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Los Angeles Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard talk going orchestral at the Bowl, and finally saying ‘F— Spotify'
Need a model for how to thrive in the stranglehold of the modern music economy? How about a band of Australian garage-rockers who cut albums at the pace of an Atlanta rap crew, tour like peak-era Grateful Dead and who just told the biggest company in streaming to go to hell. King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard are a fascinating phenomenon in rock. Over 15 years, their LPs have flitted between genres with insouciant musicianship, pulling from punky scuzz, regal soul, krautrock, electro-funk and psychedelia. These LPs come at an insane clip — sometimes up to five in a year, 27 so far. Their freewheeling live shows made them a coveted arena act, when few new rock bands can aspire to that. Two weeks ago, they became probably the most high-profile band to take their music off Spotify in the wake of Chief Executive Daniel Ek's investments in an AI-driven weapons firm. The band self-releases on its own labels — they needed no one's permission. King Gizzard returns to the Hollywood Bowl on Sunday, this time backed by the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra for a live read of its new album 'Phantom Island,' a standout LP that adds deft orchestration to its toolkit. The band's frontman, Stu Mackenzie, spoke to The Times about giving Spotify the boot, how the L.A. Phil inspired the new record's arrangements and what they've figured out about staying afloat while artists get squeezed from all sides today. What was your initial reaction to Daniel Ek's investments in an AI arms company? A bit of shock, and then feeling that I shouldn't be shocked. We've been saying f— Spotify for years. In our circle of musician friends, that's what people say all the time, for all of these other reasons which are well documented. We saw a couple of other bands who we admire, and thought 'I don't really want our music to be here, at least right now.' I don't really consider myself an activist, and I don't feel comfortable soapboxing. But this feels like a decision staying true to ourselves, and doing what we think is is right for our music, having our music in places that we feel all right about. Was choosing to leave a complicated decision for the band? The thing that made it hard was I do want to have our music be accessible to people. I don't really care about making money from streaming. I know it's unfair, and I know they are banking so much. But for me personally, I just want to make music, and I want people to be able to listen to it. The hard part was to take that away from so many people. But sometimes you've just got to say, 'Well, sorry, we're not going to be here right now.' In the end, it actually was just one quick phone call with the other guys to get off the ship. As the sizes of everything gets larger, all of the stakes start to feel higher. I grapple with that, because that's not the kind of band that I like to be in, where it feels like everything is high stakes. I do miss the time where we could just do anything without any consequences, but I still try really hard to operate like that. In the past, I have felt tied to it, that we have to be there. But with this band, we have been happy to take a lot of risks, and for the most part, I'm just happy to see what happens if we just choose the path that feels right for us. Do you think Spotify noticed or cares that you left? I don't expect Daniel Ek to pay attention to this. We have made a lot of experimental moves with the way we've released records — bootlegging stuff for free. We have allowed ourselves a license to break conventions, and the people who listen to our music have a trust and a faith to go along on this ride together. I feel grateful to have the sort of fan base you'll just trust, even when you do something a little counterintuitive. It feels like an experiment to me, like, 'Let's just go away from Spotify, and let's see what happens.' Why does this have to be a big deal? It actually feels like we're just trying to find our own positivity in a dark situation. 