Idols SA kicks off auditions this week, starting up the reality singing circus for another year.

Last year's audition rounds unearthed The Brothers Streep, who turned out to be the local comedy music sensation of the year.

Check out this exclusive chat with frontmen Simon van Wyk and Dylan Hichens.



Brothers Streep. We know it’s only March, but it’s been a busy year so far. What have been the most inspiring events for you this year, in terms of comedy fodder?
 
DYLAN: We’re actually currently working on a few non-topical songs. We’re quite excited to go back to writing material that doesn’t really have a place in history, but rather resonates as something anyone could find funny at any time.
 
SIMON: We’re busy working on a song about a Superhero versus a Supervillain. It’s far less topical than Invisible Children versus Kony, but it’s certainly a lot funnier.
 

Can you comment at all on the rumours of a Brothers Streep musical?
 
SIMON: The rumours are indeed true - ever since we began the band we’ve been keen to put together a musical. We have the idea, we have the opening number, and when the time is right, we’ll start writing the rest.
 
DYLAN: Yeah, then we’ll need to get a cast together that includes some females – the first version of the opening song featured me singing as a barmaid.


What are your favourite comedy tv shows (current or otherwise)?
 
DYLAN: For me it’s always a tie between The Office (UK) and Seinfeld. Two amazing shows – very different in format, style and sheer number of episodes – but each makes me laugh in their own way.
 
SIMON: Arrested Development is easily one of my favourites, and more recently Parks and Recreation.



Tell us a bit about your podcasts please.
 
SIMON: We’ve always seen The Brothers Streep as an entertainment brand, and not just a band, which is why in the early days Dyl and I started recording podcasts in my house. It’s hard to tell how many listeners we had back then, but we’re certain there were at least two.
 
DYLAN: I think that’s why we found the move to 2oceansvibe Radio so easy. We host a show every Friday afternoon and it’s really fun to just sit and chat for two hours with some cool music in between. The show is released as a podcast on the following Monday so it’s been great to be able to keep that part of the band alive.


How do you think the internet has impacted you as artists? Are you guys active on your social media accounts and website? Why?
 
DYLAN: We’ve tried to be on top of our game with our online presence from day one. Without doubt, the Anna Paquin/Graham Norton experience wouldn’t have happened had we not got our website up and running and posted a blog about the actress - and from seeing that performance, we were given the call from the Idols SA team to start that little project.
 
SIMON: Viral videos are great when they happen, but they are close to impossible to manufacture and the fame they bring is usually fleeting. That’s why we prefer the idea of creating a faithful and involved Streep community through an active online presence which helps invite others into our world.


Tell us a bit about The Secrecy Bill song please. Was it really written in one night?
 
SIMON: Yip. We were thinking of getting involved in a project which would require us to write a new topical song every week, so we set ourselves the crazy deadline to see if we’d be able to make it.
 
DYLAN: It was really fun to find a completely different angle to what the name would suggest. We tend to go about telling our stories in a different way in The Brothers Streep, so doing a song about trying to find out how much money you owe at the end of a meal, that ties in with a political message at the end, was great.



Has Anna Paquin been in touch since the Graham Norton appearance?
 
DYLAN: Sadly she has not. We did hear that her then-fiancé, Stephen Moyer, really liked the song! So we like to imagine him whistling it from time to time in their home.
 
SIMON: We’ve kept contact with Graham and got to meet him when he was down in Cape Town – was probably safer than meeting Anna because if she does feel haunted by that song it could have been an incredibly awkward meeting.



The Brothers Streep are available on Kalahari.com.