Rise of the Phoenix: Phoenix

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ON "1901," the first song Phoenix released from its fourth album, "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix," Thomas Mars sings emphatically over heavy synths and bright guitar: "Counting all different ideas drifting away/Past and present they don't matter/Now the future's sorted out."

It's a grand proclamation but a fitting one. Once one of indie rock's biggest secrets, Phoenix is finally poised for a big splash. The French four-piece has quickly become one of the most blogged-about bands in recent months, garnering ample Next Big Thing tags in the process.

"We feel like we have been a secret for a long time," guitarist Christian Mazzalai said. "Labels don't matter to us, but it is a very nice feeling to know that people are excited about our record. It builds a good pressure."

At the same time, Mazzalai doesn't have a problem if the band doesn't attain the success it theoretically could.

"We are amateurs, not professionals; sometimes it can mean commercial suicide," he said. "Big commercial success is not a priority."

But thanks to "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix," he might have to get used to it. The record is arguably the band's strongest, one that sees the group take a slightly new direction. There's still the soulful swagger of past records, but now the emphasis is on electronic influences.

"We never decide [or] agree on which path we will follow," Mazzalai said of the shift. "We let chaos decide for us."

On "Fences," Mars sings over a pulsing beat and electronic flourishes, yet it all sounds natural.

"We try to make them breathe and this song is really the most electronic," Mars said. "It's basically like giving life to these instruments."

On the ambient and ambitious two-part suite "Love Like a Sunset," the band tries to replicate the feeling of a drive from Versailles, France to Beirut, Lebanon.

"We were driving in the car and we had this experience where the lights and sound was giving a rhythm to the song and road," Mars said. "We wanted to create something that was both epic and almost hypnotic, but very minimalistic, our instruments very hybrid."

But it's the anthemic "1901" where Phoenix really hits its stride.

"Anthems are good," Mars said. "'1901' really worked because we wrote almost all the song in 10 minutes, but it took us almost a year to finish it. ... I think you can feel there's something more sophisticated, maybe a production that's new to us."

It's also the statement of the album, showing a confidence the band had only hinted at prior.

"[Producer] Philippe Zdar made us feel confident," Mazzalai said. "We also wanted the equivalent of [Paris'] Pompidou center in architecture — giant pipes on the outside painted in primary colors."

As is evident, there's a bit of cheekiness to what Phoenix does, too, even if it doesn't always come across musically. Take the album's sassy title. "I think it's like the mustache on Mona Lisa — it's really childish," Mars said. "Without knowing it, I'm discovering why we chose the title [and] why it's appealing. ... It's messing up something iconic."

That mentality comes from the band's upbringing in the wealthy Paris suburb of Versailles.

"When you grow up in a city that's like a museum, you have to mess with things," singer Thomas Mars said. "I remember just the fact that you'd be in a band and make noise in this giant museum would be a problem for people living there."

"We grew up far from any musical scene, which allowed us to pick up any kind of influences without judging them," Mazzalai added. "Versailles was so remote we couldn't miss each other."
Phoenix isn't the first group to escape the suffocating confines of Versailles — Daft Punk and Air both did it earlier.

"It is a brotherhood," Mazzalai said. "We never met each other before Paris because we are a generation younger than them. But once we met, we realized we had a lot in common. I think it comes from the fact that we were all making music in home studios far from a professional world that didn't want us."

» Rock and Roll Hotel, 1353 H St. NE; with Amazing Baby, Sun., 8:30 p.m., sold out; 202-388-7625.

» RELATED: Thomas Mars gives us a track-by-track tour of "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix." [Express, May 2009]

Written by Express contributor Rudi Greenberg
Photos courtesy Pascal Textiera