Bankrupt! being the title of their latest album, not the state of their finances. Meet the French foursome Phoenix, including vocalist Thomas Mars, bassist Deck d’Arcy, guitarist Chris Mazzalai, and Laurent Brancowitz on guitar, their performance came highly anticipated as they headlined this year’s Montreal music festival Osheaga.
The release of their Grammy-winning fourth album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix in 2009 saw the alt-rock group make the jump from countryside Frenchmen to festival headliners and inspired a remix album that featured Passion Pit, Two Door Cinema Club, Animal Collective and many more.
Now comfortable with the big-time, the four-piece released their confident, colourful follow-up to Wolfgang earlier in 2013, preceded by singles “Entertainment” and “Trying to Be Cool” and followed by a massive world tour.
We talked with guitarist Laurent Brancowitz about pushing the boundaries of their sound while staying true to their French roots and the tour that led them seemingly everywhere, from an unexpected collaborator in California to a rather impassioned crowd in Holland.
WRG: Welcome to Montreal. This is a great comeback, I hope you look forward to playing Osheaga?
Thank you. I feel it will be good. I can’t know for sure, but I feel it. Maybe I’m wrong. We’ll know soon!
How has the tour been so far?
It’s been good. It’s been good.
Has it been different playing outdoor festivals as opposed to traditional venues?
Well, yeah, it’s another kind of energy. But if you manage to master it and use it for the best purposes – you would say that, right, “purposes?” – it can lead to great results and unforgettable moments. It’s just different and a bit more tricky, but it’s cool.
Do you have an example of these unforgettable moments?
We had a couple making love in the front row.
Stop! Where?
En Hollande. Holland, I think. For a long time, like half an hour! That was good. Also having R. Kelly on stage with us, at Coachella, that was fun too. It was a bit the same sensation. Nah, it was great.
Would you say preparing for a festival show and a traditional concert set are different processes?
Yes,because at a festival you can lose people’s interest easily. You’re performing for a crowd that has seen ten concerts already; it’s not exactly the same. It doesn’t necessarily lead to different practical, concrete decisions, but it does change a little… We play songs that we normally would not play. I think it is important to do something unexpected. If we just give people what they expect, they will get bored, they’ll resent us.
Especially in an environment where there are other concerts at the same time; there is so much stimulation. There must be a lot of pressure.
Yes, that’s it! But hey, you get there. It takes work but we love working. We love when things don’t work because then you have to work to make it work.
Do Versailles and France still influence your music?
More than ever! When you leave home, that’s when you realize that you miss it. It is now that we realize how much we love France, actually. And it is so simple immersing ourselves in our French roots and coming up with something bizarre and original when it is so hard to create original in music. But, for us, it is sufficient to delve into our homeland, France, and we come up with things that nobody knows in the world of our style of music.
It is more of an influence now than ever. This album is very, very French. I could take every sound, the sound of this keyboard or that instrument and tell you which French song it reminds me of.
So your influences are mostly from French music?
Oh yeah, definitely. Like Alain Chamfort, do you know him? He’s a great French artist. We get inspired by a lot of things we heard when we were kids. We hear it again and think, “mmm, that’s tasty. “
Recently, your music has been the object of many remixes, and even of a remix album. It sounds like you’ve caught the eye of many DJs and producers. Does that change the way you approach the creation of new music? These collaborations, these fresh ears?
It does not change how we create, no, but on the other hand it offers new perspectives, things we would not have thought of. There are some surprising things; that’s what we like. Surprise. When people take our song and completely transform it. When it’s too mindful of the original, it’s less interesting. For example, if someone takes the vocal track and made a reggae song, we love it very much. It’s very hard to do, but when it works it really works.
Speaking of surprise, bringing R. Kelly on stage was quite unexpected. How did it happen?
Well, we’re big fans of R. Kelly. We adore R. Kelly. So we asked him. We said, “We’re playing at Coachella, there will be huge crowds, it may be the only time in our lives we are going to play there. Would you like to come with us and play something?” And then we told him what we had in mind, a mix of his songs and ours, and he said yes! It was simple, really.
Is there a special collaboration or another remix album on the way?
Uh, there may be things..! Perhaps, perhaps. We’d love to do more stuff, we would very much like to work with R. Kelly.
