Francesca Tay
Donned in casual breezy wear, the quintet looked like a regular group of friends strolling down the street. What surprises more is the goofiness and amicability of the popular psychedelic band with a large fan base in Singapore that charmed the socks off the reporters. I was literally trying my best to not switch to fangirl mode.
“Some of us are trying to grow moustaches,” quips band founder Benjamin Goldwasser, fondly known as Ben to fans, while trying to find out from the reporters if the look was working for the members.
Pronounced as ‘Emm.Gee.Emm.Tee’, or otherwise remembered intimately by their wide fan base in the world as The Management (their first choice for a band name, which was unfortunately already taken), these 5 Americans from Connecticut in their late 20s have changed their styles tremendously since their debut in 2005, regardless of fashion statements – Andrew’s temporary obsession with headbands – or in their music, mellowing out as they mature as a band.
The band, founded by college pals Andrew VanWyngarden and Benjamin Goldwasser, added on bass guitarist Matthew Asti, lead guitarist and keyboardist James Richardson and drummer as well as backup vocalist Will Berman after the release of their debut album, Climbing to New Lows. Their first Asia tour began in Japan last month, before they went on to make appearances in countries such as Jakarta, Hong Kong, and Singapore via sold-out concerts one after another.
Rock and Roll pride?
What of the laid-back boys of MGMT being mistaken for jerks during media interviews? Innocent, cries the band.
“I think it’s a lot of times we were trying to be smarta**es, but it comes across as us being jerks, but we were just goofing around,” Ben explains, with a rueful grin. “We shouldn’t do that, we should just take it seriously. That’s the problem of being in a rock & roll band, I think one of the problems is that a lot of people, before they know you, the first impression is already at a level, like ‘This guy is a complete a**hole’”.
“I would say that if there was a big graphic curve in the level of sarcasm in interviews for MGMT – with the x-axis representing the level of sarcasm, and the y-axis representing the time – I think it has been decreasing,” adds Andrew.
Facebook timeout
Through new media platforms that allow international communication, many bands use Facebook to reach out to their fans, but MGMT prefer a more ‘personal’ approach.
“We try to do it in a more unconventional, less corporate means, we’d rather do it through a message board that we maintain ourselves, than through something big and corporate like Facebook,” Andrew explains. “In general, we have like, a big community board that has kind of taken off on its own, which is really cool. We kind of encourage more ‘real’ relationships between people,” he says proudly.
Ben chimes in to say they’re dedicated and determined to connect with fans through shows as well. “We try to go out and talk to people after we play, when we can.”
Andrew adds, “I know it’s contradictory – saying that we will start using Facebook, Twitter etc. – but we have tons of fans all over the world, it’s hard to interact personally with everyone of them, but we do want to try.” “Or we’ve tried!” he adds with a laugh.
“I don’t think we want to come across like ‘Facebook is the devil’ or something, but I think that we prefer connecting with our fans in other ways”
First impressions
On the first thing that comes into mind when Singapore is mentioned, “Chewing gum” pops out of lead vocalist Andrew VanWyngarden’s mouth. “I don’t know if it’s true, it’s all hearsay!” he adds after explaining that he had heard about the ban on chewing gum in Sinagpore . At least he’s redeemed himself quickly, unlike Green Hornet star Seth Rogen, whose recent and inaccurate musings on Singapore on Conan O’Brien’s show have earned him ire and derision from some Singaporeans.
“It’s cool that it’s such an international city, with so many different cultures here, it’s pretty unusual in the world. It feels like you can find anyone in the world living here,” declared Ben, on what he liked most about Singapore.
Nonetheless, Andrew sheepishly admitted that the band had just gotten in the night before and their impression “doesn’t extend far enough beyond this hotel”.
“It’s a magnificent hotel, great sleep, and not to mention the endless pool!” he added.
“I’ve heard really good things about the delicious foods that can be found on the streets, so what I’m really looking forward to is to try out the street food, the crab and stuff.”
Fondness of Japan
The 5 indie musicians were lucky enough to avoid the recent natural disaster in Japan, where they kick-started their Asia tour. Andrew turned serious immediately when he spoke of the Land of the Rising Sun with fondness.
“We were there just a month ago, so our trip was pretty fresh in our heads when it happened, so I feel like it hit closer to home in a weird way.”
“It’s just really sad to see, and it’s a horrible thing. Really nightmarish I think,” he added.
Congratulations versus Oracular Spectacular
“We always asked ourselves why is it so different from our first album (Oracular Spectacular). We all listen to the same bands and have the same music influences,” Andrew expressed.
He also added that many fans could tell the difference because they were comparing 1 or 2 songs in the first album, like ‘Kids’ and ‘Time to Pretend’ to ‘Congratulations’. Without hesitation, Andrew spoke on behalf of the band explaining that these hits were the first songs they wrote, and revealed that the members “were in completely different mindsets then, 9 years ago, and now.”
Ben injected: “Songs like ‘Weekend wars’ and ‘Of Moons, Birds & Monsters’, ‘Future Reflections’ and ‘The Handshake’, I don’t think there’s a big difference between where those songs are coming from, and the feel of the songs in the second album, but that’s my opinion.”
“I think maybe it just came across that way, like Andrew said, a lot of the songs were written over a long period of time, whereas the second album were all written all at once, that’s why it comes across differently as a result.”
Of course, the rest of the band members did not just let Andrew do all the talking. Berman said, “The biggest difference for me is that the general mood/emotions of the 2 albums. The first one is more of a weird combination of kind of post survival, sort of like a tribal youth thing, but also sort of like a cosmic naivety that’s unpretentious. This one is a little bit more cynical, more grounded in a way and less outer-space, it’s more about real people and real life.”
As MGMT hurried off to prepare for their show at the Suntec Convention Hall later that night, Andrew concluded, “I’m happy that we did what we wanted to do in the second album and just kind of ignore everyone else’s expectations, because I think now we can go any direction we want musically and not feel pressured to have, like one sound or anything. We’re really proud of our second album and the live shows keep getting better, and I think we’re in a good spot to make a new album now.”
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Photo courtesy of Francesca Tay