April 8, 2024 • 41 mins
Melbourne band King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard don't just make a LOT of records (they've released 25 since they started 11 years ago); each one comes with a different experiment at the heart of it. There's the thrash metal record; the collaborative jazz record; the microtonal record; one made exclusively on acoustic instruments; one that plays on an infinity loop. And on and on.
Their latest (if you're quick enough), doesn't feature guitars at all – The Silver Cord is the rock band's synth only album, which we discuss a little on episode 125 of MC, with band leader Stuart Mackenzie. Along with what he remembers from those previous 24 albums, the band's origins on the Melbourne scene, and how on earth King Gizzard will come to end. If it ever will.
Give the show a follow on Instagram and TikTok at @midnightchatspod.
This episode was recored in October 2023.
Further links:
Our KGATLW cover feature from 2017
The Discogs listing for all the bootlegged versions of Polygondwanaland
Credits:
Interview and editing by Stuart Stubbs
Mixing and Mastering by Flo Lines
Artwork by Kate Prior
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I spent most of my adult life doing this band,
and I've spent most of that time feeling like it's
all about to wrap up, and fuck, I'm just gonna
have to go and get a real job, and like,
holy shit, isn't that like just the most unbearable thought.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
I don't know what I'm gonna do, Like, holy fun,
what am I going to do? This is a disaster,
like I can't I can't do that.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
And so I think it probably has been like a
slightly motivating factor and just doing a heuse of stuff.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Welcome to Midnight Chats. Good evening, folks. Good to have
you with us tonight. This is the music interview podcast
for late night listening. I'm Greg and I'm here with Stu.
How are you doing, Stu?
Speaker 4 (00:43):
I'm good, Thanks mate, Yeah, I'm good. How are you?
Speaker 3 (00:46):
I'm good.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
I'm good.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
You're serving up a hot and sizzling podcast for us tonight,
as oh, you've been in the kitchen.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
Yeah, I suppose it is quite a hot and sizzling episode.
This week on the podcast is King Gizzard and the
Lizard Wizard main man, front man, main guitarist, main songwriter
Stuart McKenzie. Another Stewart is chief. Yeah, yeah, exactly, the
king of King Gizzard and a lizard wizard.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Of all of the famous major music stars that you've
now met called Stuart.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Was this your favorite Stewart. I don't like to talk
ill of the Stuarts because there aren't many of us
out there. But there's only been one other Stewart on
the podcast. Yeah, and that is Stuart Breakway from Moguay
of Moguai, myself of course, Stuart Stubbs, and now Stuart McKenzie.
Who's the best Maguy or King Gizzard Stewart. I'm gonna
(01:42):
go I can't say I oh, gop out, I'm copying out.
I mean, this is a great chat. I love King Gizzard.
They have a reputation for being one of the world's
best live bands for good reason, such an incredible band,
so I was really excited to hear Stu talk about
the band. I don't feel like he talks about the
and that often, certainly not on podcasts. So this conversation
(02:03):
went in some really interesting directions. Yeah, this is very
much one for fans of the band, I think because
we get into the music, and that is because there's
so much of it if you are unfamiliar with Kinkizard
and the Lizard Wizard. I'm saying the whole name every time,
by the way, Greg, if you're unfamiliar. They are a
psychedelic rock band from Melbourne in Australia and they have
(02:27):
released twenty five albums over the last eleven years. The
prolific nature of this group is that thing. We talk
about it a lot on this podcast. So obviously there's
a lot of music to get into. But here's what
I love about this band. It's not just that they
make so many albums, it's how considered each of those
records are. I'm going to let me throw some things
(02:50):
that you hear, Greg, because every record they do sort
of has a experiment at the middle of it. So
their album from twenty sixteen called nonagone Infinity was an
album that played on a loop paper mache dream Balloon.
They've got good titles as well. Twenty fifteen that was
made exclusively with acoustic instruments. Flying Microtonal, Banana, you're.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Making these up.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
The funny thing is you're not.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
I'm not.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
Yeah, that is a microtonal album. I'm still not really
sure what microtonal is. To be honest, they've got a
jazz album called Sketches of Brunswi Kids. There's always something,
is what I'm getting at. There's always It's not just
they're like dropping out these albums that all sound the same,
that they've all been very considered. They've got very different
things going on. And their current record, at least at
the time of recording, and there's a very good chance
(03:38):
a new King is that record will be out by
the time you're listening to This is called the Silver Chord,
and that one has been made purely with synthesizers. This
is a rock band, you know, very much a guitar
rock band, and this new record they've put down all
the guitars. There's no guitars on it, and it's their
electronic synthesizer record. And I just like that they challenged
(03:59):
them in that way. And as I say, like there
was just a lot to get into. So there's a
lot of music talk in this episode. Let us know
what you think of the episode. We are Midnight Chats
Pod on the social platforms on TikTok on Instagram. You
will be able to watch some video clips of ste
chatting to Stu as well so so do go and
check those out. Just one thing I wanted to say
(04:21):
on that Greg actually on the social just a social's
update because we are new to it here on the
show Mate, we are doing some numbers, especially on TikTok,
which I'm brand new to. I know you are as well,
but I feel it's our calling. Check this out. Thirty
six people we're following. That one doesn't really count because
we've chosen that follow us seven likes eighty two. So
(04:51):
pretty viral stuff going on over there. If you're listening,
if you're listening as a TikTok person, get involved.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Exactly, even if it's out of sympathy.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
For now though, here is Stuart McKenzie one of the
best stewarts we've ever had on the show. I mean,
do you get completely bored of the sort of thing
that people want to talk to you about is just
how many records you make and how prolific you are.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Oh no, it's like very It's always very flattering to
hear that people notice that shit, to be honest, and yeah,
I mean I'm happy to talk about it. It's like
kind of what I've spent my whole life doing, my
whole adult life doing.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Really, it's just mostly that thing.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
It's just like touring and making records and trying to
keep the rest of my life on track in the
in between moments.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
It is so unique. There's a few doing it, I
guess like John Dwyer and the OCS, who I'm guessing
you know quite well. Having really on castle face. Were
you always a fan Have you always been a fan
of artists who have that huge back castlock? Was that
something that you wanted for yourself, Like we want to
be a band that makes a lot of records. It
has this sort of catalog, this that people can just
(06:13):
live in forever.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
I think with I mean, firstly, shout out to John Dwyer,
who who definitely did support us in like such a
massive way, one of the first people outside of Australia
to get behind our music in any way. But yeah,
we didn't have too much of a sort of mission
(06:35):
statement I suppose when we started the band, I mean
we it was it was none of our first bands,
and I think we definitely wanted to do a different
thing to any of the bands that we were currently in.
King Gis was definitely an experiment right from the beginning,
(06:55):
and it was sort of like, what would happen if
we did this, you know, or what would happen if
we did this? And one of the very few things
that we did say and think about early was let's
try and make a lot of records. And I think
the place that it came from was trying to drop
(07:17):
any ego easy said than done, not be too precious
about your songwriting easier said than done, and just learn
on the go, because I had realized that, at least
for myself, until I actually had put down a recording,
and this kind of went for all the things I
(07:39):
was doing before King years.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
I couldn't stop thinking about it. You know.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
I would work on a song, and I'd be working
on it late at night in my bedroom, which was
typically how I recorded at that point, and it just
would be swirling around in my head until I put
it on the internet, or i'd burnt it to a CD,
which is what you did in the olden days, and
put it in my car, or i'd just done something
to put a bow on it. I was pretty content
(08:05):
on putting bows on things and just finishing them and
just being able to kind of move on and think
about how to write songs. And learn how to write
songs and just do it in public, I suppose.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
And it's so rare, isn't it, to like find a
group of people willing to go with that? As you say,
meant like it wasn't your first bands, and you sort
of wanted. But you guys started very young, didn't you.
