Barenaked Ladies: how we made One Week

I joined Reprise Records in 1995, based in New York, and was assigned to help Barenaked Ladies make their fourth record. I had just signed They Might Be Giants, who I considered to be the cream of the smarty-pants, alternative music scene. So I thought: “Hmmm. Barenaked Ladies? What are we going to do here?”

We hired Susan Rogers and David Leonard – who had both been sound engineers for Prince – and left them to it. This was pre-internet, so when they’d finished, I flew from New York to the rehearsal studio in Toronto. The band’s new songs were catchy and entertaining – I was pleased, we had a good album in the works. Then they said: “There is one other, but we’re just not sure …”

They played me One Week and I said: “My God. This is the single. I can’t believe you were doubting the validity.” It was so charming, fresh and different from anything that was being played on the radio. But convincing the record label to release it was nearly impossible. Every few days, I would go into the head of pop promotions’ office and say: “Let’s work this thing.” He would look bemused and say: “This sounds like nothing on the radio. I can never get this played.” It was expensive to promote a record and send it out to radio. But I was like a bulldozer, pushing and pushing, thinking: “What have we got to lose?”

It did well on alternative radio, which meant the promo guys finally got involved, and soon it went to No 1. I’d be driving with my young daughter and it would be exciting when it came on the radio: “Mommy worked on this!” It was so cutting edge and unique; one of the first pop songs to feature a rap. Now it has extra charm and nostalgia. It’s an evergreen – a song that has remained popular for decades.

When I’m having a fight with my wife, even though I know I’m wrong, you still have to go through various stages of the fight to save face. So I had an idea for a song about the stages of arguments in a relationship. I had the architecture of the choruses and the development of the fight. I kept trying to write these silly topical verses, but they never felt right.

I’d been a massive hip-hop fan since the 80s. When we played live, we would go into some random groove and I’d freestyle about the venue or the city we were in. [Co-founder, singer and guitarist] Steve Page said: “You freestyle on stage every night. Why don’t you just freestyle the verses, too?” I set this Hi8 camcorder in my basement in Toronto and freestyled until I ran out of mental energy, and went back and transcribed my favourite verses.

Every line has some pop culture etymology that was on the mind of the band. “Bert Kaempfert’s got the mad hits” – our keyboard player was always playing this bizarre European composer in the dressing room. “Like Harrison Ford / I’m getting frantic / Like Sting, I’m tantric” – the film Frantic, starring Harrison Ford, had just come out. “Chickity China / The Chinese chicken / You have a drumstick / And your brain stops tickin’” is a reference to Busta Rhymes’ “Chickity-choco / The chocolate chicken” on Scenario by A Tribe Called Quest. I changed it to China because Asian bird flu – this horrible poultry virus – was all over the news.

The original demo wasn’t much more than a drum loop. I remember Susan Rogers saying: “That drum loop isn’t very cool,” and she made it sound all trip-hoppy. Then David Leonard said: “We’ve got to put some fucking guitars on this chorus,” and it became this banger, with all these meandering Afro-Cuban guitars.

It took us ages to figure out how to play it live because it’s sneakily complicated. We eventually realised we’d have to trigger all the keyboard layers and subsonic parts to make it sound more like the record.

It’s such a silly song. We were getting quite serious about songwriting, and so we assumed it would be a fun B-side or bonus track. When the label told us it was going to be the lead single, I said: “You can’t do that. We’re a serious band.” But it went to No 1 very quickly, so I was happy to be wrong.

I don’t understand when artists have a complicated relationship with their hit single. Maybe it was some big compromise or it’s overshadowed their career, but I love One Week. I love that it’s so silly and represents us when we play it live. It’s become even more popular lately as a meme. We get all these requests to approve it to use on Family Guy or Jimmy Fallon or James Corden. I don’t care if they’re celebrating the song, making fun of it or making some joke about the band. I always say yes in an instant.

Barenaked Ladies’ new album Detour de Force is out now on Raisin’ Records.