Australia’s admiration for Phoenix is pretty clear – given the French indie-pop band’s chart success and frequent tours Down Under – so it’s good to know that the feeling is entirely mutual.
“Australia is definitely one of the best places. Our best memories are there,” gushes frontman Thomas Mars when asked about the band’s imminent return.
“Of course! We wouldn’t come back if we didn’t want to. We’re free men so we can decide wherever we want to go,” he adds, in an accent that seems comically thick for a man who sings exclusively in English.
The catalyst for the return of Mars and his musical unit is Future Music Festival, where the Franco foursome are topping the bill alongside Deadmau5, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, and late addition, Pharrell Williams.
The Gallic group’s status on the 2014 lineup is not only distinguished for being co-headliners, but also as one of the few in the electronic and DJ-heavy bill to be toting guitars, unwittingly carrying the torch as the annual festival’s niche ‘rock’ act.
Though unlike Future’s recent picks that tick that box – like Stone Roses and Bloc Party last year and New Order in 2012 – Phoenix have always sidled closer to the pop spectrum, and perhaps never more so than on Bankrupt!, their latest album.
From its knowingly self-conscious titles (‘Entertainment!’, ‘Trying To Be Cool’) down to its synth-coated sugary hooks, Phoenix’s fifth full-length effort is at once fixated with pop music’s exuberance and accessibility, yet dodges the silver bullet – its disposability – by doubling as a deconstruction of those same simple elements in a deceptively experimental about-face.
But you’d never really notice. Mainly because its smarts are secreted in such a listenable, guilt-free, 10-song suite that briskly closes the four-year gap to its predecessor: 2009’s breakout, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix.
Side by side in the live setting, material from both Wolfgang… and Bankrupt! makes for a giddy, breathless carousel of highs – in turn pegging Phoenix as an obvious choice for high-energy festival sets.
“To be in the headlining position, it’s a strange feeling because you know you cannot disappoint,” reflects Mars.
While festival acts in earlier slots and smaller lettering can enjoy ‘warm-up’ status, Mars understands the responsibility that marquee bands are saddled with in closing out events in a big way.
That being said – “in Australia, I don’t think we will [disappoint] because the crowd is so good that it’s impossible to do a bad show,” Mars declares.
“I think the more that we play, the more we find tricks and ways to break these rules”“If it was somewhere else I’d be worried, it wouldn’t be our favourite spot, but … I don’t want to jinx it either, it’s hard to do a bad show in Australia.”
Stop it Thomas, we’re blushing.
Still, having clocked in winning turns at the biggest events on the global music festival circuit several times over (such as Coachella, Austin City Limits, Lollapalooza, Leeds, Reading, etc.) – Mars makes an inarguable point.
Interestingly, despite the fact the 37-year-old frontman could claim to have seen and done it all, the most “intriguing, satisfying thing about live shows is that it’s very basic. It has a lot of strict rules…” – rules meant to be broken.
“I think the more that we play, the more we find tricks and ways to break these rules… any excuse is good to make it different.”
Such ‘tricks’ and ‘excuses’ include the frontman’s regular habit of climbing into the audience. “If you feel like you want to see the stage from the point of view of where people are, I just go there and see for myself,” as he adroitly puts it.
Other special plays in the Phoenix concert playbook have included surprise guest appearances, like the live mash-up with fellow French superstars Daft Punk and none other than R Kelly turning up for the band’s Coachella Festival appearance.
The latter even led to the RnB lothario’s rap-starring remix of ‘Trying To Be Cool’ (which really tested fans’ commitment in light of Kelly’s ongoing sex allegations – but that’s an examination for another time).
While Future fans may have to lower expectations for an A-list visitor, they might be able to keep their fingers crossed for an experiment Phoenix executed at a festival last year.
“We worked with American artist Richard Prince, he helped us create those fake dollar bills that we threw at the crowd [for Primavera Festival in May 2013]” teases Mars of their current live show.
“There’s always moments like that, little antic things – we don’t make it bigger just to make it bigger,” he continues.
“We don’t usually have fireworks because I don’t think you remember fireworks. When you see a performance, you don’t really think ‘that was a great firework’, you just think ‘that was epic’. You want to have a real memory, something that’s unique. So any excuse to make that happen, we take it.”
