Interview

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

Interview by Sander van Dalsum
Photos shot by Lucie McGough in Melbourne, Australia

If it was up to Melbourne seven-piece King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, we wouldn’t even utter the word psychedelic. Instead we’d just leave it at weird. Sure their fuzzy phase guitars, pillaging drums and hazy vocals will knock you off your feet leaving you in a daze for days, but you won’t need magic mushrooms or a tab of acid to trip out on the gang’s kaleidoscopic visuals and heady rock. We called up one of King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s two drummers, Eric Moore, to talk about what it’s like to be pigeonholed, childhood dreams and fantasy flicks.

Down the Rabbit Hole is obviously a reference to Alice in Wonderland. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard almost sounds like a character from that book… 

Yeah, for sure! The book has lots of weird animals, like that walrus thing, ha-ha. So I can see how we would fit in.

Are you into fantasy at all?

I think so! I haven’t watched or read a lot of that stuff since I was, like, five years old. But do you know The Dark Crystal? It’s that spooky film with those puppets by Jim Henson. That one kind of stuck with me because I thought it was really scary. I did see The Wizard of Oz as an adult, and it was just as creepy as when I was young. Those munchkins are just really bizarre.

I was more of a regular ninja, not necessarily a turtle.

How big was your imagination when you were a kid? Did you pretend to be a Ninja Turtle like me?

I loved that! I was more of a regular ninja, not necessarily a turtle. I grew up in Australia, about four hours away from Melbourne, in a small country town in the bush. We had to make our own fun. I was mainly day-dreaming, making up scenarios with my mates, fishing and swimming in the local river. My grandparents live on farms, so we’d go out there and ride motorbikes. There wasn’t much to do, and as I grew older I started playing music.

Are you bummed out you didn’t become a ninja in the end?

Not really, but I guess there’s still time! I never had many career dreams when I was young. I was simple and realistic, ha-ha. All I knew was music and I never knew that would lead to being in a band, but it happened kind of naturally. I guess I got lucky!

By the looks of your album covers, I’d say you still have a rich fantasy life…

A lot of that stuff is from Jason Galea, our visual director. He listens to the music and comes up with a concept of how he visualises it. The worlds and the monsters that he creates come from his own thoughts about what’s being said in the music.

Have you ever thought of putting out a film yourself? Like the creepy equivalent of Yellow Submarine?

Yes, actually! The other day Stu sent me this crazy massive plot-line of a film he wants to somehow make. It’s set 3,000 years in the future on a far-away planet. Jason would be directing it and our music would be in it.

We’re far too driven to waste our days doing that stuff.

The music Gizzard makes is pretty psychedelic. Is that based on your experiences?

That’s a tough question. We never intended to be psychedelic; it just comes across that way. I think it’s just us experimenting with music, trying to take it as far as we can. We still don’t consider ourselves a psychedelic band just because we push things as weird and different as possible. Some people pigeonhole psychedelic music into a genre or a sound; as long as you have phase guitars and trippy visuals you qualify. For us, it can be anything, any style that’s exploring new territory.

So no running into the woods and eating shrooms for you guys?

Exactly! We never did anything like that, but we do come across as that to some people. It’s kind of frustrating because we get put away as being a druggy band. Journalists use it as a way to describe music, but at the end of the day it has nothing to do with it. We’re far too driven to waste our days doing that stuff.

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard will be taking the stage at Down The Rabbit Hole on 28 June