'Phantom Island' is a really distinct record in your catalog for using so much orchestration. I heard some conversations with the L.A. Phil planted the seed for it? We played this Hollywood Bowl show a little over two years ago, and being the home stadium of the L.A. Phil, we naturally chatted with them at the show. It did plant a seed of doing a show there backed by the orchestra. We happened to be halfway through making a record at that exact time that we weren't really sure how to finish. When we started talking about doing a show backed by an orchestra, we thought, 'Let's just make an album with an orchestra.' We rearranged and rewrote these songs with a composer, Chad Kelly. We knew the songs needed something, and we ended up rewriting the songs to work for a rock band in a symphonic medium. Were there any records you looked to for how to make that approach work? I hear a lot of ELO in there, Isaac Hayes, maybe the Beatles' 'A Day in the Life.' To be completely honest, I just don't think there was a model for it. I think we landed on something that we only could have made because we wrote the songs not knowing there were going to be orchestral parts. When you ask me what were the touchstones, well, there weren't any. I was probably thinking of a lot of music from the early '60s, a lot of soul and R&B music at that time, which had often had orchestral arrangements. Etta James, for instance, was in the tone and the feel. This isn't the perfect way to do it, but it was a really serendipitous process. Your live shows are pretty raucous to say the least; how did you adapt to keep that feeling with orchestras behind you on this tour? I was pretty anxious, to be honest. We only had one rehearsal the day before the first show. We had to go in and cross our fingers, like, 'Okay, I think that's going to work. I'm just going to hope that it translates.' Our rehearsal was the most intense two and a half hours, but for the show, you're just like, 'All right, this is it.' You've just got to commit to what's on the page. We've had some really awesome people collaborating with us — Sean O'Laughlin did the arrangements for the live shows, and Sarah Hicks is an amazing conductor. We're just a garage rock band from Australia; we're very lucky to get to honestly work with the best of the best. On the other end of the venue spectrum, what was it like playing a residency in a Lithuanian prison? It was a real prison until really recently [Lukiškės Prison 2.0 in Vilnius, Lithuania]. The history is very dark — like, very, very dark. But there are artist spaces there now, and it's quite a culturally positive force. They're the things that make you restore your faith in humanity. You spend so much of your life losing faith in it, and then you go to places like that, and you're like, 'Yeah, humans are okay.' Speaking of threats to humanity, I think your band contests the idea that artists need to use AI to make enough music to be successful on streaming. You're proof you can make a ton of music quickly, with real people. Making music is fun as f—, especially making music with other people. That's a deeply motivating factor, and we just have a ton of fun making music together. It feels human, it feels spiritual, it feels social. It's deeply central to who we all are as human beings. And it doesn't feel hard. It doesn't feel like we're fighting against some AI trend or anything. We just make music because it feels good. You're an arena act with your own label, and pretty autonomous as a band. Do you think you've figured out something important about how to be successful in the modern music economy? I think we've been good at asking internal questions, and questioning what everybody else does and whether we need to do that or not. Sometimes we do the same thing that everybody else does. Sometimes we do something completely different because it makes sense to us. I think we've been quite good at being true to ourselves and being confident, or maybe reckless enough to do that. I do think there's some serendipity and fate in the personalities of the other guys in the band, and the people that we work with, who have have also been on a pretty unconventional journey and have faith that — in the least pretentious way possible — that other people will dig it, and not worry too much about the other other stuff. Do you hope to see more and bigger bands striking out on their own, since the big institutions of the music business have yet again proven to not really reflect their values? I just know what has worked for us, and I'm not sure that means that it'll work for other people. I don't know if there's a model in it. If there is a model, it's that you don't have to follow a path if you don't want to. The well-treaded path is going to work for some people, but you don't have to stay on that. I think one thing about this band is that we've all been at peace with failing. That if this all fell apart and we went back home and we got regular jobs, I think we would say, 'Well, we're proud of ourselves. We had a good time.' We did what we wanted to do and just suffered the consequences along the way. We're probably being reckless enough to make potentially selfish decisions over and over again. But people, for some reason, want to come out and see us do that, and we're super grateful.