Bankrupt! being the title of their latest album, not the state of their finances. Meet the French foursome Phoenix, including vocalist Thomas Mars, bassist Deck d’Arcy, guitarist Chris Mazzalai, and Laurent Brancowitz on guitar, their performance came highly anticipated as they headlined this year’s Montreal music festival Osheaga.
The release of their Grammy-winning fourth album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix in 2009 saw the alt-rock group make the jump from countryside Frenchmen to festival headliners and inspired a remix album that featured Passion Pit, Two Door Cinema Club, Animal Collective and many more.
Now comfortable with the big-time, the four-piece released their confident, colourful follow-up to Wolfgang earlier in 2013, preceded by singles “Entertainment” and “Trying to Be Cool” and followed by a massive world tour.
We talked with guitarist Laurent Brancowitz about pushing the boundaries of their sound while staying true to their French roots and the tour that led them seemingly everywhere, from an unexpected collaborator in California to a rather impassioned crowd in Holland.
WRG: Welcome to Montreal. This is a great comeback, I hope you look forward to playing Osheaga?
Thank you. I feel it will be good. I can’t know for sure, but I feel it. Maybe I'm wrong. We'll know soon!
How has the tour been so far?
It’s been good. It’s been good.
Has it been different playing outdoor festivals as opposed to traditional venues?
Well, yeah, it’s another kind of energy. But if you manage to master it and use it for the best purposes – you would say that, right, “purposes?” – it can lead to great results and unforgettable moments. It’s just different and a bit more tricky, but it’s cool.
Do you have an example of these unforgettable moments?
We had a couple making love in the front row.
Stop! Where?
En Hollande. Holland, I think. For a long time, like half an hour! That was good. Also having R. Kelly on stage with us, at Coachella, that was fun too. It was a bit the same sensation. Nah, it was great.
Would you say preparing for a festival show and a traditional concert set are different processes?
Yes,because at a festival you can lose people's interest easily. You’re performing for a crowd that has seen ten concerts already; it's not exactly the same. It doesn’t necessarily lead to different practical, concrete decisions, but it does change a little... We play songs that we normally would not play. I think it is important to do something unexpected. If we just give people what they expect, they will get bored, they'll resent us.
Especially in an environment where there are other concerts at the same time; there is so much stimulation. There must be a lot of pressure.
Yes, that's it! But hey, you get there. It takes work but we love working. We love when things don’t work because then you have to work to make it work.
Do Versailles and France still influence your music?
More than ever! When you leave home, that’s when you realize that you miss it. It is now that we realize how much we love France, actually. And it is so simple immersing ourselves in our French roots and coming up with something bizarre and original when it is so hard to create original in music. But, for us, it is sufficient to delve into our homeland, France, and we come up with things that nobody knows in the world of our style of music.
It is more of an influence now than ever. This album is very, very French. I could take every sound, the sound of this keyboard or that instrument and tell you which French song it reminds me of.
“That's what we like: Surprise. When people take our song and completely transform it. When it's too mindful of the original, it's less interesting.”So your influences are mostly from French music?
Oh yeah, definitely. Like Alain Chamfort, do you know him? He’s a great French artist. We get inspired by a lot of things we heard when we were kids. We hear it again and think, "mmm, that's tasty. "
Recently, your music has been the object of many remixes, and even of a remix album. It sounds like you've caught the eye of many DJs and producers. Does that change the way you approach the creation of new music? These collaborations, these fresh ears?
It does not change how we create, no, but on the other hand it offers new perspectives, things we would not have thought of. There are some surprising things; that's what we like. Surprise. When people take our song and completely transform it. When it's too mindful of the original, it's less interesting. For example, if someone takes the vocal track and made a reggae song, we love it very much. It's very hard to do, but when it works it really works.
Speaking of surprise, bringing R. Kelly on stage was quite unexpected. How did it happen?
Well, we're big fans of R. Kelly. We adore R. Kelly. So we asked him. We said, "We’re playing at Coachella, there will be huge crowds, it may be the only time in our lives we are going to play there. Would you like to come with us and play something?" And then we told him what we had in mind, a mix of his songs and ours, and he said yes! It was simple, really.
Is there a special collaboration or another remix album on the way?
Uh, there may be things..! Perhaps, perhaps. We'd love to do more stuff, we would very much like to work with R. Kelly.