MGMT

Mon 18th Oct, 2010 in Features

MGMT are never off the radar for long. Through successes and through controversy, this band of cool is all set to play at Future Music Festival upon their return to our shores next year.

An excited and overtired Andrew VanWyngarden happily discusses his love of surfing and strange dogs, and somewhere in between manages to mention the meaning behind their music.

VanWyngarden, unlike a lot of musicians, doesn’t try to conceal the fact that he just stumbled upon fame,“I think I just kind of fell into music. Many musicians talk of having a particular moment when they realised that they wanted to pursue music as a profession, but I couldn’t think of anything else to do. I applied for so many part time jobs on Craig’s List, and that went nowhere… I thought MGMT was a goner and going nowhere when I first moved to Brooklyn, and I was sitting with Kevin Barnes [from Of Montreal], and one time we were song writing and I guess that sort of narrowed it down.”

Although claiming that he and Ben Goldwasser just feel like “two fish in a big pond”, the songs of Oracular Spectacular seem to have foretold their futures, as they now mingle with the best and play large arena shows. VanWyngarden discusses what it is like to look back at when they were mocking the ‘famous’ lifestyle, “When I listen to that record now, I think about what a strange time it was for us, you know we had just been signed to a label, and it all happened really fast. I suppose we have grown with these new songs, and maybe we are less naive in a way.”

MGMT are not all about pushing their own successes though, even with child like marketing strategies, “I feel it is important to mention the covers we do, because I love the idea of people listening to the originals if they happen to hear us playing them first.” Bands such as The Kinks, The Clean and Television Personalities are all in the repertoire of covers on rotation with the band, “We always do it out of respect, like a compliment to the bands we love.” Lately, VanWyngarden has been listening to a compilation mix he recently bought off iTunes, “I don’t know the name of it, but is has all this weird psychedelic music, which I love. The lyrics are super cheesy sometimes though, but it is so wicked. A bit of Nico and Brian Eno is always good for a listen too.”

He admits that the runaway success of Oracular Spectacular has affected perceptions about the band, “A song like Kids is extremely catchy and a great pop song and we knew that when we finished it, and that it would take effect to being played in clubs and things like that, but we never expected it to define us the way it did, because after that song most people saw us as an electro act. I think that is what confused so many people about us, because really we are a psychedelic rock band, so it leaves people in two minds as to what or who we are.”

VanWyngarden says that he and Goldwasser felt anxious and defensive after their sophomore record Congratulations was released earlier this year, but he is happy that the band has the chance to play to Australian audiences with an improved attitude. “The previous trips have come at really odd times for us, because we first made it out to you guys after two years of touring Oracular Spectacular. We first played there in 2008 at Meredith Music Festival, and then I spent like a month or so travelling around and residing along the beaches of Sydney with my surfboard. I think Splendour in the Grass is such a great festival, we had an awesome time, but again it was at an awkward time for us, we were in the middle of writing for the new album, so a lot of new material wasn’t finished yet, and I was still making up the lyrics on the stage.”

This is one of the reasons VanWyngarden believes the band have received some negative reviews regarding their live shows, “I just think we have never had the right moment to just be in the moment, so we are really looking forward to coming back refreshed and ready to put on a great show. I don’t see us as performers, and I think a lot of people had certain expectations of how we would be on stage. Of course those were unrealistic because we don’t cater to that pop/dance atmosphere.” He hopes that they will get the opportunity to stay on a little longer this time, “It would be great if we had some solo sets, but it is still so far into the future. I feel we are mostly in the present, maybe a bit in the past too, but the future is so far away we can’t really comprehend it.”

Congratulations has been described by MGMT as the album that really speaks for what they stand for, “This album is really about music itself, opening up about success and meeting our heroes, we mention some in the titles like Brian Eno and A Song For Dan Tracey. A lot of things are coded because lyrically I am never comfortable to discuss something straight up, so I mask it and try to hide it a little.”