Were you still in high school when you started.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Ambrose was the only one still in high school when
kids had started. He might have just been eighteen, maybe
he was seventeen still, but Joe's maybe four years older
than Ambros. So yeah, we started between let's say eighteen
and twenty two.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
You went to school in Geelong, right, I did go to.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
High school in Geelong. I went to school.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
I went to high school with Cookie, but I also
played So I played in a band with Cookie in
high school. But I also played in a band with
Lucas in high school, who also went to school in Geelong,
but at a different school.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
What were those bands?
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Like?
Speaker 1 (09:08):
The band that I played in with Cookie was called
Revolver and Son, and we were doing a I suppose,
authentic to the point of literally being teenager's garage rock thing,
like like a sixties garage rock thing to the point
of like, you know, wearing Paisley button up shirts and
(09:30):
cowboy boots and like and and playing with no distortion
on our guitars and stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Exactly. Yeah, that sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
So yeah, Cookie and I played in that band together,
and then yeah, I also played in a band with Lucas,
which was I suppose you would say more indie, but
was definitely still like a rock band, rock band format,
more indie and probably more psychedelically tinged a lot more
sort of like bigger sounds and effects and spatial kind
(10:07):
of things. And that band was called The Houses the
Calves Drama from the king Is. He joined the Houses
later and I reckon. That was my first year of UNI,
and I met Calves through Eric, who was well it
was part of the part of the band until a
few years ago. Eric and I went to UNI together
(10:30):
with Joe as well, and.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Ambrose played in a band.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
With Lucas at the same time that I played in
a band with Lucas and that was called Sambrose Automobile.
So we actually are all connected deeply to like our
very earlier, earlier years, and we were all living in
sharehouses like most of us, maybe everybody at one point
(10:58):
lived in these two sharehouses which were like on a
corner in Carlton, which is in Melbourne. So and that
was before the band started, So we were all the
bands were kind of playing shows together and going to
shows and going to parties and King Gis was a
collective of people who wanted to be in the experimental band,
(11:23):
I think, and the lineup included a lot more people
in the earlier years, probably for like a two year period.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
It was a fluid membership.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
There was there was technically wasn't members of the band,
I would say, but over the years most people decided
it was like either boring or annoying to be in
the band and bailed. So we sort of just were
naturally solidified into the kind of the group.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
We also had Amy Taylor on the podcast Yeah last year,
so we were talking we were talking about about like
the Melbourne scene. She was about how Amil and the
Stiffers started out purely to just play that friend's yard party,
Like that was it, that was like the intention?
Speaker 2 (12:07):
We were the same, like that same.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
Yeah. I'm starting to think maybe that's like a typically
like sort of Melbourne thing because where you are there
is like a culture of house parties where bands turn
up right and people play that mates house pis.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
I do feel like less kind of connected to the
visceral sort of like house party thing these days, but
I definitely can say that, Yeah, fuck fifteen years ago
or whatever, when I started doing that sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
It, yeah, it just was what it was like most
house parties we went to.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Someone played some form of like live music, and it
was really dope and normal and like fun. One thing
that I didn't realize at the time, and kind of
after traveling a lot and seeing a lot of sort
of like music cities, I realized it's maybe a little
unusual and cool about Melbourne is most of the music
(13:06):
industry is in Sydney in Australia, but Melbourne has the
majority of the venues and the shows and the bands
and the artists, like by a good stretch, and it
does definitely create a different atmosphere because no one's like
(13:26):
we didn't we weren't even thinking about We had no
idea how anything worked, Like, we weren't thinking about how
we would get to the next stage or any form
of strategy or anything.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Like.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
We were just playing shows because like it felt good
and like we enjoyed playing music together in the sort
of like wholesome, old fashioned.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Sort of way.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
It is a beautiful thing about Melbourne and it may change,
but I secretly hope it doesn't.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
In terms of these twenty five albums that you've currently made,
do you spend much time looking back at the old
ones or when they're gone? Are they gone? Because I
was also thinking, how do you sort of even remember
them on? Once you're getting into the twenties? Oh, yeah,
we made that record, isn't we?
Speaker 1 (14:10):
I think I could still very easily name them all.
I think I might struggle to rattle off track list.
Maybe maybe that's where it starts, the memory starts getting hazy.
I think maybe at ten records that were still pretty
easy to like do that.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Well.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
I'm glad you've said this too, because I had an
idea of something we could do.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Please don't make me do that.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
This is not going to be This is not going
to be a test yep, as we've already established. I
think it's incredible that you've made so many albums in
such a short period of time. But what I think
really makes it the next level is that each of
those albums has got a very different experiment within it.
It's not like you've made twenty five albums of the
same album, like, far far from it. I thought, maybe,
(14:52):
if you're up for this, I could if I could
just name a couple and you could just tell me
what you're int what your sort of instinctive memory of
that record is. Again, let's do it and tell me
the thing that the first thing that comes up, the
first thing that comes up. Essentially, I've I've just got
a few here, okay, not a gone infinity.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
This was very much inspired by playing a lot of shows.
When we really started to tour internationally was kind of
twenty fourteen, and that's really when the seeds of nonagone
were set. And yeah, we were trying to do this
thing in the shows at that point around twenty fourteen,
(15:39):
where we wanted to start and not stop. And at
this point we weren't doing like long shows like we
are now. They might have been sixty minutes felt like
a very long show in those days. But we were
trying to do this thing where we'd start and play
the whole time and every song would kind of like
blend together and mash into each other, and you know,
(16:01):
we didn't want it to be like atmospheric and ethereal.
We wanted it to just like be like freakishly intense
and like just an absolute assault of like all of
your senses.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
I saw you on that tour and it was that
really good to really good to scritch. It was amazing. Yeah,
it was that.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
It probably did take us like eighteen months of touring
to kind of figure out what was going to work
in that way, and in fact we did. We started
recording it. We made a good, good dint on it.
We actually thought we'd recorded all of it, and we
got to the end and we realized that it wasn't done,
and so we took a break and we made paper
(16:48):
Mashe a Dream Balloon, and that was like this incredible
palate cleanser because it needed to be the opposite thing
to Nonegone. It couldn't compete with any of those ideas.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
We should just say to people that maybe don't know,
not a got Infinity, the record that plays infinitely, it's
it's a loop, isn't it that records like a loop?
Speaker 2 (17:05):
That sort of it is a loop.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
Cup comes background and then the following Paper Masha Dream
Balloon is the record that you made completely using acoustic instruments.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Correct, Yeah, and so non agone has this sort of
like intense atmosphere and everything is just on Max and
sped up and there's no downtime and it's just it's
just it's just like press play.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
And then just go.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
And we were trying to do that, which which did
which did actually prove to be harder than we thought
to just insert no breathing space into you know, nine
songs in a row and make them work and make
sense back to back. So yeah, I don't know, I
could go on for I could go on forever.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
I mean it sounds like, you know this a lot,
a lot better than I certainly would. There's many albums
in Okay, here's a enough one. Yeah, let's go more
more recent Infest The Rat's Nest.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Okay, I remember it being insanely hot. Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
It was. It was kind of we did the main
tracking in the middle of summer and we're in our
old studio at this at this point, it was probably
one of the last things we did there and no
AC in there. I think we I think we actually
got AC right after this session because we were just like,
holy fuck, this is like actually dumb, like this is
like we're going to die or something.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Someone's going to get the keystroke in here.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Because it's like it's like illegally low ceiling and just
like a very very small compact box that was also
like never vacuumed or anything and just was like dusty
and just like disgusting and the middle of Australian summer.
