“Everyone knows deep in their hearts that the drums are the coolest instrument, and that a band is only as good as its drummer. So I’m all for drum solos. I’m all for drummers hamming it up. I’m all for drummers standing up and kicking over the kit.”
― Fred Armisen
“Discomfort is the way to go if you want to make something you feel is worthwhile.”
― Fred Armisen
“Surround yourself with people you like and respect; surround yourself with people you just want to be around and keep making things.”
― Fred Armisen
“I feel like Miami is way, way too hot.”
― Fred Armisen
“Every day, I wanna work on being a better person, not just to others but to myself.”
― Fred Armisen
“I have an inability to relax. I try to make every day a work day. I get pleasure from work… I try to think of sketch ideas, stand-up pieces. I am incapable of leisure and leisure time.”
― Fred Armisen
“All of my memories are now on hard drives. I’ll change phones or I’ll change my laptop, and all my photos stay.”
― Fred Armisen
“As a kid, ‘The Monkees’ was such a cool show. I had such a thrill saying, ‘OMG, I was in a sketch with one of the Monkees.’”
― Fred Armisen
“I’m glad I get to do characters. It’s just like a Polaroid shot of whoever the person is, and to me, anyway, that’s kind of what life is like. You get a general sense of somebody, and then we’re all good, we get it. We understand each other.”
― Fred Armisen
“People on the street comment on how handsome I am. You know, people stop and say how angular my face is.”
― Fred Armisen
“I really like watching TV at home.”
― Fred Armisen
“I am opposed to vacations and leisure. I try to make every day a work day. Even if there’s nothing on my schedule, I will try do at least one task that is work-related.”
― Fred Armisen
“The worst art is when it’s really convenient and comfy.”
― Fred Armisen
“For some reason, juggling things makes everything work better. That’s just how we operate. It just makes the other project more of something to look forward to. I think the more you keep things going, the more it helps the other project.”
― Fred Armisen
“I can only parody stuff I love.”
― Fred Armisen
“’Sandinista!’ is a masterpiece.”
― Fred Armisen
“Missing something doesn’t help anything. You can only look at the future, what you can keep doing.”
― Fred Armisen
“When you’re in a band, you spend most of your time in a van. Like, there were four of us, we toured all the time, and you’re stuck looking at three other people for a month straight. And all of those times, we all just liked making fun of people, doing impressions of people, coming up with songs.”
― Fred Armisen
“I feel bad for everyone I’ve gone out with.”
― Fred Armisen
“I came away from ‘Saturday Night Live’ feeling very well represented. I felt, and I still feel like, they let me do so much stuff that I wanted to do. Stuff that I almost didn’t even know what it was.”
― Fred Armisen
“I think I was a terrible husband, I think I’m a terrible boyfriend.”
― Fred Armisen
“I want it all… fast. I want to be married, I want to live together… and then somewhere around a year or two years, I get freaked out. I freak out emotionally and then I actually feel like ‘Oh my God, who’s this stranger in my house?’”
― Fred Armisen
“I love ‘Saturday Night Live,’ and I really feel like people who have left before me have always stayed with the show. They never really quite left, which is nice. Everyone kind of stays close.”
― Fred Armisen
“I spent a lot of time lifting my drums into a van, playing to ten people night after night. I can’t complain about anything now. That stuff was heavy.”
― Fred Armisen
“Steve Jobs was a real rock star to me. I looked forward to his products like people look forward to albums.”
― Fred Armisen
“My father came from Germany. My mom came from Venezuela. My father’s culturally German, but his father was Japanese. I was raised in New York and spent two years in Rio. My parents met at the University of Southern Mississippi, and they had me there, and then we moved to New York. I’m not very familiar with Mississippi.”
― Fred Armisen
“The day of parts of the country hating each other, or rivalries like that… I feel like that’s dead.”
― Fred Armisen
“I’m so glad cities have personalities, just like people have personalities. That’s something that makes me smile.”
― Fred Armisen
“I’m drawn to punk. I’m drawn to samba a bit. I don’t think there’s a type of music I’m not drawn to. Lykke Li I really like. Holy Sons I still can’t get enough of.”
― Fred Armisen
“I can’t relax. I’m not happy unless I’m working on stuff. ‘SNL’ is always a huge workload, as enjoyable as it is.”
― Fred Armisen
“Bill Hader does a really good impression of me.”
― Fred Armisen
“Even when I go do comedy stuff live, I can still feel the drummer in me about to go onstage.”
― Fred Armisen
“There’s something really easy and just somehow un-crowded about the Portland airport. Every time I go there I’m like, ‘Why is this so easy and sweet?’”
― Fred Armisen
“At ‘SNL’ there’s framed pictures of all the cast members, and it starts with Dan Aykroyd. It’s linear. It just keeps going through all these people, and then you’re at the end of it.”
