Phoenix back to rise again

WITH Australia the end of its current tour, Phoenix flies home to reinvent itself.

Members of French pop band ''Phoenix'' (l-r) Laurent Brancowitz, Deck d'Arcy, Thomas Mars and Christian Mazzalai who will perform in Adelaide next month.

WITH Australia the end of its current tour, Phoenix flies home to reinvent itself.

When Phoenix performed at Madison Square Garden late last year and were joined onstage by fellow country men Daft Punk it became one of the hottest clips on the internet. Returning to Australia next month, frontman Thomas Mars has some bad news for those expecting the same surprise guests at the shows. "You don't want to disappoint people but they definitely won't be there," he laughs.

"When we played Madison Square Garden and they showed up, at every show we did on the east coast after that people were expecting them. Obviously it didn't happen."

The YouTube clip will have to suffice for Australian fans but one thing we can be thankful for is that this tour will be the final ever shows for Phoenix on itsWolfgang Amadeus Phoenix tour.

"We're done playing shows. We only have the small tour of Australia in February and then that's the end for this record," Mars says.

It will be an interesting time following this tour, with the band arriving home to a clean slate. "Yes and no," Mars contemplates when asked if this is a good thing. "It's going to be hard to write something new but at the same time it's probably the most enjoyable record we've made to play live.

"We're very impatient," he continues. "In the beginning of making a new record everything is possible. It's a stage we really like to be at."

Anything really is possible for the band after Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. Its most successful album to date, for the past two years its singles have been impossible to ignore. From the big screen to car advertisement knock-off versions to club dance floors around the world, Phoenix had released its masterpiece. What was the secret? "I have no idea," Mars says.

"We've always tried to stay as far as possible away from successful recipes. I'm hoping that it is basically the songs and Philippe Zdar who produced the album. He helped us for the first time to go to places where we thought it would be embarrassing to go or we thought it wasn't us.

"What was uncomfortable at the beginning became the most interesting by the end."

When complimented on the record Mars's response is "I'm glad you say so", but above all, his band should be congratulated on its ability to evolve with every record, sounding nothing like it did more than 10 years ago on its debut. "That's what we want," he explains.

"Maybe it comes from the fact that we constantly change our instrumentation. From the beginning we were a band who could make records in their bedroom, using drum machines and samplers because we couldn't afford the instruments. By doing this we've probably escaped trends and it allows us to shift and do what we want."

But when the band do what they want it doesn't always work out, like the time they got a little too ambitious when recording the second album. "We did a symphonic piece that never came out," he explains. "It existed for about two weeks and it ended up taking all the money for the second record and we had to make the record back in our bedrooms." Exploring symphonic ideas early in its career eventually paid off, with the band contributing the score to Sofia Coppola's (Mars's partner) latest flick Somewhere. "It's a very small piece in that movie maybe the shortest score ever made for a movie," he laughs.

Having work featured in all of Coppola's cinematic releases, Mars says he is often scared the music will taint the film, and through his involvement he never truly gets to enjoy the movie.

"I really like her movies and I don't want to interfere."

"I want to discover her movies the way they should be discovered in the theatre. But that's impossible for me because I see pieces of it before. For us when we participate in a project it really ruins the effect," he adds.

With fellow dance floor fillers and close friends Daft Punk unveiling its latest score for Tron Legacy, Mars admits the band probably won't be heading down the '80s remake route anytime soon. "I do not think we would re-do anything," he says. "But I can tell you my favourite '80s film is Risky Business. I love it because it is so iconic and the music it has one of the best soundtracks. I don't think we would remake it though but we are definitely inspired by '80s films, that's when we grew up and we were probably the most influenced."

WHAT: Phoenix will perform at Good Vibrations in Sydney on Saturday, February  12th along with dates in Adelaide, Brisbane, Sydney, Melburne and Perth.