King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard have revealed more details about their upcoming 26th studio album, Flight b741 (out August 9th), as well premiered the video for the lead single, “Le Risque.”
Talking about Flight b741 in a statement, the band’s Stu Mackenzie explained, “We wanted to make something that was primal, instinctual, more ‘from the gut,’ just people in a room, doing what feels right. We wanted to make something fun.” To that end, the band stepped away from some of the more conceptual elements of their past releases, and embraced the warmth and naturalness of ‘70s folk rock groups, like the Steve Miller Band and The Band.
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“We came in with the roughest skeletons for songs and tried to keep the arrangements simple, free, and easy,” Mackenzie continued. “The best takes were always the ones where we were winging it pretty significantly.” Ultimately, that energy resulted in King Gizzard’s “most collaborative record” to date.
The new single, “Le Risque,” serves as a wonderful introduction to this new energy, and features lead vocals from several members of the band, including the vocal debut of drummer Michael Cavanagh. “We wanted to have as many lead vocalists as we could, and to pass the mic, like, ‘This is my part, my idea, I’m gonna sing it and then I’m gonna pass the mic along to you and you can do your thing,’” Mackenzie explained. “The whole record is built around that. We ended up doing a lot of backing vocals and extra recording, everyone in a room around a couple of microphones, just to give it that feel.”
As for the new music video for “Le Risque,” it depicts the band getting up to shenanigans in an aircraft hangar, going along with the “flight” theme of the album. Directed by Guy Tyzack, the video captures the frolicking rock’n’roll vibe of the song itself. Watch the video below.
Meanwhile, King Gizzard is hitting the road for a 2024 tour this August, which will include three-hour marathon sets in New York, Chicago, and Austin, as well as headlining dates in Washington DC, Philadelphia, Vancouver, and many more cities. Grab tickets here.