Parlez Vous Francais?

Sounding even more charming through a tired voice, Deck d'Arcy of Phoenix has just stepped off the plane back home following a whirlwind Asian tour that took the Frenchmen through South Korea, Philippines, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore and Japan in less than two weeks. The bass and keyboard player laments that they didn't really get a chance to explore much, however, they made time for plenty of local cuisine, a pastime d'Arcy admits is a top priority when on the road.

“The main thing we try to discover is the food situation in each country,” he remarks. “We try to discover new sensations and tastes – it's very interesting.”

After more than 80 dates worldwide in support of their fifth studio record Bankrupt!, Phoenix are “finally getting there with the show”, enjoying the challenge of putting the thicker textures of the recording into something which works on stage as well as the studio. “There was a lot of preparation for it, and particularly now we're finding new ways to rearrange the songs – we've got really close to what we want to have,” d'Arcy enthuses. “That's something we couldn't have done ten years ago; now we can really translate everything we record live, which is really inspiring.”

Phoenix's current stature as one of the premiere indie rock bands on the planet has come through relentless hard work over more than decade. A turn on the Lost In Translation soundtrack with their song Too Young helped them break into popular culture back in 2003 – it also led to the marriage of frontman Thomas Mars and the film's director Sophia Coppola in 2011 – but even with that leg-up the quartet continued to glide under the radar for many. Then Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix happened.

The 2009 album was a monster. The new wave joy and synth-driven jangle pop of tracks like Lisztomania and 1901 endeared them to a generation of kids that wanted guitars to make them feel good, and off the back of those singles the record charted around the world. But rather than capitalising quickly and making Wolfgang 2.0, Phoenix spent four years moulding Bankrupt!, a record that fluidly continues the band's timeline without disappearing into its own self-importance.

“Maybe we weren't ready [for success] before?” d'Arcy ponders. “It's true that it took so long, [but] we'd always been happy about the success we had anyway with the albums before Wolfgang, it was just another step. But just putting out an album is already a big success for a young band, making the second one is quite crazy too. We [have felt] really lucky all the way, just being able to make albums in the way we wanted with no compromises – that's all you need. So if success comes or not it's kind of [irrelevant].”

And even with full creative leeway for Bankrupt!, Phoenix maintained parameters, aware that they operate better with limitations. “It's always free,” says d'Arcy, “but that's when it's scary. Too much freedom and you get lost in it.” But as for the original plan this time, the bassist can't recall.

“It was such a long time ago, it was three years ago. We always have a fake plan, but it's just a pretence to start an album. We don't really control what we do, we just go with the flow; we don't really know how to make a song, we just make a lot of things randomly and eventually there are some little ideas that we take out and out of all that we make a song. It's not like writing from A to B. Everything we plan from our brain is predictable, so it's more based on random.”

That mindset will drive the French group's performances at Future Music Festival this year. Yes, they're the token guitar band surrounded by a mountain of beats, and sure they established themselves among the thriving Parisian electro scene of the early-to-mid-noughties. But even when all outside factors call for change, Phoenix will continue to do what they want. And no doubt it will work, too.

“We're a bit selfish really, we don't really adapt to the crowd, we are more doing what we want to do,” d'Arcy shrugs. “So I don't know, we'll see how we feel around that time. The thing is, Australian crowds are pretty good, they're very energetic and into shows so it's not very hard to make a good setlist with an Australian crowd. I don't know if you guys are still the same, but in the past it's been a pretty fun gig.”