In town here in NYC and preparing for the fun tonight at Webster Hall, where he will be djing a massive event hosted by our friends at GBH, Famous Friends, BPM magazine, 66Sick and others, Vincent from Midnight Juggernauts took some time off of the Coney Island Mermaid Parade to chat with me about festivals, the Australian music scene, and crazy hippie kids.

Are you planning on going to the Mermaid Parade Today?

(Laughs) I was uh, yeah, you can hear it? Uh, it’s like, how did you know that?! (laughs)

You’re there now?..

It’s, uh, yeah. I’ve come here to see a lot of New York while I’m here, so uh.

Right, Right. You came here just in time then.

Yeah, yeah, it’s amazing, the weather is just beautiful and I just want explore all the parts of Coney Island and just do the tourist thing.

How long are you here for?

Well just a few days. I’m djing at Webster Hall tonight and after that I don’t know, I just thought I’d hang out until Wednesday and then straight to [Norway] to play some festival with Jay-Z (laughs).

Oh how, cool. Are you looking forward to that?

Yeah, yeah. I really like the festivals. It gives you an opportunity to see other bands as well.

(Loud Siren. Typical sound when you’re on your mobile phone in New York, Trust me! My brother always complains about it when he calls me.)

Is there any particular act you were impressed by at the festivals?

There was a band called Das Pop from Belgium that really impressed me. They’re like a pop band but I’m curious to see what the album is going to be like. They’re really good songwriters. Of course, seeing MGMT whenever they play. For me my favorite act has been Portishead.

I can imagine.

Yeah, they were great at Coachella. I just saw them last week at this festival we played in Barcelona called Primavera. It’s funny because they came on after Public Enemy and Public Enemy were hyping up the crowd saying “Are you ready to see De La Soul! Kick it back to the old school!” and everyone goes crazy. But they didn’t realize it was Public Enemy then Portishead THEN De La Soul. It was a bit of a detour musically for the hip hop acts of that night. But Portishead are really good live. All their songs take you to another place. They’re really good songwriters. And seeing them live, um, they’re pretty amazing.

How do you feel about the growing Australian music scene? I mean it’s been pretty non-stop for a while.

It’s good. It’s kind of funny because, of course you have bands like Cut Copy or Presets, or whoever it may be, which is giving Australia way more attention. It reminds me of back in the day, when we were just a small circle from Australia. Also, Australia being sort of isolated it’s great that we’re getting so much exposure and acceptance around the world.
It’s funny because, like, being so isolated its such a strong community that has grown over there. Like we’re all friends and we all know each other and there’s a comradery, sharing each others view.

Your album seems very cinematic and atmospheric. Do you have any cinematic influences in your music?

We love the films from the 70s. Like lots of Italian 70s sci-fi films and horror films and uh, it’s pretty diverse, our influences. I love the soundtracks from that year, which were combining synthesized sounds with orchestration where it created an intriguing mood. But we love film music. You can take the music in lots of different directions working within that realm. We would love to do a motion picture soundtrack in the future. [Or] It could be like those music clips. Like that [Terminator 2] Gun’s and Roses song, “You could be mine” We should just take any random film from the 80’s or 90s inter-cutting us performing live.

If some hippie kid were to listen to your album and magically discover that it went with a movie, like Dark Side of the Moon and The Wizard of Oz, what would it be?

Maybe I would say Barbarella.

Don’t forget to check out Vincent spin at Webster Hall tonight. 121 E. 11th street (btwn 13th & 14th), NYC. Doors open at 11pm. Other djs/performers include Crookers, DJ Funk, Danger, Alex English, Dave 1, Spitzer, Micprobes, The Captain, Morgan Louis, and a very Special Guest performer.

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