But anyway, we had talked about making a metal record
(18:47):
for four years, and I think when we made not
Ago and actually going back to that at that time,
that actually felt like us doing a metal thing, and
in hindsight it wasn't really, but that was us leaning
into that, but still sort of playing twelve string guitars
with like you know, like I don't know, vintage fuzz
(19:08):
pedals and shit, you know, like it was a different,
different thing. And then Murder of the Universe felt a
little heavier again, and then I think after that we
sort of leant into some sort of.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
More metal leaning things.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
You know, Murder of the Universe has like vomit coffin,
which maybe feels heavier, and then on Gum Boot Soup
there's like great chain of being which sort of feels
sludgy and maybe you could actually call that metal maybe,
And I think we were trying to find this, like
this niche that kind of made sense to us.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
Shout out to Vomit Coffin by the way. I mean,
I can't let you just drop that in without a note,
without recognizing the track title alone. I mean, you know,
come on, well.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
The track title, the track to actually has a backstory
as well. The backstories of the track title is my
little brother Lucky and a few of his friends, including
my cousin Tom McKenzie, and a bunch of other people.
Actually can't remember the exact line up, but it was
just a lot of people that were around our family
(20:15):
house and wood when we were young, like early teenage years.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
I'd say.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
They had a band that would rehearse in in in
the garage, in parents' garage, and it was like a
parody metal band, and I think they were quietly taking
the piss out of me and my friends and the
bands that we were playing in. But but yeah, it
was like a parody sort of like they were taking
(20:42):
the piss out of out of out of everything, and
just that actually, we're having an amazingly beautiful, awesome time
as well.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
How much younger than you is your brother two years.
I'm the younger by two years, and this is the
sort of thing that I would do to.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
But anyway, the band was called Vomit Coffin and okay, great,
and I'll never forget that because it's just it was
just so perfect.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
It's like, this is this is amazing.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
I'm going to use that in something one day, and
so yeah, one day it made it.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
Finally, it finally made it in twenty nineteen. With that record,
did you get any sort of idea of how sort
of metal fans like took it, Because you know, like
all sort of really dedicated fan groups, they probably would
have had had a thought on this other band who
are not traditionally in a metal band suddenly making a
(21:33):
trying to make a metal record.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Honestly, I have learned to try not to dig into
that shit very much. But I definitely have noticed more
black t shirts with like metal band logos on them
the shows.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
So that's that's a sign, I think.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
I think for me, like, I've always tried to approach
every record as if it's first album, and that's the
kind of way I'd like. Obviously, no one's ever going
to think of it like that besides me, but that's
the way in my mind, I would like people to
(22:13):
perceive each record and if they don't, like it's totally fine,
but it helps me to.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Have the sort of.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
I just remember like being in a band and making
your first record and how it doesn't matter, and it's like, oh,
maybe it does for some people, but when you sort
of in your earliest band and a good crowd is
like six of your mates in backshed, like you don't
you don't really that concerned about what connoisseurs of the
genre are going to think about your album. Like I've
(22:46):
tried to tried to keep that sort of like mindset
as much as I can. Again, easier than done, but
like something that I would try to check myself on.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
I think one.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
Last one I wanted to just pick out was poly
God on Polygond wanna land? Am I saying that incorrectly.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
It doesn't matter. It's not a real word, you said,
Is it not.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
A real word? Okay, Polygond want to land? I'm going
to go with that. We released this one on a tape,
oh mad, thank you that we that we that we
put out and we just like you know, raised a
little bit of money for a charity. I think it
was a refugee charity that we did. This came out
in twenty seventy.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
This was the record that you'd made and you you
just put out, didn't you just let you? You sort
of encourage people to release it. Put it wherever you want.
If you want to put it on your record label,
put it on your record label. If you want to
do a tape to a tape, if you want to,
you know, just share it around. What what? What was
the thinking behind that?
Speaker 3 (23:42):
That?
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Yeah, that.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
To put my mind back in that place. I was
twenty seventeen. We did five records that year, which was
inside very insane. It was like very fun though, and
definitely learned a lot over that time. We had started
(24:06):
like a lot of these songs, and we'd recorded like
a decent amount of material in twenty sixteen too. I
think there's probably some stuff recorded for that year in
twenty fifteen as well, and they were all were sketched
out by at least early twenty sixteen. So it's cool,
like we didn't make five records and release all of
them within twelve months.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
We just released them in twelve months.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
But as we started to release all these records, I
did start to feel uncomfortable about asking people for money
or asking people to buy shit constantly.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
It's just not why.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
We do it, Like truly, it's really not why we
do it. And I just would never want that to
feel like the motivation. I think it would just instantly.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Crush the whole project.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
And I just felt I was feeling extremely grateful that
we were playing shows and people were coming, and I
just thought, I don't know, like I think, I think
everyone's doing enough. Like we've already we're already selling four albums,
So it made sense to make the free one Polygon
Duine Land, and it was the obvious thing to do.
(25:16):
A free one. Polygon Duine Land was the one we
chose because out of the five we're doing that year,
it was the one that felt like, I know, I
keep saying this word considered, but it's the only it's
the only word I can think of using. It's the
word I've used to describe that record since the very start.
But I think it's because it's less haphazard, and it's
(25:41):
it's much more it's much more slow brushstrokes and kind
of just thinking about the whole puzzle.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Before we started, I.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Think we thought in our heads it would actually be
more stripped back than it ended up. But I think
we realized that you can add, you can eat, you
can add more layers than you think while still hearing
each one and making sure they're still serving a function.
But anyway, we started talking about doing this, doing this
thing free, and basically everyone we work with, which wasn't
(26:12):
many people at that point and still isn't a huge
amount of people, but everyone was like, oh, can you
just do like band camp, like pay what you want
or why don't you do you know, why don't we
just press like, you know, like a thousand copies and
then maybe like make it a free download or why
don't you just do this or that? And I was like, no,
(26:32):
like it's free, Like how free can we make this?
You know what's it's like literally free, Like it's not mine,
it's not ours, it belongs to the universe, belongs to
the world. And so it was sort of like an
experiment in how truly free can you make something? And
surprisingly hard and like surprising amount of hurdles to do
(26:55):
that thing, but we tried our best, and it sort
of inspired this whole bootleg that we've been doing.
Speaker 4 (27:01):
Have you seen any copies that people put out or
put together like out and about on tour or have
you come across the record in these different ways that
people have distributed it.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
I've seen so many, Like I would have seen at
least one hundred different ones, like maybe two hundred different
versions of Polygone to my Land. Occasionally I will check
discogs and see how many it's gotten up to, but
it's like several hundred logged separate variants from different labels.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
Yeah, we need to lock outs. I don't think we've
logged outs on discog. I'm going to do that. I'm
going to do that to.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
More right, Yeah, do it and take a deep dive
of like some of the crazy shit that people have made.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
It's like it's it.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
I really can't get it, Like I really can't get
it around my head, can't get my head around it
that we actually made that record, because it doesn't it
truly just doesn't feel like ours.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
And I have all these like really.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Beautiful and strong memories of making the record, but as
soon as that was done, it just kind of feels
like something that's always existed, you know.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
So Yeah, it's like one of my favorite things we've
ever done.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
I feel very like it felt like an experiment gone right.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
Yeah, absolutely absolutely. We should talk about the Silver Cord
because you know that's that's about to come out. We've
we've skipped it. We've skipped you know, a whole bunch
of records here, but we you know, we we'd be
here all day. So I mean, once again, with this record,
you've tried something completely new, like set yourself a new challenge.
(28:43):
This is like an electronic record. You've put down the guitars.
