MGMT

Starlight Ballroom:

Philadelphia, PA

Here’s a great interview that was rescued from The Tracks’ vaults… Back in early 2008, MTT caught up with Andrew and Ben from MGMT in Philadelphia, PA.

MGMT had just gotten a major break in the music scene with the widespread critical success of Oracular Spectacular . Keep an eye on MoeTrainsTracks.com for tons of great new content!

Moe:

We saw you guys down at Bonnaroo for your set, it was a great way to open up the weekend. I was a pretty epic show if I must say.

Andrew:

Yeah, it was fun. We had been to Bonnaroo before so it was good to see it from the side of the artist instead of the person in the crowd. It was only our second festival show.

M:

Oh really, where was the first, Coachella?

A:

Yeah.

M:

So how do they compare?

A:

I don’t know, Coachella was crazier for us because we were more nervous. Bonnaroo was a little more relaxed and cool.

M:

You guys just started tour together with a band right?

Ben:

We started practicing with them about a year ago. I think we were kinda thrust into exposure a little too quickly for our taste. We played on national television after we had only been touring with the band for a couple of months.

M:

Was that on Letterman?

B:

Yeah.

M:

You looked a little nervous.

B:

Yeah, we were very nervous! But we’re getting more comfortable and we don’t have to think as hard when we’re playing, its kinda getting to be more natural. We’re getting used to playing for crowds.

M:

Did you guys have sound problems at Bonnaroo in the beginning, what was going on?

B:

Yeah, well, the festival thing, we hardly ever really get a sound check so it’s always a little weird starting out.

A:

I think the monitors were pretty messed up.

M:

(to Andrew) Oh, by the way, you had on some pretty fucking crazy pants. I remember walking up to set and saying ‘holy shit’, those bright blue ones!

A:

Tropical floral bellbottoms, yeah. Really big bellbottoms.

M:

They looked comfortable though!

A:

Yeah, they’re real comfortable.

M:

Saw you guys backstage, you guys looked pretty chill, pretty relaxed, so I guess you feel like you’re falling into place with everything.

B:

We’re good at hanging out. We’re good at relaxing.

M:

Any standout moments yet from your recent successes?

B:

We just played at the Oxygen festival in Ireland and that was really crazy. There were all these people climbing up the towers that were holding up the tent and we had to stop the show because this girl made it all the way to the roof of the tent so that you couldn’t even see her anymore and everyone was yelling at her telling her to come down.

M:

Did she take a spill?

B:

No, it would have been ugly if she had! That was probably at least 60 feet up in the air or something. It was pretty crazy.

M:

I saw a video of you guys at some festival in Scotland that you guys were playing and you were walking around the grounds, checking out the scene; Andrew you like the thrill-rides?

A:

As much as I’d like to keep the myth going that I like thrill-rides, I’m new to them. I’ve been on like Space Mountain and most of the Disney rides, and I like those a lot. I was like twenty when I started going on roller coasters, so I don’t think I’d go on the Slingshot thing. I would vomit.

M:

You guys got together at Wesleyan, and you were actually making music that you thought would be annoying?

A:

We knew it was annoying.

M:

Just to fuck around, just playing, just to amuse yourselves?

A:

I dunno… We were young and foolish.

M:

You were freshman?

A:

Yeah.

M:

So it was basically putting that freshman energy, that drunken and banged up energy back into the music.

A:

Yeah, exactly.

M:

What’s up with the clothing optional dorm?

B:

At some point it was designated a “clothing optional” dorm but there aren’t many people walking around naked there. There were a few, and we were friends with most of them.

A:

I did naked calisthenics with Vin Popper on time. (all laugh)

B:

Nice.

M:

Tell us about some of those early dorm session jams. We used to do the same thing. We’d go out to parties, get all fucked up and come back and just grab our instruments at like 2 o’clock in the morning and start jamming. So what was it like with you guys getting together?

B:

It was a lot like that. It’s was just kinda very casual, just having fun. We had a lot of other friends that we played music with and we were both in other bands at the same time. It wasn’t like we started a band in order to get successful and get fans and all that, we just started it for something to do and didn’t really care if anyone liked it.

M:

You guys just probably wrote the album for yourselves.

B:

In a way, I mean, we know we were writing it for other people because we had signed a record deal at that point, so we had a delivery date, so there was a little bit of pressure on us but when we were writing the songs we didn’t think that anyone was actually gonna hear the album, so it was pretty much just writing it for ourselves.

M:

So I guess its still a surprise with all of this going on?

B:

Yeah, its still a surprise. And, I don’t know, it keeps getting crazier!

M:

When you guys were first recording you guys had a pretty gritty sound right? I mean, if you were recording back in your dorms you’re going to have that unintentional gritty, natural sound. Did you guys try to replicate that sound?