‘EVERYTHING IS AWESOME’ THE FROM LEGO MOVIE
THE HISTORY OF THE MOST UPBEAT SONG KNOWN TO HUMAN — OR IS THAT BRICK — KIND
“OH MY GOSH, I love this song!” yells The Lego Movie’s everyman hero, Emmet, at his toy car stereo. Popstars Tegan and Sara have come on the radio, singing the hook of the film’s Oscarnominated anthem ‘Everything Is Awesome’. It’s a relentlessly bouncy, synth-powered ode to teamwork, positivity and, as the title suggests, all things awesome, be it brand-new pants, possums, or a book of Greek antiquities. This platinum-selling pop song was the brainseed of Shawn Patterson (with later contributions from The Lonely Island and Joli), who drew on a series of surprising influences to create one of the most cheerful movie theme tunes in years.
How did you get involved?
It started when I got a call from [The Lego Movie animation director] Chris Mckay, who I’d worked with when I was a score composer on Robot Chicken. When he told me he was working on this film called The Lego Movie I laughed and was like, “Really?” But I was excited about the prospect of working with Chris again so I dropped everything and dove in. He explained that Phil Lord and Chris Miller had scripted into the film that there would be a song called ‘Everything Is Awesome’, that it would be the poppiest, catchiest song in the history of all songs, and that it would be about teamwork, and that’s all I had to go by.
You weren’t given any points of reference?
There wasn’t a single audio reference for the song, Chris just filled me in on Emmet’s character — that he has a desire to be a part of this collective that he doesn’t fit in. When he told me that I went down a path probably a little darker than what the filmmakers wanted.
What do you mean by “dark”?
If you watch Star Trek you’ll know about The Borg — it’s like a beehive, where there’s one mind or a queen that tells everybody else what to do. Everybody thinks that they’re part of a family, when they’re actually working for the queen. So that was my take on it, that it was the dream of this nerd to fit into the hive. It was still very upbeat and about teamwork, but there was definitely a sinister undercurrent, almost like a hint of communism to it.
Why do you think the final version of the song resonates with people so much?
I think that people love the song because it’s bright and poppy and singable — the hook sounds like a child playing a toy piano. And there’s this goofy side to it, that says: “Hey, I’m trying really hard, even though I’m failing miserably!” But it’s also dripping in sarcasm, which is a big part of what adults like about the song. They get that if you say, “Everything is awesome,” as an adult, most of the time it’s because you’ve just spilled your wine or dropped a picture and it shatters. You look down at it and you go: “Well, everything’s awesome here!”
When did it sink in that it had become such a massive success?
It took me a long time to realise that the song was so popular. I was in a screening of the movie after it came out and I could hear kids singing along to it, which was really crazy. Then I was at a premiere for another movie, and a woman came over to me with all these Lego blocks glued to her high heels and introduced me to her son, who shook my hand. I just thought I’d written the song as a fluke, or that because everybody knows Lego as a property they wouldn’t buy into it. It’s been so funny and so unexpected for me.