NEW WEIRD AUSTRALIA

AUSSIE SHAPESHIFTING POLYMATHS KING GIZZARD AND THE LIZARD WIZARD HAVE RELEASED 15 STUDIO ALBUMS SINCE 2012, RANGING FROM JAZZ TO THRASH METAL. VOCALIST AND LEAD GUITARIST STU MACKENZIE SPEAKS TO TG ABOUT AC/DC, RECORDING IN SHIPPING CONTAINERS AND HIS NEWFOUND LOVE FOR THE GIBSON EXPLORER...

- Stan Bull

“My dad played guitar, and when I was a kid, he used to sing my little brother and I to sleep every night” says Stu Mackenzie, bandleader of Australian garage-psych innovators King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard. “He was a young dad, and he was learning, so it was this beautiful experience of falling asleep listening to him work out the song. It was far from performance; I think it was his meditation as well.” Through these humble beginnings, the instrument would remain a background instrument for the young Mackenzie, until he was presented with an alternate take on guitar music. “Becoming a teenager, guitar was always something that my dad did, and therefore it wasn’t ‘cool’ [laughs]. I guess, as a classic Australian, it was seeing videos of AC/DC playing live that made me think, ‘No, actually, guitar is cool!’ The music my dad liked, I like now, but it wasn’t electric guitars with loud, primal energy. It was Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Paul Kelly. So seeing AC/DC on TV made me say, ‘Please, Dad, can I have a guitar?!’”

“My dad was left-handed, so initially I learnt to play upsidedown. Because of that, I can still have a fiddle on an upside-down guitar – it’s still ingrained in my brain a little bit. After a few months, my dad very kindly said, ‘Okay, I think Stu’s ready now’. I was 15 at the time, and a lot of my friends sang or played piano or drums, and I felt like I had to catch up. So a lot of my adolescence and high school years were about trying to catch up to my friends who were more accomplished or had learnt more than me. I always felt like it was never about the skill, just about being good enough to join in on the jam and the hangout. That was the drive.”