Nonagon Infinity is King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard new album and there’s no doubt that they released something quite remarkable. We talked with vocalist Stu Mackenzie about the new effort among other things.
You guys seem to be always up for a different challenge with each album released and this is your eighth album in four years. How do you keep up this non-stop energy?
Just making new songs and experimenting with recording or songwriting or whatever is kind of the most fun part or the most rewarding part… Actually, at least for me, I grab a tape to try to do as much as possible and playing live too. I think the recording element is the most satisfying to me and kind of level up.
You guys don’t attach yourselves to just one musical genre and each release you find new ways to explore your music and it’s always surprising for the listener. How do you think the band’s dynamic and songwriting have evolved through your musical changes?
I think that happens in a natural way like people keep evolving and changing. I think the little things in the early days like the lineup was changing sometimes and we had different people coming in and out playing with us, so it wasn’t always the same and that sort of solidified over the years. Some of the other guys in the band would play some different instruments, like Ambrose is playing all the keyboard parts now as well as harmonica, Eric used to play keyboard and theremin and he just plays drums now… You know, it kind of evolves and changes a little bit, but essentially it’s still sort of the same thing.
You guys have this awesome carefree attitude and a captivating spontaneity. For this album, was the writing process spontaneous and led by improvisation or was it more thought-out?
We had pretty clearly sort in mind with this one and we jammed the songs for quite a while before they actually got recorded and everything. This record was a long process – the longest process that we’ve been through.
I read that you wanted to do this LP back in 2014 with your effort I’m In Your Mind Fuzz, but it didn’t work out that way. Why’s that?
We just kind of ran out of patience with that one. The first five tracks had some related themes, but I think we wrote some songs like pass way through making that record that really felt like they fit really well on the album, but maybe didn’t work with that kind of concept. We had a few other concepts that were tied up to that one that we kind of abandoned that in favor of other things, you know, evolving into a different base.
The album’s construction is just brilliant, which each song mutates from one into the next, turning into an infinitely looping album. It basically never ends. What led you to approach these songs that way?
It was just a lot of practice and a lot of thinking about how it was going to work. If we wanted, we could play it in one go or it could be one performance or one song. I mean, we recorded it in separated parts because there were some improvise sections in there and little parts that kind of could go in different ways… It was tricky and we had some parts in there that kind of linked up with other parts and referencing different songs. All of it was a lot of thinking. [laughs]
What’s the meaning behind the album’s title, Nonagon Infinity?
Nonagon is a nine side shape and you got nine songs that are linked into a sort of circle and then you got infinity… It’s just another way of making it clear about what’s happening on the record.
You guys are currently on tour, so how’s it going and how has been like to convey the studio recordings of the album into the live experience?
It’s been really good. This record translates really well live and more easily than Paper Mâché Dream Balloon [2015]. A lot of these songs are being played for a long time, maybe through a year now and they kind of evolved and changed in many ways. We let them evolve and change and we sort of jam for this record. It’s been pretty smooth with this record.