Anthony Gonzales interview

Current release: Saturday = Youth
Website: www.iloveM83.com

Eurogroove

Anthony Gonzales (aka front man of M83) is not your run-of-the-mill musician. Antibes, a coastal community on the Mediterranean bore a man who’d much rather watch movies than make music, even though it appears the latter is where his creative wand is pointed.

“I will say that movies would be way more important for me than music so yeah it’s a big thing for me, I couldn’t make my albums without watching movies,” he said.

Anyone familiar with M83’s catalogue of sounds would realise that movies and music definitely go hand in hand. An eerie and often startling excerpt from a gothic genre film can often been identified as an opening sequence to what then turns to an ethereal cataclysm of romantic sound.

Certainly this is the case with album from 2006 Before the Dawn Heals Us, catalyst to climax for many of the tracks but in Oz this month to tour his latest offering Saturday = Youth a more playful penchant for the decade of the eighties and synthesisers has prompted Gonzales to reveal his love of a certain film-maker – proving a great complement to his musical main-course.

“The thing I like about John Hughes (director of films The Breakfast Club; Pretty and Pink; Sixteen Candles) he always chooses perfect tunes to fit with his pictures and I love that.

It gives to the people watching the picture the perfect music, I think it sounds always amazing and it looks always cool as well.”

The diversion away from his eerie albums and diving into a more playful album style as is reflected in Saturday = Youth was a little scary admits Gonzales because it was unknown whether the fans would follow him in his whimsical desire.

“I think that this album is really positive and welcomed from the people and I’m really really glad.

It’s good to hear that people when you try to change things into your music they are still following you and supporting you and that’s what I like about this album - I really tried to do something different and people seem to like that.”

There is no denying that replicating elements of an era past is certainly aided by the assistance of cult films like those from John Hughes but it’s not just the movies themselves that Anthony crushes on. Vocal styling for current album Saturday = Youth is helped along by a young Kate Bush-esque talent Morgan Kibby who adds her own signature vocals to the dreamy sound bites conjured up by Gonzales.

“I wanted to work with a singer who had a native style to their voice. When I heard Morgan I really thought that she was perfect this album and for my music and that’s what I like about her, she can do a lot of sounds with her voice, she has a very eclectic voice,” he says.

Catching both the live show at a recent V Festival and the more intimate show for die-hard fans, I realise the precision in production which Anthony and his band apply to their emanating sound. Already work is underway on a new musical feast for fans, although Gonzales is not giving too much away, preferring instead to focus on what’s happening in the here and now.
M83 - Kim and Jessie video Directed by Eva Husson Taken from the album Saturdays = Youth

“Well I’m starting already to work on my next album, touring a lot, I don’t really have the time to really work on my new album, and I’m just starting to think about it, my head is still focused on this album.”

For the Antibian-born Frenchman, perhaps if he finds time there will be without a doubt more movies to watch but visiting our beaches is a must.

“I’m watching everything you know, I can watch the weirdest movie ever and I can also watch comedy and this is making me listen to different styles of music.

“I don’t think we’ll have a lot of time to rest but if we have time I’d like to see the beach,” he continues.

M83’s Saturday= Youth is available through www.iloveM83.com

Ruth Bailey

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