The last time we spoke to the Midnight Juggernauts they were beefing with John Travolta and in the throes of a national tour for their debut LP "Dystopia". Fast forward 18 months and the interstate trio are penciling in collaborations with Solange Knowles, Beyonce's sister, and on the cusp of releasing their sophomore album. My how the times have changed. We spoke to drummer Daniel Stricker about working on the new album, receiving underwear from Japanese fans, touring the world and the importance of doing things independently. This is a fucking juggernaut of an interview so let's dive into it shall we?
P: What have the Midnight Juggernauts been up to since Dystopia?
MJ: Well we’ve toured a lot and I’ve been trying to improve my cooking skills in my time off. I’ve been enjoying my time at home. (Laughs) Nah, we were touring all of last year overseas so we got back in November and Dystopia only came out overseas in April of last year so since then we’ve just been kind of writing, recording, demoing and yeah, cooking.
P: Yeah? What have you been cooking? Do you cook for Vin and Andy?
MJ: I have cooked for Andy once and he didn’t like it, he didn’t eat it. But yeah, I’ve been cooking.
P: How’s the reaction been overseas?
MJ: Overseas was really great last year, we didn’t really know what to expect but it’s funny how far music can travel - as I said we put the album out in April. But it was crazy how much it had already grown just from being online. It doesn’t really matter so much these days getting the physical product out, it’s good because you get the whole package and it’s something you collect and everything, but it had already built a lot before that.
All in all it was really good, we played some massive shows, we did pretty much every festival you’d dream of doing. And it was amazing, I’ve got great photos, my iPhone is full of photos.
P: So the staggered release schedule internationally didn’t really change anything?
MJ: No not really because it was online. I mean you want it to sync up, and on this new record I’m pretty sure it will, but the online thing – it does its thing these days.
P: So where are the Midnight Juggernauts big around the world?
MJ: It’s really weird, it was really good in Europe. It’s funny because we were in France a lot last year, we actually had an apartment there for two months and I was checking some statistic somewhere, I can’t remember where it was, but it said in France the fans were double that of Australia. It was just really crazy.
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After expeditions in Shanghai, Mexico, Western Australia and a nondescript underground bunker, our favourite video related party game, "Where In The World Is Empire Of The Sun?" takes its next astrological step - outer space.
In the clip, a lone Luke Steele mans an ivory throne, drinks from an ivory chalice and tames wild beasts while sporting feathers on his shoulders and sullenly stalking his bat cave, a half disco dance floor, half neon light structure that looks like a contemporary Chinese art installation from the year 3000. In other words, it's a regular Empire Of The Sun video.
