165 - They Might Be Giants - John Flansburgh—Obsessed Show Podcast
Channel: Josh Miles
Date: 04/10/2021

165 - They Might Be Giants - John Flansburgh—Obsessed Show Podcast
Today on Obsessed Show I’m honored to be chatting with John Flansburgh, ½ of the dynamic duo that is They Might Be Giants.

As you can only imagine my response when I received the email… “Hey, this is John F. from TMBG, and we’d like to share our Book with you in hopes that we can figure out a chat on your podcast.”

Well spoiler alert, I was pretty excited to make that happen. Of course, I said yes!

Like I, many of you may know them from songs such as Istanbul (Not Constantinople), I Palindrome I, Particle Man, Birdhouse in your Soul, or even the theme song to Malcolm in the Middle… but today we’re talking to John about their latest project.

Their new book & album, which is fittingly entitled, “BOOK,” is a collaboration between the band, past Obsessed Show guest and Designer Paul Sahre, and photographer Brian Karlsson.

I was lucky enough to get a preview copy a few days ago, and as I understand, this is only one of two copies of this gorgeous book that exists… so far!

I’m excited to learn more about John, the book, and They Might be Giants. So without further ado, here’s my conversation with John Flansburgh.

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00:23 Today's episode is brought to you by The Perfect Match
01:30 John Flansburgh bio
04:45 Origins of They Might Be Giants
06:50 They Might Be Giants musical influences
11:44 Collaborations with Paul Sahre
18:08 The process of creating "Book"
26:20 Developing the concept of "Book"
34:15 What's a typical day for John Flansburgh
39:00 John's proudest professional moment
42:29 John's design, music & photography heroes 
45:34 What is John Flansburgh most obsessed with right now
49:20 What's next for TMBG
51:00 What does John do when he's stuck
55:55 What would John do if he wasn't doing TMBG
01:02:00 Asks for our audience
01:09:20 Where to find more about TMBG and purchase "Book"

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MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
Pre-order “Book” (Very limited quantities!)

https://www.theymightbegiants.com/ 

https://www.obsessedshow.com/episodes/paul-sahre

http://paulsahre.com/ 

https://www.instagram.com/voyeur1 

http://tmbw.net/wiki/Rodney_Alan_Greenblat 

https://www.fontlab.com/font-editor/fontographer/ 

https://www.typography.com/about-us 

https://www.eamesoffice.com/eames-office/charles-and-ray/ 

https://emuseum.mfah.org/people/1375/robert-frank/objects 

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0942367/ - Edgar Wright, director of Baby Driver & Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

https://soundcloud.com/designmatters/john-flansburgh 

https://www.instagram.com/toddalcott/ 

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/they-might-be-giants/id562807635 

http://tmbw.net/wiki/Dial-A-Song 

#tmbg #designpodcast #johnflansburgh

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Today’s episode is brought to you by The Perfect Match—a game where designers submit mood boards created with Adobe Stock assets and earn the chance to play on a live game show to win big.

As designers, we pitch great ideas through visuals, all day, every day. But how well does our design communicate? Do clients and higher-ups really understand the work we put in front of them?
 
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It's free to participate in The Perfect Match, and just submitting an entry gets you a coffee for your time. 
 
Visit https://theperfectmatch.co/obsessed to learn more, and get ready to bring your design skills to win.

Thanks Again to The Perfect Match for sponsoring today’s episode.   

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If you prefer audio, you can find all of the places to tune in at: https://kite.link/obsessed

✅SUB: https://www.youtube.com/joshmiles?sub_confirmation=1

✅IG: https://www.instagram.com/joshmilescom/

✅BOOK ME: https://www.joshmiles.com/about/

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----- MORE ABOUT JOSH MILES -----
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