Q&A: Phoenix

Rhapsody: You used to be with the guys from Daft Punk. What was that experience like?
Brancowitz: Yes, actually my first band (Darlin') was with those two guys from Daft Punk, Manuel and Thomas. When I was 17. It was nice, our first band, and we played covers of the Beach Boys. I think we were really bad, but in a good way. It was a long time ago.

Rhapsody: Well, now they’re one of the biggest groups in the world.
Brancowitz: Yeah, even when they were bad, they were really good at it ... I could tell that I was in good company.

Rhapsody: How come you guys chose to write your songs in English rather than French?
Brancowitz: Just because we didn’t like the idea of singing French, it’s like a sailor being told you’re going to sail a lake all his life. We are attracted by the distant oceans and the exotic seas. For us, Latin was the language of the middle ages, while English is the language of pop culture. And we just take that as a convention and use whatever tool is the most efficient.

Rhapsody: How do you think your sound and your dynamics as a band have progressed from your first album?
Brancowitz: I think we didn’t really improve that much. Every time we start a new album, we have this soft moment where we feel like beginners. We ask ourselves, “How is it possible that we don’t know all the rules and all the tricks to write a song in ten minutes?” There’s always this feeling of being an amateur or a beginner. But we kind of like it because of the fact that there is always something naïve and childish about writing a song. When we started we challenged the listener a lot, by doing a lot of things. Now we are really thinking about the listener’s pleasure. We always think that the listener is exactly like us and we try to imagine how it would be to listen to the song we are trying to create. So, maybe we improved in this area of giving pleasure.

Rhapsody: So you guys played Saturday Night Live a couple weeks ago. What was that like?
Brancowitz: Yeah, it was really cool. Just to be backstage with all those guys, like people walking dressed as chickens. The vibe backstage was really nice, which is strange because the work is so intense and the pressure is so intense that the people should be horrible but the vibe is very nice. Yeah, it was great to be there.

Rhapsody: What are some artists you enjoy listening to?
Brancowitz: We have phases, lately a lot I have been listening to the Smiths ... I was really obsessed about them. For like two months, I just listened to the Smiths. I like when a certain artist or album is linked to a very precious period of your life.

Rhapsody: What are some other influences?
Brancowitz: The more we grow up, the more we are influenced by cultural references. Now we like to explore the mythology of continental Europe. We grew up in Versailles and we were surrounded by very beautiful buildings and signature gardens. The more we evolve, the more we want to use that, all the things that are part of our DNA and use that in our music. That’s why a lot of our songs are about very European topics. We understand about what makes us unique is that we are not American or English but French people trying to do popular music. We have noticed we are verging a field of influences that we can use.

Rhapsody: Have you had a lot of smaller bands come up in Versailles that consider themselves to be directly influenced by you guys?
Brancowitz: It’s hard for me to say. When we are told someone sounds like us, it’s always a bad band. I don’t know if it’s the way we see it or we are just influencing very bad artists. I don’t know actually, I’m joking. I hope at some point we open some doors for French artists. We are the first band to sing in English because before it was a lot of instrumental bands like Daft Punk and Air. We’re semi-instrumental and there are a lot of French bands singing in English. I’m not sure if it’s a good thing.

Rhapsody: Why do you think it’s not a good thing?
Brancowitz: There’s something beautiful about singing in French too. The thing is that we wanted to lead this kind of adventure that would talk to you for instance. If we had sang in French, it wouldn’t have happened.

Rhapsody: Which is kind of sad, really.
Brancowitz: Yeah, it’s kind of sad. Just the fact, you just have to deal with it. I like the fact that the world has so many facets. Language is a very interesting facet that shouldn’t disappear.

Rhapsody: What do you guys do when you’re on the road and between cities to fill up your time?
Brancowitz: We’re really good at that now. Touring can be the most boring activity on Earth. I must tell you the rock n’ roll dream is very boring. We have bikes and try to discover the cities. I do not own a lot of things, but I do own a lot of cameras and I like to take pictures. We really love to discover countries and we really love the U.S., it’s very exotic for us. We could spend hours in a grocery store, just seeing all the variations of little things you know perfectly well, but for us it’s very exotic.

Rhapsody: What do you guys have coming up ahead? I’m guessing a big tour to support your album?
Brancowitz: Yes we are starting the tour now ... We are really happy to be touring and to play on stage, because we have been in the studio for too long. It’s really going to be a party for us. It’s like being released from prison or something.