Tim Heidecker reaches into the depths of his past on new album 'High School'

Transcript

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Maybe it's the pandemic, maybe just growing up or growing older, but Tim Heidecker, the comedian and singer, has been thinking about his teenage school days, pals and classes and all that after-school nonsense in his latest music project, "High School."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SIRENS OF TITAN")

TIM HEIDECKER: (Singing) "Sirens Of Titan," "Venus In Furs," Claudia Schiffer. Peter Arnett in a Baghdad hotel. Peter Arnett showing us Baghdad getting bombed to hell.

SIMON: Tim Heidecker the comedian is often satirical, biting and a little bit crude. But that combination is not what we hear in his music. There's humor, simple stories, and many are tinged with sweetness and regret. Tim Heidecker joins us now from Glendale, Calif. Thanks so much for being with us.

HEIDECKER: Thank you. I'm happy to be here.

SIMON: And why have you been thinking about high school?

HEIDECKER: I started writing a song called "Buddy." And I have a 5-year-old son, and I call him Buddy. So I think it started as a little song to him. You know, nobody wants to hear that.

SIMON: I beg to differ. I'd like to hear it.

HEIDECKER: (Laughter) I like - you know, I'm not writing "Beautiful Boy," John Lennon's ode to his son. But no, I had a very close friend from high school pass away. I guess I started thinking about him in high school and how there were kind of signs - he died from years of alcohol abuse - and how that kind of direct line from those teenage years kind of leads to who you become and who you are later in life.

SIMON: Well, let's listen to a little bit from your song, "Buddy."

HEIDECKER: Let's listen to the whole record.

SIMON: (Laughter) When we get a chance.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BUDDY")

HEIDECKER: (Singing) Lately, I've been thinking about those days. Walking in your bedroom and seeing you through the haze. And you'd turn it up so you didn't have to hear the yelling going on downstairs.

SIMON: Now, that is the kind of lyric - and I say this with admiration - that really stops you.

HEIDECKER: Oh, thank you.

SIMON: You're cruising along on, you know, a wave of nostalgia, and then you find yourself thinking, the yelling going on downstairs. This was a family with problems.

HEIDECKER: Absolutely. I think I was lucky to grow up in a happy household but certainly had friends that had lots of dysfunction at home and plenty of friends who retreated towards music and getting high. And some of them made it and are doing great. And some of them didn't.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BUDDY")

HEIDECKER: (Singing) Buddy, I've been thinking about you. Was there more that I, I could do?

The thing that I kept thinking about was that, like, life is really hard, even if it's easy for you, you know, even if you have it easy. Like, it's incredible, it's a miracle that you can get through those years in a lot of ways, you know?

SIMON: Were you playing in a band in high school?

HEIDECKER: Yeah. I had some very embarrassing bands. In the '90s, you could get a band together. You could get some cheap gear and try to emulate the people you saw on MTV. And I always had music in my life that way.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WHAT DID WE DO WITH OUR TIME?")

HEIDECKER: (Singing) How can we be in a rock 'n' roll band? Got a couple of guitars. We don't have a drummer. Maybe we'll get on when we get back to school, out of this heat and out of this endless summer.

SIMON: There's a bit from another song, "What Did We Do With Our Time?" - it's been playing over and over in my head.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WHAT DID WE DO WITH OUR TIME?")

HEIDECKER: (Singing) How did we kill all of the hours? What did we spend our days doing? What did we do with our time? How did we kill all of the hours? What did we spend our days doing? What did we do with our time?

SIMON: So let me ask you if you've been going through that at moments of great success and challenge, just sort of thinking, my God, where did the time go?

HEIDECKER: In this age of constant distraction and social media and the internet and mobile devices, I was just more thinking, what literally did we do with our time when we didn't have that? What - like, and I long for that, and I kind of am wistful for those days when wasting time was something you did. You know, you just drove around. Sometimes you'd go and just drive and listen to music or go to the parking lot and meet up with people. And I feel just genuinely wistful and nostalgic for the ability to be able to do that again.

SIMON: We think of that as wasting time, but was it wasting time? Or was it just kind of building towards a flame of something?

HEIDECKER: It's absolutely essential, I think. If I'm creatively stuck, I go on a walk, and I don't put headphones in. I just walk around the neighborhood. And every time, something - you know, something gets loosened up in my brain, and the blood flows. So, yeah, put it down.

SIMON: (Laughter) Do you do you make up songs that you sing just for your children?

HEIDECKER: Oh, all the time. And my daughter, who's 8, she is very musical. And I try to foster that and encourage that. And my son is into the potty words right now, you know, that I don't want to besmirch your show with.

SIMON: I still enjoy a good potty song.

HEIDECKER: Oh, I have plenty in my back catalog.

SIMON: (Laughter) I don't think we ever outgrow, you know...

HEIDECKER: No.

SIMON: ...Our appreciation of that. It's an art form when we're youngsters.

HEIDECKER: For sure.

SIMON: You're, I gather, about to start touring the country as the Two Tims.

HEIDECKER: Yes.

SIMON: One, of course, is the sincere singer-songwriter who is...

HEIDECKER: That's who you have today on your program, if you can tell.

SIMON: Exactly - speaking with so earnestly and who I find moves me greatly. And the other is, well, kind of a crass comic, right? Is that fair to say?

HEIDECKER: Well, he's crass and, you know, not PC. And he's obnoxious and toxic and does not deserve an audience, does not belong on the stage.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

HEIDECKER: How many Lady Gaga fans do we have here tonight? I'd count myself. I think what she's doing is important and cool. And I love - no, I love Lady Gaga. But what's next? Lord Googoo (ph)?

Not good, Scott. Not good.

SIMON: Yeah. No, I'm not laughing. I don't know what kind of snort you heard over the microphone.

HEIDECKER: That's a groner.

SIMON: How is this a reflection of the sincere Tim, or how many Tims are we talking about, anyway?

HEIDECKER: Well there's several Tim's. There's only two touring this summer.

SIMON: And you ought to somebody about that, by the way.

HEIDECKER: (Laughter) Yeah, I know. You know got a "Cybill" situation here. You know, it came out of a very natural, fun place of seeing this in LA and seeing kind of the open mic world of comedy and sort of the hacky, brick-wall stand-up comedian that anybody would bother to listen to what this person has to say. And there is a sense that my audience at least sees this as being very popular in the world. And they don't - it doesn't make them laugh. It's confusing and alienating to them. But yeah, I mean, I love comedy, don't get me wrong. I think it's just when it's this kind of guy with a leather jacket prowling on stage talking about his wife and high gas prices and stuff where it's just like, are we really still interested in what these people have to say about anything?

SIMON: So how many Tims are there?

HEIDECKER: Yeah, the mistake I made years ago was, in the sort of spirit of Andy Kaufman, was just never coming up with character names, you know, just going by myself, my own name. And I think I could have done that differently, but here we are.

SIMON: Musician, comedian - who knows what else - Tim Heidecker. His new album, "High School," out now. Thanks so much for being with us.

HEIDECKER: It's great to talk to you.

(SOUNDBITE OF TIM HEIDECKER SONG, "STUPID KID") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.