Pranksters' ball
Roisin Dwyer catches up with electropop duo MGMT to discuss their greatest rock 'n' roll moment, Jools Holland and their growing reputation as popular music's new trouble-makers.
Roisin Dwyer, 16 Apr 2008
As MGMT-mania grips the country on the back of the hit single `Time to Pretend', singer Andrew VanWyngarden regales us with tales of drug-fuelled run-ins with Kelly Osbourne, difficulties with America's moral majority and the debt they owe to a pet praying mantis.
"Emmmm….”
Andrew VanWyngarden pushes a lock of mousy-brown hair from his face and adjusts his pink bandana. He is searching for an answer to my query about the most rock ‘n’ roll moment thus far in his burgeoning pop career.
“The last show in London was a bit surreal,” says the singer, one half of uber-buzzy electropop duo MGMT (his partner Ben Goldwasser is a hippy-dippy yin, to VanWyngarden’s motormouth yang). “I ended up at this swanky club talking with Mark Ronson and a guy from The Klaxons. They’d just been at our show and really liked it, that was cool.”
What happened next is a story worthy of Happy Mondays in their hallucinogenic prime.
“I took a tab of acid and ended up at this club, which was not where most people would want to go when they’re on acid!,” he divulges. “Then somehow Kelly Osbourne charged eight bottles of champagne to my bar tab. It was £500 or more! I don’t know how it happened, the tab was open and I was out of my mind. It was a really weird night. I talked to the owner and they understood my situation. Kelly denied it, but it was her. Or I imagined it was!”
Had he said something to annoy Ms Osbourne I wonder?
“No! I think I was saying something about her dad, I don’t remember. I love Black Sabbath so I think I was talking about them. It’s a fun story but I don’t know if I want to put it out there. I don’t want to sound like we’re a drug band!”
The excessive rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle is the central theme of the hit single ‘Time To Pretend’, which has caused a backlash in conservative American circles.
“That happened when we were the iTunes single of the week,” Andrew explains. “The 30-second clip they put up had all the bad parts. You couldn’t really tell by listening to it that it was tongue-in-cheek. There were lots of mothers getting angry and calling us druggies.”
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