Phoenix on Making Alpha Zulu in the Louvre Palace: “Instead of Gold Records on the Wall, It Was Napoleon’s Throne”
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The post Phoenix on Making Alpha Zulu in the Louvre Palace: “Instead of Gold Records on the Wall, It Was Napoleon’s Throne” appeared first on Consequence.
If given the chance to record an album anywhere, where would you pick? Would you go the traditional route and pick some classic recording studios, like Abbey Road, Sound City, or Electric Lady? Or, would you take the unconventional route and prioritize atmosphere, helming an album with Rick Rubin “on top of a mountain” in Costa Rica like The Strokes did? Or craft your band’s opus at 10050 Cielo Drive in Los Angeles — the location of the infamous Manson murders — a la Nine Inch Nails’ The Downward Spiral?
For Phoenix‘s seventh studio album, Alpha Zulu (out this Friday, November 4th), they’ve picked one of the most extravagant and unconventional locations to record it in: Musée des Arts Décoratifs, which is part of the Louvre Palace in Paris. It’s a fitting choice for the indie pop band regardless of the final product; Phoenix have heavily explored their baroque, classically European impulses across their last six records, and after all, one of their biggest hits is named after the 19th century composer Franz Liszt.
But the sound of Alpha Zulu is classic in a different sense. Many of the tracks hearken back to their seminal 2009 effort, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, but they reflect on the past with a wistful eye and a renewed sense of energy. The melodies of Alpha Zulu leave a lasting impression — frontman Thomas Mars begins “Season 2” with “Giddy up, I’m bored,” a trace of absurdity swimming in his galloping lines.
Highlight “Tonight,” which features fellow indie icon Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend, features some of the same plucked guitar and escalating synth lines from “1901,” but the lyrics are wiser and more thoughtful. And “Winter Solstice,” though inspired by a rather dystopian image, throbs with euphoric, emotionally palpable synths.
The band may have selected a legendary location to craft Alpha Zulu, but it’s not the first time they’ve recorded outside a traditional studio. “We’ve always tried to find an unusual place, a place that’s not dedicated for music, to a ridiculous extent sometimes,” Thomas Mars tells Consequence over Zoom in early September. “We recorded on a Bateaux Mouches on the Seine River on a boat, which is a terrible idea because you get seasick,” he says. “It was terrible music!”
Luckily, the band, who is rounded out by bassist Deck d’Arcy and guitarists Laurent Brancowitz and Christian Mazzalai, have friendship at the core of their music. The pandemic marked the first extended period of time where they all didn’t hang out, and an even longer wait to resume the process of recording their seventh album together. “We’ve always seen each other every two, three weeks max, but this time, it took like 10 months to be reunited,” says Mars. “So I think that gave a lot of extra gravitas and passion and weight to this album.” That passion is extremely evident in Alpha Zulu, and the resulting collection of songs are some of their finest to date.
Below, Phoenix’s Thomas Mars discusses recording the album in the Louvre, their new live show, and getting back in the swing of touring.
Phoenix has returned with a new album after five years away. How is it all feeling getting back on the road and starting to play these old songs again, with some new ones in the mix?
Yeah, this time it’s unusual, because the album was supposed to be out already. We booked the North American tour, and we thought we’d play the album, but somehow, it got delayed. But you have to go with the chaotic. You have to embrace the chaos sometimes, because since the beginning of this album and throughout, there has been chaos for everyone because of the pandemic. But for us, there’re too many events that have happened that delayed things.
So now we’re touring, but we’re adding a few songs every week, which is fun. When you make something, it’s hard to get people’s attention for certain things that you worked so hard on, and to release everything at the same time… I guess it works if you’re like a huge artist, but otherwise, people tend to consume music in a different manner. So for us, we want to at least give a chance to each of these songs, to play them live so they all have their own moment a little bit. So by releasing them separately a little bit before and playing them live one at a time, you see people coming to the show being excited to hear the new ones. It gives us a special glow to each of them.
The album was recorded in early 2021, but take me back to pre-pandemic, right before you began recording Alpha Zulu – what were your plans for a new Phoenix album before the pandemic forced you guys apart?
Well, the timeline was a mess. We did a tour in South America. And between shows in Brazil, we had a week off. And so at some point in 2018, we rented a house to record. We thought, “Well, we will all be together and we’ll also have Robin [Coudert], our keyboard player that played with us on tour. We’ll gather a few things together and start recording.” So we did this. Then we went back to our studio in Paris, an old studio that we had to move out from, but we kept it for a few months, so we recorded a few things there.
But then we had the best opportunity we’ve ever had, the most exciting studio, which was in the Palace of the Louvre — someone said they wanted to have residency, they wanted artists to start creating in that space. Somehow, someone from our team knew this person, so we got in touch and then we had the keys to this incredible studio in the middle of the Louvre where Chris [Malazzai] and I would walk as teenagers and look at the building and say “one day, we’ll be there.”
