Christian member sat down with founding French-pop technophiles Phoenix to delvedeep into the sounds Mazzalai Thistime,the havelandedstateside. behind Wolfgang, and the keYsto FrenchRevolulionwill be televised, risingsuccess. Phoenix's of outside Parisin Sincetheirformation guitar-gilded the late'90s,the synth{aden, One of the intriguing things about the quartethas earnedlegionsof fans on both r'false startstt new album is how many With multi-instrumentaF sidesof the Atlantic. you had - from recordangon a house' Mazzalai Laurent and ist brothersChristian boat in Paris, to holing uP in a New Brancowitz churningout a steadystreamof York hotel. You were searcfiing for hookson guitarand keyboards, danceable something, it seems. following the band has built a ravenous (from We startedhere,at the BoweryHotel.We their songslike"TooYoung," around just had thesesmall, verycheaprecorders, ls debut albumUnited),and "Everything That's and somesmallkeyboards, guitars, cal' n Everythigj' from its follow-upAIp habeti to createwithout any it. We had an idea Now with the releaseof 2OO9'sWolfgang AmadeusPhoenix,theband raisesits limitsof time,so we decidedto takethe for with a ten-song timeto go in a new direction us.We bar self-imposed onceagain, write songslikepuzzles, to pop undeniable panache hadthis fantasy opusthat marries sophis- to write piecesof music,and thento try sonically with painstakingly-crafted, themto makesongs' and combine by Co-produced felticatedarrangements. We were all in one room.We didn't Zdar,(of Cassius Philippe low Frenchman wantto write in a studio.Thenwe renteda fame), albumbrimswith continuous the detail- fromthe jangle boat.lt was just to havea vibe.We didn't to attention creative havea recordcontract- our dealwith EMI propulsive AdamAnt-ishdrum of guitars, So was finished. we recordedit just like on fills,and swirlingkeyboards the infecjust for us.We put all our our first record, to tiousopener"Lizstomania," the artpop, renting on explorations "Love moneyintofindinginspiration, Dream-like Tangerine placesand hotelrooms. at the So marriage beautiful lt's LikeA Sunset." a near-perfect and we endeduP end,we had no money, and auralacumen. of guiltypop pleasure Zdar's at Justdaysafterthe band'sgame-chang- staying our friendPhilippe place.He had a studio,whichwas not yet Night Live,l ing appearance Saturday on

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therefor finished, we endedup staying and morethana year. What kind of gear did You bring to those early sessions at the Bowery Hotel? verycheap \Mat we loveis to useeithervery, ones'We or instruments, veryhighquality So, in don'tlikethinking the middle. for example,in NewYorkwebroughtthis cheapCasio and like keyboard it's really a toy.lt's small, like costssomething $20 on eBay'lt hasa with a microphone very smallsampler you and if you pressthe button, can cheap, a recordyourown voice.So on the record, lot of the padsareour own voices. Are you talking about the Casio SK'l? The Yeah, exactly. SK-1.We boughtthis We havesomeone,and the wholeseries. We thing like20 smallkeyboards. bought all of themon eBay. I have the Casio MT-65'with the mini' keys and the auto-accompaniment. Ah yeah,we haveit too! There's something about going bad< to the most basic of sounds. Those cfieap keyboards with the built'in drums and bass lines iust take You someurhere different. And on the SK-1 you can loopthe Exactly. , the samplesin a very bad way. Umitates sound of a note looping'l And stuttering

ELECTRII ARTPIIP

whenyou playa chord,the loopson each of the notesare not the samelength, it so soundslikeit's breaking And that's up. what we like. Almost like the tapes on a Mellotron. Yeah, exactly. a Mellotron. lt's Theyhave the samebeauty. Are you using the Casios on tour with you? | noticed on your S/lll. appearance that you had two small keyboards in front, and then what looked like a Rhodes in the back. Yes.There's one CasioSK-1on-stage, and we also havea Yamaha VSS-200. The one in the backis a customDoepferMlDl keyboardthat we had made.The keysare totallyblack. And it triggerssamples from our songs. What other kinds of sounds went in to the writing sessions for the new a lbum? We havea smallDictaphone recorder that we adore.lt's stereo, and is really designed for takingmemos, for musicat all.But if not you pushthisone compression button, the is compression so big, likeeverything is magic.lt's exactly kindof soundwe the love.lt's veryblurry. Thatis one of our to strategies writesongswith.Youwrite lots of things,and thenyou hearthem back all and you can't hearthemwell.They're blurry. afteryou hearthemback,you So can imagine themas you want. We wouldrecordon the Dictaphone, and thentransfer to iTunes. had We it something '1 hoursof recordings like 5 we put themon verses, bridges- we had something 200 verses. in the end, like So the album to wentfrom15 hours 35 minutes.lt took us a yearto listenbackto all the music. Were there any other instruments that inspired you during the making ot Wolfgang? We lovethe Fender Bulletguitars- they are really cheapand soundgreat.Alsothe Tenori-On it's a Japanese con[Yamaha] trollerwith oush buttons. Youcan do random,SteveReichkindsof thingswith it. We also lovethe old Yamaha CS-80 analog synthesizer, which is our favorite, and the KorgTrident well. as What were you listening to when you were coming up as a musician? Whenwe wereteenagers, were listenwe ing to rockmusic- thingslikeVelvet whichwas veryimportant Underground, for us. I don't likevirtuosity.thinkit's very I dangerous, thereareveryfew virtuand guiosos I love.My brother and I learned just by watching - very tar together TV pressing pausebuttonwhile slowly, the watchingpeoplelikeBob Dylan- and looking the chordhe was playing. for What we loveis that the morewe grow up, the lesswe are playing, {act.I don't in really to playbig chords.I liketo play like two or threenotes,and my brother play will the otherones.And we createharmonv that way. Like whispering at somebody instead of screaming at them, Exactly. E

F[|RTHEMASSES byJon Rese

PHOENIX

PHACTS

Webpage: wearephoenix.com, myspace.com/wearephoenix Selected discography: WolfgangAmadeusPhoenix(Loyaute/Glassnote),'s f NeverBeen LikeThat (Source),Alphabetical(Astralwerks) United , (Astralwerks). Selected gear used on Wolfgang: Casio SK-l, Yamaha CS-80,Yamaha Tenori-On, Dictaphonetape recorder.

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