More planned than before: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

Aussie psychedelic rock band King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard tells the story of their new album Nonagon Infinity…

Interview by Busen Dostgül Illustration: Berat Pekmezci

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard had proven their endless energy by releasing three albums in one year. They recently became the most popular band in psychedelic rock genre. So, we talked with Stu MacKenzie, one of the vocalists of the band, about previous records Paper Mache Dream Balloon and Quarters, as well as the new album Nonagon Infinity.

First…Iggy Pop played two King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard songs on his show on BBC Radio.

That was unexpected. Really cool. I don’t know what to say. It was definitely a surprise.

Did you talk with Iggy Pop before or after the show?

No. I guess, he was just doing his own thing. He listens to the records and sets it up and does his thing. It’s definitely cool.

What about your new album Nonagon Infinity? How’s your feelings about the album? What are your plans?

Yeah, we are working on another video at the moment. We’ve taken a long time to put this together. So, it’s nice getting it out into the real world definitely.

Do you have any festival plans?

Yeah, I mean I prefer venues. Sometimes things can be scammy a little bit. But I think we’ll do some festivals and stuff around August, September in Europe. I think that’s kind of a thing depends on what’s out now. We always play some shows. So, that’s all happening.

You released two albums Paper Mache Dream Balloon and Quarters. Nonagon Infinity will be your third album in one year. Did you plan this? Or is it some kind of surprise album?

We made this one while we were recording Quarters and Paper Mache Dream Balloon. This one took longer to come together and take shape. This one was maybe close to two years in the making. This is more planned than any other records we’ve made.

When did you start recording Nonagon Infinity?

I guess before the release of Quarters. I don’t know when exactly. That would have been early 2015. Basically we recorded it all year. It was a long process.

Quarters and Paper Mache Dream Balloon are calmer than other King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard albums.

Yes, definitely calmer than others. The reason was, you know we’re working on this record the entire time. We decided to do that record to give us a break from working on Nonagon Infinity. And kind of thought we should create some songs that they’re not going to clash, their ideas that are not going to be on the Nonagon Infinity. That they’re not going to interfere with this record we’re making. I think we thought that Nonagon Infinity would maybe be done. It was [completed] not long after that, but it took longer than we thought. We kept working on and working on. So we ended up kind of doing the same thing again with Paper Mache Dream Balloon. We got caught with another idea that is not going to interfere with Nonagon Infinity, like taking any ideas away from it. So, we kind of thought of an acoustic record idea.

In Quarters, all songs are 10 minutes long in the album and they work seamlessly. Are you playing them exactly the same in your concerts or do you prefer improvised sections on stage?

With “River” we probably play that about the same. That’s the one closest to the recording. We’ve played “Lonely Steel Sheet Flyer” a bunch of times, but not all the time. And the other two are the ones we rarely played. We tried “God Is in The Rhythm” a couple of times but for both we usually played shorter versions. In “Lonely Steel Sheet Flyer”, we do play that more like a jam, kind of loose, similar to the recording. But the “River” is very similar to the recording.

When we look back to the 70s; looping melodies, guitar riffs and many other details of yours were very common. You sound like you are time traveling from that era. How’s your feelings about 70s? Do you have any inspirations?

Feelings are good, obviously. I feel like I grow up listening more 60s stuff than 70’s. But over the years I discovered amazing 70’s stuff.

You also mentioned Erkin Koray from Turkey in one of your interviews.

Yes, he’s one of my favourites!

Do you know any other names from that era?

I’ve got a bunch that I listen to but Erkin is kind of the one. The electronic Turk,  cooler record I’ve listened to like 500 times probably.

Barış Manço?

Yes, that’s him.

What about Selda Bağcan?

Yes, of course!

Do you have any vinyl collection?

Yes, but I didn’t collect as much as probably almost all the other guys do. Everyone in the band collects vinyl. I probably have the least actually. I still love records.

I have another question about Turkey. I saw a photo of you wearing Turkish flag t-shirt. What’s the story?

I went to Turkey on holiday. I just kind of traveling around some places. It was amazing. That t-shirt was my souvenir. It’s not very deep. That’s the story, I’m sorry.

Where did you visit?

Istanbul, for a little while. Than we go down to the coast. I couldn’t remember the names but we went Alanya, Antalya and we went to the middle, to Cappadocia.

I really like your album covers. The most of your them are made by Jason Galea. What’s the connection between you all and him?

He was a friend of a friend. Pretty early we kind of connected with him and he has done all of our album covers, some videos and posters. Just like he’s the visual guy from the band. He’s an amazing artist. It’s so great to always kind of work with him. He’s always got the right idea about the direction. It’s good to work with someone who can interpret the music visually in a way that always makes sense.

Was the make-up on your latest video Jason’s idea too?

No, not exactly. We worked with another guy, Danny Cohen, on that video. I can’t say who or when it was, Danny’s or Jason’s. I’m not sure, either one of them, Danny or Jason.

Do you have any plans for playing with make-up at concerts?

No. Too much work, too hard.

Last year you made your own festival “Gizzfest” with a fantastic line up including you, The Babe Rainbow, The Murlocs, the Orb and more. Will there be another Gizzfest this year?

I think we all really like to have another one, maybe later in the year. Hopefully, we’ll get that. I don’t know now. We didn’t think about the names. Everything is up in the air. I hope we can do it later this year.