Have you fully put is it fully? I mean I've
listened to it. I've got I've listened to both versions
of it, which I was going to ask you about
as well. But the I couldn't hear any guitars, but
I know that maybe there's some hidden in there that
sounded like simps or is it just you guys are
playing some emphasizes at electronic drum kit and that that
(29:03):
is every sound that's coming out of this record.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Yeah, that's yeah, that's that's it. There's no sort of
guitars or do we say acoustic drum kits? You know,
drum kits When people think about drum kits. There's none
of those. There's none of those in there.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
Where did this idea come from? Because you know, every
record that you've made has had this very unique sort
of heart to it of we're going to try and
we're going to make a jazz record, We're going to
make a microtonal record, and an acoustic instrument only record,
a metal record.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
I suppose like the few kind of like things that
converged into leading us here was.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
We did. We did.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
We did want to do an opposing forces two albums
kind of thing this this year, which was something that
we had talked about for a while of doing something
like that again. And with Petrodragonic and with Silver Cord,
they were like worked on at the same time, so
we did want to make sure that they didn't interfere
(30:08):
with each other. But there are actually a lot of
kind of links between them that felt important when we're
making them, and maybe like it's more kind of birth
from the same womb but become sort of two different
sort of.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Creatures in the end.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
And we were very keen to do like another metal
leaning record, so we wanted to make sure we were
doing something else that was not that. But I think
thinking about Butterfly three thousand, which when we made that record,
that was the most electronic thing that we'd done at
that time. But that was made during COVID and it
was mostly I mean it was it was almost entirely
(30:48):
made without being in the same room as another person
really at all. And so we kind of leant into
that with that record, and everything is just overdubbed and
you know, laid one thing at a time and sending
files around to each other and just kind of leaning
into that as a vibe.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
And it was for us at that.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Time, very electronic, but you know, because of the way
that it was constructed, when we got together and tried
to figure how to play these songs, it was just
like a fucking nightmare. It was just it was so so,
what's the what's the opposite of intuitive? Whatever that is
is what it was.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
It was just it was just, yeah, counterintuitive.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
Maybe not even that that doesn't quite feel feel right either,
But and I feel like I've got a fair amount
of discipline in my life in certain areas, but when
it comes to rehearsal, I'm hopeless.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Like I just I just hate it. I just can't
wait for it to be over.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
And so with Butterfly, unfortunately it felt like a bit
of a casualty, you know, like Butterfly Live. Maybe it
just felt like in order for us to just move
on and just like make the next record and just
like not spend all of our time like thinking about
this Synthipeggiator in thirteen eight, like we need to just
(32:13):
like put this to bed. So that was just that
felt that kind of hurt, you know a little bit,
and sort of maybe didn't feel like we'd done that
album justice. And I do feel like we do need
to spend some time on it and go back there.
And I think, well, I know eventually we will. I
don't know how long that's going to take, but eventually
we will play a lot more of those songs live.
(32:34):
But anyway, since then, it's just been a nagging feeling
to make something that's electronic leaning but also just made live,
like made by us in a room.
Speaker 4 (32:49):
Did you all have simp skills? Was everybody turning up like, actually,
you know, I know, I know I'm that basis, but
actually I'm actually very good on keys or were you
all figuring that out?
Speaker 1 (32:58):
We've like everyone the band plays keys at least a bit. Actually,
Lucas is probably the best piano player, and he's a bassist,
so you know, it is it's sort of Yeah, everyone
in the band's a multi multi instrumentalist in their own way,
(33:19):
so that that helps to at least kind of have
the the architecture of the of the of the notes
sort of like working. But none of us are Shredders
in that way at all, and that's not what this
record is. But the way I wanted to approach it
this time was for it to feel like to us
as much like it does at a show when we're improvising,
(33:43):
like we're in we're in that space, which is much
more of the show now than it used to be,
where it's just completely spontaneous and we don't know where
we're going and we're just making music on the spot,
and that was where the record was made. So we
tried to find that same niche and I think think
I did say this in the press release, but we
were talking about playing our instruments.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Like they were guitars and like they were drum.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Kits, and and you know, Lucas, for instance, who's the
bass player in in Gizzard, He played the bass like
keys like he played the bass synth. You know, he's
still he's still in that space. And I think the
way it came together was when it worked, And it
did take us several days of like making music together
in this way before we made anything that felt like
(34:28):
we should keep it. When it worked, it was us
in those same niches that we are on stage and
that we know well, and we're kind of listening to
each other and feeling it in the same way that
we are on stage without guitars that we know how
to play and we feel comfy on.
Speaker 4 (34:46):
And there are two there are two mixes of it.
There's like a twenty eight minute version and there's a
one hour twenty eight minute version.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
Yeah, and that was that was not something that was
initially planned. Well, one thing we were thinking about when
we recording was we wanted to find those moments that
I suppose we call endless boogies, but those moments where
you feel like you're just in it and you could
kind of play the same thing over and over again
and just just be in it like it's you just
(35:16):
it's very hard to kind of like write something like that.
You just have to do it, you know, And sometimes
you have an idea or a riff or a coord
progression or something that you are so sure is going
to be an endless boogie and until you play with
everyone you realize that it's not. But anyway, we spent
the whole recording session really trying to find those moments
(35:37):
and then when we're in them, to just live in
them and be in them and like, you know, occupy
that space. And so that was sort of like I
guess that nugget of what we're trying to come back
to when we're recording, But you know, we still I
still wanted to experiment, well experiment sounds like a funny
way to put it, but experiment with like traditional song
(35:59):
song structure too. And it became pretty obvious like even
when we're recording that we should make two albums here,
like this is a we should we should still do
this kind of like quite condensed everything to the point
no meat sort of version of the album, and then
like let's let's like occupy that space and let's do
like a longer version where we just let this ride
(36:21):
and like be in it.
Speaker 4 (36:22):
It's cool because there's two that there two there very
sort of different experiences whilst being the same song, like
sort of stretched out and like the short versions sort
of just like all the hooks crammed in completely lean,
and then the other one is something that you can
sort of just completely get lost in. I think I
(36:44):
probably know the answer to this now, having spoken to you.
Tell me not that I want this to happen. I
should say, I'm going to prefix it with that. But
is there any sort of idea of how King Gizzard
comes to an end? Because one, I've got an idea
for you, but also because everything's everything feels so sort
of purposefully planned, you know, I know, like there's a
(37:07):
big element of the band that is improvisational and you're
seeing where it goes and where you are now is
I can't imagine you imagine that would ever be the
case when you started ten years ago. But because all
of like the records are so sort of thought out,
I feel like when it ends, whenever that is one
hundred years time, whenever it is like there needs to
(37:28):
be I can't imagine you being a band basically that
just sort of go oh, you know that record like that, Okay,
that's going to be the last one.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
Hard to answer the question, truly, I think in the
in I want to say the earlier years, but honestly,
like I still sort of feel I still sort of
feel like this.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
I do feel like this when I search my soul.
I feel like I've.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Spent most of my adult life doing this band, and
I've spent most of that time feeling like it's all
about to wrap up and fuck, I'm just gonna have
to go and get a real job, and like, holy shit,
isn't that like just the most unbearable thought. I don't
know what I'm going to do? Like, holy fun, what
(38:14):
am I going to do?
Speaker 2 (38:15):
This is a disaster, Like I can't. I can't do that.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
And so I think it probably has been like a
slightly motivating factor and just doing heaps of stuff while
it feels like it's working, and and so in that,
in that way, I feel very extremely grateful that I'm
able to do it, and like people turn up to
shows and.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
And like buy our stuff.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
That's just allows us to do this, you know, full time,
which is yeah, I just feel extremely grateful for I
know a lot of people would kill to have that opportunity.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
So I guess what I'm saying is that.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
I still feel like I feel like if people are
coming and if people are taking interest in.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
What we do.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
I'm pretty sure we're just going to keep doing it.
I think I'm not really one hundred percent sure about that,
but and I might not have said that a few
years ago, but it's starting to feel like something that
will just continue until something causes it to stop, you know.
(39:32):
But it's feeling like that thing probably won't be me.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
You know.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
I'm not really sure about that. But that's where I'm
at right now.
Speaker 4 (39:41):
Because my idea is, let's say you get to one hundred,
you make a hundred albums, which, let's face it might
be five years away at this rate. You then play
you do one hundred nights somewhere, and you play an
album a night for one hundred straight nights, and then
(40:01):
then that's.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
And then I jump off a twelve story building.
Speaker 4 (40:09):
Yeah, let's not think about the end right now. One
final question for you is how long do I have
to get this podcast up before the silver Cord, which
is still a week away at the point of recording,
is no longer the album you're promoting and the most
recent kin gives a record.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
I truly don't know the answer to that question.
