The comic and musician won the Best Original Song award at Sunday’s Academy Awards in Hollywood, for ‘Man or Muppet’ from The Muppets movie.
However, he is best known for writing and starring in New Zealand comedy, Flight of the Conchords, alongside Jemaine Clement.
McKenzie said: “I’m looking forward to writing with Jemaine in the future again. Because I’ll be able to pull out the Oscar card and say ‘Mmm, I think we should use this chord’ and ‘I won an Oscar!’”
In an interview with Buzz Sugar, McKenzie also revealed the pressure of writing music for one of the largest franchises in the world – The Muppets, created by Jim Henson.
McKenzie said: “A friend of mine said, when I got the job of working on the film, ‘You’ll never write another ‘Rainbow Connection’.
And I said, ‘You’re right’. And I didn’t,” he recalled.
“‘Rainbow Connection’ didn’t win an Oscar, but there’s no doubt that their song is an absolutely timeless classic, and this song is nothing in comparison.
“In the ’80s, when I was at home a lot watching TV, my dad one day brought home a video recorder. No-one else had one, so it was pretty exciting. But he only had two video cassettes, and one was The Dark Crystal. So my brother and I watched that movie at least twice a week for about five years.
“Definitely, Jim Henson influenced me. He’s a huge inspiration and the other thing I love about the guy is he made children’s films that I think he found funny. He was making them for adults. He didn’t patronise the minds of children.”
Watch the ‘Man or Muppet’ music video here:
