M83 – Interview – January 2012-01-19
By: Joe Daniels
Anthony Gonzalez, the mastermind that makes up M83, is in a good place right now. His latest album, Hurry Up We’re Dreaming built upon his already stellar rap-sheet with the critics, and won over legions of new fans in the process. As I speak to him, he doesn’t seem like the triumphalist he might’ve earned the right to be. On the eve of Hurry Up…’s victory-lap tour, he’s not aggrandizing or even acting deservedly. Instead, he’s slouched into the embrace of a swanky hotel-bar sofa, hiding demurely under his hoodie, and speaking plainly. ‘I used to hate being on tour when I started, but now I need it’. Of the upcoming jaunt, and of his recent show at Heaven, he hardly contains his elation: ‘It’s been amazing so far, and I don’t even realize what’s going on.’
Maturity is central to Anthony’s approach. ‘Even if I never dreamed of being a huge popstar, and selling loads of albums, I secretly dream that my music can be heard by everyone, and shared by everyone…’ and just when you think he’s getting hubristic, he dutifully grounds himself, ‘I know that’s not possible – I’m fine with that.’ This admission embodies Anthony’s charm perfectly – he wants the world, it seems, but he doesn’t want to take it aggressively. It’s a Zen-like approach to global conquest, and so far, it appears to be working. ‘It might sound pretentious but it’s really not: I just want to feel like I can be important for people; that’s why I’m making music.’
Onto the album itself: it’s a departure from anything he’s done before. It’s more bombastic, it’s twice the usual length, and his vocals pop up throughout. ‘I feel like my music is evolving at the same time that I am evolving as a human being. I’m more experienced, and more confident to make these leaps.’
Thematically, the album seems fixated on dreams – was this the original intention, the occasion of his artistry? ‘With this album I really wanted to enjoy myself as a musician. It’s about dreams, but it’s not only about that. It’s about my childhood, my past, my friends, and my life in general. I fell in love with music very young, and it’s hard to describe what music can do to you. It’s a way to connect to your past.‘
The cathartic experience of Saturdays = Youth, fraught with depression and anxiety, seems to have reinvigorated Antony and his approach to music. ‘I was pretty much depressed then, pretty unhappy.’ Depression then turned to inertia and something had to give: his comfy home of 29 years in the south France. ‘I needed to get away from the bubble of friends and families; it was too easy – so I moved to LA. I wanted to feel in danger, and I love it. I feel like a kid again. I’m happy, and when you’re happy you can do amazing things.’ Oh, what a change of scenery can do!
It’s not all chocolate boxes and roses though – as Anthony admits to me he is still terrified by the music industry he operates within. ‘It scares me almost, it’s like a jungle.’ The dying form of the album, the digital consumption of music on train journeys, and the proliferation of new bands – democratized and disenfranchised by a web-driven market-place – all amount to an industry that doesn’t know how to sustain itself. ‘I like to put an album on, on a vinyl or cd, on a good, proper, system, and lay on my couch and just listen. Everything is going so fast and there are so many bands out. You’re gonna be excited about one artist for 40 minutes, and then it’s time to be excited about the next one.’
Does he not feel he has earned tenure, then? ‘I don’t think I deserve it. All of a sudden my work could stop’, he says, before dispelling his own worry with some old-fashioned humility, ‘I would be sad, but at least I would’ve done something with my life.’
Artists in this article: M83