― Fred Armisen
“When I first started going to Portland, people told me about Stumptown. They were like ‘Oh, it’s the best coffee,’ and I thought, ‘How good could it really be?’ I’m like, ‘Sure, great, uh… I’d love to see it.’ But then when I went, it truly, I am not kidding, is the best coffee I have ever had.”
― Fred Armisen
“Chalkboards being used inside the restaurant seem to be a good sign that the proprietors are proud of their food, and that’s kind of nice, actually – it’s a nice personal touch.”
― Fred Armisen
“Prince is my favorite ever. I’ve liked Prince since… It’s been a really long time. Even in junior high. I used to only like punk for a while, and I had all these rules for what kinds of groups were cool, and who was not cool, but as soon as I saw this one Prince video… It just broke all those rules. I was like, ‘I love this no matter what.’”
― Fred Armisen
“I’ve met Tony Danza. He was really nice. And he looks… I feel like he hasn’t aged. He looks exactly the same. He’s just Tony Danza. He’s exactly the same as he’s always been.”
― Fred Armisen
“When people say that L.A. doesn’t have a culture, I think it really does: a very old culture, and very specific. There’s streets named after entertainers, and statues of entertainers, and it’s great. Entertainment is still art, even if it makes billions of dollars. So it’s like a city built on entertainment, and art in a way.”
― Fred Armisen
“I would really like to do a movie. Schedule-wise I don’t know when exactly, but I think it would be great to do a Portlandia movie. Some of my favorite television shows have done it and they’ve been great. Like Monty Python. I think it would be great.”
― Fred Armisen
“I loooved Sleater-Kinney like a crazy person.”
― Fred Armisen
“I try to maintain a high level of coolness. Which means I’ve gotta look at lot of magazines. I’ve gotta look at a lot of ads to see what people want to wear.”
― Fred Armisen
“I don’t think there’s an archetype for the Justin Bieber fan. A Bieber fan just looks like an American. You wouldn’t even need a costume to try and resemble one.”
― Fred Armisen
“I’ve always been a fan of instructional videos. The bass-player ones are insane. The music on them is fascinating. It’s not something you hear on CDs or would really ever play in bands. You listen to it and are like, ‘What is happening?’ It’s this blizzard of notes in weird time signatures, and they’re trying to teach you that.”
― Fred Armisen
“Every music journalist I’ve ever met has been stunningly beautiful.”
― Fred Armisen
“There are bands that I am friends with, who will invite me up on stage. Like Les Savy Fav, who have had me on stage, and I have played on their record. There are a couple of bands like that. Yo La Tengo has invited me to play with them.”
― Fred Armisen
“I enjoy getting to work on ‘Saturday Night Live’, where I get to do people like David Paterson. And then, its like a different muscle to do someone like a bicycle guy on’ Portlandia’.”
― Fred Armisen
“There are people who are genetically made to start record labels, and I’m not one of those people. People just have it in their blood and are good at it. Corey Rusk from Touch and Go and Ian MacKaye. These are people who have made their own labels.”
― Fred Armisen
“I tend to think that there is a sophistication to everything at ‘Saturday Night Live,’ including the sketches.”
― Fred Armisen
“I’m obsessed with my 20s. I buy things that I wanted in my 20s. It’s weird; it’s a weird thing that I didn’t grow out of.”
― Fred Armisen
“Sometimes ‘Portlandia’ can be pretty traditional. But the stuff I’ve always loved on ‘SNL’ has always been the weirdest stuff I’ve done. The stuff that went on at 10 to 1 in the morning.”
― Fred Armisen
“My favorite song is ‘Cybele’s Reverie’ by Stereolab.”
― Fred Armisen
“I am immediately disinterested when I hear mountain-climbing stories.”
― Fred Armisen
“My favorite album is ‘Ram’ by Paul and Linda McCartney.”
― Fred Armisen
“I wanted so badly to be in a famous band, and it was not happening. I played drums with different bands and with the Blue Man Group in Chicago, but I definitely felt like, ‘Wow, I did not picture my life being like this.’”
― Fred Armisen
“I can’t be bothered with narrative. It takes too long for me to try to think of it.”
― Fred Armisen
“I travel a lot. I’ll go back and forth, you know, West Coast-East Coast, but it’s separated by segments. So it’s not a daily thing.”
― Fred Armisen
“I actually, legitimately feel that I’m not busy enough. I want to be so busy that it’s overwhelming.”
― Fred Armisen
“I have a problem with sweets. I have an inability to eat a just little bit. It’s almost like I can’t even enjoy chocolate anymore – I have to stuff it into my brain, cram it into my ears.”
― Fred Armisen
“That’s one of the great things about Los Angeles, that people just play music, and it’s all very welcoming and welcomed.”
