‘S
ince I was a teenager I’ve always
expected change from the artists
I love,” says M83 leader Anthony
Gonzalez from his adopted home
in Los Angeles. “I want them to take me on a
dif erent journey. This is the kind of career I’m
trying to achieve. It’s not easy. But the idea re-
ally was to come up with something I didn’t
make before.”
Change isn’t an uncommon theme for artists
to grapple with. But Gonzalez isn’t kidding. His
playful new album, Junk, is a wild U-turn from
the serious, noir-space anthems that litter the
M83 catalogue. Named after the escalating rate
that art is consumed and discarded in the dig-
ital age, Junk’s genre-surfi ng dynamic is going
to divide long-time fans. But Gonzalez doesn’t
mind. This one’s personal. “There’s always con-
cepts on my albums,” he says. “On this one I just
wanted to have fun.”
He’searnedtheright.Afterade-
cadeoftinkeringwiththematic
synth-popacrossfivealbums,Gon-
zalezhitthebigtimein2011with
“Midnight City”, the lead single from
ambitious double-albumHurry Up,
We’re Dreaming,madeafterrelo-
cating from France to Los Angeles
in2009.Thatsong,withitsdistinctivesiren-
callhook,wasaglobalsmash,goingTop10in
theU.S.,sparkingaheavymulti-yeartouring
schedule, and even bringing Hollywood knock-
ing–Gonzalezspentmuchof2012makingthe
soundtracktoTomCruise’ssci-fiepicOblivion.
Initially the idea of consolidating that suc-
cesswasoverwhelming.“Thelastalbumwas
obviouslymymostsuccessfulwithabigsingle
that worked really well,” says Gonzalez. “I could
havegonethesameway,tryingtorecreatethe
same sound and tunes. I composedJunkfor a
year by myself and you start to ask yourself a
lotofquestions.Youloseconfidence.Ithinkfor
thelastyearofworkinginthestudioIwaskind
of depressed.”
ButGonzalezdiscoveredsuccessbringsfree-
dom. Missing his friends and family back in
France, the songwriter started to think about
music“asaEuropean”,movingawayfromthe
widescreen stargazing of previous albums andback to the random childhood memories at-
tached to a literally much smaller screen – TV.
Junk sounds like surfi ng channels in the Eight-
ies, gleefully jumping from goofy French funk
(“Bibi the Dog”), smooth Seventies Californian
rock (“Moon Crystal”) and saccharine balladry
(“For the Kids”) at will. M83 has always evoked
nostalgia, but for the fi rst time it’s presenting
Gonzalez’s own.
“I’ve been very inf luenced by Los Angeles
and the sound of Eighties TV,” says Gonzalez of
Junk’s scope. “But there’s also a lot of French in-
fl uences, which wasn’t the case on previous al-
bums.” The chintzy piano and Seinfeld-esque
slap bass of lead single “Do It, Try It” was in-
spired by Michel Berger, a cheesy French pop
artist who dominated the Seventies and Eight-
ies. “Bibi the Dog” draws its vibe from Serge
Gainsbourg, and the sentimental “Sunday
Night 1987” is a tribute to the mem-
ory of Sunday night sleepovers at his
grandparents.
“My vision of music really changed
over the last five or six years,” says
Gonzalez. “I used to dislike French
music from the Seventies and Eight-
ies – when you’re a teen and your par-
ents are listening to it, you don’t want
to hear about it. But I think the opposite now.
It’s something I’ll never be able to live again,
but it’s also what made me as a human being.
I almost want to go back and embrace these
moments.”
After wrestling with the spotlight that comes
with being the frontman of a wildly success-
ful band, Gonzalez gathered a diverse range of
guests to help shoulder the load on Junk, in-
cluding Beck, guitar virtuoso Steve Vai, French
singer Mai Lan, and long-time producer Jus-
tin Meldal-Johnsen. The motley line-up suits
the album’s eclecticism. “I really tried to be cre-
ativeinadif erent way and I think this is when
you start to realise you’re on the right path,” says
Gonzalez. “When you keep challenging yourself.
Even if you don’t really know what you’re doing.
I feel so lucky that I had the success on the last
album. I worked on instinct and it paid of. So
then I can tell myself, well you’ve been lucky
once so just do whatever you feel like doing.”M83 MOVES
FORWARD BY
LOOKING BACK
BY MARCUS TEAGUEAnthony Gonzalez’s seventh album
nods fondly at his formative yearsCLOSE-UP
“My vision of
music really
changed over
the last fi ve or
six years,” says
Gonzalez.60 | Rolling Stone | RollingStoneAus.com