We first heard of Michael Gregory as part of The Gregory Brothers, a musical group that Michael plays in with his brothers, Andrew and Evan. But all three Gregory brothers have their own musical lives as well.

Michael plays in the band Kapluckus (see check out their radio interview on WVRU’s The Listening Room here and check out their CD review here) and is constantly involved with other musical adventures.

His latest endeavor that caught our attention was his musical responses to the presidential and vice presidential debates. We decided to check in with Michael to see how these videos came about and what’s next for him after the debates.

So here’s five questions with Radford native and current New York City resident Michael Gregory.

New River Voice: You’ve been a musical guy most of your life, but what gave you the impetus to start these musical responses to the presidential and vice presidential debates?

Michael Gregory: The first line of the song jumped into my head, and I figured that fleshing it out would be absurd and hilarious. My brothers encouraged me to do a follow-up, and the rest has become a writing exercise, which I love. I have deadlines that force me to crank the songs out and an audience that adds pressure to come up with something halfway decent. Sure, the products are completely ridiculous, but sometimes for this sort of thing I can just change the lyrics to add another love/heartbreak/party song to the vault.

NRV: You’ve come out with your last few debate videos seemingly hours after the debate has ended. How do you crank them out so fast?

MG: Debates are highly predictable with the exception of those few treasured moments (i.e. “that one”). I recorded everything and edited as much as I could before the debates aired. All I needed to inject were my costars and a few oversized CNN or MSNBC graphics, and voilà. My brothers also helped me edit video for the second and third debate remixes, which got things moving more quickly. The writing of the town hall song was a collaborative effort, with writing credit going to my brothers and Sarah Fullen.

NRV: This election seems to be a drain on the whole country. Are you afraid this election is drying up your politically inspired humor?

MG: Far from it—this election has been a cornucopia for those involved in comedy because the writing is already done for them. I get as many laughs from the news as I do from Comedy Central!

NRV: Any personal thoughts on the election you’d like to share?

MG: I feel that this is the most historic election in my short lifetime and am excited about voting, but involvement shouldn’t stop there. I’m confident that we’re going to have a president who encourages self-sacrifice in trying times rather than random acts of shopping. Also, I wish I were registered in Virginia. Feel lucky—your vote is a little more important than mine.

NRV: After these debates, what projects can we expect to see next from Michael Gregory?

MG: After the debates, I’ll be busy gigging and recording with The Gregory Brothers and Sarah Fullen. Hopefully, there will also be some Kapluckus shows in months to come. You can expect to see a couple debate songs creep into our set lists (or at least those love song derivatives). I still hope to churn out song and dance videos when I have time though, whether they be political or secular.

Thanks, Michael! And be sure to check out Michael’s debate videos, which can be seen here, here, and here.