Despite an initially muted response to the new record, VanWyngarden is happy to report that the group is now receiving more comments of the positive kind: “I think with Congratulations, people didn’t really give it a chance, and that was essentially the problem with all this negative and confusing feedback after it was released.” “We are really happy with it ourselves, and the reaction from the audiences has been great, mostly a lot of people have come to like it the more they hear it, so that is always good. A lot of our friends, who are also musicians and who we respect, have had good things to say about it, so we take the positives on board. There are going to be people who play it and people who never listen to it again, but that’s ok.”

VanWyngarden discloses that Congratulations signifies a dark time for the band, “It is hard to explain but when you come back from touring sometimes you just feel a little down, and for us it was difficult because a lot happened very quickly, we never really had time to take in what was going on. We were really tired and everything just felt a little down, and in a way depressing. When we got home we didn’t have an apartment, we had to come down from a high to the realisation of we had nowhere to go afterwards. It feels cynical sometimes, but we are in a happier state of mind now, and I think it was necessary to get all that out and it was therapeutic for us to develop those feelings musically.”

MGMT is an enigma, but according to VanWyngarden this was never part of the plan, “I think it is a positive thing to be a little mysterious, but we never try to intentionally be obscure on purpose. It’s just that what comes naturally to us happens to be different.” As he ever so nonchalantly dismisses the thought of their image being an act, VanWyngarden says that during his days at University with Goldwasser. “we were strange even more so, because we would intentionally try to be weird and confuse people. We would do this is so many ways, like we would sing funny songs, most commonly something by Pink or Nine Inch Nails. One time we recorded this band playing live and then we played it through a PA system. We always like to sing Kids karaoke style, because it is more fun. Oh, and the time we went to play roller hockey was fun too.”

He gets carried down memory lane through bouts of laughter, but VanWyngarden cannot go passed one story, “We always used to love playing an electronic song on campus for about fifteen minutes at a time, and then we would just run away, and people would expect us to come back but we never did.” The pair thought this was so humourous at the time that they tried to recreate the moment whilst playing in London, “It was at one of the festivals and we thought it would be funny to try it again, but everyone just looked so startled. Needless to say, it was quite a different reception to our college days, a lot of people cared this time and there was a lot of hassle involved afterwards.”

It doesn’t take long before the band’s appearance at the Grammy Awards comes up in conversation, “That was a nightmare! Where do I even begin? Basically, we just didn’t belong at all.” When asked if he had the chance to befriend Lady Gaga at the ceremony, VanWyngarden laughs and leads into a discussion about their song Lady Dada’s Nightmare, “The title was inspired by her, yes, but not so much musically though. I guess we were at that point of looking at music, and she is a musical extreme. The album was essentially identifying and respecting different types of art forms.”

Speaking of art forms, leads VanWyngarden to discuss the other art that is associated with MGMT, such at that scratch off album cover art, “The concept was kind of obscured along the way, but we just thought it would be a funny gimmick to do. It’s pretty silly but it was like a ‘congratulations’ for buying it, and when they scratch the cover its like one of those lottery tickets.” VanWyngarden seems unsure which side he should take regarding the cheesy yet cool album artwork, “Initially we wanted for people to scratch off the checkers, and there be a photo of our faces or something, or like some sort of prize. We didn’t know if anyone had done it before or not, so that was cool, but it feels like rubbish now though, like something that would have been cool in the 1950s, and now it’s just lame, but I don’t know, it was fun, and some people bought two copies, so they had the scratch off cover and the non scratch off.”

After major success and an album that grows like a creeper vine, it is hard to determine just where MGMT will go next, but for VanWyngarden that question doesn’t seem so daunting, “I just really love surfing” After proposing the idea of some surfing documentaries in the future, VanWyngarden laughs, “Footage does exist of me surfing, but I just look stupid. We have tried the recording thing to capture those magical moments, but all the moments that should be on camera, like when we recorded in Malibu, we missed. We miss everything important, and we end up with videos of me looking like a fool surfing, pulling these weird faces.”

A successful surfer or not, VanWyngarden and MGMT are sure to produce some interesting music in the future, but for now at least he has his priorities just right, “I think eating tacos is cool, and I really want to buy a dog, probably just a mutt from the pound, but I think Border Collies are really cool, or like a Harlequin.”

MGMT play at Future Music Festival in March 2011 – check out the full line up