It’s a simple idea, really. Writing funny songs about sports. Current Toronto resident Kathy Anderson does exactly that on SongsAboutSports.com. Let me be the first to tell you that she’s got a knack for it. Although she grew up watching hockey, Kathy is no stranger to basketball or the pain of Chris Bosh‘s departure. Or the fact that he looks like Raptor. Or the fact that Andrea Bargnani can’t rebound. Or that Nate Robinson tweets way too much. In fact, she’s written songs about all of these things. In a recent interview, I caught up with Kathy to discuss Songs About Sports, her hoops career and why the Raptors need to have an all-European team.
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Dime: How did Songs About Sports get started?
Kathy Anderson: I went to school for acting, so I was kind of on the creative side. I didn’t really get into it after I graduated cause I was too busy watching sports. (laughs) And then I just decided to do the first song, about the Blue Jays. My boyfriend was just like, ‘Make a rap about them!’ And it sounded like a dare, so I was like, ‘Yeah, okay.’ And then people thought it was funny. That was a couple years ago, And I’ve done a few other ones since.
Dime: You did a song on Nate Robinson’s tweets. Does he clog your Twitter feed like he does mine?
KA: Oh he so does! I almost want to unfollow him. But I can’t, he follows me. It does clog your feed, but if you investigate further, there are little gems. Like the other day, maybe a couple weeks ago, he posted a video of his kids jumping on a trampoline doing flips. But it’s him in the background being like, ‘You gotta land it, you gotta land it!’ So those hidden gems are good, but apart from that he gets all up in your feed.
Dime: Who else helps you run the website and produce the songs?
KA: My boyfriend is the video editor, so that really helps. And he helps me with the ideas, too – he’s pretty creative. Apart from that, I do it all kinda by myself. You kinda have to have a team to make it more a business, you know? My next plan is to kind of sketch variety-esque thing, just to do a sport, but kind of have a few more guys that I know from school that know about sports. Kind of make it like an SNL thing but have it come out every couple of weeks. If you don’t release something weekly, or bi-weekly, people kind of forget. I’m still learning about the business side of things, but the next step is to get regular content out. And to pimp out my site.
Dime: Walk me through the process of writing and producing a song.
KA: The biggest problem I have is not coming up with the initial idea, but the hook. You know, what’s funny about it. I could write a song in 10 minutes, but it’s not gonna be funny and entertaining and worth people’s time. If I find that hook, something that’s so funny that I make myself laugh, then everything just basically writes itself. I did one about having sex with Vijay Singh after the Tiger Woods scandal, I think one of my friends came up with it. I remember laughing for a half hour. That’s how you know something will work. So I record the song and then if I have any ideas for the video, I’ll make my boyfriend do them. Some videos I completely take over and direct them and all he does is shoot them because I can’t shoot myself. But most of the time he’ll do the editing and we work together – which is nightmare, because we we’re not very good at working together (laughs).
Dime: Do you plan on expanding by bringing in more people?
KA: I think you need to have more people in order to produce content. Like obviously the more brains the better when coming up with ideas and stuff. But I want to be the head. With what I plan to do in the next few months hopefully, I’m gonna try to recruit the guys I went to comedy school with. After university, I went to a comedy school – Second City. They have it Chicago as well. I went to the northern version up in Toronto. They’re really funny guys and they know sports so hopefully we’ll be able to whip some stuff up. I don’t want it to be 100% me, because that gets boring fast. You really need to see another face. I think that’s why Norm MacDonald‘s show got cancelled. He’s hilarious, but it was just him.
Dime: How did you get into basketball?
KA: My dad was a hockey fan so we never really had basketball on because the seasons conflicted. But I did play on the junior girl’s basketball team in high school. But I had a late birthday, so I did it when I was in grade 11. But my coach didn’t know, so at the end of the year, he was like, ‘You know what, you’re gonna do pretty well in your high school basketball career.’ And I was like, ‘oh, actually I’m graduating next year.’ And it was really embarrassing that the grade nine point guard that played 99 out of 100 games was playing instead of me. But yeah, I just started to like it when we moved to Toronto when I was 17 – I’m from Ottawa. The Raptors made the playoffs then. I do remember that, I was working at Hooters. That’s where I watched the games. My parents weren’t too impressed with my job (laughs).
Dime: Have any famous people commented on your work?
KA: I know that [Bryan] Colangelo saw the Bosh one. It was playing in the dressing room. It was one of Bosh’s last games, I think. So I guess they were all making fun of him and playing it. As soon as I get enough courage and sway I might try and contact a few players or teams. There are some funny ass basketball players out there. They’d be really good.
Dime: If you were to bring up Songs About Sports to the Toronto Raptors to get players involved in your videos, what would your pitch be?
KA: They should allow me access because I am a slightly awkward but still cute and somewhat blonde girl and I will get you so much publicity by rapping about how hot your Raptors are going to be this season that you won’t even know what hit you. Let me in to be around tall men. (laughs) It probably wouldn’t go exactly like that. My improv skills are not up to par.
Dime: What kind of moves do you think the Raptors need to make to improve?
KA: I think that Dwane Casey was a good move. I think that he knows what he’s doing. I don’t know about drafting [Jonas] Valanciunas. I feel like he might just be Bargnani’s cousin. And we all know how well Bargnani turned out. No, but seriously, don’t hate on Bargnani ’cause I really love him. The problem is I don’t think guys want to play in Toronto. ‘Cause I feel like, why would you want to play in Toronto when you can play somewhere warm, and in the States? What’s gonna bring you up to Canada where we have like the worst winters ever, a really crappy team and we’re in the rebuilding phase? I think the key might be to draft loads of Europeans and build a European franchise, and hope that they’ll be incredible and stay in Toronto and won’t leave. ‘Cause I feel like if we got a really good young draft pick, an American, he would just leave us.
Dime: Do you have any songs in the works right now?
KA: I really wanted to do one on Metta World Peace, but I haven’t really thought it through. That might be in the works. And I was really upset I missed the boat, I wanted to a parody of Christina Aguilera‘s “Dirty,” but instead it would be “Dirky.” By the time I thought of it, it was too late. And I would love to do a duet with Dirk because he has such a beautiful singing voice.
Dime: Why should the Dime readers be visiting your site?
KA: I’ll make them laugh on more than two occasions. And I will take requests if they want a song about their brother who’s trying out for rec basketball. But really, I’m a basketball fan like them but unfortunately I’m suffering up in Toronto, so they should give me some love. And we’re polite up here.
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