PLUME: You also seem to be able to walk away from stuff you don’t want to do, whereas some performers will grab at anything they possibly can. You’ve been very selective over the years about the things that you do, and when to walk away from other things.

MORANIS: Well, there can be any number of reasons why people do different things. I’ve been very careful to not get myself into situations that I would regret for whatever reason. But some people just like to work. Some people just like to simply be working. They like to be on sets and on the stage and in trailers and in airports and hotels. That’s where their identity exists. And I’ve lived that and I may live it again, but I also have other parts of me that take priority from time to time.

PLUME: Would you say there was almost an element of critical mass to doing the album when you did the album? That you reached a point where that was the creative outlet that you were going to engage in?

MORANIS: Again, I don’t think there was that much forethought. I’ve spent the last several years creating things on a much more low-profile level. Some writing that’s been published. More writing that hasn’t been published. And very, very limited amounts of broadcast material, of voice work commercials. And I guess because this actually became a finished product that is tangible, it might appear like it has a little bit more forethought to it than anything else I’ve done in the last few years. But other than the fact that it actually required a form of studio production - albeit musical - it pretty much falls into the same wheel house as everything else I’ve been doing for the last chunk of years since I’ve been off camera.

MORANIS: In some cases.

PLUME: You’ve done a lot of editorials over the years…

MORANIS: Oh, I throw out a lot more than I keep. And I’ve played around with different forms. And I’m pretty critical of my own work, so it has to get to a point where I’m really happy with it before I’ll reveal it even to my closest friends. So I’ve got all kinds of things that I’ve played with. To amuse myself and to experiment with new ideas and new forms.

PLUME: Is there a particular form that you gravitate towards more than others?

MORANIS: Right now I’m gravitating towards musical forms. That’s been in and out of my life for years and years, and I might do that for a while. I don’t know.

PLUME: That almost sounds like this might not be the last album that we get from you.

MORANIS: I’m not sure.

PLUME: Would you say that a follow-up album, if there were to be one, would be in a different genre?

MORANIS: The last few things that I’ve written have been in a different genre. I’ve been playing with some jazz forms and a couple more bluegrass things, but there’s a very close link in my mind between bluegrass and jazz. So I’ve written a couple of jazz tunes.

PLUME: I find it fascinating that someone could go in viewing the album that you did as, well, this is just a comedy country record, where I think the writing is a lot more subtle. It reminded me of a Randy Newman album, both musically and in the tenor and intelligence of the writing. Where did you feel that your mind gravitated to when you were writing the songs? There is certainly a cleverness to the writing, but there also seems to be a heart underneath it as well. Whereas somebody going into it might perceive, “Oh, it’s Rick Moranis, it must be a comedy album.” But certainly when you listen to it, it’s not that…

MORANIS: It’s hard for me to comment on that because I think I’ve got to leave that to listeners and critics and writers like yourself.

PLUME: When you look at the songs you wrote, how do you perceive them?

MORANIS: I’m not sure I understand whether you mean them as a whole, or individually, or the writing of them…

PLUME: Any of those aspects you care to answer.

MORANIS: Um…

PLUME: What was your intention sitting down and writing? Did you consider these to be at the time I’m writing… “These are my country songs,” or “I’m trying to be clever with the writing of these…” ? Where did your mind settle in and decide that “This is what I’m doing… this is how I’m perceiving what I’m doing…” ?

MORANIS: Well, let me try and answer it - though I have to warn you, I think I’m going to do a terrible job of answering this.

PLUME: And I did a terrible job of posing it…

MORANIS: No, I hear the legitimacy of the question - I just don’t know that I have a legitimate answer. I sort of see these as sketches, in that I’m more comfortable working in the short form than long form. I love writing sketches and never was interested in writing sitcom scripts. I wrote a couple of films scripts but didn’t really find any interest in developing or cultivating the skills or the discipline to do that. I like short ideas, which is why I like Op/Ed pieces and songs. And to the extent that these songs fit into a whole, uh… might just be a stroke of luck… or maybe they don’t fit into a whole at all and I don’t know what I’m talking about! But in the same way that every sketch is different and has a different concept and a different arc, and a different story to tell and a different voice, etc., etc., I think these do too. And I was at a point where… and again, it was because my daughter was listening to all this bluegrass and all this country-sounding music was filling the house, a house which normally was filled with classical music and jazz, and it was really hooking into my psyche, and so when I would get a comical idea, instead of kind of putting it on a road to a joke or two or a potential little essay or something, it fell into what was already vamping in my head, which was the tone and texture and feel of that kind of music. So I channeled those ideas into song form. So, for example, about a year ago when I was watching post-season baseball and I kept hearing the announcers talk about how these high-priced fatigued pitchers couldn’t work on three days’ rest, I just thought, “God, that’s such a fantastic idea. Such a great phrase. And think of all the things that I can’t do on three days’ rest.” And I thought of how hard it is sometimes to do things that other people want you to do when you… when you’re not ready to do them, and that’s why I developed that song about the guy who couldn’t make love to his wife on three days’ rest. Now, as I wrote the song within that, I tried to make it a song that worked as a song, and tried to play with lyrics that satisfied my own imagination, and when I played it for Tony Sherr, he heard it in a slightly higher key. He heard it at a slightly faster tempo, and he added the second instrumental break to it, because he thought that the form needed that, and we turned it into a tune that has a banjo behind it and a fiddle. In other words, the point I’m making is I didn’t try to write a country song, I just wrote that song. And then the collaborator turned it into the song that it became.

PLUME: It’s interesting when you mention about the three days’ rest, about people wanting you to do something when you’re not ready to. Have you ever felt an external pressure from any quarter to do something or engage in something?

MORANIS: Has any human being not felt that?

PLUME: Well, I’m talking from a career perspective. Have you ever felt a pressure from agents or representatives or friends to say, “Rick, why don’t you do this?”

MORANIS: Well, I’ve been asked to do many things and I’ve turned down a lot more than I’ve taken, so I guess that might be true. That I have felt… I’ve certainly felt the desire of other people and enterprises, studios, networks, whomever, to want me to do things. Pressure? I’ve tried not to internalize it as pressure.

Continued below…