{"id":2093216,"date":"2026-08-14T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2093216"},"modified":"2026-08-14T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T09:00:00","slug":"inside-king-gizzard-the-lizard-wizards-hard-dance-experiment-this-is-some-mad-scientist-sh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2093216","title":{"rendered":"Inside King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard\u2019s Hard Dance Experiment: \u2018This Is Some Mad Scientist Sh\u2013\u2018"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\t\tTrending on Billboard\t\t<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
\n\tUber-prolific Australian band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard has released nearly 30 albums since its 2012 debut \u2014 in other words, the band isn\u2019t known for the drawn-out studio perfectionism that often stymies musicians.<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\t\tKing Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
See latest videos, charts and news<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n\tBut with Alien Metal<\/em>, its 28th studio album \u2014 and first in 14 months, an eternity in the Gizzverse \u2013 King Gizzard did something out of character: It took its time.<\/p>\n
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\n\tAnd with good reason. Out today (Aug. 14), Alien Metal<\/em> is arguably the biggest swing in a catalog full of them, as the sextet best known for wild, garage-meets-psych-rock ditched its guitars in favor of a hulking Eurorack, a type of modular synthesizer developed in the \u201990s that all of its members could play simultaneously. The band began trotting the rig out for \u201crave shows\u201d in late 2024, and affectionately named it Nathan; after a quiet touring year, it returns to the road, presumably with Nathan in tow, for its second annual Field of Vision camping festival outside of Denver this weekend, and four New York City shows later this month.<\/p>\n
Alien Metal<\/em> isn\u2019t completely without precedent in King Gizzard\u2019s catalog \u2014 the band has been incorporating electronic sounds into its music for the last several years, including on the 2023 electropop album The Silver Cord<\/em> \u2014 but with the album\u2019s pummeling, high-BPM tracks, King Gizzard ventures further onto the dance floor than it ever has.<\/p>\n
\n\tAccording to the band\u2019s Stu Mackenzie, as King Gizzard\u2019s members began to conceive the album, they thought, \u201cWe\u2019ve already done a few [electronic] things which were interesting to us. Let\u2019s lean into the tropes a little bit more with this one \u2014\u00a0but also, let\u2019s see if we can create something that feels like we<\/em> made it, and that feels like it has its own DNA.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThat forced King Gizzard to operate well beyond its comfort zone, and helps to explain the patience making the album required. \u201cWe definitely scrapped more material for this record than we ever have, which was not something we expected to do,\u201d Mackenzie, 35, says over Zoom from his native Melbourne. \u201cIt needed to congeal \u2014 it needed to set.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tStill, the band held onto its aggressively DIY ethos for Alien Metal<\/em>, with its members modding out the Eurorack themselves and recording their experiments in their own Melbourne warehouse studio space, with \u201crats running along the floor and s\u2013t.\u201d As Mackenzie puts it, \u201cWe\u2019ve just been doing this s\u2013t ourselves, man. This is some f\u2013king truly mad scientist, making explosions in the bathtub-type stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tBut while King Gizzard recorded the album over \u201ca good couple years,\u201d true to form, the restlessly creative band worked on several other projects concurrently. \u201cWhole records were formulated and thought of and expanded on and recorded \u2014 and, you know, completely abandoned,\u201d he reveals. \u201cMaybe they\u2019ll turn into something eventually.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tPlus, Alien Metal<\/em> might not be as dissimilar from King Gizzard\u2019s other output, anyway. \u201cThere are certain parallels with a lot of the heavy metal stuff we\u2019ve done to techno, and to some of the more krautrock-ish, hypnotic, longer stuff that we\u2019ve done,\u201d Mackenzie says. \u201cMaybe there is a thread with King Gizz and dance music that isn\u2019t so far away.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
