Brad Roberts-Crash Test Dummies: That's Me!, That's Me! Mother F**ers!!

Clairsy and Lisa spoke to Brad Roberts from Crash Test Dummies who are on their way to Perth for sold out shows at The Rosemount Hotel. He told them the the story of how their hit Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm became a number one hit here in Australia but wasn't so big in their native country Canada plus where he was when he first heard himself on the radio.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crash Test Dummies are playing three sold out shows at
the Rose Mountain next Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and the
singer and guitarist Brad Roberts is joining us. Now, good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Welcome Brad, Oh, thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Now this is You're coming to town as part of
the God Shuffled his Feet thirtieth anniversary world tour. Amazing album.
I think I've already famed enough over it This morning,
produced by Jerry Harrison from Talking Heads.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Wasn't it?

Speaker 1 (00:29):
It was amazing? So how do you get someone like
that on board back in nineteen ninety three.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
Well, it's kind of a funny story. We couldn't get
anyone to produce our second record, and I had a
soft spot for Talking Heads when I was growing up.
This is one song in particular where the keyboard part
is so exquisite that I thought to myself, you know,
if Jerry Harrison can.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Write that, then he can do My album got him
and he.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
Was into it, And then I told him that story
and he said, well, I hate you know. He said
that he actually didn't play that keyboard.

Speaker 4 (01:15):
Which song?

Speaker 3 (01:15):
Was it?

Speaker 4 (01:17):
So long since the last time it's been every thirty
years and we can't waite to see you.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
But yeah, we've been, uh, we've been touring for the
last five years, with the exception of COVID of course,
pretty steadily. We we had not played for the longest time,
and then the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra asked us to do
a show with them in Winnipeg. We thought, well, you

(01:42):
know from there, we've got to do that. So we
got together for that one gig and it went so
well that we just decided to keep touring. And that
was that was just going to last for but a
year or something, and it's just it just keeps going on.

Speaker 4 (01:57):
That's wonderful.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
We we did which I never know you made it
hard for radio, but you know, it did very It
was a huge hit here in Australia in the early nineties.
It peaked at number one, but it was fourteen in
your native Canada. Why do you think it was did
so much better here?

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Oh, I can tell you exactly what. Oh, okay, tell
interesting story.

Speaker 3 (02:27):
We put out our first record in Canada with Superman
song on it, Yeah, and it did extremely well in
Canada and we went to number one with that song.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
We got a Juneral Award.

Speaker 3 (02:39):
Yeah, it was a stalar first record, but it did
nothing in international markets, not to speak of anyways. And
then we put out our second record and the Canadian
music industry just it was we experienced severe backlash. It

(03:01):
was almost as though we had just been too success
successful on our first record for our own good really,
and the Canadian music industry just totally shit on us.
They wouldn't play our song on the radio, they wouldn't
play our videos.

Speaker 4 (03:16):
How biz.

Speaker 3 (03:17):
And it wasn't until the song got picked up by
a radio station in the United States and started getting
all kinds of airplay and then say it was following
at the stores. Suddenly our American record label was like,
we're going to be on this band, and they were honest,
it was they were at every show and you know,

(03:39):
they got us.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
On Saturday Live and David h yeah, yes that stuff.
So in the end, you know.

Speaker 3 (03:45):
What happened was they only went to number fourteen and
then sunk back down into oblivion. But then It's Skyrock
did in America, and so Canadian radio suddenly wanted to
play Crash systemmies because now we were cool elsewhere, and
so they asked us to record a Difference to make

(04:06):
a video for a different single, and so we did that,
and we made a video for the song called Swimming
in Your Ocean, and that became our single in Canada.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Well, the rest of the world was listening.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
To right, well, it was a huge, huge hit here.
But the whole album is just full of I think
brilliant lyrics. I reckon. One of my favorites is you know,
how does a duck know how to tell his wife
from all the other ducks? Is it because of your
degree in English literature and your and your degree in
philosophy as well? It's the combination of the two that

(04:39):
made for such amazing lyrics.

Speaker 3 (04:41):
Yes, well, thank you and certainly thank you. My degree
did indeed affect the way I wrote. But how does
a duck know? I was, I was watching this nature
program and yeah, and it turns out that these ducks
that they were focused on were made it for life.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
I say, how do they even know who? You know?
Their wife is?

Speaker 3 (05:11):
Like? How would they recognize their their partner? That's what
longs that lyric?

Speaker 4 (05:20):
Right, Yeah, I want to talk about influences, Brad. I
think Andy Patricks from Mixtaye say, he's a bit of
a genius. He's one of the they say someone that
you read somewhere that you you loved his work and
they work.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
Yes, I think he's a genius.

Speaker 3 (05:33):
June and I grew up listening to x TC just
love them, and and we ended up covering one of
their songs for Peter Pumpkinhead. I wanted, we wanted Ellen
to have a song to sing in a live show.
So we learned that song and then then the next

(05:55):
thing we knew, we were getting invited to record it
for this movie Dumb and Dumb.

Speaker 2 (06:03):
So that's all ended up in that movie that way.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
Crash Test, that's okay, Crash Test Dummies is a great
bad name, but it was Brad Bad Brad robertson the side.

Speaker 4 (06:15):
James for the Pigs.

Speaker 3 (06:17):
Oh my god, someone put them into a press release.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
Into a press release yep. Yeah, well you know what happened.

Speaker 3 (06:28):
There was my the drummer in our band owned this
little cafe that we played in as the house band. Yeah,
and the first week that he advertised for us, he
did not consult me, and he made up that name
and put it.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
In the paper. It was at the newspaper for one week. Yeah,
one week.

Speaker 3 (06:47):
Its whole life, and I put a stop to it,
and yet here we are thirty years later.

Speaker 4 (06:55):
That was before the internet. Do you think we could
lose some things from back then? Holding you.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
Exactly before we let you go. Brad, There is one
thing that we do love to ask. Do you remember
the first time you heard yourself on the radio?

Speaker 2 (07:12):
I do.

Speaker 3 (07:14):
I was sitting in a greasy little cafe in Toronto, Ontario, and.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
I was by myself, and I was having a donut.

Speaker 3 (07:27):
Oh oh, Superman song came on the radio in restaurants
and I wanted to jump up and yell to everyone,
that's me, that's me.

Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:40):
We want to just sit there with your donut quietly.

Speaker 3 (07:45):
Yes, And I sat silently with my donut and that
was the first time I ever heard my own and
it was a very striking moment.

Speaker 4 (07:55):
Even record what you're reading, that's so cool. You're gotta
love these.

Speaker 1 (08:01):
And when you play Superman song, I'll be I'll be
thinking about that story now. It was lovely to have
you joined us this morning. We look forward to having
you in town next week.

Speaker 2 (08:11):
I look forward to being there.

Speaker 4 (08:13):
Thank you. Thanks for the great music and the passion.

Speaker 2 (08:15):
Thanks, Thank you so much for a good interview,