Everything came full circle, but the pandemic hit and so the frustration was so huge. I was in the US, not being able to go to that studio that we had. In the band, we’ve always seen each other every two, three weeks max, but this time, it took 10 months to be reunited. So I think that gave a lot of extra gravitas and passion and weight to this album. When I finally showed up 10 months later all of us, the whole world, everybody went through something really hard and unusual. And then the fact that we didn’t see each other for a long time, the isolation and the feeling of being exiled was really intense. And then having so little time to get in the studio because we had to leave again, we didn’t know when pandemic would end or how long we could record.
So that meant that the two weeks we had to record was so intense that we made a lot of music — maybe 10 times more than we did before. And it created a kind of the footprint for the rest of the record. So that’s the timeline, and then we kept going back and forth until finally there were moments where it was easier to come back and record. But there was always doubt that we couldn’t, you know, or even just not getting sick was hard enough in a studio. It made it very important for us to stick together.
What was it like recording the album in the Louvre Palace, a location that has centuries of art and history on every wall? Did you feel like there was a different kind of energy as far as recording locations go?
Yeah, I think so. But it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what it is. For every album, we’ve always tried to find an unusual place, a place that’s not dedicated for music, to a ridiculous extent sometimes — we recorded on a Bateaux Mouches on the Seine River on a boat, which is a terrible idea because you get seasick… it was terrible music! I mean, I know Paul McCartney did it and in probably a better fashion and it worked for him. They have stories of putting boats together, one’s the recording studio and whatnot, but for us it was just a terrible idea.
We tried to find other places — we had an old factory in Germany at some point, we went to a few places that were unusual, just because we think it’s nice to set yourself in an environment that’s not meant for music, specifically one that doesn’t have gold records on the wall. So for this album, instead of gold records on the wall, it was Napoleon’s throne, and you know, that was the last thing I would see before entering the studio. But it puts things in perspective, it’s also like a cleansing. Every time we’d walk the long walk going to the studio during the pandemic, everything was closed. We’d walk through the museum at night and we’d see all this art that’s not curated — that was a mess.
And that was a little dystopian, but at the same time it was inspiring. It was like we were going through something strange, but we’ll pull the light and find the brightness in this. And we are in an incredible museum that we have for ourselves. And we hope it reopens again, but let’s enjoy the time we all have in this place. It’s just for us now. It felt surreal.
At your September show at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, you debuted a new song, “Winter Solstice.” What made you decide to bring that one out for the first time?
Well, that one seems to be a favorite, not just among us, but for our friends and family, the people we played it for and the other people we send the album to. That song is unique because it was done remotely. We’ve never done anything remotely. I guess that one and “Tonight,” the one with Ezra [Koenig] was done remotely as well. But “Winter Solstice” was done at the most frustrating time because the studio was ready in Paris, and I couldn’t go there. I was in California with the wildfires, and you may remember there was a day where, I guess depending on where you were in California, but there were a few days where the sky was bright orange. And then there was one day where the sun never managed to peek through.
So it was a night that lasted something like 50 hours. And I guess even humans felt a little bit like ravens that are all of a sudden flying away. You know something’s off, but you couldn’t go anywhere. So after this, my friend sent me the track and I remember recording it in a tiny room in the fetal position, missing my friends and what they were doing. So that song has a special place for us because we didn’t know we could do music remotely, without each other. But it was also a way to keep each other company, you know, to stay together, and it has this depth because it was the most dystopian time that all of humanity shared pretty much together. So we wanted to play live as soon as we could. And then New York, Radio City, the venue is amazing and will do it justice. We thought if we started it somewhere, it should be in the best-looking venue. That was it.
Speaking of “Tonight” with Ezra Koenig, it’s a fantastic single — one of the best tracks on the new album. When you had finished the song and listened to it back, what did you feel upon hearing it completed?
That’s something I don’t know, because the reality of being in the studio is… well, the only true feeling is when we listened back to the demo (which we’ll share at some point). That’s the only time we listen to something that’s a little pure and simple and serves as the example for how it’s done. We listen to every layer like 40,000 times, you know, every guitar line, every hi-hat. So the only time when we have a bit of innocence is when it’s during the demo, or when we see it through the eyes of someone else, whether it’s a friend that’s coming into the studio that we’re playing it for or fans. Then I’m seeing the reaction and I sort of understand what we did and how we put things together.
But we hear it so many times with so many layers that we can’t really tell how it’s coming across. I’m in the matrix a little bit with it. I guess it’s similar to anyone that’s creative that goes through all these layers, they see all the work and they think they look at things differently, whether it’s an editor for a movie or a painter or something. Whenever there are so many intricate layers that cover each other — because there are so many on that song — there are so many elements that we had to take out. So there’re even elements we hear in the band that are not there anymore.
Not to compare ourselves with Picasso at all, but there’s this great video of Picasso when he’s painting, and he’s being filmed in a really great way — the canvas is filmed from multiple angles, so you can see all the layers and you’re not sure when he paints. And then you realize that in the painting, there were probably 400 different paintings, but he decides when he stops the brushes, you know, when the painting is done. And us as the viewer, and for me personally, I, at some point, I’m like “it’s done. This is the one for me, that’s my favorite version.” But he decides — he’s the master, so he keeps going. And who knows, maybe he thought it was better before he finished.
