Interview: The Internet on their upcoming fourth album.

With their upcoming fourth album expected for release this year, The Internet have spent the three years since their last release ‘Ego Death’ pursuing individual creative outputs, as well as honing their craft as a five-piece - with the band’s Syd sharing that the album has been more collaborative than ever before.

We spoke with The Internet ahead of their performance at Laneway Festival earlier this year about what to expect from the upcoming album…

...I wouldn’t say save the world, but I want to make people get away from what they’re thinking [about].

COUP DE MAIN: Welcome back to New Zealand! You guys aren’t strangers to our country, what’s it like the third time around for you?
SYD: It’s good to be back! We’ve been here twice.
MATT MARTIANS: This is our third time.

CDM: How has recording been going for the upcoming fourth The Internet album?
SYD: It’s been good. We did a lot of it in a short amount of time, so since then I’ve just been going back to it, adding lyrics, adding background vocals, re-recording parts, stuff like that. That’s the stage we’re in now, finishing it all up.

CDM: You said back in 2016 that you thought this album would be a lot more of you guys all in a room together, improvising and vibing. Has that been the case?
SYD: Yes, definitely. We were all in the room for the making of the instrumentals.

CDM: Did you prefer that to how you guys used to work?
SYD: Yeah, I like it that way. Everybody’s input goes into it, more legitimately that way.

IF WE HAD A DAY OFF IN NEW ZEALAND…

CDM: The next questions are just some quick-fire questions about the new album. If your album was a colour, what would it be?
MATT: Oohhh, I like these questions. Our album would be-- it would look like this bracelet right here <points at multi-coloured bracelet>, with lines and twists. It sounds yellow to me, it has a lot of different things in it. I get different colours from it, but I see yellow when I hear it.

CDM: If your album was an animal…
PATRICK PAIGE II: King of the jungle, it’s a lion!
MATT: Yeah, a domesticated lion - that doesn’t exist <laughs> but yeah.

CDM: If your album was a film…?
MATT: ‘2 Fast 2 Furious’.
PATRICK: I’d say ‘Poetic Justice’.
SYD: <laughs> 'Poetic Justice'!
CHRISTOPHER SMITH: 'Friday'?
MATT: 'Friday', oh yeah, I was gonna say 'Friday'!
STEVE LACY: Like a 'Superbad' in the hood.

CDM: And if your album was a kind of food…
PATRICK: It would be a buffet.
SYD: Cereal.
MATT: There’s a place in Atlanta, and a place in L.A., one’s called Zaxby's, one’s called Raising Cane’s. We’re making the Raising Cane’s and Zaxby's of music, I feel. Something you’ve never had before, but once you’ve had it, you can’t get enough of it.
PATRICK: Cane’s is like the best, and Zaxby’s.
MATT: They’re like the brother and sister of each other.
PATRICK: I still say a buffet though, because there’s so many different flavours.

HOW WE FEEL ABOUT OUR UPCOMING ALBUM…

CDM: And just to confirm, the new album is going to save the world as you promised on Twitter, right?!
MATT: Oh, I just said that because I was faded, I think. I just replied to some fan. <laughs> Hopefully it does! Honestly, on a serious note, I wouldn’t say save the world, but I want to make people get away from what they’re thinking [about]. Our album isn’t political or anything, it’s really just - no pun intended - a getaway album when I listen to it. I kinda just want people to forget about what’s going on in the news, the media. Everyone’s making political albums that are talking about it, and it’s like, when I listen to music I want to get away from it. I don’t want to hear about what I already hear on the news. I’d say that’s what I meant by that, escapism, I think.

The Internet’s third album ‘Ego Death’ is out now - click here to purchase.

Watch the band perform ‘Girl’ live for triple j below…