interview JORGE PEREZCHICA
PHANTOGRAM: My name is Josh from Phantogram, and I’m Sarah.
JORGE: Can you tell us about your Coachella weekend 1 experience and do you plan to do anything differently for weekend two?
JOSH: We had a lot of fun. We had a really good time and a great audience. This weekend we’re going to switch up our setlist a little bit and just rock out. And we’ve been on a little tour in between. So we’re staying busy.
JORGE: Can you tell us about your new album titled “Three.”
JOSH: Our new album is just a natural progression of what we do as a band. It’s a little bit different and more to the point I think as far as a pop sensibility goes, where the songs are a bit shorter. It’s not a very long album but we’re definitely very proud of it, it’s very strong and the most running theme throughout the album is pretty much about like — I guess heartbreak in a lot of ways.
JORGE: When you prepare for a festival like Coachella, is there anything that you do differently compared to other festivals or venues?
JOSH: Well, when you play a festival like Coachella or any festival, we know that we’re limited on time to a degree, like we’re only playing 50 minutes set as opposed to normally we play for an hour and 20 minutes. So we’ve got to figure out what songs that we want to play and we try to think of in a festival kind of crowd — what the audience would probably prefer to hear more. You can’t play too many of the slow jams, you’ve got to keep people alive on their toes. So yeah we just put forth the same energy at festivals that we do in our live show at venues or clubs or theaters. And we’re happy that it translates and we’re happy that we have fans that come to see us play.
JORGE: Has there any been a moment that stands out to you at Coachella?
SARAH: I think for me, seeing the crowd and seeing how many people showed up was actually a moment. I think for us there was like thirty- thousand people watching us and I think it’s been one of our biggest festivals so far. So that was great.
JOSH: Yeah, definitely looking out into the audience and just remembering that were like, “Wow, holy crap!” We’re just humans and there are all these other human beings here to see us perform, and it’s a really amazing experience to get to entertain people and create art that affects so many people that care.
JORGE: Is there any artists you’re looking forward to seeing at the festival?
JOSH: I’m looking forward to seeing Radiohead tonight for sure. I think us and the whole band is. We’re gonna play and then hang out for a little bit, have a couple drinks and then go watch Radiohead play.
JORGE: Anything else you would like to add or say to your fans?
JOSH: Thanks for listening and if you haven’t heard of us, check us out. Come to our live show, you won’t be disappointed, and look out for new material coming out. And thanks to Coachella for having us.
web: phantogram.com