INTERVIEW: Celebrate 30 years of ‘Rocko’s Modern Life’ with a deep dive into its music
Image courtesy of Republic Records: Kids & Family / Provided by Nickelodeon with permission.
For a certain generation, Rocko’s Modern Life was a game changer. This Nickelodeon cartoon, featuring a lovable wallaby and his pet dog, was must-see television in the 1990s, and the memories of this iconic animated show continue to be cherished 30 years later. To help rekindle the past, Republic Records: Kids & Family recently released a 30th anniversary recording of original music from the series.
These 22 tunes are compositions penned by Pat Irwin, a former member of the B-52’s and current member of SUSS and the PI Power Trio. For this project, Irwin included Rocko’s Modern Life’s theme song, plus tracks like “Trash-O-Madness,” “Leap Frogs,” “Popcorn Pandemonium” and “Gutterballs.” Each of the songs match up with one of the episodes from the four-season run of the show.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox had the chance to talk with Irwin about the musical project. Here’s what he had to say …
On his overall impression of Rocko’s Modern Life …
“It was amazing. It was fantastic.”
On how he became connected to the show in the 1990s …
“I was in a band at the time, and it was very early on in Nickelodeon. I’m not so sure what cartoons they were doing at the time, but I know they had done a couple episodes of Ren & Stimpy. But it was very early, and I don’t know that they were doing a whole lot. Their offices were in Times Square, and I was in a band that played a notorious show on 42nd Street called the Times Square Show. And an executive for Nickelodeon had come down and seen us, and then became a fan of that band, and then asked if I was interested in writing music for a cartoon, and that’s kind of it.”
On how he matched his score to the look and feel of the show …
“I just love the early conversations I had with Joe Murray, the creator. He talked about the colors in the show. … He said, ‘There are no right angles in Rocko.’ I never forgot that, even to this day. We talked about music for cartoons that we liked. We talked about Warner Bros. cartoons. I remember mentioning the cartoon Top Cat, and it just came naturally to me to pull together these musicians from the downtown scene that I knew that would work. I really took the inspiration from the characters and the drawings and the storyboards.”
On whether he became a fan of the series …
“I was a fan when I saw the first drawings. I mean, I just loved it. It’s fantastic, all the way up through the 2019 reboot movie, which I loved. Creatively, I think I mentioned it somewhere, this is really what I thought being in a band was going to be like. Every time we went into the recording studio, it was a ton of pressure, but full of really cool energy.”
On the differences between scoring an animated show and being in a band …
“They’re different, but I like to create a band feel. Rocko was the first extended project that I ever did. I wanted to have a band. I wanted to have a core group of musicians, and we did. We stuck together through all those seasons, but the difference is bands are weird. They’re great, but the things that bring you together when you’re like maybe 18 aren’t the same when you’re 30 or 40 or 50 or older, which several of the bands I’ve played with have gone on that long. You fall asleep in the van, and you’re free together on the bus. You wake up, and there’s a ton of nervous energy that is shared. You have to bend it and take it into account; people don’t really see that when you go on stage, but it’s there. I love being in bands. I love collaborating, but they can be tricky. With Rocko, with the band, they would just show up, play and split. That was sort of a joy. They brought everything they had into it. They wanted to make it as good as they possibly could, and so did I. Not that you don’t do that in a rock ‘n’ roll band, but in a rock ‘n’ roll band, if you’re lucky enough, people like you enough, and you get to play the same songs over and over. With Rocko, you had to create a new record every week. That was amazing.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Rocko’s Modern Life: 30th Anniversary Edition is now available from Republic Records: Kids & Family. Click here for more information.