Speaker 4 (40:30):
So I've got a bit of time I don't need
to rush.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
I think you'd be fine. I think you'll be fine. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (40:40):
Midnight Chats is a joint production between Loud and Quiet
and Atomized Studios for iHeartRadio. It's hosted by Stuart Stubbs
and Greg Cochrane, mixed and mastered by Flow Lines, and
edited by Stuart Stubbs. Find us on Instagram and TikTok
to watch clips from our recordings and much much more.
We are Midnight Chats Pod.
Speaker 4 (40:59):
For more formation, visit Loud and Quiet dot com. MHM
I spent most of my adult life doing this band,
and I've spent most of that time feeling like it's
all about to wrap up, and fuck, I'm just gonna
have to go and get a real job, and like,
holy shit, isn't that like just the most unbearable thought.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
I don't know what I'm gonna do, Like, holy fun,
what am I going to do? This is a disaster,
like I can't I can't do that.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
And so I think it probably has been like a
slightly motivating factor and just doing a heuse of stuff.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Welcome to Midnight Chats. Good evening, folks. Good to have
you with us tonight. This is the music interview podcast
for late night listening. I'm Greg and I'm here with Stu.
How are you doing, Stu?
Speaker 4 (00:43):
I'm good, Thanks mate, Yeah, I'm good. How are you?
Speaker 3 (00:46):
I'm good.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
I'm good.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
You're serving up a hot and sizzling podcast for us tonight,
as oh, you've been in the kitchen.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
Yeah, I suppose it is quite a hot and sizzling episode.
This week on the podcast is King Gizzard and the
Lizard Wizard main man, front man, main guitarist, main songwriter
Stuart McKenzie. Another Stewart is chief. Yeah, yeah, exactly, the
king of King Gizzard and a lizard wizard.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Of all of the famous major music stars that you've
now met called Stuart.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Was this your favorite Stewart. I don't like to talk
ill of the Stuarts because there aren't many of us
out there. But there's only been one other Stewart on
the podcast. Yeah, and that is Stuart Breakway from Moguay
of Moguai, myself of course, Stuart Stubbs, and now Stuart McKenzie.
Who's the best Maguy or King Gizzard Stewart. I'm gonna
(01:42):
go I can't say I oh, gop out, I'm copying out.
I mean, this is a great chat. I love King Gizzard.
They have a reputation for being one of the world's
best live bands for good reason, such an incredible band,
so I was really excited to hear Stu talk about
the band. I don't feel like he talks about the
and that often, certainly not on podcasts. So this conversation
(02:03):
went in some really interesting directions. Yeah, this is very
much one for fans of the band, I think because
we get into the music, and that is because there's
so much of it if you are unfamiliar with Kinkizard
and the Lizard Wizard. I'm saying the whole name every time,
by the way, Greg, if you're unfamiliar. They are a
psychedelic rock band from Melbourne in Australia and they have
(02:27):
released twenty five albums over the last eleven years. The
prolific nature of this group is that thing. We talk
about it a lot on this podcast. So obviously there's
a lot of music to get into. But here's what
I love about this band. It's not just that they
make so many albums, it's how considered each of those
records are. I'm going to let me throw some things
(02:50):
that you hear, Greg, because every record they do sort
of has a experiment at the middle of it. So
their album from twenty sixteen called nonagone Infinity was an
album that played on a loop paper mache dream Balloon.
They've got good titles as well. Twenty fifteen that was
made exclusively with acoustic instruments. Flying Microtonal, Banana, you're.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Making these up.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
The funny thing is you're not.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
I'm not.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
Yeah, that is a microtonal album. I'm still not really
sure what microtonal is. To be honest, they've got a
jazz album called Sketches of Brunswi Kids. There's always something,
is what I'm getting at. There's always It's not just
they're like dropping out these albums that all sound the same,
that they've all been very considered. They've got very different
things going on. And their current record, at least at
the time of recording, and there's a very good chance
(03:38):
a new King is that record will be out by
the time you're listening to This is called the Silver Chord,
and that one has been made purely with synthesizers. This
is a rock band, you know, very much a guitar
rock band, and this new record they've put down all
the guitars. There's no guitars on it, and it's their
electronic synthesizer record. And I just like that they challenged
(03:59):
them in that way. And as I say, like there
was just a lot to get into. So there's a
lot of music talk in this episode. Let us know
what you think of the episode. We are Midnight Chats
Pod on the social platforms on TikTok on Instagram. You
will be able to watch some video clips of ste
chatting to Stu as well so so do go and
check those out. Just one thing I wanted to say
(04:21):
on that Greg actually on the social just a social's
update because we are new to it here on the
show Mate, we are doing some numbers, especially on TikTok,
which I'm brand new to. I know you are as well,
but I feel it's our calling. Check this out. Thirty
six people we're following. That one doesn't really count because
we've chosen that follow us seven likes eighty two. So
(04:51):
pretty viral stuff going on over there. If you're listening,
if you're listening as a TikTok person, get involved.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Exactly, even if it's out of sympathy.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
For now though, here is Stuart McKenzie one of the
best stewarts we've ever had on the show. I mean,
do you get completely bored of the sort of thing
that people want to talk to you about is just
how many records you make and how prolific you are.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Oh no, it's like very It's always very flattering to
hear that people notice that shit, to be honest, and yeah,
I mean I'm happy to talk about it. It's like
kind of what I've spent my whole life doing, my
whole adult life doing.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Really, it's just mostly that thing.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
It's just like touring and making records and trying to
keep the rest of my life on track in the
in between moments.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
It is so unique. There's a few doing it, I
guess like John Dwyer and the OCS, who I'm guessing
you know quite well. Having really on castle face. Were
you always a fan Have you always been a fan
of artists who have that huge back castlock? Was that
something that you wanted for yourself, Like we want to
be a band that makes a lot of records. It
has this sort of catalog, this that people can just
(06:13):
live in forever.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
I think with I mean, firstly, shout out to John Dwyer,
who who definitely did support us in like such a
massive way, one of the first people outside of Australia
to get behind our music in any way. But yeah,
we didn't have too much of a sort of mission
(06:35):
statement I suppose when we started the band, I mean
we it was it was none of our first bands,
and I think we definitely wanted to do a different
thing to any of the bands that we were currently in.
King Gis was definitely an experiment right from the beginning,
(06:55):
and it was sort of like, what would happen if
we did this, you know, or what would happen if
we did this? And one of the very few things
that we did say and think about early was let's
try and make a lot of records. And I think
the place that it came from was trying to drop
(07:17):
any ego easy said than done, not be too precious
about your songwriting easier said than done, and just learn
on the go, because I had realized that, at least
for myself, until I actually had put down a recording,
and this kind of went for all the things I
(07:39):
was doing before King years.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
I couldn't stop thinking about it. You know.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
I would work on a song, and I'd be working
on it late at night in my bedroom, which was
typically how I recorded at that point, and it just
would be swirling around in my head until I put
it on the internet, or i'd burnt it to a CD,
which is what you did in the olden days, and
put it in my car, or i'd just done something
to put a bow on it. I was pretty content
(08:05):
on putting bows on things and just finishing them and
just being able to kind of move on and think
about how to write songs. And learn how to write
songs and just do it in public, I suppose.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
And it's so rare, isn't it, to like find a
group of people willing to go with that? As you say,
meant like it wasn't your first bands, and you sort
of wanted. But you guys started very young, didn't you.
Were you still in high school when you started.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Ambrose was the only one still in high school when
kids had started. He might have just been eighteen, maybe
he was seventeen still, but Joe's maybe four years older
than Ambros. So yeah, we started between let's say eighteen
and twenty two.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
You went to school in Geelong, right, I did go to.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
High school in Geelong. I went to school.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
I went to high school with Cookie, but I also
played So I played in a band with Cookie in
high school. But I also played in a band with
Lucas in high school, who also went to school in Geelong,
but at a different school.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
What were those bands?
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Like?