It’s a philosophy that’s drawn from the musician’s own youth as a pop music obsessive growing up in Versailles.
“When I was a teenager I would read about shows or see shows and have these memories. There’s always something that you [can do to] create more memories for the crowd and for that night, and any excuse is good to create that memory.”
Memory also serves an interesting purpose on Bankrupt! in the way the music toys with nostalgia, channelling 80s radio hits and throwback pop without any of the baggage or trauma usually associated with the term.
In fact, the album’s interesting sonic character was achieved precisely because it was made on a recording console that was used in one of pop’s reigning masterpieces: Michael Jackon’s Thriller.
Fittingly, the pop-obsessed Mars only managed to acquire the historical artefact in a bizarre online purchase.
“Yeah, that’s true. We saw it on eBay. But no-one wanted to buy it because no-one believed it was the real one,” he explains.
“The guy who was selling it was just a very strange person who happened to be a sweet guy, but everybody thought he was totally insane… His emails especially made the whole thing look like a scam.”
That led Mars to embark on his own enquiries on the Thriller console – partly to check its veracity, but also as a form of procrastination, admits the musician.
“We saw it on eBay. But no-one wanted to buy it because no-one believed it was the real one”“Because I love those stories, I was curious to hear them,” he continues.
“People who had worked on this, they were very emotional; technicians would cry about those memories, so it was the best. Then I didn’t even think of buying the console anymore, I was in that story. And then, somehow, someone verified the console.”
Once securing the legendary Michael Jackson-blessed relic, Mars was humorously bombarded with offers; “People that said ‘I wanted to buy it but I didn’t know it was the real one’ who wanted to buy it back off me.”
But Phoenix wouldn’t put a price on “the pleasure to work on something that inspires you when you are a kid… to bring it back to France was also for us a mini-victory. It’s like having the Mona Lisa.”
Though the Da Vinci of desks was wiped of its history-making contents, the machine nevertheless served crucial to the Bankrupt! sessions with its rare features.
“It’s incredible, very unique,” the Frenchman raves, “I don’t want to be too Spinal Tap, but this goes up to 11 for real.
“Actually, technically it goes up to 40khz,” a frequency that goes beyond the human hearing range of 20 khz, as Mars educates in nerd-tastic detail; “but even if you can’t hear anything of what’s going on between 20 and 40, it will affect the final sound. It will change something.”
It might sound like hokum, but Mars implores the inaudible range did make a difference.
“We were surprised that all these things that we put on the re-recording could live together (musically), I thought it couldn’t.”
Whether the spectre of the King of Pop actually made a tangible impression on Phoenix’s album is hardly the point – it acted as a placebo, a kind of creative beacon.
“I don’t know if it’s the console or the sound that made it co-habit together happily, or if it’s just a coincidence.”
What isn’t a fluke is Phoenix’s way with a winning tune. From the 2000 breakout single ‘Too Young’ to ‘1901’ and ‘Lizstomania’, they’ve inherited the mantle of one of France’s premier bands for good reason.
But a comment from Mars about playing Future congeals his humble musical outlook.
“There’s a lot of things are set in stone and other things are left totally to luck and randomness. So it’s interesting.”
Phoenix Australian Tour 2014
with special guests World’s End Press
Wednesday 5th March 2014 – Sydney | Horden Pavilion (All Ages)
Ticketek.com.au | Ph: 132 849
Thursday 6th March 2014 – Melbourne | Festival Hall (All Ages)
Ticketek.com.au | Ph: 136 100
Also performing at:
Future Music Festival 2014 Dates & Tickets
Saturday 1 March Brisbane, RNA Showgrounds **NEW VENUE**
Sunday 2 March Perth, Arena Joondalup
Saturday 8 March Sydney, Royal Randwick Racecourse **MAJOR RENOVATIONS**
Sunday 9 March Melbourne, Flemington Racecourse
Monday 10 March Adelaide, Adelaide Showgrounds **NEW VENUE**
FOR TICKETS AND INFO HEAD TO: www.futuremusicfestival.com.au
$160 + bf and service charge; Adelaide only – $155 + bf and service charge
