Make no mistake: Office was not inspired by “The Office.”
“I’ve been trying to tell this to people forever,” says frontman Scott Masson. “That whole idea came a couple months before the [show] even took off. Maybe they’re going to sue us.”
In fact, the up-and-coming Chicago band began as a conceptual art project for Masson in 2000 (the British version of “The Office” debuted in 2001) and now the group is too busy to worry about lawsuits. After building a healthy following in Chicago, Office is set to embark on their first national tour in support of the just-released national debut, “A Night at the Ritz.” It’s a polished and poppy collection of tunes that Masson calls the band’s “greatest underground hits.” The record features several punched-up versions of tunes from the band’s previous self-released, “Q+A,” as well as a handful of new material.
The band used to perform in suits — and even featured briefcases and dancing stenographers on stage — but Masson says those days are over because the theatrical element “almost cheapened the music.” From his place in Wicker Park, the singer told us about his own dramatic episodes and the reason Fergie brings him to tears.
You’re sort of your own boss in Office. Have you ever stormed out on yourself?
Actually, I have. I’ve been so pissed off at myself sometimes. There’s been times where I’m like, “[Screw] this, I quit.” And I’ll send a text to everybody in the band. And [the group has] heard it so many times at this point that they’re like, “Alright, well, we’ll see you tomorrow.” I have an unhealthy relationship with music. But I’m never serious. The next day it’s just like, “Oh, yep. Scott just had another one of his little episodes.”
What interests you about the working world?
I’ve always had older people my entire life telling me that, like, “Oh, when are you going to get a real job? When are you going to stop dreaming? You’ve got to have something to fall back on.” And I never really looked at it like that. I never even considered that it wasn’t something that should be taken very seriously. So this idea of calling a rock and roll band Office, to me it was just kind of a fascinating idea. I was like, “Oh, man. I want it to be my job.”
You’ve said your songs are about life being surreal. Do you ever feel like you’re on “The Surreal Life”?
No. I mean, sometimes, yeah. I guess when I said that I was probably feeling surreal that day because if you turn on the TV in general, it’s just bizarre. It’s bizarre to be American right now. Especially a pop band in America. The whole pop element [has] just gone as far as it can possibly go. I turn on pop radio these days and I’m just amazed at what I hear. The English language has kind of been thrown out the window.
So you’ve never shed a tear over Fergie’s line, “I’m going to miss you like a child misses their blanket”?
[Laughs] Yeah, it’s almost brought me to tears. Sometimes it can bring tears of laughter.You’ve also said it bugs you that a band with a tuba player and a screaming monkey would be considered brilliant.
I can be pretty flippant in my remarks sometimes. Sometimes I can be a little too provocative, and I’m like, “Oh, my god. Why did I say that?” When I say a screaming monkey or whatever, I feel like these days it’s almost like if you’re super-bizarre and you’re so left-field, there’s a lot of hipster culture [that] generally just praises that very blindly. And if you’re doing anything that’s sort of geared toward a big spectrum of people you’re almost looked at as being contrived and calculated.
When you add a screaming monkey to the band, we’re throwing that in your face.
Awesome! Hey, I’ll be ready. It could happen. Talk about subversive; I think monkeys have a lot to say.
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mpais@tribune.com