― Fred Armisen
“Fereydun, that’s my dad’s name. My grandmother, my dad’s mom, when she was pregnant, she was dating a man from Persia, a Persian gentleman. It wasn’t his child, but he was still very supportive and said, ‘Hey, this is a great name,’ and so it stuck. So that’s what she named him.”
― Fred Armisen
“Panned or not, ‘Dune’ is a real part of science-fiction filmmaking.”
― Fred Armisen
“I don’t know anything about the wine world at all.”
― Fred Armisen
“I love painters because I don’t paint, so I get to enjoy art; I like collecting paintings.”
― Fred Armisen
“I spent most of my 20s playing music. I was in a band, and we worked really hard and did not get very far.”
― Fred Armisen
“I was really close to being this guy who used to be in this band who is still playing and trying to get some recordings together, but I got really lucky.”
― Fred Armisen
“There’s no judgment on bands that continue on who aren’t popular; some people get enjoyment out of it. I’m just not one of those people.”
― Fred Armisen
“I would see people on TV, or I’d see bands I really liked, and I thought, ‘I want that.’”
― Fred Armisen
“I love driving. Listen to some music.”
― Fred Armisen
“I find it weird to use my own voice on TV.”
― Fred Armisen
“I think Ian MacKaye is everything that I always wanted to be.”
― Fred Armisen
“I will always, no matter what, be a punk more than anything.”
― Fred Armisen
“Over the years, El Perro del Mar became this artist that, every record that came out, I just loved it.”
― Fred Armisen
“El Perro del Mar sort of accompanied my time at ‘SNL.’ To concentrate and focus, I would play the bass to one of her songs from her third album.”
― Fred Armisen
“When ‘Pale Fire’ came out, that album was a big friend of mine. I’ve just always purely been a fan of El Perro del Mar.”
― Fred Armisen
“I’d want to direct a video for Yoko Ono. As long as I got to work with Yoko Ono someday, I’d be really happy. I just think she’s such a great artist – it would just be so nice.”
― Fred Armisen
“As far as value goes, obviously it’s nicer to be in an environment where you feel comfortable. But it’s also clear that it’s probably not the most realistic thing.”
― Fred Armisen
“I would never play a character that wasn’t true. It’s not a moral thing; it’s just that it’s more convincing if it’s a little bit like me.”
― Fred Armisen
“I’m not by nature a cynical person. But sometimes your expectations are different from reality.”
― Fred Armisen
“I was actually late to the punk movement because I was too young.”
― Fred Armisen
“The bands that were big in ’77, like the Clash and the Sex Pistols and Talking Heads, I got into them in the early ’80s. And it changed my life. It got into my DNA.”
― Fred Armisen
“I will always consider myself a punk because of those experiences in high school. It will always be a part of me.”
― Fred Armisen
“The way James Franco goes to new projects, he does it the way an artist should, which is with a question mark. Like, will this work?”
― Fred Armisen
“Wayne Coyne has put out Flaming Lips records in gummy bear skulls and all these different kinds of packaging that’s really, really inventive. And that’s what you should always do.”
― Fred Armisen
“You should approach everything in life like, ‘What is this?’”
― Fred Armisen
“There’s almost no such thing as a hipster.”
― Fred Armisen
“I was impersonating people way, way, way early, as far back as I can remember. And I would do people on my street for my parents, I remember. And in school, I did the same thing with all the teachers. It was just like, I mean, it was something I loved to do. I don’t think there was a time when I wasn’t doing it. I was always doing it.”
― Fred Armisen
“When I used to see Rick Moranis do something, to me that was immediately funny. Or George Carlin or Martin Lawrence.”
― Fred Armisen
“I really loved touring with my band, but it felt like we would spend a lot of time playing in empty rooms – empty clubs. We had some good successes, but it’s so physically hard to load up a van and drive all day.”
― Fred Armisen
“If something seems like a little venue, don’t treat it like that. Do it all. If you’re sort of wondering why you’re doing something at some location, just do it – any size theater, production, or whatever. It’s all helpful.”
― Fred Armisen
“I believe in limitations. I think the worst art ever made – in my opinion, because it’s all so subjective – is where the artist had complete freedom.”
― Fred Armisen
“I’ll just say that there are times when TV shows, like ‘The Honeymooners’ or ‘I Love Lucy’ or something, where they’re totally in their stride, and this thing happens, where you can tell they got everything they wanted. And it starts to look a little relaxed. No criticism to the shows whatsoever; these people are geniuses.”
― Fred Armisen
“I take any project on a month or two at a time. Meaning, I don’t think too far ahead.”
― Fred Armisen
“I think a comedian has a more specific job. Whereas a musician can fall into different categories, you know, of making background music or doing a soundtrack or wanting to be in a band or writing the song, or writing your own songs. And then comedy is a very black and white thing. You want to make people happy.”
