Will Arnett got Stephen Malkmus to cover 'Margaritaville' for 'Flaked'

Will Arnett’s new series Flaked is now on Netflix, and to celebrate the comedian took over SiriusXMU to talk about the show’s soundtrack.

When thinking about the music for Flaked, a Venice beach dramedy about a crooked self-help guru, Arnett immediately had one name in mind: Stephen Malkmus, best known as the lead singer and guitar player for’90s rock band Pavement. He’s continued to create music in a number of groups since, currently helming Stephen Malkus and the Jicks.

“When we first met I’d said to you guys that I wanted Steve Malkmus to score the show,” Arnett told SiriusXMU’s Chris Muckley, who helped supervise the music for Flaked. “I had reached out to him like a month before, had a great hour-long conversation with Steve, and I sent him the first couple scripts of the show and then I didn’t hear from him for a month, and I thought, ‘Well, that’s over.'”

But Malkmus did end up taking the gig — his first ever job as a series composer, according to Muckley. Arnett talks about how Malkmus scored scenes of the leading man riding around Venice beach on his bike, writing an “unbeatable’ theme song, and also covering the Jimmy Buffett tropical hit “Margaritaville.”

“I got to ask Jimmy if [using his song] was cool, which of course he said yeah because he’s rad,” Arnett recounted. “And then I got to play it on my iPhone for Jimmy — Steve’s cover — and I was like stuck in this absurd reality.”

Luckily, getting in touch with Jimmy Buffett was actually very easy for Arnett, who admits to actually have been living in the legendary singer’s house at the time. Listen to Arnett’s segments on SiriusXMU below.