INTERVIEWS

MGMT - Interview - Part 1

by Marcus on Nov 19 2008, 07:00AM

Though MGMT will be making their maiden voyage to Australia in just a few weeks time, the band are already well versed with the rest of the world. Their trip down here comes at the end of a gruelling 14 month tour across the globe. Riding on the back of their debut record Oracular Spectacular - containing the three hit singles 'Time to Pretend', 'Electric Feel' and 'Kids', all of which have managed to cross over to mainstream radio - the core duo of Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser have gone from little known indie kids releasing EPs independently to be seen as perhaps the world's most in-demand band right now; influencing the mainstream and independent community alike.

After a few flubbed attempts to connect, we switched to mobile phones and made contact with MGMT frontman Andrew VanWyngarden (above, left). He was waking on the other side of the globe and after warming up, we got talking about the current tour, their approach to recording Oracular Spectacular and seeing a grown man sing naked on a horse.

Hey Andrew how are you?

*Cough* Good.

I'm recording you into Garageband right now. It's pretty advanced.

You should put pitch correction on it.

There's no pitch correction what are you talking about?

Yeah there is. There's a pitch correction, down the bottom. We do it all the time to make fake rap songs. Like Akon.

I've tried that before but it chews up my computer hard drive. I can do it to one track and then to nothing else.

That sucks. (laughs)

I need a better computer. Where are you right now?

I'm good. I just woke up. In France.

We had an interview lined up with you back in August but it got cancelled. You were going to come out for the Splendour in the Grass festival but you got asked to play Lollapalooza or something instead and were sick or something. Things have been going fairly mad for you this year I guess.

Yeah it's been pretty crazy.

Are you getting a bit fatigued about it all at the moment?

A little bit. I mean it's kinda like the home stretch [now] in a way. We've been out for like, 14 months and we get home at the end of December. So it doesn't feel that bad but it's getting a little tiring. At times.

Is it that you don't really know how it affects you until you get home?

Yeah that's definitely the case. I don't think we can really register how insane it's been until we have a break.

It must be strange to have all these new working relationships - with a crew of people to travel around with; mixers, guitar techs and the like - when essentially you're a duo?

Yeah. We started I guess by deciding to make a 5-piece band. We didn't want to play to backing tracks live. And then we got a tour manager. Then a sound guy, then a merch guy, a guitar tech, and now a monitor guy and a lighting person. So yeah it's pretty crazy. But it's really great for us because they work so hard and set everything up for us y'know.

Does that make you want to be more professional about it now?

I think we've definitely gotten a lot more professional about our soundchecks and instead of like, fucking around and jamming we're getting ready while they set up. So that's nice. We all appreciate it.

And does that sort've thing ultimately affect your relationship with Ben?

I dunno. I guess our relationship for this whole kinda crazy two years has been...I think we've been acting the same way but there's a little bit of a closer bond. Because we know that we've been through it together you know. We weren't expecting any of it and we've been a little bit floating along. And it's good to have a partner in crime there, to go through it all with.

I've been a fan of the stuff that Dave Friddman's done before over the years, and I was wondering if he came into the album with his set way of doing things? Or is the sound of the record as much you guys as it is his? Because it's a very particular sounding record.

There's definitely a co-production kinda thing. We ended up using a lot of the tracks that we recorded as demos for the songs. And all the songs were arranged and written before we went in with Dave. So he didn't really do much production in terms of arranging or coming up with parts. But he was of course great at getting really good sounds on everything and the processing and the mixing especially - he's an amazing mixer. So it was a really good way to work I think. He just kind've wanted us to do whatever we wanted.

It's a weird mix of hi-fi and lo-fi at the same time.

There's some tracks that like, we recorded in my living room that are on the final recording. Which is pretty cool. (laughs).

On Garageband?

(Laughs). Um no on Logic actually.

Damn. So do you think maybe you would work with him again or is that in the past now?

No I think we would definitely work with him again. I think for the next album we kind of want to do it the same way. Spend a lot of time recording it ourselves but with little bit better equipment this time. Last time we only had like three pretty shitty microphones. So we'll pretty much produce ourselves and hopefully we can work with Dave in the mixing stage. We really don't want to go with some big producer and have them change our style or something. Try and do what works I guess.

One thing I dig about the record is that alongside that sonic mix of old stuff and new stuff is that it seems the lyrics reflect that as well. There's this Grandaddy-esque "man versus machine" and everythings falling apart element to it. Mixed with some fantasy, magic realism kind've stuff. Is there something that inspires that in you?

I dunno...I think the main reason the lyrics came out like that is kind've where we were. Being that we'd just graduated from college at this...this school that was kind've a fantasy world. This tiny school in Connecticut. We were in lots of bands and doing all kinds've crazy stuff, running round in the woods and then...I moved to New York. And it was almost like a shock how different it was. And I think the lyrics were coming from that period of not really knowing what the hell was going on. Also because all of a sudden we were on a major label and a little bit paranoid you know?

There's fun in there as well, joking about that whole thing.

Yeah well we never want to take ourselves too seriously. I think that can happen.

Well apart from that it is just completely ridiculous what's happened to your band. You may as well embrace it.

Yeah it's VERY ridiculous. (Laughs).

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