Understatement, defined: MGMT have had a good year.
Back in January, the band once-known as The Management, ostensibly a two-piece comprised of one Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser, were a buzz name in the industry, one of many acts expected to do well in 2008. But history proves that only a handful of turn-of-year tips actually excel – and who’d have banked on a weirdo-pop two-piece some parts Flaming Lips to several parts stardust and sparkle?
‘Oraclular Spectacular’ – the duo’s debut album – was a critical hit, and spawned radio- and TV-dominating singles ‘Electric Feel’ and the ubiquitous ‘Time To Pretend’. Before they knew it, VanWyngarden and Goldwasser were an internationally recognised act – they uprooted from their Brooklyn homes and saw the world, hitting festivals across the continents and seeing their audiences swell and swell.
ClashMusic.com caught up with VanWyngarden – tired but chipper – the morning after Barack Obama stormed to victory in the US presidential election.
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Hey Andrew… line’s a bit dodge here…
We’re out on the countryside, so there’s bad service.
Best make this quick, then. But before we get down to business, how do you feel about what went down last night?
(confused pause… sudden realisation) Oh, we’re ecstatic! We woke up and we were a little nervous because we weren’t sure what’d happened, but soon we were jumping around. It’s good that this has happened.
The year’s been pretty good to you, hasn’t it?
It’s been a kinda crazy year – we’ve had lots to figure out, and lots of growing to do. We’ve had to make the band ‘a band’… because we only put our live show together at the start of the year, and ten started touring, so we were a little inexperienced in that field. But a few months later we were playing David Letterman, and these huge festivals. It all happened so fast that we had to respond, and adapt really quickly. I think now, in the last couple of months, we’ve settled down. We feel very confident about our live show. But the year in general has been crazy, what with all the stuff we’ve been able to do. We need a good two-week break to let it sink in, to let us realise what we’ve done.
Have you not had much in the way of time off?
We’ve only had a few small breaks, and when we’ve had them I’ve travelled and stayed busy. So we’ve not really had much time off this year. We are going to have time off the end of this year, though.
What sets, if any, stand out as real ‘moments’ of the year?
The second Glastonbury set, on the Park Stage, is the one I think of as the most, just loud and crazy show. That, and our show at the Oxegen Festival in Ireland – there was almost a riot there. But then there’s also being able to travel to places like Japan and Brazil, and play there.
I don’t suppose, In January, you could have even dreamed of getting to travelt he world with the band…
No way, at the start of the year we could never have predicted what would happen. I don’t think we had any expectations at the start of the year – we always kind of roll with whatever comes our way – but we did want to get beyond this status of being a buzz band, of being a hype band, and play shows for a few months to prove ourselves. I think we’re past that stage now.
I get the impression ‘Oracular Spectacular’ is probably old to you… it was finished some time ago, right?
We finished the first album in the spring of 2007, and we’re going to start recording the next album in February. We have ideas, and we’re going to begin writing together once we have a break. We might get the chance to have a real vacation sometime.
Do you expect the next album to be a marked departure from your debut?
I think it’s unavoidable that we’ll change – we don’t pay any attention to any press, so we’ve been quite oblivious to what’s been going on. There’s definitely going to be change, but when we wrote the first record we had no idea what would happen with it. We were paranoid about being on a major label, and there was a totally different feeling to how we feel now. I think we’re just going to do our thing, and hopefully any pressure won’t affect us.
Well, if it worked well enough the first time…
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Hello?
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(line goes dead)
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Our conversation cut short by bad mobile service, Clash retires to reassess ‘Oracular Spectacular’. Yep, still thoroughly decent, a lavish, candy-coloured collection of pop-savvy highs, deft diversions into myriad stylistic territories, and full of enough hooks to keep a Spanish fisherman happy for years. Look for it in the end-of-year list of your choice…
See MGMT live as follows (TICKETS)…
November
7 Bristol Academy
9 Glasgow Barrowlands
10 Birmingham Academy
11 Manchester University
27 London Forum
28 London Shepherd’s Bush Empire
