Life's been good to MGMT

Published on Friday 11 April 2008 16:59

The spectacular American duo tell Aidan Smith how they plan to make music and money – and marry models

IT'S taken 20 years, but finally there's a witty song about rock'n'roll excess to rival Joe Walsh's 'Life's Been Good'. MGMT's track is called 'Time To Pretend' and, bless the innocence of youth, they've never heard of Joe Walsh.

"Could you sing it to me?" asks Ben Goldwasser, one half of the duo whose debut album Oracular Spectacular has been earning spectacular reviews. No, but I'll recite the lyrics. After the first two lines – "I have a mansion, forget the price/Ain't never been there, they tell me it's nice" – he's sold on 'Life's Been Good'. And following our chat he's off to download it.

It's only taking a couple of lines for people to be sold on 'Time To Pretend': "Let's make some music, make some money, find some models for wives/I'll move to Paris, shoot some heroin and f**k with the stars." This is like a prequel to 'Life's Been Good' – a 'That Life Sounds Good, How Do We Get It?'. Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden wrote the song three years ago when they were college geeks – now it's starting to come true. Last month they were whisked off to the French capital for Fashion Week where their music soundtracked the catwalk. Hopefully the beautiful people managed to sidestep the puddles of drool.

Today, Goldwasser is standing in his kitchen in New Jersey. He's almost forgotten what the apartment looks like and won't be back any time soon. "I think we're playing every festival in the world this summer," he says. "Already I'm starting to feel that I no longer own my life. I mean, it's great that people like our music but that song is supposed to be ironic. We don't want to become fat rock pigs and we don't want to shoot heroin. But imagine if we're still playing 'Time To Pretend' when we're, like, 60 or something. That would be ironic."

The way Goldwasser says "like, 60 or something" confirms that MGMT are like, 20 or something. Repeatedly, they give the impression of blundering towards greatness. Their band name is clunky; almost heavy metal. They claim not to know that a lot of groups these days have image consultants choosing their leather jackets for them. "We didn't know our record company employed a stylist when we asked for one as a joke," says Goldwasser. MGMT insist they don't have a style but it can be categorised as "Granny Takes A Trip – Closing-Down Sale"; their parents were hippies.

Greatness could certainly be theirs. The first five songs on Oracular Spectacular are terrific. Influences range from Prince to prog-rock and Goldwasser admits to having been a "major prog dork" at high school.

"Where I'm from in New York State, close to the Canadian border, is in the middle of nowhere and very conservative, so I never knew what was trendy," he says. "An uncle got me into King Crimson. The first time I heard them I hated them; then I became obsessed. I also liked Yes and Genesis, but King Crimson's Red was my favourite album and it still is.

"Andrew is from Memphis but his high school was also pretty conservative, so by the time we got to Wesleyan University, Connecticut – where we met – we were ready for a place which was very liberal and encouraged the kids to be as crazy as they wanted. We bonded over it suddenly being cool to be weird. Up to that point, it definitely hadn't been."

Goldwasser says he's still getting used to having MGMT's every move scrutinised. (For instance, signing to a major label in apparent contradiction of their nu-hippy ideals, then requesting a big Columbia logo on their album – just another irony-laden joke, he says). And it's "surreal" to turn up in a foreign city they've never visited and discover people know who they are.

The most surreal thing that's happened to them so far? "Probably hanging out with (producer] Rick Rubin in his garden overlooking the ocean with all these bunnies hopping around."

MGMT's hymn to the rock lifestyle-going-on-deathstyle ends with the line: "If you've got the vision, why not have some fun?" MGMT might have come from nowhere, but with Columbia behind them, they could soon be everywhere, having all the fun that rocks stars can possibly enjoy. Only if Goldwasser and VanWyngarden start seeing bunnies where none exist should they start to worry.

• MGMT play Glasgow's ABC on May 6 and Edinburgh's Liquid Room on May 9. Oracular Spectacular (Columbia) is out now