MGMT

A few new New York college bands have made a splash on this side of the Atlantic recently, but MGMT kick Vampire Weekend in the face when it comes to sheer indie-pop fun. Dressing like psychedelic tribesmen and with names to match, Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden have come over here, taken our women, and left us with unclassifiable (indie-rave-acid-porn music?), unforgettable hits like, ‘Time to Pretend’ and ‘Electric Feel’. Seriously, buy their album and orgies with beautiful women are not be far behind. On the verge of a lap-of-honour European tour, Maxim spoke to Ben from the band to find out if fame has driven them mental yet.

Hi Ben, you’ve had a cracking year, how have you found sudden international stardom?

It’s been pretty crazy, we weren’t expecting this at all. I think a lot of the non-musical things we weren’t prepared for, like the attention we’ve been getting for our style, or getting recognised on the street.

You seem to have been credited with bringing back the headband...

Yeah it’s pretty funny when we’re hanging out before our shows and we see people wearing headbands, and its like, ‘Oh yeah I guess they’re going to see us play!’

So that wasn’t the aim of the group?

To make people wear headbands? No. I guess it’s a subliminal thing, a way to seep into the pubic consciousness...

You and Andrew met at trendy Wesleyan University, but where you cool kids or academic kids?

We were both more academic at high school then at college we met a lot of people who were musicians, and we playing music definitely became our focus. We were both music majors so we took classes in world music, and experimental music, and tried a lot of different styles.

So what were your early music experiments together like?

The first music we made was pretty bad. The first show we ever did, we just played the Ghostbusters theme tune for about half an hour.

Amazing, how did it go down?

Most people didn’t really like it.

When did you start taking the band seriously?

Not till very recently! We started writing songs that we liked and having a good time but we didn’t really think anything was going to come out of it. Then we got a call from Columbia records [who had heard their early recordings], saying that they were interested in signing us, and we were pretty shocked.

So did you then get all professional?

In a way yeah, having a deadline put on us, and knowing there potential for things to go somewhere with the band, that made us take things a bit more seriously.

Was is difficult to get right?

Yeah it was frustrating, we were coming off a six month break and it took us a while to find our style. We had to reinvent ourselves.

And how would you describe what you came up with?

Erm, I think I’d call it ‘shit candy’.

That’s beautiful. So what about your style. You’re dressed as acid tribesmen on your album cover...

It wasn’t like we were dressing like that other than the album cover or the Time to Pretend video. We dress up a little for our shows but nothing that extreme. I don’t think we have one style we’re attached to.

But people seem to assumed you’re hippies...

Yeah it’s kind of funny that the people have attached to the hippy thing here. We might be punks on our next album, we don’t know.

Are you enjoying touring? Keeping sane?

No.

Are you speaking to me naked now, covered in your own excrement?

Er, no. I think we’re staying sane but we do find it difficult to keep our feet on the ground. Every time I go home I get some perspective and realise that this isn’t real life.

Have you enjoyed your UK shows?

Yeah definitely, I like the enthusiasm of the crowds in the UK. People are a lot more outgoing at shows than over here. They let go a lot more over there.

It’s interesting you say that because the stereotype is of us being quite stiff people.

Yeah I know. But in general the shows we’ve done in the UK have been a lot crazier.

Do you have a pre-gig ritual?

We were just joking about that actually, because usually our ritual is to sit around and listen to really depressing music. Then it’s time to go on stage and we just shuffle on. We were like, ‘Wait a minute, we need to listen to rock n roll and get pumped up!’ So we’re working on that now, trying to get up and move around a bit.

What are the best circumstances in which to listen to MGMT?

I would say, not under the influence of psychedelic drugs...but people have told me they’ve tried that, and it sounded great!

MGMT’s album, ‘Oracular Spectacular’ is out now