M83’s new album Junk is a vast style difference, with Anthony Gonzales tired of being ‘epic’

M83, behind hit Midnight City, are tired of being known for their cinematic songs. After a brave style do over, they’re touring a new “simple, fresh” album.

M83’s Anthony Gonzalez has undergone a major style change with new album Junk. Picture: Kevin Winter/Getty for Coachella

It’s most likely M83 came to your attention via Midnight City.

The French American group led by core-member Anthony Gonzales released Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming in 2011 and Midnight City became the teenage, rite-de-passage track du jour that captured those tense, lusty, previously uncharted moments of adolescence with the lyrics “Waiting in a car, Waiting for a ride in the dark” and a wall of barking, kaleidoscopic synths that pile up on each other, each one more tantalising than the last.

Gonzales had actually been at it for a decade before that. He formed his band M83 in 2001 in Antibes, France with Nicolas Fromageau but said au revoir to him for the next four albums before Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming rolled along with the momentum of Saturdays = Youth from 2008 and then essentially dictated his life to him via its title. Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming = Vite Vite, It’s Payday (This Won’t Last Long).

And it hasn’t because M83’s new album Junk is a vaaaaast style adjustment. Gonzales calls it an “organised mess. I wanted to come up with something different from the last album. I feel like I’m always the guy that puts out ‘80s music and ‘big sings’, I get it, I’m not tired of it, I’m known for doing it for the last 15 years y’know,” he says, knowing the reviews have been up and down and sales for Junk have been, well, sluggish.

Tired of being known as ‘epic’ Anthony Gonzales has ‘freshened’ up M83’s sound.

“I wanted to come up with something less grand in a way. Something more simple and fun and fresh ... also with some melancholy in it. I wanted to go away from that epic-news of what people were expecting. I don’t want to just be the guy who makes big cinematic songs, huge sounding. I just wanted to experiment and take my fans on a different journey,” he says.

“I wanted to break this cycle with different guests and layers and eras of time,” Gonzales reasons.

Junk is a terrific album, a dancefloor squelcher, a jokey, rowdy disco record with a sense of humour you get from the cover which features furry creatures part Grug, part Sesame Street, and part Crank Yankers.

He brought on guests like Mai Lan, Jordan Lawlor, and Susanne Sundfør. She sings on For the Kids.

“Every time she starts singing she gives me chills, it’s rare for me. It’s like a ‘70s badass song, classic strings, she has a classic-news to her voice.”

The finest moment on Junk comes courtesy of a pairing with a hero of his on Time Wind.

M83 are touring Australia. Picture: Kevin Winter/Getty for Coachella

“Beck and I went in the studio together. I gave him the music and he wrote all the lyrics and the vocal melody. He’s an artist I have so much respect for, he’s trying to strive to keep his audience happy by putting out different style of albums,” he says. Sounds like someone we know, grinning reader.

“That’s very brave,” he says. “An artist should always think that way; it’s cool to take risks like Beck. It was a funny prog moment to have him on the record.”

Beck thinks fast and he talks slow. “Oui, oui, it was very chill, sharing ideas, he’s a very funny guy, it’s easy to be at ease around him, he’s so accessible. He’s a cool human being, very soft and charming. He’s my idol.”

Fresh from playing — and surviving — Coachella two weeks in a row (“It was very intense, very stressful, we’d only been playing the new album together for a week at that stage, the pressure of playing those big festivals is just supreme.”), M83 are playing along the east coast here and hoping to bring in full houses and get sales of Junk ticking over. So far they’ve disseminated three singles: Do It, Try It, Solitude and now Go!

Last month Gonzales appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! as Teen Wolf to perform Do It, Try It and Go!

“I’ll do something like that for a TV performance in Australia for sure. This makeup took me two and a half hours so I can’t do it before every show. Teen Wolf is an underrated film, it has a cool vibe.”

Sadly, our only live music program is Sunrise with Mel and Kochie. Boy is that a sad sentence to write.

“Then I won’t be doing that but I’d love to pat a koala,” he says.

Don’t get in between them and their eucalyptus leaves.

“Oui, I heard they get aggressive so maybe I won’t do that then,” he chuckles, gingerly.

Gonzales may end up back in makeup.

HEAR: Junk (Inertia) out now.

SEE: The Forum, 154 Flinders St, city. Tue-Wed, 7.30pm, $79, ticketmaster.com.au; The Tivoli, Brisbane, Sat, 8pm; Enmore Theatre, Sydney, May 16, $79, enmoretheatre.com.au

Originally published as M83’s new album Junk is a vast style difference, with Anthony Gonzales tired of being ‘epic’