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You and King Gizzard have been dabbling with dance music in recent years, from The Silver Cord<\/em> to your \u201crave tours\u201d with Nathan the Eurorack, to Mango Sticky Rice<\/em>, the batch of modular ambient recordings you made on your own and released late last year. How did all these strands coalesce and inform Alien Metal<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\tKing Gizz has been experimenting with electronic music in certain capacities for quite a long time, whether that was what we were doing with Silver Cord<\/em> or whether it was what we were doing in a different way with 2021\u2019s Butterfly 3000<\/em> [and its companion set of remixes Butterfly 3001<\/em>], or with the rave tours, or [2022\u2019s] Made in Timeland<\/em>. Certain things that we\u2019ve done have felt, to varying degrees, [like] \u201crock band making electronic music,\u201d which is not like something that I think is even bad \u2014\u00a0it\u2019s actually something that I think is quite interesting. But it is not what we were trying to do with this record. And it meant that this record needed more development than we thought it would.<\/p>\n
\n\tIt\u2019s quite challenging to write songs, in the traditional sense, with this equipment, and I don\u2019t think it\u2019s what it\u2019s good at or built for, but that therefore became interesting [to us]. Trying to figure out how to do six-person improvisational electronic music with [this] hardware \u2014 all the Eurorack stuff with f\u2013king patch cables on the outside, just nightmare tech stuff \u2014 is all wrapped into the story as much as any of the [band\u2019s prior] recording projects are. <\/p>\n
\n\tThat context is what we arrived at Alien Metal<\/em> with. It\u2019s like, \u201cWhat are we doing here with this record?\u201d That\u2019s something that we are always trying to find when making a record: What\u2019s its sort of personality, you know? That\u2019s why naming a record can be so powerful early on, because you stop calling it \u201cit\u201d and you start calling it Alien Metal<\/em>. It takes on its personality, and you start to follow its footsteps. You start to follow its rhythm.<\/p>\n
So you named it before you were finished with it?<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\tWe don\u2019t always [do that], but we usually do. It actually helps, at least me, with finishing things, because you have a North Star. You have a purpose, and it makes the decision-making a little easier.<\/p>\n
When it comes to writing, what limitations did this equipment present, compared to your typical instrumentation \u2014\u00a0and how did those limitations open up new creative possibilities?<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\tWith the hardware stuff and the Eurorack stuff, it\u2019s not so much about limitations as it\u2019s endless. It\u2019s actually insane how many sounds you can get out of these boxes. It\u2019s f\u2013king amazing, and if you\u2019re creative about the patch you\u2019re making, you can do truly wild s\u2013t. That is a big challenge in the sense of what kind of sounds you want to work with. We had to spend time figuring out what we were wanting to do that was exciting to us, and that involved a lot of learning. Like, this s\u2013t is some mad scientist s\u2013t. But it\u2019s cool. I feel like I understand music in a different way \u2014 and I certainly understand voltage in a different way. And math, there\u2019s a lot of math in this stuff too, and some science.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe other thing that\u2019s quite interesting about it is this format, the Eurorack, it\u2019s like the patch cables on the outside, you build modules and you piece together a synth or voices or whatever \u2014 but everyone makes something different, and I can understand my patch, but I can\u2019t necessarily rationalize why any of the other guys made the patch that they did. It\u2019s this window into someone\u2019s creative process. It\u2019s actually a super visual window, with all the cables hanging out on the outside. I\u2019ve fallen in love with that as just an expression in itself.<\/p>\n\n
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King Gizzard is still doing rock shows. What has the cross-pollination been like? How, if at all, has this impacted how you view your guitar-based music?<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\tIt\u2019s made me have a different kind of appreciation for the guitar, and also acoustic or unsynthesized, organic instruments. With this patch-from-scratch mentality of Eurorack stuff, you have to build everything from the ground up. To make something resemble even a bassline is a lot of patching, and then it might actually sound quite boring, and then you hear somebody play a bass guitar through an amp, and you\u2019re like, \u201cMan, that sounds awesome!\u201d You just pluck an acoustic guitar string and listen to the decay and the way it fills the room\u2026<\/p>\n
\n\tI think about sound now in a way that I didn\u2019t think about sound [before]. I thought about music, and notes and melody and harmony and stuff. But it forces you to think about things at a much more rudimentary level, because ultimately all this thing is doing is sending voltages to things. You just have to think about it on a more atomic level, a more cellular level, a more granular level.<\/p>\n
