dust basic uh Bryce Harper where's the guy what do you think he must not cheating but seriously thank you for that video breath it's really kind of you take time he was thrilled uh and as our job in this beef to like block the compliments coming from you to him huh this beef that you have with ha man we just messing with his mind all right all right hey guys my big fans I'm gonna try to get through this without freaking out uh yeah great good luck so um throughout the years you've collaborated with huge people Justin Timberlake Rihanna it goes on and on Julian Casablancas is there's somebody that you haven't collaborated with that you would want to in the future yeah Bill Paxton yeah yeah Holmen Josh gets it that we we say this a lot and mean it every time you our dream is to get Bill Clinton on saxophone on a song and if we haven't approached him but we figure if we do enough of these and talk about it that eventually he and be like you know what I like this guy's power positive thinking yeah put it out there that's not what I came and want was there someone in mind that you had that you thought think we should work with Taylor Swift yeah that's a good one we'd love to work with Taylor we did a short with her when she was on SNL but it wasn't musical it was why egg was why it was Twilight so Twilight sing yes yeah yeah you know you do you know your stuff you weren't kidding yeah yeah really does I don't know we always want to work with Kanye and he's always really nice but then he's always like man actually yeah I've never told this we did one of our shorts was this one called Iran so far and I had Fred Armisen as akhmad image odd is right when he came to Columbia and said there were no gay people in Iran and Adam Levine was in it and Kanye was on the show that we can we asked him if he wanted to also be a part of it and he declined politely and then during good nights after it had aired I was like hey great job man he's like thanks he's like I saw your video was really good I'm still glad I didn't do it though I was like straight shooter yeah never never have to guess where Kanye's coming from hey hey hi I find myself quoting lines from your music all the time like if someone's really quiet I'll say speak up shy Ronny stuff like that um so my question for you is are there lines from your music that you find yourself quoting on a daily basis there's a lot of stuff that we would say on a daily basis and then we put it in a song and then we can't say it anymore like will ruin inside jokes for ourselves by making them outside jokes yes like punch you in the genes is something that we used to say to each other a lot we used to actually just rap that yeah let's walk around yo no one knows that song but it's really stupid we'll add the applause later right this is live it's live that's kind of a deep cut yeah I sometimes will just text like a boss at the end of things just to bum them out really hard yeah will sarcastically quote ourselves to each other yeah remember that remember jizan I can't yeah they keep you're wearing those sneaks like a boss thanks Andy yeah the thing we wrote basically like that huh well speaking of that Hyrum rod I like to party nice I was just wondering so your name's not actually rod name is not rogue a clarification name's Kevin I still like to party again fair I'm Danielle nice to meet you um you talked about lazy Sunday being a huge victory I was wondering cuz like the SNL book talks about you guys revolutionising the whole digital space for them what I got short I mean it was a lazy Sunday but like what was that point for you guys where you're like wow people actually want to see these we need to make more we need to do them every episode uh when they told us to yeah they told us gifted yeah um but yeah I mean after dick in a box it got to the point where it was like whoa this is really working and we knew a lot of that was because it was Justin but we did also Erica Natalie Portman wrap thing we did after lazy Sunday yeah it was the second one to get a lot of attention yeah that's when we realized we could get we weren't just sure if it was a fluke the one time to get the attention so that was the next one that did yeah and then and then that one obviously yeah but then but they really did come in and go doing every week and we go can we just do them when we have a good idea and they're like that's not how this show works we're on every week so yeah do one every week yeah so sometimes we were kind of like but yeah and then I could say one other thing he has this board that you've probably seen his photos and they look words like the cards on the board and there's a few permanent cards that are for like commercial breaks opening monologue weekend update' and they're like laminated and the rest get are just cards that get written on it thrown away at the end of the week and I don't know what season was that say earth forth maybe fourth or fifth somewhere in there was a permanent card that's at it and you're like oh there hasn't been in a permanent card up here since I don't you know since the first year it was like the new permanent card that probably I would say it just says the show had been invented when we burned it all they were like yeah that's what it said on the card we were though when we saw the card we were like oh yeah nice it was cool think one more question yes hey guys hey Thank You Lou being here hi if you could trade your life for another pop stars life who would it be and why first off thanks for saying another as if we were there yeah who's equally successful in the world of pop to us you mean like if we it's like who'd life and we was like would we want to live yeah like they would if they were in danger of being killed then we would take their their spot and die yeah the bullet like it would we jump in front of no we want to be I don't know a lot of them seem to be living pretty fabulous yeah a lot of them seem to be living high on the hog like they're gonna Xaro all the time yeah oh my god are you getting paid on the side shut up me and Doughboy not messes up for me if you follow like Kim Kardashian's snapchat she's just at Zara pawsley and you're like ooh to live that life oh man what deals I don't know yeah I'd rake seems to be having a blast yeah he seems to be having a pretty good times mate he only kicks it on Tuesdays but yeah uh what he's grinding all weekend you know yeah he's got another I have more of a green thumb so I would say DJ Khalid you know I mean yeah it's very important to water those plants very important very important uh more than things but kind of all of them I guess is the short answer all of them that are just seemed to be having a wonderful time and then we'd switch with them and they'd get to do this poor poor pop stone gentlemen thank you for your time today if you were playing at home the secret word of course was Zahra so you've won and the movie pop star never stopped never stop like opens June 3rd is honestly awesome and I highly encourage you guys to check it out I'll give it up for the Lonely Island thanks

Channel: BUILD Series

Views: 127,070

Keywords: AOL Advertising, AOL Inc, AOL, AOLBUILD, #Aolbuild, build speaker series, build, aol build, content, aolbuildlive, The Lonely Island, Akiva Schaffer, Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, Popstar, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, SNL, Saturday Night Live, I'm On A Boat, Taylor Swift, Kanye West

Id: suhtVlefn04

Length: 32min 41sec (1961 seconds)

Published: Thu May 19 2016