King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard Have Nearly Finished Their Next Album

After phoning King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard's Joe Walker (also of Love Migrate) from outside a coffee shop on Lygon Street, the guitarist comes out and we enter Gizz HQ. The band's drummer Michael Cavanagh then meets us inside the warehouse space, which is divided to accommodate Flightless (label/management for King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard and The Murlocs, run by Eric Moore who plays drums/theremin for Gizz), Jason Galea (who does King Gizzard's artwork) and art collective Nowhere Special (friends of the band). We wander down the hall past their recording studio (Walker: "we've got a reel-to-reel tape player!"), which was set up last summer. "Now we can just come and turn everything on, and if we want we can just record everything we need to," the guitarist, who lives around the corner, enthuses. As we all head out to the courtyard where the pair can smoke rollies, Walker says, "We have a lotta plans to make a lotta music in here". 

Since the band's beginnings back in 2010, their line-up's been pretty solid, although Walker recalls, "I'm pretty sure Fraser A Gorman played a couple of sets with us". Cavanagh clarifies, "He was in the band at the start." 

"This is [my dad's] favourite. Mum still loves Paper Mache [Dream Balloon]."

They're just about to head back over to the States for more touring, but the band's frontman Stu Mackenzie is already there. "He's gone over to do some travelling, he left on Saturday just for a couple of weeks," Cavanagh explains. "We meet him in Austin." Moore is currently in Sydney "doing management stuff", Walker shares. "And then The Murlocs — the two guys from The Murlocs are Cookie [Craig, guitar] and Ambrose [Kenny-Smith, harmonica/vocals/synth]; they've been on tour… They were actually in the studio this morning rehearsing." And their bassist? "Lucas [Skinner, bass], he lives in Camberwell and he's probably working."

When asked whether they also have part-time jobs, Cavanagh observes, "We probably should still have jobs but, yeah! We're starting to get a little bit of money now, so we can live off it." Walker continues, "The first bit of this year, really, for the first time! It's by no means, like, substantial money — it's just kinda like an equivalent of working a casual job."

Walker describes their latest Nonagon Infinity set as "a pretty dense listen. It's, like, the first album that I feel like I've lost my parents on." After sending the album masters to his folks, there was no immediate response but when Walker eventually caught up with his parents and asked what they thought, he laughs, "They're like, 'You lost me.' But, since, I think they've come around to it."

"My dad's the opposite. He loves it," Cavanagh contributes. "This is his favourite. Mum still loves Paper Mache [Dream Balloon]."

In true King Gizzard form, their next album is almost finished. "Well, I've finished all the drums — for the next record," Cavanagh illuminates. "We dunno when it's gonna come out, but…" Walker interjects, "Yeah, it's gonna be pretty interesting." A departure? "Not necessary a departure, but, like, there's these kinda extra elements that we've incorporated into it that have really defined it and it's really exciting to make the music off this [next] record." Cavanagh marvels, "And we've done it all here, too, in our own studio."