VanWyngarden, who grew up in a small town outside Memphis, Tennessee worshipping bands like The Beatles, Neil Young, and the Rolling Stones can hardly believe the events of the past year much less the fact that Sir Paul is feelin’ them.

MGMT played every major festival last year, did a handful of live television appearances including Jools Holland, opened dates with the likes of Beck and M.I.A., and also had a number of successful headlining tours of their own; quite impressive for two young gents who started the band as a tongue-in-cheek electronic experiment.

After a whirlwind 2008, the duo took the first six months of 2009 off to write and record the follow up to their highly celebrated debut album Oracular Spectacular (2007) and also to plan for future live gigs. Though MGMT’s live shows have been referred to as high-energy and textured, the leader singer admits that the band learned to how to perform as they toured.

“We spent the summer [2008] figuring out how to perform our songs as a live band. Playing some of those festivals was kind of overwhelming. It was an insane experience.”Earlier this year, VanWyngarden and fellow founding member Ben Goldwasser holed up at a cottage in Woodstock, NY with the hopes that the historic town would give way to new material. VanWyngarden stated that they did get a little writing done, but after not spending more than two weeks in any one city, the singer admits that the duo went a little stir crazy. It was then that they made the decision that if they were to be spending an extended period of time in one location, it would have to be someplace warm.

MGMT is currently recording their new album Congratulations (to be released in 2010) in Malibu, California with Producer Peter Kemper, formerly of Spacemen 3. When asked about working with Kemper the singer gushes, “I couldn’t believe he even considered listening to our music. Somehow we met his manager at an event in New York and we were introduced. Surprisingly he was really receptive to our music. Playing With Fire (1989) kind of opened things up for me musically. Before we even started recording we hung and listened to records. He brought a few vintage synths with him from England. It’s pretty amazing.”


MGMT
MGMT(エム・ジー・エム・ティー)はサイケデリックとエレクトロミュージックを融合するニューヨークブルックリンを拠点にしてるアーティスト。一度聴いたら記憶に刻み込まれる彼らの刺激的な音たちは瞬く間に人気に火をつけた。彼らは世界的に有名なフェスティバルイベントに参加するとともにベックやM.I.A.といった有名なアーティストたちとも共演している。そんな彼らの新しいアルバム“コングラチュレーション”が２０１０年のリリースに向け今制作中だ。ポール・マッカートニーでさえ彼らの音楽に惚れ込んでいて共演を夢に見ている。