For us, it’s the same idea. We are building layouts and when we finish something, we’re exhausted. So it’s really the four of us and being exhausted that decides when something is done and something is in its true form, so it’s a long way, to answer your question, but yeah, I don’t know how we hear it really for the first time, but we’ll show the demo at some point.
Having seen the shows for Ti Amo five years ago, I was really impressed by the new visuals on this tour. There were some dazzling lighting setups, interesting films, and a lot of psychedelic imagery. What was some of the inspiration that went into the new visuals for this tour?
I think whenever we find a visual, we find something that has a bit of tradition. For instance, Ti Amo, when we had the mirror, that was a French Cancan reference from the 1910-20s. But for this one, I went a lot to the opera and the New York City Ballet, and they have amazing curtains, amazing traditions, and amazing setups — the way they work with perspectives and the frames inside the frames. At some point we realized that if this could work in a digital manner, we could really have sets for every song. We could create the set we wanted for every song, while also having these moments that work well with the stillness, these moments that are animated and that are in your depth or movement. That was the starting point.
And then there’re other things, like on tour when we went to Sydney, I went to see in a museum “The Power of 10,” which is that video that plays during “Love Like a Sunset.” It’s a video from the ’70s that’s pulling back from Earth and going backwards. Somehow, we got the permission to use it because I think the kids or the grandkids of the couple that created it liked our band! But this is a video that I discovered, I guess it’s really known to a lot of people especially in the US, but for French people, it’s not that well known. It’s such a simple, perfect way to present the beauty of the universe and to have the display, to have the numbers on the different layers.
Also, we played this in Chicago, it starts it zooms out from Chicago, and the crowds freaked out! I heard it because I’m offstage at this point, I heard the crowd go crazy and I was like “what’s going on?” I think some of the people in the crowd probably thought that we’re pulling out a camera every day from every city. But yeah all these visuals are super fun for us to do, because we think of each song as having its own little world and to create each world is so exciting. The acoustic with the harpsichord is something I always wanted to do, because Deck [d’Arcy]… we have an epinette, which is an old French ancestor of the harpsichord in our studio. And Deck always plays it and it’s always playful and it’s always fun. So we thought we needed it for this tour, because now we have the visuals to match.
The film during “Love Like a Sunset” was incredible. It was fascinating to see the camera continuing to move backwards, but I was even more surprised to see it zooming in on our skin!
Yeah, that’s the beauty of science. We were all amazed with the film because it shows first how expansive the universe is, the beauty of the universe is grand and everything, and then in the 1920’s or whenever people figured out quantum physics and things, we learned that the small is as beautiful as the big. The film has such a human quality, and it shows that the couple that made it were really full of empathy. It’s not just the beauty of the brain and science, but it goes deeper into who we are.
What’s it like being back on the road in the US? Are there any venues you feel really attached to or excited by here?
Radio City was the big one for me, because I’ve lived in New York for 15 years now and I’ve seen a few things there, and that venue is special. Then there’re places I’ve never been to, like Indianapolis, where we’ve never played there. We played once before in Nashville at The Grand Ole Opry, I think the first time we knew it was special, but we didn’t know how special. Now we’ve done a little more research and I think this time we’ll appreciate it even more.
That’s one I’m looking forward to a lot, but every year, the novelty and the tradition never gets old. The US is a real great place to tour because it’s made for a tour bus almost. And for this tour, we picked all our favorite places, pretty much. Chicago was really great. We played Minneapolis, I’m a huge Prince fan so whenever we go there, we didn’t play First Avenue, but it’s the same people from First Avenue that take care of all these venues, so there’s a great tradition of seeing them each time. There’s so many great places to play in the US.
Do you feel like you’ve gotten your bearings back after not touring for about four or five years?
I think so. But there’s so much, it’s not just a show in the beginning of the tour. We’re playing Colbert in two days. So there’s all these other things that you have to do, but it’s a good problem to have. Soundcheck is the most intense experience, we play like 20 songs in the set and you only have time for like three in soundcheck. I’ve tried to see Porches’ set when they open for us and I want to see it every night but I can’t, I don’t have the time to see everything, so now the frustration’s building! [Laughs]
What can we expect from Phoenix in 2023?
I don’t know! With this album cycle, everything has been done in such a chaotic fashion that I just don’t know. I think we have to do a lot of last minute plans and things, because there’s not that much planned next year, we have barely anything planned. So it really depends on the record, where it finds people. I have to say, I’m glad that people have been loving the record because the planets are not really aligned for a band to tour in 2023, you know, being a band first is a hard thing. Touring is hard because of everything you can imagine, so I don’t know.
But we are all really embracing the fact that everyone loves the record so much, and right now when we play a show, we’re not thinking like “we’re gonna play 60 shows,” there’s really a countdown that we have so little time to play, so few times to play each song. That’s also why we played “Winter Solstice” at Radio City, if only because we can’t be playing that song just 10 times live. It has to be a few times more.
Alpha Zulu Artwork:
Phoenix on Making Alpha Zulu in the Louvre Palace: “Instead of Gold Records on the Wall, It Was Napoleon’s Throne”
Paolo Ragusa
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