Speaker 1 (09:08):
The band that I played in with Cookie was called
Revolver and Son, and we were doing a I suppose,
authentic to the point of literally being teenager's garage rock thing,
like like a sixties garage rock thing to the point
of like, you know, wearing Paisley button up shirts and
(09:30):
cowboy boots and like and and playing with no distortion
on our guitars and stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Exactly. Yeah, that sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
So yeah, Cookie and I played in that band together,
and then yeah, I also played in a band with Lucas,
which was I suppose you would say more indie, but
was definitely still like a rock band, rock band format,
more indie and probably more psychedelically tinged a lot more
sort of like bigger sounds and effects and spatial kind
(10:07):
of things. And that band was called The Houses the
Calves Drama from the king Is. He joined the Houses
later and I reckon. That was my first year of UNI,
and I met Calves through Eric, who was well it
was part of the part of the band until a
few years ago. Eric and I went to UNI together
(10:30):
with Joe as well, and.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Ambrose played in a band.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
With Lucas at the same time that I played in
a band with Lucas and that was called Sambrose Automobile.
So we actually are all connected deeply to like our
very earlier, earlier years, and we were all living in
sharehouses like most of us, maybe everybody at one point
(10:58):
lived in these two sharehouses which were like on a
corner in Carlton, which is in Melbourne. So and that
was before the band started, So we were all the
bands were kind of playing shows together and going to
shows and going to parties and King Gis was a
collective of people who wanted to be in the experimental band,
(11:23):
I think, and the lineup included a lot more people
in the earlier years, probably for like a two year period.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
It was a fluid membership.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
There was there was technically wasn't members of the band,
I would say, but over the years most people decided
it was like either boring or annoying to be in
the band and bailed. So we sort of just were
naturally solidified into the kind of the group.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
We also had Amy Taylor on the podcast Yeah last year,
so we were talking we were talking about about like
the Melbourne scene. She was about how Amil and the
Stiffers started out purely to just play that friend's yard party,
Like that was it, that was like the intention?
Speaker 2 (12:07):
We were the same, like that same.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
Yeah. I'm starting to think maybe that's like a typically
like sort of Melbourne thing because where you are there
is like a culture of house parties where bands turn
up right and people play that mates house pis.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
I do feel like less kind of connected to the
visceral sort of like house party thing these days, but
I definitely can say that, Yeah, fuck fifteen years ago
or whatever, when I started doing that sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
It, yeah, it just was what it was like most
house parties we went to.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Someone played some form of like live music, and it
was really dope and normal and like fun. One thing
that I didn't realize at the time, and kind of
after traveling a lot and seeing a lot of sort
of like music cities, I realized it's maybe a little
unusual and cool about Melbourne is most of the music
(13:06):
industry is in Sydney in Australia, but Melbourne has the
majority of the venues and the shows and the bands
and the artists, like by a good stretch, and it
does definitely create a different atmosphere because no one's like
(13:26):
we didn't we weren't even thinking about We had no
idea how anything worked, Like, we weren't thinking about how
we would get to the next stage or any form
of strategy or anything.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Like.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
We were just playing shows because like it felt good
and like we enjoyed playing music together in the sort
of like wholesome, old fashioned.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Sort of way.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
It is a beautiful thing about Melbourne and it may change,
but I secretly hope it doesn't.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
In terms of these twenty five albums that you've currently made,
do you spend much time looking back at the old
ones or when they're gone? Are they gone? Because I
was also thinking, how do you sort of even remember
them on? Once you're getting into the twenties? Oh, yeah,
we made that record, isn't we?
Speaker 1 (14:10):
I think I could still very easily name them all.
I think I might struggle to rattle off track list.
Maybe maybe that's where it starts, the memory starts getting hazy.
I think maybe at ten records that were still pretty
easy to like do that.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Well.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
I'm glad you've said this too, because I had an
idea of something we could do.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Please don't make me do that.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
This is not going to be This is not going
to be a test yep, as we've already established. I
think it's incredible that you've made so many albums in
such a short period of time. But what I think
really makes it the next level is that each of
those albums has got a very different experiment within it.
It's not like you've made twenty five albums of the
same album, like, far far from it. I thought, maybe,
(14:52):
if you're up for this, I could if I could
just name a couple and you could just tell me
what you're int what your sort of instinctive memory of
that record is. Again, let's do it and tell me
the thing that the first thing that comes up, the
first thing that comes up. Essentially, I've I've just got
a few here, okay, not a gone infinity.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
This was very much inspired by playing a lot of shows.
When we really started to tour internationally was kind of
twenty fourteen, and that's really when the seeds of nonagone
were set. And yeah, we were trying to do this
thing in the shows at that point around twenty fourteen,
(15:39):
where we wanted to start and not stop. And at
this point we weren't doing like long shows like we
are now. They might have been sixty minutes felt like
a very long show in those days. But we were
trying to do this thing where we'd start and play
the whole time and every song would kind of like
blend together and mash into each other, and you know,
(16:01):
we didn't want it to be like atmospheric and ethereal.
We wanted it to just like be like freakishly intense
and like just an absolute assault of like all of
your senses.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
I saw you on that tour and it was that
really good to really good to scritch. It was amazing. Yeah,
it was that.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
It probably did take us like eighteen months of touring
to kind of figure out what was going to work
in that way, and in fact we did. We started
recording it. We made a good, good dint on it.
We actually thought we'd recorded all of it, and we
got to the end and we realized that it wasn't done,
and so we took a break and we made paper
(16:48):
Mashe a Dream Balloon, and that was like this incredible
palate cleanser because it needed to be the opposite thing
to Nonegone. It couldn't compete with any of those ideas.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
We should just say to people that maybe don't know,
not a got Infinity, the record that plays infinitely, it's
it's a loop, isn't it that records like a loop?
Speaker 2 (17:05):
That sort of it is a loop.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
Cup comes background and then the following Paper Masha Dream
Balloon is the record that you made completely using acoustic instruments.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Correct, Yeah, and so non agone has this sort of
like intense atmosphere and everything is just on Max and
sped up and there's no downtime and it's just it's
just it's just like press play.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
And then just go.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
And we were trying to do that, which which did
which did actually prove to be harder than we thought
to just insert no breathing space into you know, nine
songs in a row and make them work and make
sense back to back. So yeah, I don't know, I
could go on for I could go on forever.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
I mean it sounds like, you know this a lot,
a lot better than I certainly would. There's many albums
in Okay, here's a enough one. Yeah, let's go more
more recent Infest The Rat's Nest.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Okay, I remember it being insanely hot. Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
It was. It was kind of we did the main
tracking in the middle of summer and we're in our
old studio at this at this point, it was probably
one of the last things we did there and no
AC in there. I think we I think we actually
got AC right after this session because we were just like,
holy fuck, this is like actually dumb, like this is
like we're going to die or something.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Someone's going to get the keystroke in here.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Because it's like it's like illegally low ceiling and just
like a very very small compact box that was also
like never vacuumed or anything and just was like dusty
and just like disgusting and the middle of Australian summer.
But anyway, we had talked about making a metal record
(18:47):
for four years, and I think when we made not
Ago and actually going back to that at that time,
that actually felt like us doing a metal thing, and
in hindsight it wasn't really, but that was us leaning
into that, but still sort of playing twelve string guitars
with like you know, like I don't know, vintage fuzz
(19:08):
pedals and shit, you know, like it was a different,
different thing. And then Murder of the Universe felt a
little heavier again, and then I think after that we
sort of leant into some sort of.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
More metal leaning things.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
You know, Murder of the Universe has like vomit coffin,
which maybe feels heavier, and then on Gum Boot Soup
there's like great chain of being which sort of feels
sludgy and maybe you could actually call that metal maybe,
And I think we were trying to find this, like
this niche that kind of made sense to us.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
Shout out to Vomit Coffin by the way. I mean,
I can't let you just drop that in without a note,
without recognizing the track title alone. I mean, you know,
come on, well.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
The track title, the track to actually has a backstory
as well. The backstories of the track title is my
little brother Lucky and a few of his friends, including
my cousin Tom McKenzie, and a bunch of other people.