What are the biggest dance touchstones for you and the rest of the band?<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\tIf you asked [bandmate] Joey [Walker] this question, he would like be so excited, and he would want to tell you about everything that had a big impact on his life. I would love to give you such a deep answer, but the honest truth is, for me, my entry point is as much the equipment as anything. I\u2019ve just become obsessed with this format of synthesizer and thinking about sound in this new way \u2014 and that\u2019s what I listen to. I get home, and when my kids go to bed, I turn on my synth, and I\u2019m just trying to understand why when I plug the jack into this socket, it does this, and why when I plug the jack into the socket next to it, it does that.<\/p>\n\n
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One aspect that hasn\u2019t changed here compared to some of your previous albums is the world-building: There\u2019s references to an \u201castral blacksmith\u201d and a \u201cmortician,\u201d and one song\u2019s lyrics declare, \u201cWe don\u2019t wish death \u2014\u00a0but we will kill for the steel.\u201d What can you tell me about the lore of Alien Metal<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\tI would love to get into this s\u2013t. But do you know what? I\u2019ve found that recently, over the last couple of years, I say things I<\/em> don\u2019t even agree with. I would hope that people can experience this album at face value \u2014 or dig in. That\u2019s my hope here. The lyrics don\u2019t have to be the centerpoint, either.<\/p>\n
This is the third straight year with only one new King Gizzard album, compared to some years in the past where you\u2019ve released anywhere from two to five projects. Last year\u2019s Phantom Island<\/em> was an ambitious orchestral project, with a corresponding orchestral tour. Are you settling into a less frequent release schedule \u2014 and what\u2019s the next frontier you want to conquer?<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\tWe\u2019ve got two sort of ideas. Not even ideas, but we have two records that are like three-quarters finished at the moment, which is a bit silly and does happen sometimes. We definitely have slowed down in finishing records. If you had have asked me this when I was younger, like in my mid-twenties, I probably would have had a bit more fire; I was more desperately ambitious, maybe. I\u2019m happy to let things take their needed amount of time, at the moment. That might be one record a year right now; maybe there\u2019ll be a couple in quick succession coming up. I don\u2019t know. There was a stretch, toward the start of King Gizz records, where we were doing two a year. We weren\u2019t thinking about it super hard, but if one wasn\u2019t done, we\u2019d just f\u2013king make one. As you get older, doing stuff like that is harder.<\/p>\n\n
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Your touring schedule is more limited this year compared to previous years, but you\u2019re celebrating the release of Alien Metal<\/em> with your second annual Field of Vision festival outside of Denver, and you\u2019re heading to New York City later this month for a run of four shows. What can you share about those gigs, and what\u2019s next for the band\u2019s touring?<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\tThere was something about the last Field of Vision that was just so special on so many levels. It felt magical, it felt unreal, in a lot of ways. So yeah, excited to get back there. Next year, we are also returning to more of a normal, busy touring schedule. But this year we have been quiet on the touring level \u2014 besides a bit of COVID period there, it\u2019s got to be the quietest that we\u2019ve ever been. We\u2019ve been busy with life, and also just making music. We\u2019ve been on home soil a lot lately, which is cool. Family, life \u2014 the ship of life doesn\u2019t stop sailing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/KGLW-2026-press-cr-Maclay-Heriot-billboard.jpg?w=1024″] Trending on Billboard Uber-prolific Australian band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard has released nearly 30 albums since its 2012 debut \u2014 in other words, the band isn\u2019t known for the drawn-out studio perfectionism that often stymies musicians. Explore King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard See latest videos, charts and news But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,226],"class_list":["post-2093216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-billboard-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2093216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2093216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2093216\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2093216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2093216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2093216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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