― Fred Armisen
“No yoga. I can barely sit down.”
― Fred Armisen
“We almost called the ‘Portlandia’ show ‘Stumptown.’ That was the original name.”
― Fred Armisen
“Everywhere I go, somebody says something to me. It’s really nice.”
― Fred Armisen
“Art should not be an easy thing.”
― Fred Armisen
“My showbiz career started with ‘SNL,’ and to write an ‘SNL’ book… well, there are already enough of those.”
― Fred Armisen
“I get very, very little sleep.”
― Fred Armisen
“I feel really lucky to get to do comedy, and music, at all. I want to do as much as I can.”
― Fred Armisen
“My problem is with intimacy. That’s where I have my biggest problems.”
― Fred Armisen
“I have the capability to have a close relationship with someone.”
― Fred Armisen
“Something about Portland just really resonated with me.”
― Fred Armisen
“I love my bandmates, and they’re my friends, and even though we had fun and got to tour and I got to play the drums a lot, which I’ll always appreciate, we had a really rough time. We toured and tried to get people to come to our shows and put out records, and we really struggled.”
― Fred Armisen
“For me, I would get so frustrated because I would see these other bands just whip by us.”
― Fred Armisen
“Sometimes in Portland I’m like, ‘Who is funding this city?’ It’s doing great – there’s all these new shops; there’s a synthesizer store. Where is this coming from?”
― Fred Armisen
“I like that ‘Broad City’ exists, and I love being around at the same time as ‘Key & Peele.’ I love those guys – I just, I love their faces.”
― Fred Armisen
“One person who was interesting was Jello Biafra, who was – of all things – very professional!”
― Fred Armisen
“My mom is from Venezuela, and my dad is German and Japanese, and we lived in Brazil when I was a kid for a couple of years, and then I grew up on Long Island. I think all the traveling and all the nationalities put that stuff in my head. I was just around it a lot.”
― Fred Armisen
“Ever since I was really little, I started doing a – I don’t know how to put this – mentally challenged person on my street. I meant no harm by it, but I remembered how this person talked, and I did it for my mom, and she was not into it. She said, ‘You can’t do that!’ But my dad really laughed.”
― Fred Armisen
“The Long Island experience is so strange. You’re a satellite around the city, so the presence of the city is always looming.”
― Fred Armisen
“I really like Au Revoir Simone.”
― Fred Armisen
“Hopefully there will be a day when all comedy is all robots.”
― Fred Armisen
“There should be comedians who perform only for robots – I’m saying human comedians that only perform for robots.”
― Fred Armisen
“Music documentaries are tricky because of ‘Spinal Tap.’ That movie has stood the test of time.”
― Fred Armisen
“Talking Heads were a big influence on my comedy. For David Byrne, every album had to be different. With ‘Portlandia,’ every season has to be different. You gotta reinvent the look, all of it.”
― Fred Armisen
“Before ‘SNL,’ I would do stand-up, opening for Jeff Tweedy. It was worse than bombing in that people were dead silent.”
― Fred Armisen
“I don’t think I’ve ever hosted anything in my life.”
― Fred Armisen
“When I’m hungry, I need to eat right away.”
― Fred Armisen
“Since I was, like, an infant… I remember being in love with television. I loved listening to music. I wanted to be on records, and I wanted to be on TV.”
― Fred Armisen
“I see everything as a positive that can only help me.”
― Fred Armisen
“I learned at ‘SNL’ that it’s a bummer to bum people out.”
― Fred Armisen
“When you’re being mean to someone, you can feel the audience just get cold.”
― Fred Armisen
“You have to understand how lucky I feel. I was on ‘Saturday. Night. Live.’ I played with the Clash! On what planet would I look at anything in my life in any less-than-stellar way?”
― Fred Armisen
“I work better when I’m juggling projects. Nothing worse than watching someone really embrace what they’re doing if they love it too much.”
― Fred Armisen
“I will admit that I purposely stress myself out. But I think I like stressing myself out. There’s a glamour to, like, ‘I’ve got to get to the airport!’ I just like the caricature.”
― Fred Armisen
“I don’t like watching shows where all of a sudden you’re like, what happened? They shot the last season in Las Vegas?”
― Fred Armisen
“I started comedy in, like, 1998.”
― Fred Armisen
“When punk came along, it made perfect sense to me. I found it melodic. The Clash, Buzzcocks.”
― Fred Armisen
“James Franco has turned his life into a real art project. In my opinion, that’s the way to live.”
― Fred Armisen
“Questlove redefined what a band can be, and Paul Shaffer and Max Weinberg really put their own spin on it. I bow down to these people. All of them.”
― Fred Armisen
“I like to think Portland and L.A. are not rivals; they’re cousins. As cities on the West Coast, they’re distinct in their own way but still culturally similar.”
― Fred Armisen
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