“Since I was a child, I have always been fascinated by the epic,” says Anthony Gonzalez, via phone from the South of France. Coming from the mastermind behind the lush and cinematic synth/gaze act M83, it’s an understatement as vast as the scope of his sound. Beginning with the self-titled M83 in 2001 through five studio albums, the last being 2008′s Saturdays = Youth, Gonzalez has built a veritable universe of sound: a signature blend of ambient, electronic shoegaze with synthesizer-driven power-pop, all beneath an omnipotent halo of post-2k gothic angst. “It’s such a cliché,” he explains, “but the best way to do something epic is to make a double-disc record.”

Read the full article from VMAN 23 The Archetypes Issue, and stream the album after the jump.

Gonzalez is speaking of his latest album, Hurry Up We’re Dreaming, two discs of spiraling, atmospheric dream pop representing a tidal shift from Saturdays, away from that record’s John Hughes-inspired pop-inflicted spirit toward the infinite and dark interior of the human dreamscape. There’s a marked difference in Gonzalez’s vocal delivery, which is belted much louder than the breathless whispers which have consistently guided his song craft. “I expect people will react about the way I am singing, because it’s not like what I have done before,” he says. “I just got tired of whispering into the microphone. I felt like I had to express what was inside of me. I needed to yell.”

That same urgency bled into the concept of the album as a two-part journey. On the edge of turning 30, Gonzalez gained a critical realization: “I think every artist wants to, at some point, put out a big, long double album. I felt like if I didn’t do it now I might not get to do it at all, because the music business is different. People like to download songs, not listen to full albums. I want to create a record that you can listen to from beginning to end.”

Hurry Up We’re Dreaming is out October 18 from Mute. Listen to a stream of the album now at Urban Outfitters.

Read about M83 in VMAN 23 The Archetypes Issue, on stands now.

Photography Xavier Cariou

KEYWORDS: M83, Music, VMAN 23, VMAN News