MGMT

0:06Hey, we are MGMT and you're watching MSN exclusive You never write with visuals in mind I mean the optimizer with this record and I assume that's what's going on on stage behind you guys is it? Well, it's the same Yes, I'm tight, but the stuff behind us is being done live while we play. Oh, okay So it's kind of performing along with us. That's cool. Do you write with those kind of visuals in mind? Not those kind but we do we do kind of we're ready with the optimizer that comes to the record

0:51We we write a lot of times we'll write songs and have ideas for videos or kind of like visual Cues that we that we tag on to different parts of the songs But yeah, I mean I think it's kind of for us important to come up with a good visual side of the of a new song if we want to present it to people how did the optimizer come along? We wanted to show off Alejandro who does our vision live visuals We wanted to show off his work and kind of demonstrate to people what they would get if they came to see us play to show and and also We were kind of concerned that the way that a lot of people experience new music for the first time right now is you know, maybe not ideal like kind of uncrappy laptop speakers and

1:37distracted by you know browsing the internet or something like that and so we thought that to create this whole environment to go into and experience the album in its entirety would be really cool You guys play with what like six people on stage? Yeah, it's just the two of you in a room together right in the songs You guys go off separately and then come and mold stuff together. How does that work? We do we do both Yeah, and this last record was just the two of us and we worked pretty closely with Dave Friedman who was the co-producer We've worked with them before So yeah, it was it was a lot of different kind of approaches and methods of writing But one of the biggest ones for the new record was just Doing improvisation what do you mean? We would set up we would kind of surround ourselves with keyboards and and drum machines and guitars and drums and everything just kind of like fantasy

2:25dream jam zone and then Try to just create musical worlds and what's one of the songs that came from one of those a good sadness is probably the best Okay example of that. Yeah, oh the alarm bill at the end it freaked out my dog. There's an alarm going off I'm going nuts this morning. What the hell's going on? Which what in a good sentence? Oh the thing like a that pulse sound that oh that nothing Yeah time to pretend we just heard was played over the speakers I thought you guys were sound checking you weren't turns out, but you said it makes you sad when you play it live I did. Yeah, I've said it like this. Okay. I mean it times it makes me sad not like Sad to be playing it, but just you know more of a nostalgic kind of thing because it's one of the first songs we wrote and kind of uh, you know it just takes me back to

3:11To college and thinking about When we first signed to record label and stuff like that do you have any songs like that that hit you emotionally when you're playing on stage? I think that one really does for me just I mean there's a lot in the song about being homesick and That's that's a really you know very real experience for us when we're on the road sometimes But uh Yeah, I mean we you know we love Playing the song live and you know it's not like a negative experience for me But it's also kind of it's yeah, it isn't a stowjig Where do those massive hits sit in a set? But now that you have these three records and I mean I guess it's the end of the road So you probably figured out a good place to put all these new songs. Yeah, how does everything? How do you figure that out? We've been touring since For this year we've been touring pretty solidly since May um, so

3:59By now we've gotten to a point where uh we kind of have a set that works pretty well It does change every night, but the basic structure of it is uh pretty um, you know standardize or something and we take play time to pretend earlier We kind of play the a lot of times we'll play the first Songs of the album of all three albums early and but not you know not all time But I don't know we've we've found a way to kind of weave in um the hit songs and and also Siberian breaks and um Kind of like have little inner ludes and it kind of flows pretty well at this point What talking about flow and crafting a record like this does alien days when you when you start a record of the songs a reason a record starts With the song I would think does a show need to start with the same song too?

4:45Um, we actually end the show with alien days a lot too. Um, I think when we were Writing for the album we always kind of had that song pegged as the first song and An orphan of fortune always seemed like a good closing song to us. Um, I think We we kind of share a certain intuition when it comes to that stuff like we We don't really know why we feel that way, but um, yeah, the turning 30 changed something in each of you I mean, I don't I don't think um, there's like an overnight change or anything, but but Yeah, I think we've we've grown and and learned a lot in the past few years since our second album and um, I think that's kind of reflected in some of the themes and kind of emotions on the new album very vague question, which are what

5:33The themes are pretty large spectrum of of emotions generally speaking. I think it's a little bit less kind of uh, now in colic or or like kind of paranoid or closed off than the second record and maybe a little bit more like experienced and less kind of naive than the first or something does the close off where does that come from the closed off and paranoid? Why how did you escape that? um a big part of it was Taking some time off from playing music and touring and kind of getting involved in other projects or you know, just Not feeling so much pressure did it become too too much like did it get too big too fast or something? I don't yeah, I don't really know what the you know what standards there are should be for that kind of thing but like but uh

6:22Yeah, I mean it felt like a lot to take in for us because it was all very new and and uh, yeah, it happened really quickly. So I think the second album uh a lot of it was about what we'd experienced um touring and and kind of trying to kind of terms with what it meant to be someone who dedicates their life to playing music um and you know, I think we We raised a lot of questions. We answered some of them, uh, not most of them but I think this album we I think we kind of took a step back and and figured out how to not overanalyze things and and just kind of Get deeply involved with the process without second guessing ourselves too much. Um, and we had a lot more fun more fun

7:13Yeah, what led to that maybe because we're 30 now, but we feel thanks for I appreciate we feel a little more confident in the studio and um and just uh, not like we have to prove something which I think early on you know getting signed to a major label and you know, we we felt you know some insecurities and felt like we had to kind of like get it all out and say everything that we had to say in that moment and and this time I think it just feels like you know, we just wanted to go and make a record that reflected wherever you are right now and and You know have a good time doing it. We do some cool five questions five quick questions one more to answer is you can both answer Road or studio studio studio, Leonard McCartney

7:58Lyndon McCartney when you hear something what usually hits you first lyrics melody or rhythm Melody Uh, can I say sound you can say sound or production cool if someone's never heard mgmt before what song do they start with? I'm pretend I mentioned it like three times. Sorry Sure. Yeah, you go down to in one word mgmt. I mean that's Probably said pizza. I just had a slice of pizza. Okay, nice Um, that's not the most random one I've heard before surprise me. Uh, this

8:49It's very intelligent