Phoenix is a French indie pop band formed in Versailles in 1995, childhood neighbors of the Daft Punk camp. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (2009) — 1901, Lisztomania — won the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album, and It's Never Been Like That (2006) is the connoisseur's pick. Find Phoenix vinyl, CDs, and reissues at Wax Trax Records.
Phoenix formed in Versailles, France in 1995 around Thomas Mars, Deck d'Arcy, Christian Mazzalai, and Laurent Brancowitz. Brancowitz had previously been a member of Darlin' (with Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, who subsequently formed Daft Punk). The Phoenix members and Daft Punk members grew up together in Versailles. They are widely cited as one of the most important contemporary French indie pop and indie rock bands alongside contemporaries like Daft Punk, M83, and Air. Their 2009 album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix - featuring the international singles 1901 and Lisztomania - became a international commercial breakthrough and won the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album in 2010. They have continued releasing material across multiple decades. Thomas Mars married American film director Sofia Coppola in 2011.
Phoenix's sound combines indie pop, indie rock, alternative rock, electronic, dance-rock, dream pop, and synth-pop with Mars's distinctive vocal delivery, atmospheric production approaches, and arrangements drawing on classic 1970s and 1980s pop alongside contemporary indie rock and electronic music influences.
Source Records, Astralwerks, Glassnote, and Loyaute pressings of the Phoenix catalog have been issued in multiple color variant editions and limited deluxe pressings.
Listeners new to Phoenix typically start with Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (2009) or It's Never Been Like That (2006).
