Mr. Toot, a Middle-Eastern-influenced pop song about a semi-mythical musician who plays an unusual instrument, debuted on I Kveld Med Ylvis 30 September, 2014. Mr Toot is also included on the Ylvis Volume 1 CD.
Mr. Toot: The Song[]
Mr. Toot is not a completely original song. Ylvis used the song Adir Adirim by Israeli group Balkan Beat Box as the base track, and wrote new lyrics about the "legendary music man" of Istanbul, Mr. Toot. They also added a synthesizer bridge in the middle of the song that was not in the original.
The song features solo vocals by Vegard, who narrates the cautionary tale of Mr. Toot, the master of a mysterious instrument called a toot. When he plays from the rooftops of Istanbul, the entire city stops to dance to his irresistible rhythms.
The adulation begins to feed Mr. Toot's ego and he rejects his classic instrument in favour of something more modern, a "fancy MIDI toot" (an electric guitar with a MIDI processor.) He changes his name to "Mr Ibanez" and holds a concert featuring modern music, a smoke machine and laser lights. It is a massive failure and Mr. Toot disappears, never to be seen again. However, his discarded instrument is found and a new Mr. Toot continues the legend. As the song says, "Though you can kill the man, you can never kill the toot."
Balkan Beat Box feat. Victoria Hanna - Adir Adirim
Adir Adirim, the song Mr Toot is based on.
Mr. Toot: The Video[]
Ylvis - Mr. Toot Official music video HD
The video is set in Istanbul (actually Morocco) and features Vegard as the narrator of the action. Mr. Toot is played by a heavily disguised Bård. Mr. Toot has long hair and and a beard and wears a distinctive tall, red hat.
The toot he plays is revealed to be a peculiar combination of an oud (Middle Eastern string instrument) and a trombone. The sound of it has a hypnotic effect on the residents of the city, who throng the streets to dance and cheer for Mr. Toot.
Through the course of the video, Mr. Toot becomes jaded due to his success and decides to trade in his traditional instrument and costume for something more modern. He pitches his toot out the window of a tower and orders an electric guitar. At his first concert as Mr. Ibanez he discards his hat and robe, changes into a sleek white suit and ties back his long hair behind a screen before debuting his new look and sound. The audience walks out and leaves him facing a sea of empty seats.
After Mr. Toot runs away in disgrace, a young boy finds the discarded toot and begins to play it. The video cuts to him playing in front of an adoring audience, the new incarnation of Mr. Toot.
Vegard talks about the making of Mr. Toot[]
From the 5 August 2015 interview with Ylvis Suomi:
[VEGARD] I remember when we were making Mr. Toot and Yoghurt. That was fun. Norwegians are traditionally very much like "ok, we'll work tomorrow from ten to four and I have this appointment where I have to go". But with these guys, we were working on Trucker's Hitch or something, and then we just started jamming on another song. Suddenly we'd made another song. We'd planned to go home, but they said “this is cool, let's make this song. Write some lyrics, we'll do this, we'll order in some pizza and some beers.” They just put their life on the shelf and we made another song.
[YS] Where did Mr. Toot come from?
I just wanted to make a song about a mystical figure. I don't remember whose idea it was. I think Bård and Christian [Løchstøer] were sitting at the office, talking about this legend, and I came into the office and said "oh, that's Mr. Toot". And they laughed and it became Mr. Toot.
Why is he called Mr. Toot?
That was just something I thought about at that time. I just said it. People liked the sound of it. Then we started thinking: what does he do? Well he plays the toot of course. And I don't know. It came.
Who made the instrument?
I actually designed it in 3D. We had some different suggestions, but we ended up with a combination of an oud and a trombone I think. But we had it made down at the music store. There was some heavy engineering to do there.
I'm a bit of a musical instrument nerd so I really love that. Is it at all playable?
Yeah you can play it as an oud, but it wouldn't sound good. And it doesn't have the same sound as on the soundtrack. It wouldn't make much sense to play it really. But we were thinking of playing the fancy midi toot. Because we bought one.
I remember one of you tweeting about trying to find one.
We bought it and we scheduled the shoot in Morocco. And then suddenly I realised it’s not coming in time.
So you were able to borrow one?
I spent a lot of time on that one. It's work that I enjoy doing, but it was nerve wrecking at the same time. But I finally managed to find one. I searched for the instrument name and only Norway, and found a guy, just a username on a BMW forum. For some reason the guy had listed up his studio equipment. But he didn't have any contact information, no e-mail, nothing, and I had to get a hold of him like today, because it would be too late tomorrow.
So on this forum I managed to filter all his posts, and I found one with some images. He had shared pictures of his new car. One of the pictures was from inside of the car and it showed a reflection on the window of the GPS. On the GPS it said Høgehaug, 600 meters. So I went to Google Earth, I put in Høgehaug and made a 600 meter circle around it. It had to be within that area. Then I found this road and thought this must be it. I went on street view and compared it to the original car picture. After scrolling a bit back and forth I found it. This must be the house.
I called a number which I found for that address. I called his home, he didn't answer. Called his work, no-one answered there, but suddenly I found another number on the address. It was his daughter, and I said I have to get a hold of him. He has to call back today. She was like ok, ok… That was cool. It was very satisfying when I got a hold of him.
So you kind of work as producers on your videos as well.
Well yeah, we are producers in a way. Like co-producers. Of course a lot of things we don't do, like organise stuff. This was stuff that I just think is fun and I though this I could do pretty efficiently, so I did it. Normally we don't have time to do stuff like that.