I went to Montreux Jazz Festival a few weeks ago, and was lucky enough to have a chat with Stu Mackenzie from the great Australian band King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard before their show at the Rock Cave. The venue was packed with a crowd ready to shake their hair and dance all night long. In this interview, we talk about touring, its costs, and the band’s two latest records : I’m In Your Mind Fuzz and Quarters.
Hi Stu, how is it going? Do you guys like it here in Montreux?
Stu Mackenzie : Yeah of course! Montreux is a super-famous festival and everything, so we already knew all about it. It’s flattering to even be here. The weather is beautiful, we had a nice swim, and everyone is friendly. We have a day off tomorrow, which is one of the only days off in our whole tour. So tomorrow we get to just relax. Everyone is really excited to be here.
You played in Bad Bonn, Düdingen last night. How was it?
Stu : It was really cool! That’s a really cool spot, that was such a fun show. I didn’t expect so many people to be there, so it was cool. Because you feel like you’re kind of in the middle of nowhere, but somehow there’s people there. And it was great, such a beautiful scenery and everything.
I read that you guys started playing music around five years ago…
Stu : Yeah, I guess so.
…And that you released a bunch of albums and EPs on your own label (Flightless). I wanted to know why you made that choice.
Stu : Hmm… Well I guess at the start, it was because no one else wanted to release our first EPs and stuff. And then, it was just because we wanted to do it ourselves. We wanted to learn, and not to feel any pressure to do anything that we didn’t want to do ; basically, so we could just do it our own way. We still release all that stuff ourselves in Australia.
I tried to write Flightless first, but I couldn’t find any address. (laughs)
Stu : Yeah, we started releasing some other bands and stuff, but it’s still pretty small.
Also, there are seven musicians in the band, travelling together. I wanted to know how it went on tour? Do you guys fight sometimes?
Stu : I think it’s actually better that way, because there are more people. You know, if you do have a little argument with someone, you can sort of not talk to them pretty easily, there’s so many others…
Ah, like clans?
Stu : (laughs) Exactly, and it’s like… everyone is really chilled out anyway. Everyone is relaxed, kind of happy people or whatever. So it’s pretty easy to get along with everyone. And we normally travel with Jason Galea, who does all of our artwork.
I was going to ask you about that!
Stu : Yeah, so he comes too, with visuals for our shows, that sort of things. So there’s pretty much always at least eight of us. And sometimes we might have a sound guy or whatever, so a lot of time it’s a lot of guys.
[…] Australia is far away, so it’s pretty expensive to get everyone over to Europe, the US or whatever. You know, when we come over here, I guess we just to make the most of it and play as much as we can. We try to play every day, and… Yeah, it’s super tough. We just do everything as cheap as possible. So, yeah, it’s expensive, but I guess you just make it work. It would be a lot easier if we were a three piece, but we’re not.
I wanted to talk about your last two records as well. First, I’m In Your Mind Fuzz. So, does Jason Galea do all of your artwork?
Stu : Yeah, 99% of the time it’s him. He did the record cover and the videos. He’s not on any of the photos (ndlr : inside the record) but sometimes he’s in our photos too. He’s amazing. We started to work with him really early, years ago. We’ve done everything with him ever since. He has become pretty much a part of the band you know.
The album seems like a giant structured jam, and I wanted to know if you guys worked that way when you wanted to write a new song.
Stu : Yeah, for sure. I guess… a lot of jam stuff is going on there. That one is more structured than other stuff we’ve done, actually. This one came from jam, we would be jamming and say “oh, that’s something to keep”. Eventually you’ve got all these little ideas floating around, and you try to marry them altogether. This one was actually quite structured when we were recording it, there weren’t so much jamming or improvisation. On Quarters, there’s way more loose jamming and stuff.
Yeah, and I found it more calm.
Stu : Yeah, it’s much more calm. It was meant to be an opposite record in lots of ways to that one as well.
On Quarters, each song lasts 10:10. If we add them, the entire duration of the record is 40:40. Was it a calculation or…?
Stu : Hmm… no, not so much! (laughs) On Quarters, the songs are simple, with really simple riffs and simple ideas, and we would try to extend them out, improvise on those… and think about how you can make it interesting for 10 minutes. It was always just supposed to be these four parts. But that one has a lot of improvising within those parts. You know, later on there’s a lot of type-splicing and editing, that sort of thing, like making it all work as a whole. But this one was more traditional band style. We’ve always done our records on vinyl, and 40 minutes is pretty good for a vinyl. So we’re always thinking with this quarters concept, that would be for 10 minutes tracks. I’m always working towards- 10 minutes was the magical goal. And when we were sort of mixing it, doing stuff with tape and everything, it just felt right to give them ten more seconds for breathing space. I just wanted to keep it all symmetrical and neat, so 10:10 and 40:40 seemed more… nice and neat. It would seem calculated, yeah.
