NZ Herald: Grammy win checked on Google - February 12, 2008

Grammy win checked on Google
12 Feb, 2008 10:00 PM

Wairarapa Times-Age
By: Jo Moir

Jemaine Clement's cellphone has been ringing off the hook since winning a Grammy but he hasn't been answering it that was until he recognised a Wairarapa number flashing on his screen. Clement, formerly of Wairarapa, heard from a friend on Monday that he and fellow Flight of the Conchords star, Bret McKenzie, had won a Grammy, so he checked Google to confirm the rumour.

Speaking with the Times-Age yesterday, Clement said, "the phone has been ringing silly today but I've been ignoring most of the calls. "I answered this call because I knew it was a Wairarapa number," he said. "It's really good that people see this so positively but neither of us really like a lot of attention."

Clement and McKenzie won the Grammy for their EP, The Distant Future, featuring a song about robots taking over the Earth, which was the eighth-biggest selling comedy recording in the United States last year.

The comedy duo had planned to fly back to America to attend the Writers Guild awards, which their Flight of the Conchords series received three nominations for, followed by the Grammy awards the next day. "Because of the writers strike we decided it wasn't worth going. We weren't at all surprised when we missed out on the Guild awards because we were up against some really great shows. The funny thing is the Grammys are actually a bigger deal so we were totally surprised to win."

Clement grew up in Greytown and Masterton, leaving Wairarapa when he was 18. "If people think of me as a Wairarapa success then that's really nice because I still have family and
friends there and it will always be my home."

Reportedly the second New Zealand Maori to receive a Grammy award, Clement's reply was "at the time when I heard that I said to Bret, I guess that makes you the first pakeha to get a Grammy".

Initial reports have since been corrected and since Dame Kiri Te Kanawa's Grammy 24 years ago, New Zealander's Fran Walsh and Keith Urban have also had Grammy success, making Clement and McKenzie's Grammy the third in almost quarter of a century.

"The whole experience has been pretty downplayed because we've been up for so many awards before and never got them so we got used to not getting excited so we wouldn't be disappointed. "It works the same way when you win and we didn't get too excited. We definitely weren't jumping around or anything but the family was," he said.

Clement and McKenzie have been back visiting friends and family in Wellington for the past five months but return to America in the next few weeks.
"We've got a gig to do over there and then I'll be staying on to start filming the movie I'm doing in March."

The last year has been the most challenging in the pair's steady climb to success over the past decade, he said. "Everything seemed to happen simultaneously where we were recording almost 30 songs for our album, writing a TV show and learning how to act before the show started. It was chaotic but worth it in the end."album, writing a TV show and learning how to act before the show started. It was chaotic but worth it in the end."