ABC News
22-06-2025
- Entertainment
- ABC News
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard — Phantom Island
From Deep Purple and Metallica to KISS and even Sigur Rós, bands tapping orchestras for some added class is nothing new, and often to mixed results. But trust King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, arguably Australia's wildest and most prolific band, to put their unique spin on what is sometimes dismissed as bombastic cliché. Phantom Island is the group's 27th album in 13 years, (You do the maths!) What's more remarkable than the pace at which this six-headed beast pumps out new music is that the quality has rarely dipped with each release. Having restlessly switched through genre gears — power metal, psych jazz, microtonality, electronic pop, boogie rock, spoken-word Spaghetti Western — this time, King Gizz add symphonic strings, horns and woodwinds to their freewheeling mix of trippy riffs and jam-band glam. The spark for Phantom Island came from meeting members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic on tour, leading to the band enlisting British conductor Chad Kelly. He added orchestral arrangements to 10 unfinished songs written and recorded alongside last year's bluesy, unruly Flight b741 . The resulting material is unlike any in the band's far-reaching discography, and has ballooned into a homecoming December tour of both rock and orchestral shows, where Kelly conducts a 29-piece ensemble. After the grandiosity of the opening title track, there's plenty of special moments that rely less on orchestral heft and more on unique fusions. The brass punching up the '70s choogle of 'Deadstick'; the eerie strings bookending 'Lonely Cosmos'. Lush flutes and acoustic interludes augmenting the Southern-fried twang of 'Sea of Doubt', while muted horns and romantic swells perfectly complement the sharper, psychedelic edges of 'Silent Spirit'. Matching these songs' mutating melodies and moods is an emphasis on passing the mic, with guitarists Cook Craig and Joey Walker trading verses with regular vocalists Stu Mackenzie and Ambrose Kenny-Smith. With so many voices and instruments jostling for space, it can make for busy listening. However, the production — more polished and cleaner than these wilfully woolly rockers typically sound — makes untangling the knotty textures and grooves easier and especially rewarding on a good pair of headphones. For all the record's sonic complexity, it's only a creative nudge forward compared to the bold leap in songwriting. There's nothing wrong with chanting about your creature of choice over gnarly riffs (Rattlesnake! Dragon! Balrog!), but Phantom Island allows some humanity to slip into the fantasy. Many years of being locked into a punishing touring lifestyle is beginning to take its toll on King Gizz, with lyrics reflecting on habitually leaving their partners and kids to meet the demands of their cultish, global fanbase. ' There's more to it now than just leaving/ 'Cause there's so much more to miss' , Walker confesses between sighing strings and slide guitar on 'Eternal Return'. ' I would say don't be a musician, my son / Be a doctor, lawyer, or a stand-up citizen, ' Kenny-Smith advises on 'Silent Spirit', words which hit all the harder given he followed in the footsteps of his dad, Dingoes frontman Broderick Smith. Touring burnout and fame fatigue, just like recruiting an orchestra, is another rock star cliché burnished into something more compelling through King Gizz's singular filter. They use crashing airplanes and voyaging ships, of both the sea-and-space-faring variety, as metaphors to layer some Gizzverse world-building into vulnerable, world-weary lyrics. Like 'Space Oddity' and 'Rocket Man' before it, 'Spacesick' uses an intergalactic trip as a metaphor for isolation. Mackenzie, lost in the orbit of the road, longs for the grounding gravity of dinner with the wife and kids. ' How did the little ones sleep? Did you make it to the zoo? … your brother told me they cried a lot when they saw a guy who looked like their pop.' Even as poignant lyrics express the interior melancholy of these intrepid travellers, the music conveys a sense of adventure. The 27th episode in the ongoing tale of King Gizzard's wild journey might leave lingering questions about the sacrifices and sustainability of their absurdly creative and successful enterprise, but as always, it's a thrill to be caught up in the ride.
Gulf Weekly
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Gulf Weekly
A new realm awaits
Australian psychedelic rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard is set to drop its 27th studio album Phantom Island tomorrow, June 13. Recorded simultaneously with their 2024 album Flight b741, the musical act said the new release is set to tackle themes similar to the 26th project, but with an orchestral laidback sound, crediting a 2023 moment when they met Los Angeles Philharmonic as inspiration. 'The songs felt like they needed this other energy and colour, that we needed to splash some different paint on the canvas,' frontman Stu Mackenzie said in an interview. 'We didn't know we were going to have an orchestra dubbed on top when we were recording. If we had, that would have really changed the songs, but we went into it very free and easy. 'The songs were written in a very 'improv' way, stitched together from multiple takes or longer jams… It feels like you're in the room with the band and the orchestra, that we're all in the same room together,' he added. The band members also revealed that they plan to perform the new songs live alongside various orchestras during an upcoming tour. Formed in 2010 in Melbourne, the group is known for exploring several genres and performing energetic live shows. The band's current line-up consists of multi instrumentalists Stu, Ambrose Kenny-Smith, Cook Craig, Joey Walker, Lucas Harwood and Michael Cavanagh.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard ‘Fly' High On New Single
