Koo Koo Kanga Roo is a band / dance-comedy duo made up of friends Bryan and Neil. Their newest album Celebrate This! is a holiday-inspired dance-a-thon guaranteed to make you bust a move. Currently touring with MC Lars, Koo Koo Kanga Roo will be at AS220’s Main Stage (115 Empire Street, Providence, RI) on Wednesday, November 22 at 5:45 PM. Presale tickets are available for $12 online!

When given the opportunity to talk with both Bryan and Neil to ask them a few questions about the act, this is what they said:

How has being able to do Koo Koo Kanga Roo been a positive influence on both of your lives?
Koo Koo Kanga Roo has been a positive influence on our lives because we created it from scratch and grew it into our full-time jobs. It took a long time and it was a lot of work, but the success of this band empowers us to make our lives into whatever we want rather than what they’re expected to be. Also it has shown us the value in being unique.

What sort of audience does Koo Koo Kanga Roo see on a typical night?
Our audience is usually a mix of kids, their parents and people who have seen us on tour supporting other bands. The kids are up front having a good time, the parents are in the back rolling their eyes/looking at their watch, and the people who have seen us before are also up front mixing it up with the kids.

How have experiences like performing Warped Tour and the popularity of the “Brain Break” videos affected your careers as performers?
By design we try to have a wide range of ways to experience our band. I grew up going to Warped Tour and that crowd is really fun/young/open minded so it was a good fit for us. Brain Breaks are a way that we can bring our dance-a-long videos to kids and teachers. We also have all these concept albums, music videos, sing-a-long books and other cool merch.

What sort of achievements have shaped the course of the project and allowed you to tour as a nationwide act?
Generally just grinding for nine years and trying to never stop is the key. We just keep putting out new music and touring. It can be hard but eventually doors start to open up, especially if you’re doing something unique that people haven’t seen before. Supporting the Aquabats, Frank Turner and playing Warped Tour have brought us into new audiences. Also the Brain Break videos have been a huge catalyst in people knowing about us.

As friends and fellow members of the Minneapolis performance scene, what is your relationship to Minneapolis rapper P.O.S?
I learned about P.O.S in 2005 at the Rhymesayers 10th anniversary show. His album Audition is one of my favorite records ever and was my introduction to local hip hop. Stef is part of a collective called Doomtree and they’re really inspiring to us because they also do everything themselves and have created something amazing. So we’ve both always been big P.O.S fans. We just simply tweeted at Stef and asked if he wanted to write a rap verse to a song about orange juice. He did.

David Hurley, AS220 Communications Intern