After the release of their latest album, 'Ti Amo', iconic French four-piece Phoenix have once again proven to the world that pop is not a dirty word.
Their sixth studio album offers up a hopeful, vibrant collection of songs that seem to soundtrack the life of the modern day romantic.
While Phoenix continue to dominate the industry with their ever evolving indie-pop style, it is the respect for their shared vision that truly sets them apart as a band.
Besides making great music, obviously, how did you manage to capture that wider audience and get your name out there?
[Laurent Brancowitz, Phoenix guitarist] We knew we were in this for the long run, so we knew that Phoenix had to be something that was organic and true to who we are.
It would have been easier for the people in the record industry if we had changed to suit them... We never tried to follow trends, we always kept a straight route and at some point the world just aligned with our vision. We just had to be a bit patient.
The French language has a lot of specific turns of phrases that don't translate into English. Does anything ever get lost in translation, especially in regards to love and connection in your songs?
Of course. I mean, for us, things that are lost in translation can create a lot of critique.
When we were kids, we wouldn't really understand what they were talking about in English so, in our mind, we would build our own stories. We would listen to all these songs in English and when we grew up, we began to understand what they were really about.
A lot of the time, it was really disappointing because what we’d projected on the song was much better than the real deal. So when we started to write music, we kept this in mind and we tried to leave a lot of space for the listener to project their own imagination.
What constitutes a great love song?
To me, one of the things is often the fear of losing something, where the only certainty is that you won't have it or you know that you'll lose it at some point. By creating a sense of nostalgia and tension in these situations, those kinds of very real, human emotions come together to make a great love song.
Your latest record - 'Ti Amo' - was touted as a 'love letter to Italy'. What about Italy inspired you to write such an infectious and upbeat record?
Well, we love Italy and that's what this album is about; it's a golden age of music for us. Personally, it's related to our childhood because that's the place where we would go when we were kids for holidays. So, it's a place that’s linked to this very pure emotion you experience when you're a child; this kind of innocence.
One of your first albums, 'Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix', seemed to strike this balance between high-flying optimism and at points, crushing heartbreak. Do you often go into your albums with a set theme or vision in mind?
We have zero plans when we start recording and we have no idea what we are doing.
We just know that we love having a mixture of emotions where there is happiness, but you can also feel some kind of melancholy hidden behind it. It's what we are attracted to and when we find those kind of complex emotions, we keep them because we know that we’re on the right track.
Now, I know you're not supposed to pick favourites but are there any particular albums that really resonates with you or that you really love?
I always feel a stronger connection to the last album because it's exactly the state of mind we're in right now.
But also, I feel a big connection to the song 'If I Ever Feel Better', which is one of the first songs we ever wrote. In a way, I feel like it still makes sense, at least to me.
A lot of the time, after a few years, you find that what you wrote now sounds stupid and ridiculous. But this song, to me, still just feels right. I don't know why. It's a song that we wrote a long time ago, but I think we could have easily written it yesterday because it feels true to who we are.
Phoenix Tour Dates
Sat 24 Feb - Sydney City Limits at Centennial ParklandsMon 26 Feb - Forum (Melbourne)
Wed 28 Feb - The Tivoli Theatre (Brisbane)