Actually can't remember the exact line up, but it was
just a lot of people that were around our family
(20:15):
house and wood when we were young, like early teenage years.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
I'd say.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
They had a band that would rehearse in in in
the garage, in parents' garage, and it was like a
parody metal band, and I think they were quietly taking
the piss out of me and my friends and the
bands that we were playing in. But but yeah, it
was like a parody sort of like they were taking
(20:42):
the piss out of out of out of everything, and
just that actually, we're having an amazingly beautiful, awesome time
as well.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
How much younger than you is your brother two years.
I'm the younger by two years, and this is the
sort of thing that I would do to.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
But anyway, the band was called Vomit Coffin and okay, great,
and I'll never forget that because it's just it was
just so perfect.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
It's like, this is this is amazing.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
I'm going to use that in something one day, and
so yeah, one day it made it.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
Finally, it finally made it in twenty nineteen. With that record,
did you get any sort of idea of how sort
of metal fans like took it, Because you know, like
all sort of really dedicated fan groups, they probably would
have had had a thought on this other band who
are not traditionally in a metal band suddenly making a
(21:33):
trying to make a metal record.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Honestly, I have learned to try not to dig into
that shit very much. But I definitely have noticed more
black t shirts with like metal band logos on them
the shows.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
So that's that's a sign, I think.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
I think for me, like, I've always tried to approach
every record as if it's first album, and that's the
kind of way I'd like. Obviously, no one's ever going
to think of it like that besides me, but that's
the way in my mind, I would like people to
(22:13):
perceive each record and if they don't, like it's totally fine,
but it helps me to.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Have the sort of.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
I just remember like being in a band and making
your first record and how it doesn't matter, and it's like, oh,
maybe it does for some people, but when you sort
of in your earliest band and a good crowd is
like six of your mates in backshed, like you don't
you don't really that concerned about what connoisseurs of the
genre are going to think about your album. Like I've
(22:46):
tried to tried to keep that sort of like mindset
as much as I can. Again, easier than done, but
like something that I would try to check myself on.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
I think one.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
Last one I wanted to just pick out was poly
God on Polygond wanna land? Am I saying that incorrectly.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
It doesn't matter. It's not a real word, you said,
Is it not.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
A real word? Okay, Polygond want to land? I'm going
to go with that. We released this one on a tape,
oh mad, thank you that we that we that we
put out and we just like you know, raised a
little bit of money for a charity. I think it
was a refugee charity that we did. This came out
in twenty seventy.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
This was the record that you'd made and you you
just put out, didn't you just let you? You sort
of encourage people to release it. Put it wherever you want.
If you want to put it on your record label,
put it on your record label. If you want to
do a tape to a tape, if you want to,
you know, just share it around. What what? What was
the thinking behind that?
Speaker 3 (23:42):
That?
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Yeah, that.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
To put my mind back in that place. I was
twenty seventeen. We did five records that year, which was
inside very insane. It was like very fun though, and
definitely learned a lot over that time. We had started
(24:06):
like a lot of these songs, and we'd recorded like
a decent amount of material in twenty sixteen too. I
think there's probably some stuff recorded for that year in
twenty fifteen as well, and they were all were sketched
out by at least early twenty sixteen. So it's cool,
like we didn't make five records and release all of
them within twelve months.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
We just released them in twelve months.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
But as we started to release all these records, I
did start to feel uncomfortable about asking people for money
or asking people to buy shit constantly.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
It's just not why.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
We do it, Like truly, it's really not why we
do it. And I just would never want that to
feel like the motivation. I think it would just instantly.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Crush the whole project.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
And I just felt I was feeling extremely grateful that
we were playing shows and people were coming, and I
just thought, I don't know, like I think, I think
everyone's doing enough. Like we've already we're already selling four albums,
So it made sense to make the free one Polygon
Duine Land, and it was the obvious thing to do.
(25:16):
A free one. Polygon Duine Land was the one we
chose because out of the five we're doing that year,
it was the one that felt like, I know, I
keep saying this word considered, but it's the only it's
the only word I can think of using. It's the
word I've used to describe that record since the very start.
But I think it's because it's less haphazard, and it's
(25:41):
it's much more it's much more slow brushstrokes and kind
of just thinking about the whole puzzle.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Before we started, I.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Think we thought in our heads it would actually be
more stripped back than it ended up. But I think
we realized that you can add, you can eat, you
can add more layers than you think while still hearing
each one and making sure they're still serving a function.
But anyway, we started talking about doing this, doing this
thing free, and basically everyone we work with, which wasn't
(26:12):
many people at that point and still isn't a huge
amount of people, but everyone was like, oh, can you
just do like band camp, like pay what you want
or why don't you do you know, why don't we
just press like, you know, like a thousand copies and
then maybe like make it a free download or why
don't you just do this or that? And I was like, no,
(26:32):
like it's free, Like how free can we make this?
You know what's it's like literally free, Like it's not mine,
it's not ours, it belongs to the universe, belongs to
the world. And so it was sort of like an
experiment in how truly free can you make something? And
surprisingly hard and like surprising amount of hurdles to do
(26:55):
that thing, but we tried our best, and it sort
of inspired this whole bootleg that we've been doing.
Speaker 4 (27:01):
Have you seen any copies that people put out or
put together like out and about on tour or have
you come across the record in these different ways that
people have distributed it.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
I've seen so many, Like I would have seen at
least one hundred different ones, like maybe two hundred different
versions of Polygone to my Land. Occasionally I will check
discogs and see how many it's gotten up to, but
it's like several hundred logged separate variants from different labels.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
Yeah, we need to lock outs. I don't think we've
logged outs on discog. I'm going to do that. I'm
going to do that to.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
More right, Yeah, do it and take a deep dive
of like some of the crazy shit that people have made.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
It's like it's it.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
I really can't get it, Like I really can't get
it around my head, can't get my head around it
that we actually made that record, because it doesn't it
truly just doesn't feel like ours.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
And I have all these like really.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Beautiful and strong memories of making the record, but as
soon as that was done, it just kind of feels
like something that's always existed, you know.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
So Yeah, it's like one of my favorite things we've
ever done.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
I feel very like it felt like an experiment gone right.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
Yeah, absolutely absolutely. We should talk about the Silver Cord
because you know that's that's about to come out. We've
we've skipped it. We've skipped you know, a whole bunch
of records here, but we you know, we we'd be
here all day. So I mean, once again, with this record,
you've tried something completely new, like set yourself a new challenge.
(28:43):
This is like an electronic record. You've put down the guitars.
Have you fully put is it fully? I mean I've
listened to it. I've got I've listened to both versions
of it, which I was going to ask you about
as well. But the I couldn't hear any guitars, but
I know that maybe there's some hidden in there that
sounded like simps or is it just you guys are
playing some emphasizes at electronic drum kit and that that
(29:03):
is every sound that's coming out of this record.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Yeah, that's yeah, that's that's it. There's no sort of
guitars or do we say acoustic drum kits? You know,
drum kits When people think about drum kits. There's none
of those. There's none of those in there.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
Where did this idea come from? Because you know, every
record that you've made has had this very unique sort
of heart to it of we're going to try and
we're going to make a jazz record, We're going to
make a microtonal record, and an acoustic instrument only record,
a metal record.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
I suppose like the few kind of like things that
converged into leading us here was.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
We did. We did.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
We did want to do an opposing forces two albums
kind of thing this this year, which was something that
we had talked about for a while of doing something
like that again. And with Petrodragonic and with Silver Cord,
they were like worked on at the same time, so
we did want to make sure that they didn't interfere
(30:08):
with each other. But there are actually a lot of
kind of links between them that felt important when we're
making them, and maybe like it's more kind of birth
from the same womb but become sort of two different
sort of.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Creatures in the end.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
And we were very keen to do like another metal
leaning record, so we wanted to make sure we were
doing something else that was not that. But I think
thinking about Butterfly three thousand, which when we made that record,
that was the most electronic thing that we'd done at
that time. But that was made during COVID and it
was mostly I mean it was it was almost entirely
(30:48):
made without being in the same room as another person
really at all. And so we kind of leant into
that with that record, and everything is just overdubbed and
you know, laid one thing at a time and sending
files around to each other and just kind of leaning
into that as a vibe.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
And it was for us at that.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Time, very electronic, but you know, because of the way
that it was constructed, when we got together and tried
to figure how to play these songs, it was just
like a fucking nightmare. It was just it was so so,
what's the what's the opposite of intuitive? Whatever that is
is what it was.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
It was just it was just, yeah, counterintuitive.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
Maybe not even that that doesn't quite feel feel right either,
But and I feel like I've got a fair amount
of discipline in my life in certain areas, but when
it comes to rehearsal, I'm hopeless.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Like I just I just hate it. I just can't
wait for it to be over.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
And so with Butterfly, unfortunately it felt like a bit
of a casualty, you know, like Butterfly Live. Maybe it
just felt like in order for us to just move
on and just like make the next record and just
like not spend all of our time like thinking about
this Synthipeggiator in thirteen eight, like we need to just
(32:13):
like put this to bed. So that was just that
felt that kind of hurt, you know a little bit,
and sort of maybe didn't feel like we'd done that
album justice. And I do feel like we do need
to spend some time on it and go back there.
