AS TOLD TO
CHRISTIAN KOCH
The lead singer of French band Phoenix talks frequent flying,
seasickness and plotting global domination with old pals Daft Punk…
Thomas Mars
Even though Phoenix is based in Paris,
I live in New York. Being spread across
two continents works well: when we’re
in the studio, we’re more time-wired and
focused because our time is so limited.
I fly more frequently
than most pilots,
which scares me. They take roughly
three long-haul return round trips a
month. I do more than that! I always
freak out whenever pilots tell me that.
When touring, you need
to make every
day special. You could be in Boston
or Marseilles, but you can experience
exactly the same day. To combat this,
we always bring our folding bicycles. It
means we discover the city in a new way.
When returning from tour,
I become a
hermit. You disconnect from everything.
It’s not great for communication. You
just want the opposite to a life of eating
schnitzels in Vienna one day and waking
up to eat pasta in Milan the next.
The best cities
to perform in are always
strange, out-of-the-way places, like
Nevada or Salt Lake City. You get a
better welcome, because people
appreciate the show more than in cities
like New York or London, where they
watch gigs every night.
Phoenix hasn’t played our namesake,
Phoenix, Arizona, yet, but that’s because
Phoenix’s venues are in nearby cities like
Scottsdale or Tempe. The mayor hasn’t
given us keys to the city. Yet.
Growing up in Versailles was tough.
It was like being in a museum –
everything that was great happened in
the past. You’re suffocated. But that was
good for Phoenix. Because there was no
Versailles live scene, we focused on
making music.
I always try to bring my family on the
road
[he singer has two children with
his wife, the film director Sofia Coppola],
but I don’t think it’s very educational –
they probably learn more about new
cultures living in New York.
The worst gigs
are Dutch music
festivals. There’s one festival we play in
Holland that is just like going to the mall
or a fair. It’s not about music, it’s more
about getting tattoos. It makes you feel
like it’s the end of the world.
Phoenix is inexplicably big in Mexico.
It feels like a prank whenever we go
there, because everybody knows our
faces and sings along to our lyrics.
Never record your album
on a
houseboat. We recorded one [2009’s
Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
] on a Seine
houseboat. We gave up after a week,
because we all ended up being seasick.
My mother is German
and it’s great
coming from two cultures. I wish
everybody had that experience. I can
fake being German, but only for 20
seconds – I don’t speak it well enough.
I’ve known Daft Punk
since we were
teenagers. We didn’t set out to take
over the world in 2013 – the fact that we
were both in the top five in the USA last
summer is coincidence.
Tickets for Phoenix’s European tour are
on sale now.
wearephoenix.com
P L A N E
T A L K I N G
☞
Turn the page for the frontman’s Parisian high points
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R E G U L A R S
