If you couldn't make Lollapalooza this weekend, your consolation prize arrives Monday when Grammy award-winning indie pop band Phoenix will play to a sold out Pageant crowd.
The French quartet continues its global victory lap after last year's LP, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, captured the imagination sunny guitar pop fans worldwide.
Before creating Phoenix, the 30-somethings played with Air and Daft Punk, fellow Versailles bands that quickly achieved international fame. Shunning the electronics-heavy sound of their French compatriots, Phoenix has released four solid rock albums -- all in a country that doesn't really like rock and roll.
Though it took a decade to break through, Guitarist Laurent 'Branco' Brancowitz said he wouldn't trade the bonding experience the band has enjoyed. Despite singer Thomas Mars' relocation to New York to live with his girlfriend Sofia Coppola (who is expecting their second child in May), the bandmates remain extremely close.
I reached Brancowitz by phone in Paris. He lives in the same cafe-laden Saint Germain neighborhood where Picasso, Sartre and Hemingway once roamed.
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RC: What kind of music did you grow up listening to?
LB: When we were kids, we listened to a lot of English 60s pop and the Beach Boys. When we were teens, we discovered the Velvet Underground, which was a big shock for us. We were raised in a very boring city, so music was very crucial to escape the boredom. Classical music was everywhere, buy when you're a kid you want to escape what's oppressing you. We didn't appreciate the beauty of Bach and Beethoven until we were in our mid-20s.
RC: Other than Serge Gainsbourg, can you recommend any forgotten French pop?
LB: There is a long tradition of very bad French rock. Gainsbourg was the unique exception in French music. There have been brief moments of beauty with other French artists. But in terms of a complete career, I would say he's the only one.
RC: Describe your relationship with Air, Daft Punk and other Versailles bands when you were coming up?
LB: The first people I played with were the guys from Daft Punk. We were all friends. The guys from Air grew up in the exact neighborhood as us, though we didn't meet them until we had all escaped to Paris. We had common friends, though, and strangely similar record collections.
RC: Why did Phoenix stick to more straight ahead rock styles?
LB: I remember a moment when the Daft Punk guys really started to get into the rave scene and I really wasn't into it. We just had different tastes, I kind of disliked electronica. Now I can proudly say to them, "I was right!"
RC: Now now, they own a Grammy also.
LB: We know their band is good. We're close friends, thats why I can give them a hard time.
RC: Why do you think this album greatly widened your audience as opposed to earlier work?
LB: We didn't really change anything - we couldn't if we tried. It's probably linked to the modern world and the fact that people listen to the music they want to and are not slaves to the choices of other people.
RC: Will Saturday at Lollapalooza be your first time headlining a major festival?
LB: I actually didn't realize we were headlining until you asked me, so now I'm feeling the pressure. Thanks a lot.
RC: OK, strike that question.
LB: No no, the damage is done.
Phoenix with with Toro Y Moi
8 pm Monday, Pageant
Click here for our full event listing.