And I think, well, I know eventually we will. I
don't know how long that's going to take, but eventually
we will play a lot more of those songs live.
(32:34):
But anyway, since then, it's just been a nagging feeling
to make something that's electronic leaning but also just made live,
like made by us in a room.
Speaker 4 (32:49):
Did you all have simp skills? Was everybody turning up like, actually,
you know, I know, I know I'm that basis, but
actually I'm actually very good on keys or were you
all figuring that out?
Speaker 1 (32:58):
We've like everyone the band plays keys at least a bit. Actually,
Lucas is probably the best piano player, and he's a bassist,
so you know, it is it's sort of Yeah, everyone
in the band's a multi multi instrumentalist in their own way,
(33:19):
so that that helps to at least kind of have
the the architecture of the of the of the notes
sort of like working. But none of us are Shredders
in that way at all, and that's not what this
record is. But the way I wanted to approach it
this time was for it to feel like to us
as much like it does at a show when we're improvising,
(33:43):
like we're in we're in that space, which is much
more of the show now than it used to be,
where it's just completely spontaneous and we don't know where
we're going and we're just making music on the spot,
and that was where the record was made. So we
tried to find that same niche and I think think
I did say this in the press release, but we
were talking about playing our instruments.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Like they were guitars and like they were drum.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Kits, and and you know, Lucas, for instance, who's the
bass player in in Gizzard, He played the bass like
keys like he played the bass synth. You know, he's
still he's still in that space. And I think the
way it came together was when it worked, And it
did take us several days of like making music together
in this way before we made anything that felt like
(34:28):
we should keep it. When it worked, it was us
in those same niches that we are on stage and
that we know well, and we're kind of listening to
each other and feeling it in the same way that
we are on stage without guitars that we know how
to play and we feel comfy on.
Speaker 4 (34:46):
And there are two there are two mixes of it.
There's like a twenty eight minute version and there's a
one hour twenty eight minute version.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
Yeah, and that was that was not something that was
initially planned. Well, one thing we were thinking about when
we recording was we wanted to find those moments that
I suppose we call endless boogies, but those moments where
you feel like you're just in it and you could
kind of play the same thing over and over again
and just just be in it like it's you just
(35:16):
it's very hard to kind of like write something like that.
You just have to do it, you know, And sometimes
you have an idea or a riff or a coord
progression or something that you are so sure is going
to be an endless boogie and until you play with
everyone you realize that it's not. But anyway, we spent
the whole recording session really trying to find those moments
(35:37):
and then when we're in them, to just live in
them and be in them and like, you know, occupy
that space. And so that was sort of like I
guess that nugget of what we're trying to come back
to when we're recording, But you know, we still I
still wanted to experiment, well experiment sounds like a funny
way to put it, but experiment with like traditional song
(35:59):
song structure too. And it became pretty obvious like even
when we're recording that we should make two albums here,
like this is a we should we should still do
this kind of like quite condensed everything to the point
no meat sort of version of the album, and then
like let's let's like occupy that space and let's do
like a longer version where we just let this ride
(36:21):
and like be in it.
Speaker 4 (36:22):
It's cool because there's two that there two there very
sort of different experiences whilst being the same song, like
sort of stretched out and like the short versions sort
of just like all the hooks crammed in completely lean,
and then the other one is something that you can
sort of just completely get lost in. I think I
(36:44):
probably know the answer to this now, having spoken to you.
Tell me not that I want this to happen. I
should say, I'm going to prefix it with that. But
is there any sort of idea of how King Gizzard
comes to an end? Because one, I've got an idea
for you, but also because everything's everything feels so sort
of purposefully planned, you know, I know, like there's a
(37:07):
big element of the band that is improvisational and you're
seeing where it goes and where you are now is
I can't imagine you imagine that would ever be the
case when you started ten years ago. But because all
of like the records are so sort of thought out,
I feel like when it ends, whenever that is one
hundred years time, whenever it is like there needs to
(37:28):
be I can't imagine you being a band basically that
just sort of go oh, you know that record like that, Okay,
that's going to be the last one.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
Hard to answer the question, truly, I think in the
in I want to say the earlier years, but honestly,
like I still sort of feel I still sort of
feel like this.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
I do feel like this when I search my soul.
I feel like I've.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Spent most of my adult life doing this band, and
I've spent most of that time feeling like it's all
about to wrap up and fuck, I'm just gonna have
to go and get a real job, and like, holy shit,
isn't that like just the most unbearable thought. I don't
know what I'm going to do? Like, holy fun, what
(38:14):
am I going to do?
Speaker 2 (38:15):
This is a disaster, Like I can't. I can't do that.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
And so I think it probably has been like a
slightly motivating factor and just doing heaps of stuff while
it feels like it's working, and and so in that,
in that way, I feel very extremely grateful that I'm
able to do it, and like people turn up to
shows and.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
And like buy our stuff.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
That's just allows us to do this, you know, full time,
which is yeah, I just feel extremely grateful for I
know a lot of people would kill to have that opportunity.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
So I guess what I'm saying is that.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
I still feel like I feel like if people are
coming and if people are taking interest in.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
What we do.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
I'm pretty sure we're just going to keep doing it.
I think I'm not really one hundred percent sure about that,
but and I might not have said that a few
years ago, but it's starting to feel like something that
will just continue until something causes it to stop, you know.
(39:32):
But it's feeling like that thing probably won't be me.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
You know.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
I'm not really sure about that. But that's where I'm
at right now.
Speaker 4 (39:41):
Because my idea is, let's say you get to one hundred,
you make a hundred albums, which, let's face it might
be five years away at this rate. You then play
you do one hundred nights somewhere, and you play an
album a night for one hundred straight nights, and then
(40:01):
then that's.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
And then I jump off a twelve story building.
Speaker 4 (40:09):
Yeah, let's not think about the end right now. One
final question for you is how long do I have
to get this podcast up before the silver Cord, which
is still a week away at the point of recording,
is no longer the album you're promoting and the most
recent kin gives a record.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
I truly don't know the answer to that question.
Speaker 4 (40:30):
So I've got a bit of time I don't need
to rush.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
I think you'd be fine. I think you'll be fine. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (40:40):
Midnight Chats is a joint production between Loud and Quiet
and Atomized Studios for iHeartRadio. It's hosted by Stuart Stubbs
and Greg Cochrane, mixed and mastered by Flow Lines, and
edited by Stuart Stubbs. Find us on Instagram and TikTok
to watch clips from our recordings and much much more.
We are Midnight Chats Pod.
Speaker 4 (40:59):
For more formation, visit Loud and Quiet dot com. MHM
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