MGMT on Naming New Album 'Loss of Life' — And the 'Wild Nature' of That 'Saltburn' Synch

Two decades since MGMT formed as Wesleyan University students, Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser haven't lost their psychedelic charm. Despite its bleak title, their fifth album, Loss of life (out Feb. 23), features some of the duo's most honest, hopeful music. “Coming out of the pandemic, there was a whole wave of super doom-oriented art and music and apocalyptic shit,” VanWyngarden says of MGMT's first album since 2018. Little Dark Age.

Recorded in 2021 and 2022, Loss of life it's also the debut of the Mom + Pop series (after leaving longtime label Columbia Records) and features “Mother Nature,” MGMT's first hit on Billboard's Alternative Airplay chart since 2007's “Time To Pretend ” and “Kids”. As VanWyngarden says, “This album is more contemplative and existential and kind of philosophical. But at the core, it's always coming back to [the idea of] you love to be something you can count on — and that's kind of indestructible.”

How did you end up with Mom + Pop as your new record label?

Goldwasser: It was after the album was completed. We got to shop the record – it was the first time we've actually done that. One of the people who work at the label went to Wesleyan, which is where we went, and her faculty advisor was the same as ours. We hit it off the first time we met, just talking about weird things we did in college.

VanWyngarden: We kind of did, like, speed dating tags. Everyone we talked to was super, super cool. It could have been great to go with any of them. In the end, Mom + Pop had this ethos that was at the foundation of their label that we were drawn to and related to. Goldie, like [Mom + Pop founder/owner Michael Goldstone] as he is affectionately known, he was in the music business for decades before for major labels and came out of it like he wanted to do something [at Mom + Pop] that was trying to change things and be more involved with artists, like in the real sense. So we liked that.

You've said that your last two records, from 2013 MGMT and of 2018 Little Dark Age, dealt with the paranoia and anxiety of life in the modern age. What was your headspace when you did this?

VanWyngarden: We're both turning 40 while making this album and wanted to find a way to keep our lighthearted, playful approach to things, but challenge ourselves to have a more honest and hopeful message. Coming out of the pandemic, there's been a whole wave of super doom-oriented art and music and apocalyptic shit. A common condition for humans, as throughout human history, is to feel like the world is ending – and it's probably because you know you're going to die. Mortality is an apocalypse common to every human being. It's for sure, it's for sure. This album is more contemplative and existential and kind of philosophical. But at the core, always coming back to love is something you can count on – and that's kind of indestructible.

You met me again Little Dark Age producer Patrick Wimberly and longtime studio partner Dave Fridmann. What do they bring to the table?

Goldwasser: These are the people we feel most comfortable being with in the creative process. We just want to feel uninhibited and natural throughout the music making process. Especially having worked with Dave Fridmann since our first record, we just have that level of understanding and communication with him. I don't know how we would ever build it with anyone else.

VanWyngarden: Considering how naive and new to everything in the music industry we were when we first met [Dave], is almost like a dolphin trainer. Like we were these dolphins that came to his complex and trained. Everything we know goes back to Dave Fridmann. Patrick is the same, really. He is a peer. it is a producer, but more in the sense that it helps to maintain the atmosphere and atmosphere.

For Loss of life, you also expanded your creative circle compared to your previous albums. Tell me about that decision and how it affected the record.

Goldwasser: Part of that is a result of us being less precious about the way we make music. It's been difficult for us at times, wanting to be recognized more as producers ourselves and wanting people to know that we're responsible for the sounds on the records – maybe we've had a chip on our shoulder for that in the past. With time and experience, we've learned to let some of them go. The most important thing is to make good music.

“Mother Nature” has a nice lineup: Oneohtrix Point Never, Danger Mouse and Nels Cline. It's also your first chart hit on Billboard's Alternative Airplay chart since “Time To Pretend” and “Kids.”

VanWyngarden: I didn't even know it.

How did it come together and how did you react to its success?

VanWyngarden: I've been around so much listening to classic rock radio and I recognize that now, in terms of the time that's passed, we're entitled to be on classic rock stations. Along with 90s Britpop, there is a heavy classic rock influence [on “Mother Nature”]. When we were first making the piano riff in the beginning, I always felt like there was a Supertramp feel to it. Everything really came together very naturally and organically in this song. We knew Brian Burton [Danger Mouse] for a long time and we were working in his studio. He was there giving us advice and his opinion and helping us work through modules. Then once we developed the song and invited Oneohtrix Point Never on, he and Ben did a session where they just went crazy with the guitars and made this kind of shoegaze-y bridge. Then we approached the song where it ended up when we were working in Sean Lennon's studio in September 2022. It was upstate New York and Nels and Yuka [Honda] live near and then Oneohtrix Point Never was up there. There was this smorgasbord of amazing musicians. We had Nels come in and fool around on the guitar and we were like, “Wow, that's incredible.”

Oneohtrix Point Never worked on five of the tracks on this album. Artists from The Weeknd to Soccer Mommy have collaborated with him lately. How did you connect with him? What did he add? Loss of life?

Goldwasser: Andrew met him at a party in New York – and didn't know who he was at the time. They just ended up being pretty cool company. After that, they hung out again. And then we thought it would be fun to get together with him and see what happened. Turns out we have a lot of the same musical references. We just got along really well. It got where we were going with the record. The way it works is very curative – it mines sounds and has an encyclopedia of sounds that knows, like, how do you get that sound. I always like to see people's different approaches to how they work.

“Time To Pretend” is featured prominently Saltburn. How did this timing happen?

Goldwasser: The filmmakers approached us. I was a fan of his [director Emerald Fennell’s] Promising young woman — so I knew it was going to be something a little unusual.

VanWyngarden: I don't remember exactly when it was brought to us. I don't think I paid too much attention. I was like, “Okay, another one [person] who wants to use “Time To Pretend”… I wish he would use one of our newer songs.” But then I saw Saltburn and I said, “Oh, this is set in 2007, that makes perfect sense.” It's really great to participate somewhat passively in another cultural phenomenon. It strikes me that there's a Georges Bataille level of savagery going on in this massive pop culture film — that's not very common. Having a song on it is cool, because we like to be subversive and irreverent.

You debuted with Oracular Spectacular nearly two decades ago – and played it in its entirety at the Just Like Heaven festival last year. How do you look back on that time?

Goldwasser: It's pretty wild how things come into context, the stories people tell about things over the years. At the time, we didn't think about how people would write about it 20 years later. We were young and dumb and kind of…

VanWyngarden: Wait, how are you going to finish that?

Goldwasser: …it's still here.

A version of this story originally appeared in the January 27, 2024, issue Advertising sign.