“I’ve been doing some recording with Ambrose [Kenny-Smith, harmonica/vocals] today. We’re working on some new Gizzard stuff, just recording some little bits and pieces.” Early this year King Gizzard detoured from the garage frenzy of 12 Bar Bruise into spaghetti western storytelling mode for Eyes Like The Sky. This record’s outlaw twang was then exchanged for spacious psychedelics on recent release Float Along – Fill Your Lungs. Mackenzie ponders the source of the band’s rapid productivity.
“I think it’s [a result of] either doing a lot of recording at home or if we do go to a studio, it’s a studio that’s around the corner,” he says. “I won’t be interested in doing something that’s going to take too long. There’s no-one within the band who’s really, deeply perfectionist or has that trait to them where they want to make everything perfect, so everything’s half-cooked anyway.”
Despite this simplifying summation, each record has been equipped with such charging confidence that you’d believe it was the realisation of a committed sound development. However, Mackenzie indicates that (with the exception of Eyes Like The Sky) their albums haven’t been constructed according to strict stylistic co-ordinates.
“With 12 Bar and with Float Along, I don’t think it was super intentional. I think we had a few rough ideas and things we were finding inspiring at the time. I think it [gets] to a point where you have 15 songs or 20 songs and you’re only aiming for 12 and you can say, ‘Alright, let’s go with this theme, because these ones have a stronger vibe together.’”
King Gizzard’s songs widely embrace music from the past, be it the gale-force Jay Reatard garage stylings of 12 Bar Bruise or Float Along’s Big Brother and the Holding Company bluesy seduction. Mackenzie indicates that rather than seeking to bookishly represent these genres, the experimental resources of the studio often lead songs into novel territory.
“I get more enjoyment out of the song construction process than really any other facet of music, personally. I like having a little idea and then seeing what can come out of it. You have some small idea and then you add bits and pieces and it changes and evolves and you record it and you process it and you do all sorts of funny and weird things with bits of equipment or whatever and then all of a sudden it’s this piece and it’s gone on a journey.”
Although chance greatly influences the way any song takes shape, Mackenzie realises that production details are crucial for such bold genre extensions to be authentically executed. “Production style [is] definitely something important. I think people probably don’t realise how big of an influence the production style of a song has on the way you emotionally react to the music,” he says.
King Gizzard’s albums may have come together without a master plan, but all three releases register as cohesive identity statements. Mackenzie indicates that there’s usually a dominating impulse – however transitory – tying everything together.
“12 Bar Bruise was meant to be pretty abrasive and pretty smashed and loud. It was songs that we wrote playing gigs together and that definitely comes across. They’re songs that work live really well and they’re pretty much all guitar-based. With Float Along it was more like, ‘Let’s have fun with instrumentation and slow things down a little bit, give things a bit more breathing space’.”
Speaking of breathing space, working together as a seven-piece certainly sounds like a recipe for creative congestion. Early on, the band was noted to be Mackenzie’s brainchild, yet he clarifies that he’s not a heavy-handed dictator.
“I think it’s always been a collaborative venture. Everyone in the band’s a very creative-minded person. Everyone’s got a lot of ideas and everyone’s contributing to different bits and pieces in their own way and songs are springing about in different combinations of people.”
Productively combining the voices of seven ambitious young men is no mean feat. However, the band’s united gang-mentality helps prevent individual egos getting too bloated. “I think we’re all pretty close buddies. Everybody keeps everybody in check a lot. I think if someone was acting with a big ego they’d probably feel pretty out of place amongst the band,” says Mackenzie.
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard will conclude their massive 2013 with a bang at the Ding Dong Lounge, but there’ll be no time for prolonged hangovers. 2014 is set to be another big year for the band, who were just announced on the lineup for the Black Angels-curated Austin Psych Fest (taking place in Austin, Texas in May). This will actually be the band’s first trip beyond Australian shores and, unsurprisingly, Mackenzie suggests they’ll include a recording stint in their touring schedule.
“I think the plan is something along the lines of a heap of touring and I want to record a record over there too. So some combination of touring and recording and touring and come home.”
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
