interview: Phoenix

I was recently contacted about a really cool project going on called TOPMAN CTRL, where "each month a different band takes charge and edits the blog all month and we interview them in depth. The band then curates a gig of their top new bands. This month is Phoenix...Phoenix will follow in the footsteps of past Controllers; Black Lips, Sam Kilcoyne of Underage, The Rumble Strips, Lightspeed Champion, Ladyhawke, and Metronomy who have all curated highly acclaimed events for Topman CTRL."

check out the website HERE and read the interview with Phoenix's lead singer Thomas Mars below! it's a lengthy but incredibly good interview; he even mentions Slim's, one of my favourite venues ever!

Theo (interviewer):
1. Well it’s a little bit of an unusual interview I suppose because we’re not talking about the band so much, but talking about kind of information about what you like, musically, and you know, things that inspire you, things like that.
So, if I could just start, basically the first, it's divided up into four sections, and so the first section is where we ask you to pick out some new bands that you recommend to the readers, so do you have a couple of new bands, one or two, that you could recommend to us?

Thomas:
Er, yes, I have one, well the thing is I am not sure, some are already almost famous and some, are not

Right now, one of the CD’S I’m mainly listening the most to is the dirty projector one, the album is called Bitte Orca, and it's great because there are a lot of bands that are coming out that are making music that is very complex, and it's not easy and they still manage to be successful, which makes me think that we are living, it’s a good time because musically they wouldn’t have had a chance a couple of years ago maybe

2. Yeah, so what is it specifically about the sound of the dirty projectors, apart from that it’s complicated?

It’s just so complex, I love it because it's very unique and it's recognizable instantly, you know every instrument, or every voice, the way they use it is so unique that you know it's hand crafted and yeah it's just something that’s coming out of nowhere which is very inspiring, it's very fresh...And at the moment there’s a French band I like called Fortune [this band has remixed Phoenix's "1901"...check it out!]

3. Okay… The Dirty Projectors I did know but fortune I don’t know so maybe you could tell me a bit more about them.

Yes, Fortune are very, unknown actually, they are just starting but they are, they have a sense of, they way they arrange their music is almost like, a candy shop, everything is very sweet, the whole thing is full of, it's very fresh and it's very, well it's basically a mix between classical music and modern pop music, yeah, it’s a recent thing that people should know

4. Cool, well the second section is called, it's like a music map, so we’re gonna you, and I’m meeting all the other guys tomorrow in Versailles, just to give us some places, around the world, that are kind of special to you for music, so it could be, you know a record shop that you like, or it could be a venue somewhere, or, you know a festival somewhere, so you know do you have some kind of places like that, that you can tell us about

Berlin is a special place because it's where we recorded our first record. It's really like the only time we felt like we were on…To make the record really fast, because it put it put us in an uncomfortable situation, and at the same time, the idea of being a foreigner and what makes you uncomfortable helps make it beautiful you know, the beauty of the city, it's very inspiring, and so that was a place where we recorded

5. Was there a specific place in Berlin where you were staying, or where you were recording?

Yeah, it was a studio called Planet Rock, but with a Roc, it's an old studio for East Berlin Radio

And it’s the only place where we can record two things to make our different material. It’s the only place that has this, one booth in the middle, and it's truly abandoned, it's truly empty, and you can really create some thing.
I think we, what we like is we like to go in places where you can, you can own them and they have a history, then you can still create something that’s yours.
In relation to like a very fancy, like you have the gold records on the wall, that’s something, that’s a place that we couldn’t record in.

6. How did you find this place in Berlin, did you hear about it or, see it one day or..

We went to go there because you know, we saw that it was appealing, and one day we were on tour and it was the last show of the tour was in Berlin in Germany and we had to drop our equipment in Berlin and that day we just visited studios and we found this place and we just decided to stay for three months.

7. [How about Venues?]

I always like in San Francisco they have a venue that’s called Slim's and it's kind of the ultimate rock club in a way, it’s a small club, it's really where you can, connect with people the most, where you, it's just the ultimate rock club, and it’s a place that we’re looking forward to coming back to and we have to play there because it's just, you feel that you know, it’s a place where you could have gone when you were a teenager and you could have seen bands and been inspired and..

8. Is it an old place?

Yeah but it's, it's also America.
Everything is pretty good about it, you know like the whole staff, the chefs, they make a point, like that they really care about you, it's nice, it doesn’t feel like you’re in the industry, it feels like you’re really something special

9. Okay, so even though, the band is obviously getting bigger but you still like to play the small venues best

Well I love contrast, I think it's great when you, well we still love to play the really big venues but then, there is something special about the small clubs, and I think that every band always comes back and they always play small shows because it’s the best type of show

10. Yeah, of course, okay, well that’s enough for the map part, the third bit is about your favourite albums, they could be classic albums, albums from your childhood, or they could be albums that you like now, but I guess what we’re kind of interested in is the story about why you like the album, so if there’s a reason, or if it was specific to a time, or a place, or you know, do you see what I’m saying?

