M83
With School of Seven Bells. Thu, Nov 20. Opera House, 735 Queen E. $15 from Rotate This, Soundscapes, Ticketmaster. Doors 8pm.
I’ve never had a lot of respect for the music of the 1980s. Aside from a handful of acts, it’s about as memorable as New Coke. Fuelled by a money-hungry record industry and cocaine charisma, the combination of rampant synth-usiasm and overproduction excess sounds like a recipe for diabolically impaired musical judgments.
But maybe I’m being too harsh. Because when M83’s Anthony Gonzalez tells me that he thinks “this is one of the most important periods in music history,” he’s as serious as a heart attack. And he may even be right.
Gonzalez intentionally set out to recreate an ’80s vibe on Saturdays = Youth, M83’s fifth full-length. In a blind taste test, any impartial listener would think it was made between the years 1979 and 1990, yet it lacks that decade’s over-eager indulgences. Saturdays = Youth is remarkably mature, employing characteristic ’80s synth sounds — like the swooping “beoooo” noise kicking off “Kim and Jessie” — so naturally, and tastefully, that they become as integral to the songs as a chord progression or vocal hook.
The secret to M83’s successful assimilation seems to stem from Gonzalez’s unabashed love of the decade. But Gonzalez’s own experience of the 1980s wasn’t all synth-pop sweetness. His interest in music began with his affection for heavy metal (pronounced “eh-vee metal” by the Antibes-born artist), which prompted him to learn to play guitar by listening to Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. He’d started his own group by age 14, discovering “noisy rock bands from New York like Sonic Youth” along the way and eventually tapping into electronic music. From here it was keyboards, samplers and recording a demo on his home computer, which led to three albums including M83’s highly regarded sophomore disc Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts and 2005’s Before the Dawn Heals Us.
With such a progressive musical trajectory, why would Gonzalez want M83 to go retro? “At first I didn’t have a clear idea of what I wanted [the album] to be exactly,” he confesses. “I just wanted to change it and make the project evolve. But when I first composed the songs of this album it began to sound like a concept and to be very influenced by the movies of the ’80s, and also from the fact of being a teenager. In the end I had a lot of songs with the same kind of spirit.”
In order to properly capture this spirit, Gonzalez enlisted the help of two key collaborators: singer Morgan Kibby and producer Ken Thomas. Thomas proved indispensible, having logged many hours engineering Wire’s early efforts and producing the likes of The Sugarcubes and Sigur Ros. “He’s such a brilliant producer with [great] ideas of how you have to treat the sounds to make it better,” says Gonzalez. “He gave me a lot of great musical advice, and I couldn’t have done this without him, definitely. I mean he has worked with so many bands from the ’80s I really love, like the Cocteau Twins and Depeche Mode, so I was really proud to work with him.”
Kibby’s contribution was more of a happy coincidence, as Gonzalez discovered the LA-based singer while working on a French film called Tiny Dancer. Director Eva Husson told Gonzalez about Kibby, who fronts The Romanovs, when he said he needed an ’80s-sounding female vocalist. “To tell the truth, I really had a crush when I first heard Morgan’s voice,” he confesses. “She’s got such a bright voice and she’s so talented.” Her vocals on “Skin of the Night” and “Up!” evoke Kate Bush’s breathy sensuality — the perfect complement to Gonzalez’s own understated delivery.
But none of this satisfies my curiosity about why he chose the ’80s, until Gonzalez lends a bit of psychological insight to his retro trip. “I like melancholy, and melancholy is mostly looking back to the past,” he says. “I love that. I love to have souvenirs and memories from the past — this is vital to me. I can’t live without thinking of my past, of my childhood, my teenage years. It’s a part of myself. It helps me to look forward.”
Regardless of what brought Gonzalez back to the music of his youth, if the 1980s end up being recognized as an important period in musical history, M83 may be the reason why.