Parisian pop-rockers Phoenix dropped by Fuse HQ to chat about their upcoming album, Bankrupt!, and the intimate bond that helped them record the follow-up to their Grammy-winning 2009 release, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix.
"There's a special chemistry between us," singer Thomas Mars tells Fuse in his thick French accent. "We grew up with this idea that a band is better with four brains than four egos."
Phoenix, who have five albums under their belt, also dished on their breakout success, which finally arrived after nearly a decade in music: "We were waiting for the world to align," jokes guitarist Laurent Brancowitz, "and eventually it happened."
Adds Mars, "When we started the last record, we didn't have management and we didn't have a record company. We'd play [Wolfgang single] "1901" for French music executives and they're be like, [shakes head] 'No.'"
The band kept it familiar in the studio for Bankrupt!: "We followed the same strategy," says Brancowitz. "We want to destroy all the rules."