LOS ANGELES - Jean-Phi Goncalves of Montreal trip-rock duo Beast says that the group's recent Grammy nomination feels like "a present that dropped from the sky" and he has no expectations about winning.

But if the pair does pull out an upset win for best short form music video at Sunday's show, Goncalves has one request: he wants Kanye West to storm the stage and interrupt the proceedings.

"If we win, please Kanye, come onstage," Goncalves told The Canadian Press with a laugh.

"Please, Kanye, come onstage and say that we shouldn't win."

He's referring, in part, to West's infamous outburst at the 2006 MTV Europe Music Awards, when the outspoken hip-hop star crashed the stage and swiped the mike to protest his loss to Justice and Simian's "We Are Your Friends" in the best video category and in one grand gesture, granted French electrohouse outfit Justice a position in the international spotlight.

West said at the time that he should have won the prize for his video "Touch The Sky," because it "cost a million dollars, Pamela Anderson was in it. I was jumping across canyons."

Well, it's safe to say that Beast isn't going to L.A. with similarly lofty expectations. With a nod to the cliche, they were thrilled just to be nominated.

When they got the news, Goncalves and vocalist Betty Bonifassi were in Rennes, France for a performance at the Festival Trans Musicales.

They weren't even aware their label, Verve, had entered their video clip for the funky "Mr. Hurricane" for consideration. They were thrilled when they got the news.

"We were jumping as high as we could," Goncalves said.

"We were very, very surprised. We didn't expect that. Sometimes you're working very hard on stuff that doesn't happen. Sometimes you have surprises like this one. It's a kind of balance.

"It was sunshine in our day."

And it also validated the process behind making the video, which Goncalves acknowledges was something of a nightmare.

The video portrays Goncalves and Bonifassi rocking out in a dilapidated old house. Meanwhile, thousands of honey bees swarm together to form a lurching monster who mills around the group before spontaneously breaking into dance, donning a bowler hat and soon, disintegrating. Goncalves affectionately calls the character his "bee man."

The band brought in Joshua Sherrett -- a Hollywood FX veteran of films including "300," "Sin City" and "Rush Hour 3" -- for creature design, animation and 3D supervision.

Sherrett, Goncalves says, was living in Montreal and willing to work on the video for significantly less than his usual fee. Benjamin Steiger Levine, who directed Chromeo's tongue-in-cheek video for "Fancy Footwork," helmed the clip.

Everyone involved was adamant that the video turn out well, even as the process became increasingly time-consuming. Ultimately, the video wasn't ready until six months after the single had already been released.

"It was a little scary," Goncalves conceded.

"But once we got the video, we were very proud of it. And as you can see, it has the recognition. So I think it's way better to have something you are proud of, even if it means that you are going to go through problems and hard times."

Before Beast formed in 2006, Goncalves was the drummer for Montreal acid-jazz outfit Plaster and Bonifassi was best known for providing the singing voices for the Academy Award-nominated French animated film, "Les Triplettes de Belleville."

Beast dropped their self-titled debut in 2008, an inventive mix of trip hop, blues, funk, hip hop and rock, kept humming by Goncalves' massive subterranean bass grooves. The band earned a nomination for new group of the year at the 2009 Juno Awards.

Goncalves said the video for "Mr. Hurricane" cost $25,000 and was made on a grant from VideoFACT. He figures that's significantly less than Beast's Grammy competition.

They're up against the Black Eyed Peas' ubiquitous video for "Boom Boom Pow," Depeche Mode's slick clip for "Wrong," Coldplay's intricate "Life in Technicolor II" video (in which the band appear as puppets) and the stop-motion clip for Oren Lavie's "Her Morning Elegance."

Those videos have been viewed on YouTube more than 63 million times combined, where "Mr. Hurricane" is currently hovering around 30,000 clicks.

Though the Grammys aren't technically a popularity contest, Beast still look like real underdogs going into the show. That said, they'll step onstage no matter what -- Goncalves says they've been tapped to perform during the lengthy non-televised portion of the show, during which the bulk of the 109 trophies are handed out.

"We're going to play in front of all our idols and everything," Goncalves said.

"The whole industry is going to be there. I think it's already, even if we don't win -- and I don't think we will -- it's already a big win.

"To play in front of these people, it's a big, big, big win."