Entrevista Stu Mackenzie-ENGLISH-
This will be your first world tour since the pandemic occurred, with the fact that it will also be the first with just one drummer. What’s the vibe going on in the band right now? Are you excited? Do you miss hitting the road?
-We are so excited. It’s not funny. It’s been way way too long. Since we became a band, basically all we’ve really done is just play constantly. It felt like a part of our soul had been ripped out. We managed to play a handful of shows around Australia during the pandemic, but really not many. So the idea of starting a world tour with a trip around South America is so great. I’m just excited to be a tourist, you know? just get on a plane and meet people and eat food.-
I imagine a very electric and furious setlist for your live presentations, with a career spanning objective but also aiming to showcase your latest record. Am I right?
-Actually, i don’t know what we’re gonna play. We got some new music coming out this year. Maybe we’ll play some of that. There are a lot of songs to choose from these days. We try not to write setlists too far ahead of time. We do it a day or two before the show. It could be anything, really.
South America has been a bit of a problem to you guys. This COVID thing prevented you from arriving earlier in october 2020. Are you aware of the fanbase in this part of the world? Is it good for you to play in a new country?
-It feels luxurious nowadays to be able to travel. It feels weird but at the same time I’m grateful just to get on a plane. We do have a lot of people from South America reaching out to us on social media, saying ‘come on guys, why is it taking you so long to play here?’. Hopefully, it’s not too long again until we come back. Maybe next time we can do a proper headline tour as well.-
You have to pick one of two. Studio or Tour?
-That’s so different in many ways. For us, they are two separate things. I’ve always felt like I have two jobs, and they play off each other. When we’re touring a lot, it’s hard to find time to write. I feel like they’re the ying and yang. We still are working on something, mixing and stuff when we are on the road. We’ve done overdubs and, in our free days, rent a studio. I have to answer your question by saying it’s really an annoying and equal first place.
Butterfly 3001 is the first remixes album in King Gizzard’s career. Was it a fruitful experience?
-It was actually really rewarding to do. It felt like an exercise of letting go. We just reached out to people who we admired, and we gave them 100 percent creative license. We basically said ‘we love your music, we trust you. go nuts, we’re not going to get in your way’. It was really cool and surreal, I guess, to hear your music play back in this insane way. You hear the possibilities of what you can do with the raw material.-
There’s been a lot of noise in your twitter account, with several hints of a new album on the way. Can you talk about that or is it too early yet?
-I don’t want to give too much away, but we are announcing a new album pretty soon. We are putting some final touches on that. It’s really exciting, we’ve been working on this album for a long time. It’s a very long album in a good way, it’s a double album. It’s got some of my favorite ever Gizzard songs.There’s quite a lot of experiments in it, and it ventures into territories we’ve never gone before. I’ll stop talking now.
-Do you like to be unpredictable?
-I don’t think that is something we consciously do. If I want to do something, I’ll do it. I don’t really care if people think that we must do another Thrash Metal record.Most people who are under 30 or 35 have pretty insane music taste, they grew up on the internet. I grew up on those early stages of the internet and found lots of music online, and I feel like I was in that transition where you weren’t defined by your music taste anymore. I just like music. I respect different kinds of music.-
-After at least a decade playing with this group of guys. What has evolved and what remains of those first years that you consider important?-
-Obviously, there’s six of us in the band and everyone’s got their own needs and wants musically and artistically. My influence in the band is to always keep things small, we record ourselves and spend no money making albums. We’ve never tried to make an album that is better than the last one. That’s the thing I try to keep. Every time we make a record, I like to feel like it’s our first record. We’re just exploring in the darkness. That’s the most beautiful and creative expression that exists, in my opinion. It is really hard to do, because you have to keep changing constantly every time we feel too comfortable. The core of the band, and the way we interact artistically is exactly the same. If anything, we are more open and comfortable with each other, and hopefully we never let our egos get in the way.-
-Has parenthood changed your way of making music?-
-it’s changed my perspective of the world, and it has made me less of a cynical and less of a dark kind of person. Maybe, surprisingly, I have more faith in humanity than before. I didn’t expect that to happen, but it has injected a real positivity in me. When you are a parent, you have to be positive. It can be hard and stressful. The overwhelming experience is extraordinarily positive and beautiful. Lyrically, Butterfly 3000 looked at some darkness but compared to the past Gizz records is very positive.
