Feature:
Phoenix - Popping the Antipodean Cherry

Australia 's a hell of a long way from everywhere, especially Europe . For French band Phoenix , this tyranny of distance has kept the Antipodes off their touring map… until now.

Deck D'Arcy's voice croaks through the phone, its timbre tempered by the international press calls he's been taking throughout the evening to talk up Phoeinx's only tour of the Antipodes since their inception in 1999.

“We're so excited about the tour of Australia and New Zealand ,” say Deck. “All our Aussie friends are the most crazy, amazing and fun-loving people, so we can't wait to play in a land that, until now, has been so remote and exotic – a place we only read about in books or were told about by friends.”

Touring as part of the Australia 's inaugural V Festival and playing alongside the likes of the Pixies, the Rapture, Gnarls Barkley and the Pet Shop Boys, Deck says the band has grown fond of the festival format over time – it certainly wasn't love at first sight.

“At the start of our career we didn't enjoy festivals at all,” confesses Deck, “we seemed to play every single muddy UK festival in the early days and it's a way of touring and playing that also takes a bit of getting used to, and that's on top of the muddy, boggy fields.

But that was then (1999) and this is now (2007) and since then, Phoenix have released three albums – United (2000), Alphabetical (2004) and It's Never Been Like That (2006) – which interrelate and build on Phoenix 's sonic blueprint without falling into the trap of revisionism or banality. For Phoenix , to be banal is to be ugly.

“For example,” explains Deck, “Phoenix certainly isn't one of those band's which plays a live by rote… in most cases we don't even know what we're going to play until five minutes before we walk on stage, and we're certainly not afraid to mix it up live, playing a mixture of material and not being afraid to reinterpret our work for a live context.”

Words: Krathyn White

Catch Phoenix at the V Festival in Sydney , 31 March, Centennial Park , or on the Gold Coast, 1 April, Avica Resort: vfestival.com.au also visit wearephoenix.com