Okay, there is one by Iggy Pop and James Williamson, it’s called ‘Kill City’, and I love it because I really feel like it was made just for me. It really came at a time where it was exactly what I needed

11. Yeah, when did you first hear it?

I think maybe, when I was a teenager, maybe in 96’ or something, and it’s a record that we love, because it's more than a record, it was like a possibility of, suddenly a lot of elements that were considered like very bad taste, like saxophone or some synths, or just some chords, they sounded the best now, and so they were familiar, it's basically a messed up piece made with insanity.
I know he probably made this record when he was in an asylum and he would go out on the weekend and re-record this record on the weekend.

12. And did you feel like you could take those elements and put them into your own music, or did it just inspire you in a different way?

It just inspired us because everything about it, from the lyrics to the artwork, everything is, I felt like it was the best mix, you know like visuals and the daring thing about them, and at the same time it had the quality of the beach boys or something with the songwriting, so it was really a record that we love.

13. And how did you very first hear the record, did somebody give it to you, or did you hear it on the radio?

It was (someone) in the band who, I think he must, maybe you can ask him tomorrow but I think he must have bought it because the vinyl we had was like a limited edition, it was one that was white and transparent green, and I’m not sure why he bought it but you can ask him.

14. Yeah I’ll ask him; well the colour of it sounds like a good reason to buy it anyway

Yeah, yeah the colour is always the best reason, well the second album or record that I would have bought for the album cover for sure would be Voodoo by (something soul?)

It’s a record that we discovered on tour when we were playing, and every time on tour it was in the tour bus and it was pretty far from earth, and it felt like changing the metric system or something because it was a whole new thing.

I mean a lot of musicians I know, were thinking it was wrong because they were thinking that the way, it's really hard to put on a partition, on a score, it's really hard to score because it's so detailed and so precise. And so this record was such a revelation for us and it became almost a nightmare because we lost maybe 6 months to a year writing out new record and then we heard voodoo and then we had to do everything again, so we lost a lot of time.

15. Well, that’s high praise, I noticed actually, I saw another interview with you guys on the internet today and one of you, I cant remember who it was, was saying that you also liked R. Kelly and T. Payne.

Yes that’s true

16. So you guys kind of listen to a lot of R’n’b, I guess a lot of people would be surprised by that maybe

Yes, but it's almost like classics for music, it's like Otis Reading or..

17. It’s more fun, kind of music

Yeah it’s like a guilty pleasure, but really it’s like something that just, improves your life in a way, but it doesn’t change your skeleton or your DNA, you know.

18. Yeah, cool, are there any other records that you want to mention in this bit?

Yeah, well let me think there are just so many. There is a record produced by Phil Spektor, I can’t remember the title, it’s all on my computer so you’ll have to check, it's called Born to Be [With You], and there are three songs that are really amazing, especially one that is called ‘In and Out of the Shadows’

19. Does that relate to, you know is that a recent discovery for you or is it a record that you’ve liked for a long time?

It's maybe, 3 years ago we got into it, and it’s the kind of record that transcends everything you know, you can play it at every moment and it will give, just you know it gives emotion to, it makes every moment really emotional, it has this quality…

20. It's interesting that all the three albums that you’ve talked about, when you’ve described listening to them, it's always been that you’ve listened to them with the others from the band, that’s quite interesting, it sound like you must listen to a lot of music together, is that right?

Yeah, I know he was looking for this record a long time and he found it one day, you know and it's rare that you, it was a record that he didn’t really expect and he wasn’t disappointed, and he played me a song that I really liked and then I heard one that I liked even more and then another one and you can share and you can talk to your friends about it, it's almost like those great movies where you can debate about it, yeah, that’s the kind of record it is.

There’s a whole thing, every Phil Spektor record great has stories to tell, there is a lot of drama behind them, there is a whole story.

21. Well it's the last bit now, this one is a bit more, well it's even looser than the rest of the categories, it's basically just that we ask you to name some things that you like, and they can be anything, so it can be food, it can be clothes, you know you can be as abstract as you like, you know just name three or four things that you like, or even two or three things that you like, ad just say why.

Okay, it’s very easy; I think Coca Cola has to be my favourite thing

22. Is it the taste, is it the caffeine?

No, it’s just, it's part of my DNA, I guess it's one of my favourite things, maybe milkshakes too.

23. [Do you love any French things?]

Yeah it should be easy, what do I love.. I love the empty streets at night

I don’t think in London or in New York, that the streets are empty like they are in Paris at night, Paris is a big city but it feels, when you’re driving through it at three in the morning it really feels like it’s small because you can really own it, it really feels like it can be yours at night, and so yeah, that’s great.

The tunnels are great, you should drive the tunnels, and the light, they are very unique and very inspiring,

24. Kind of like science fiction or futuristic you mean?

Just, they have like a rhythm you know, because the road has a rhythm but the tunnels, like if you are listening to music, like I love listening [to] music going through tunnels, it’s a good experience, I encourage you to do the same.

Especially going through Versailles there is one, it’s not the best one but it's still good. And one last thing I love to do, I love to do trampolining, that’s maybe my favourite thing.

25. Are you good at the trampoline?

No, but we do that thing called pop corn, you know that thing pop corn where one lays down and one jumps while you say pop corn.

26. Oh yeah I know, that’s the best kind, I like that, do you have a big trampoline?

It's pretty, decent, you know, descent enough to make popcorn

Phoenix - Playground Love (Air cover) [mp3]