C=T: More of a burning one-where does the band name Phoenix come from?

Phoenix: We lied so much about this we forgot the truth…

C=T: Phoenix’s introduction to me and perhaps a lot of people came from ‘Too Young’ being included on the Sountrack to ‘Lost in Translation’. Please describe your inspiration for that track.

Phoenix: It is inspired by early prince records. It started with a synth and a drum machine that was soon replaced with real drums.
you can really feel that the drums are played by the singer – same for Prince – vocals and drums leave space for each other to exist.

C=T: On your new album, ‘Love Like Sunset’ has minimal lyrics and plays mainly like an instrumental song. The beat is fantastic, but what was your decision in keeping this track with minimal lyrics?

Phoenix: The main inspiration for the lyrics is the love poem from Richard Brautigan. we wanted something very symmetrical, lyrics that look so good printed you can offer them to your grandma. We were listening to Steve Reich driving on our way to Versailles and going through tunnels. It was such a cool moment we wanted to recreate something similar and add a voice but very late in the track.

C=T: ‘Lisztomania’ is a perfectly crafted pop song. Please define ‘Lisztomania’.

Phoenix: Lisztomania is the first song we finished for Wolfgnag Amadeus Phoenix. It was the first one good enough. It was inspired by the movie American Gigolo, Franz liszt biography, the great Gatsby and the idea that we would play it at Musikladen (an old german TV show that is on french TV all the time these days)

C=T: Biggest French musician to influence the world.

Phoenix: Gainsbourg, Daft Punk, Air…

C=T: How did you guys get to play three songs on SNL? To my recollection, not many acts get to do that.

Phoenix: I guess they liked us… They told us an hour before that they wanted more and we were so stressed out we told them we needed a very rare keyboard to play these songs thinking they would never get it. 15 minutes later is was plugged in on stage.

Tour Dates
06/12 – Manchester, TN @ Bonnaroo
06/13 – Chicago, IL @ Park West
06/15 – Toronto, ON @ Phoenix Concert Theater
06/16 – Montreal, Canada @ Les Saints
06/17 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club
06/19 – NYC, NY @ Terminal 5
06/21 – Washington, D.C. @ Rock and Roll Hotel
06/23 – Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity
06/25 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird
06/27 – San Francisco, CA @ Regency Center, Grand Ballroom
06/28 – Los Angeles, CA @ Wiltern

Phoenix-Lisztomania (Classixx Version ) [mp3]