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https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/oct/20/king-gizzard-lizard-wizard-stu-mackenzie-interview-leaving-spotify-free-music>
"Over their mind-boggling 15-year, 27-album career, King Gizzard and the Lizard
Wizard have switched gears with the speed and abandon of a stunt driver in a
Fast and Furious film. Can you even describe the six-piece as a psychedelic
rock band any more?
Their music to date has encompassed metal, folk, jazz and dance music; they
have experimented with dense concept records and microtonal tunings, and this
year they’ve been touring both an orchestral show and a rave show, alongside
residencies in European prisons and amphitheatres.
And in July, King Gizzard made their latest hairpin turn: removing all their
music from Spotify, in protest of CEO Daniel Ek’s €600m (A$1.06bn) investment
in the AI military tech firm Helsing.
“We have done a lot of different things over the years, but sometimes you just
forget that you have free will – you can do whatever you want in these spaces,”
says frontman and de facto bandleader Stu Mackenzie over the phone in
September. “I don’t particularly want to try to start a movement or something
like that – I’m happy if other people join. But for us, it was a decision about
our music and a decision about what we think is right and what we think is not
right. [We decided] we’re just gonna walk and deal with consequences later.”
He pauses, before adding: “Of which there have not been many … nobody seems to
really care too much.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