Dou you think the 70s are cool? (laughs)
Stu : Of course! I think all periods of time are cool, and that’s probably why King Gizzard is such kind of weird music sometimes. Amazing music came out of every decade obviously.
It was a silly question, I don’t know why I asked this.
Stu : I’m sure that a lot of people would say that they weren’t cool, so it’s not a silly question.
Really?
Stu : Yeah, some people would say that. I don’t know, maybe everyone thinks that the 70s are cool. I think some people wouldn’t think that way.
What can we expect from King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard in the upcoming months?
Stu : We’ve only got five shows left for this tour, we’ll be pretty worn out by the end. We fly to Portugal, then London, then Latvia and then we fly back to London again. London has been really good. This show is actually out of London, this festival is called Latitude. I think it’s a couple hours from London. After that, we have about a month break, then chill out, and then we go over to the States for about a month. So that’s the next two months actually, the next one month is pretty chill. We just have these next few shows and then we go home, and go to bed for about a couple weeks or something.
#tbt to last week at the @thekooksmusic concert at the @montreuxjazzfestival 💯 it was so freacking awesome to see them live for the first time 📺🎥🔛🔝 #MJF15 #fashionblogger #thekooks #concert #switzerland
I thought he would play and sing all night long! 8 years later and still inspired @damienrice @montreuxjazzfestival #damienrice #montreuxjazzfestival #mjf15 (à Montreux Jazz Festival)
Programmé pour l’ouverture de la soirée du 5 juillet au Jazz Lab, le groupe a donné une prestation dynamique et déjantée devant un public bien trop mou.
(Foxygen au Montreux Jazz Lab par Marc Ducrest)
Votre Groupie se réjouissait de découvrir le groupe en live ; jeunes, talentueux et extravagants, les Foxygen ont récemment sorti leur deuxième album intitulé …And Star Power. Ce disque aux influences 60s a reçu toutes sortes de critiques – de « trop brouillon, trop long » selon Rock & Folk à « génial » selon King Tuff -, mais il a néanmoins le mérite d’être varié et osé.
Nous sommes le dimanche 5 juillet, il est environ 20h30 au Montreux Jazz Lab. Après la canicule de la journée, la climatisation de la salle fait le plus grand bien. Les Foxygen entrent en scène : d’abord les musiciens et les trois choristes, puis le duo racine du groupe, Jonathan Rado et Sam France. Tous les membres de la troupe semblent s’amuser comme des fous, entre les chorégraphies ultra dynamiques des chanteuses, les solos de guitare et d’orgues endiablés et le jeu de scène de Sam France qui essaie en vain de réveiller la foule. Parce que oui, malgré la motivation du groupe, le public semble… mort. Peut-être attend-il uniquement la venue de dEus et The War On Drugs, les deux groupes vétérans qui suivront. Ce qui est sûr, c’est que l’énergie débordante des Foxygen a dû en dérouter plus d’un. Dans cette industrie alternative/indie où les jeunes formations ont du mal à se faire une place durable face à l’immense concurrence, le groupe a su saisir sa chance, et ce peu importe le résultat.
(Allez une autre. Foxygen en pleine action par Marc Ducrest)
En effet, les Californiens ne se laissent pas démonter par le manque de réaction et nous livrent un show éblouissant. Foxygen en live c’est fort, drôle et provocant à la fois. Entre les chansons, ses membres font des petits sketchs rigolos (Jonathan Rado nous passera carrément de la musique de cirque !) et se taquinent les uns les autres. Tantôt la main dans son pantalon, tantôt en train de danser avec ses trois choristes, tantôt en train de chanter au milieu de la foule dans la fosse, Sam France est un vrai show-man et n’a rien à envier à ses congénères plus âgés. Cela se remarquera avec le concert de dEus, dont les membres sont bien plus vieux. L’ambiance s’est tout de suite réveillée à cause des nombreux fans (plus vieux eux aussi) présents dans la salle. Quant au groupe, malgré ses morceaux joués de manière impeccable, il a donné beaucoup moins d’énergie…
C’est peut-être cela qui m’a plu chez Foxygen ce soir-là : un gigantesque pied-de-nez à la précédente génération qui a tendance à les critiquer à cause de leurs expérimentations musicales parfois aléatoires ou leur attitude extravagante. Ce n’est pas parfait, mais l’honnêteté et la passion sont bien là, et c’est le plus important. N’en déplaise à tous les blasés présents dans la salle en ce dimanche soir…