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard soar heavenward with the smily, major-key jam 'Grow Wings and Fly,' which is the final track on and the third pre-release single from the Australian group's 27th album, Phantom Island. The 10-track set is due June 13 from (p)doom records. Filmed at Melbourne's Flinders Beach, the Hayden Somerville-directed video clip for 'Grow Wings and Fly' stars group member Ambrose Kenny-Smith as a washed ashore aquatic being who is lovingly returned to the water by fellow Gizzards Joey Walker, Cook 'Cookie' Craig, Michael 'Cavs' Cavanagh and Lucas Hardwood. Later, he appears in human form as a fisherman thinking back to prior expeditions with group member Stu Mackenzie, who is now seemingly a ghost. More from Spin: Left of the Dial: Memphis is Raised by WXYR's Sound Yusuf/Cat Stevens Is On The 'Road' To His First Memoir Queens Of The Stone Age Come 'Alive' In Paris Catacombs 'There are so many strange and beautiful ways to grow wings and fly,' Somerville says. 'We had a very special time down the coast with the band and our crew, releasing our sea creature — who somehow makes me feel a little ill and completely full of joy at the same time.' 'Grow Wings and Fly' will be familiar to sharp-eared Gizzard fans as a fragment initially tacked onto the song 'Shanghai' in live performances. It evolved into its own distinct song last year and was played in its more complete form on at least two occasions during the band's fall 2024 tour. The studio version features pedal steel guitar contributions from Gizzard's recording and front of house engineer Sam Joseph atop aspirational lyrics about the power of transcendence: 'you gotta stop the overwhelming self-doubt / catch me dancing in the summer rain with my tongue out.' The 10 cuts on Phantom Island, which are a companion of sorts to those on the 2024 album Flight b741, find King Gizzard enveloped in elaborate string arrangements and heavy orchestration — a first for the group. 'The songs felt like they needed this other energy and color, [and] that we needed to splash some different paint on the canvas,' says Mackenzie, who enlisted British conductor/arranger/keyboardist Chad Kelly to help flesh out the sound. 'He brings this wealth of musical awareness to his chameleon-like arrangements. We come from such different worlds — he plays Mozart and Bach and uses the same harpsichords they did, and tunes them the exact same way. But he's obsessed with microtonal music, too, and all this nerdy stuff like me.' Beginning Sunday (May 18) in Lisbon, Gizzard will play multi-show residencies in such off-the-beaten-path European venues as a former prison in Vilnius, Lithuania, and a 2,000-year-old Roman amphitheater in Plovdiv, and in late July, the band will be back in the U.S. for their first-ever shows backed by local symphonies. Perhaps best of all: Gizzard will debut their own festival, Field of Vision, from Aug. 15-17 in the beautiful outdoor setting of Buena Vista, Co., where they will play three distinct sets amid a lineup of friends such as Babe Rainbow, King Stingray and DJ Crenshaw. The band will then visit Europe again beginning Oct. 31 in Manchester, England, for shows divided between synth-powered 'rave sets' and local symphony-backed spotlights on Phantom Island. To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Cardi B Says This ‘You' Scene Is ‘Turning Me On'
Cardi B loves Joe Goldberg unconditionally. The rapper is a big fan of Netflix's hit series, You, and the streaming service unveiled a new video in which Cardi reacts in real time to season three. In the clip, the star watches as the serial killer protagonist Goldberg is tied up and attacked by his love interest (and fellow serial killer) Love. 'I'm not even gonna lie, this is turning me on,' Cardi joked while watching the scene. More from Billboard Luke Bryan Reacts to Katy Perry's Space Flight: 'It Roped Me In' King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard Preview 'Phantom Island' LP With New Single, 'Deadstick' Adrianne Lenker Details New Live Album, 'Live at Revolution Hall' She also claims that Goldberg 'fake loves' Love, because he's 'kind of giving her a chance' at living amid their brawl. 'I totally can relate,' she continues, before playfully adding, 'I bet my baby daddy wanna kill me — but you can't!' Cardi shares daughter Kulture Kiari Cephus, son Wave Set Cephus, and a newborn daughter with her estranged husband, Offset. The Bronx native filed to divorce the Migos — for the second time — after seven years of marriage in the summer of 2024. Cardi is a longtime fan of You. In 2021, she fangirled over its leading man on X — which was then still known as Twitter — before both the musician and Gossip Girl alum hilariously changed both of their profile pictures to photos of each other. Later, Cardi's Billboard Hot 100-topper 'I Like It' was featured in the first episode of You's fourth season, which dropped in 2023. Just last month, Cardi helped debut the trailer for season five in a video posted to You's official Instagram. The fifth and final season of You is set to premiere April 24 on Netflix. Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
