Phoenix

Mon 1st Feb, 2010 in Features

For the uninitiated, there’s not much going on in Versailles. Small town just outside of Paris, with one gigantic palace, a rather famous treaty named after it, and also one of the biggest bands of 2009, Phoenix. On some recent travels I met a girl from there, and asked her about the band, she began to laugh. “Ahh yes. The only other thing in Versailles.”

But when you ask Phoenix guitarist Laurent Brancowitz about the town, there’s a slightly different response. “Paris is my home. We all grew up in Versailles; it was a lovely place to spend my life as a child, but Paris is where we live our lives.”

But it seems that recently, the history of their childhood surrounds has rubbed off, and came to fruition in a tight little package the world has been raving about for some months now, called Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix.

With references to better times in 1901, a lonely composer by the name of Franz Liszt, and songs about how love used to be, the fourth album from the band is a laced with days gone by. “For the first time, with this album, we were true not only in our sound, but with what we wanted to write about as well.

“We have realised that the thing that makes us unique is that we are French. The things that make us French and the things we write our songs about are so interesting. It is so much a part of us; the statues that we grow up looking at, the holidays we celebrate. We tried to tell the truth about the things that make us up as people; all the history that surrounded us growing up, all the beautiful parts of our culture and the history that makes us up from day to day.”

Making waves since its May release in 2009, it quickly rose to become recognised as one of the biggest albums of last year. “Before this current album, we had a very set following,” reveals Brancowitz. “When we made this one, it was very different to the others; in both our approach and what we decided to do with the sound. So it has come as a total surprise that the album has done as well as it has.

“When we record, it’s always very pure. We try not to think about the audience at all, and work our way through it. With this album, we had resigned ourselves to the fact that it would not be as popular as the others, but we knew that this one, like all albums, would reach who wanted to be reached. So now that it has done so well, we are all surprised.”

“When we went into the studio to record It’s Never Been Like That (in 2006) we did it all in three months, but with this album we knew that we wanted a more elaborate and complex sound.”

From the decision came an almost year long process of studio time, and endless re-writings and rehearsals. “We didn’t think it would take as long as it did. We always go into the studio thinking it will be three or four months, but this one took much longer. But you can never know until you get in there I suppose.”

For all the madness and time spent in soundproofed rooms, the tinkering and timely process led to a greater, more succinct sound than the band has potentially ever had. While there have been standout hits on previous attempts, the execution of the album came together as though there was a composer looking over it.

From the start to finish, the exploration of confusion, dismay and sad resignations, led listeners of Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix down the path and somehow managed to return them home again – all in ten tracks time. But choosing the themes of cultural mythology and days of the past for lyrics and mixing it with a truly explosive pop sound for harmonies, was anything but a simple process.

“With every song there was a moment it was a bad song, but we just pushed through and worked hard,” Brancowitz admits. “We spend a lot of time in the studio. I always get so jealous of other musicians who go into the studio and say that it just flowed naturally and it was made in a week. This has never been the case for us; there has never been any magic. We’ve never been able to just go in and record what’s already been prepared. It’s a lot of fiddling about for us.

“When we are recording, there are occasionally fights, for sure, but it is because of the passion and similarities we all share as people and musicians. We just stop when we have an album that is good. It has to reach a point where you can stop, or else, you could spend forever changing it and making improvements, or differences, but there has to be a point where you stop. It is for everybody’s sanity that you stop.”

When the album was released, and another Australian tour on the way, Brancowitz admits the band knew what the tour schedule would be. “We thought we knew what it would be, yes. But then the album has done so well, so there has been a lot more than we anticipated.”

But yet another thing that sets Phoenix apart from the pack is their intuitiveness for what works and what doesn’t. “The human body is not designed to be in a different place every day, but we’ve always been very French, especially in our approach to music. We’ve never done anything we didn’t want to do. We do it only for pleasure. And because of that it cannot be destroyed for us.”

Instead of spending months on end in vans and planes, performing back to back shows, Phoenix opts for shorter, more frequent stints on the road. “We are the bosses, so we can never complain if it is not right. I think some bands, from America or the U.K, they often lack those abilities, being able to control their tours and what they want to do, instead just agreeing to what their label organises for them. But for us, it is our speciality as a band, making things for love.”

So when it comes time for the next album, is it likely to follow in the footsteps of their most popular to date? “Possibly. The mythology of figures and events in our history are so interesting, and close to us, that we could. It was the first time we did that as a band and it was a very enjoyable experience. Difficult at certain points, but enjoyable.”

Phoenix plays these shows in early March. A second show for Sydney was recently announced.

Monday March 1 – Brisbane, Convention Centre
Tuesday March 2 – Sydney, Hordern Pavilion
Wednesday March 3 – Sydney, Luna Park Big Top [2nd show]
Friday March 5 – Melbourne, Festival Hall
Saturday March 6 – Perth, Belvoir Amphitheatre