Anthony Gonzalez seems to understand this. The leader of French synth-pop group M83 has gone through a lot of styles and genres in the band's eight-year history, running the gamut from psychedelic guitar swirls to rigid drum programming and layers of keyboards. But on last year's album, "Saturdays = Youth," Gonzalez hit a vein that seemed to fuse all his band's previous styles, landing on a sound between Tears For Fears and My Bloody Valentine that brings to mind the melancholy of American '80s teen movies and their soundtracks.
"I really wanted to capture this feeling of innocence when you are a teenager," Gonzalez said on the phone from a stadium in Leipzig, where his band was about to play their first night of a stint opening for '80s legends Depeche Mode. "It means a lot to me because I have so many great memories about my childhood and when I was a teenager. ... I think it was one of the best periods of my life, and I miss it."
While a lot of people have less-pleasant memories of their teenage years, there are certain aspects of the period that can be fun to revisit, if only for a little while. This Friday, M83 will bring their '80s tribute to Ikra for the closest thing you can get to a live soundtrack for a classic John Hughes 1980s film.
"Hughes is a big influence for this album in particular, and this album is definitely a tribute to the '80s music but also the '80s teen movies from America," said Gonzalez. "I think that being a teenager is always the same in every country, pretty much, the difference is ... because I grew up in France, all the music I listened to and the movies I was watching, they came from America. So I had the same influences as a young American teenager."
Unlike most teenagers, however, Gonzalez has turned his penchant for musical manifestations of nostalgia into a career. If only we all could be so lucky.
"It's been an amazing year," said Gonzalez. "I'm doing what I've always wanted to do."
M83 plays at Ikra Fri., July 3. 8A Ulitsa Kazakova. Metro Kurskaya, Krasniye Vorota. (499) 261-7058. Ikraclub.ru.
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