King Gizzard Drummer CAVS Talks Groovy Solo LP

King Gizzard and the Lizard drummer Michael “Cavs” Cavanagh further reveals the bespoke world surrounding his groovy second solo LP, Sojourn, with the release today (March 25) of second single “First Light.” Following lead track “Candiru,” the video for which finds a forest-traversing Cavanagh getting rather intimate with a tree, the Jackson Devereux-directed clip for “First Light” follows the musician’s “transition to his new tree form, and his first stages of coping with this new reality. We found a literal halfway house and booked a room for him to tweak out.”

Due April 24 on Gizzard’s p(doom) label, the instrumental Sojourn was co-produced by fellow Australian musician Jim Rindfleish of the band Mildlife and also features Melbourne-based musicians Adam Halliwell (flute/guitar), Siwei Wong (harp), Archibald Pommelhorse (saxophone), Selene Messinis (keyboards) and Robbin Poppins (percussion), plus Gizzard guitarist Joey Walker moonlighting on bass.

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Cavanagh and Rindfleish devised an “Indiana Jones-style” narrative to help the music cohere, which also allowed for a wide variety of styles and motifs to make their way into the project. The glittering, flute-driven opener “Victoria Amazonica” imagines a cautious expedition into uncharted waters, “Emerald Nile” soundtracks darting in and out of a middle eastern bazaar and “Death Bat” rides a big, bouncy bass line through delicious distorted guitars. Other highlights include the sleek “Paititi,” which would sound great on an alternate universe yacht rock compilation, and the penultimate song “The Seeker,” which exudes a warm, jazzy elegance.

Cavanagh jumped on Zoom with SPIN to discuss the genesis of Sojourn, how it was influenced by some of his favorite drummers such as Can’s Jaki Liebezeit, Billy Cobham, Harvey Mason and Tony Williams, performing the music live and what’s on tap for King Gizzard, which has yet to release new music or perform live this year. The group’s only planned gigs for 2026 are the sophomore edition of its Field of Vision festival in Buena Vista, Co., from Aug. 14-16, followed by an Aug. 20-22 run at New York’s Forest Hills Stadium that includes a closing electronic rave night — but it sure seems like there is new music percolating.

Because Gizz hasn’t played live yet this year, has it afforded you the opportunity to really dig your claws into projects like this new CAVS album?

Absolutely. I started tracking drums and other instruments before we went on the first leg of the orchestral tour last summer, and then in between tours last year, we were just chilling. We weren’t in the studio or anything because we were so well rehearsed. I kept chipping away on the album towards the end of the year and we finished it just before Christmas.

You’ve mentioned that even when making your first album (2021’s drum-only CAVS), you felt that you wanted to expand the palette and sound of your solo music. What helped put you in that position this time around?

I guess my being confident with my ability to arrange, even though I only played drums on this record. That doesn’t mean you can’t make a record, you know? But doing it this way is different, especially as a drummer. In the ’60s and ’70s, a lot of drummers made records in ways where they were more like composers. They might be busy playing with Miles Davis, and then on their own solo albums, they’d just get friends to play and jam. Someone like Billy Cobham, who was a renowned drummer but released solo albums and is also an amazing composer. Or, Harvey Mason, who drummed for Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters. He’s got some amazing solo records as well where he’s just sitting in the pocket of the grooves. Thanks to [drummer] Jaki Liebezeit, Can has been my favorite band for so long. I still go through phases of listening to them constantly, and every time I do, I get inspired again. All these people added so much energy to jazz, funk and fusion. They’re super groovy but they can rock as well.

For non-drummers, could you try to explain why so many drummers specifically revere Jaki?

For me, it’s the Krautrock thing. Everything he does is very simple but it has a lot of flavor and is really hypnotic. He’ll do these fills that go over the bar line and it feels like the song is going to fall apart, but then he kicks back in, in time, and you know he’s doing it deliberately. Early hip-hop was very influenced by Can and sampled some of Jaki’s grooves.

Talk to me about how you and Jim found a nice groove working together and how your individual talents melded?

Jim plays drums in the band Mildlife and we’ve been mates forever through touring and everything. We have the exact same influences. Neither of us listen to anything past, like, 1983 (laughs). We’re very different drummers, though. He’s more jazz and disco and I’ve got a bit more of a rock element. He’s become an amazing producer and engineer and a few years ago we spoke about making a record together. These were early conversations for what was going to be another drum/percussion album, but I started making these demos that had bass lines and other elements, and it continued to develop from there. Jim had a lot of ideas because he’s a great arranger and composer as well.

“Silk Road” was one of the first tracks we started. It finished up almost nowhere near where it began. To be honest, none of the tracks are true to what the demos were, which is the beauty of co-producing with someone else. That song was like a Tony Allen/Afrobeat kind of thing, but it turned into more of a funky, Herbie Hancock thing. “Paitity” wound up that way too but originally the demo was more like the Steve Miller Band — like a ’70s groove and bass line. Everything got a bit more jazz and fusion-y as it took shape.

I have to know: what the heck are you running the guitar through on ‘Death Bat?’ What is that tone?

That’s Adam from Mildlife playing through a guitar synth pedal. He was kind of the secret weapon on the record, because he did all the flute as well. It’s very, very flute-driven (laughs).

You easily could have made a 10-song album of beats that are similar to Gizzard, but clearly that’s not something that interested you. What was the experience like of not limiting yourself, or being able to tap into whatever the heck you wanted to tap into?

It was very endless when we started but I didn’t want to limit myself. I’m definitely in no way a good jazz drummer, but that was what made this record so fun. I just challenged myself to play differently. Even in Gizz, I like to keep things simple, although we have some very complicated stuff. But then we have a song like ‘Rattlesnake,’ which repeats over and over. Coming back to the influences I mentioned, they could play anything and everything, but on their solo records, they didn’t. That’s kind of where the limits were. Playing differently was the enjoyment, but also a lot of the fun of this record was arranging and coming up with ideas in post-production. I played a bit of musical director too when I got the players in. On the demos, there might have been a sampled bass line from an old hip-hop or jazz record, and I’d say, can you replicate this? But then I’d have them do a fully improvised take where it was their own thing, and I’d chop in between them. It was a pretty big thing for me to be sort of musically directing people.

This album has a story too, with a protagonist going on adventures. Did that help you keep things creative?

Yeah, absolutely, man. That came later. As the songs were forming and getting to their final stages in the arrangements, Jim and I realized, this is like a journey. Some of it is very tropical-sounding. You can just picture yourself stranded on an island. We kinda rolled with that until it was time to order and name the tracks, and then the narrative evolved even more.

Did you give your family a head’s up about what they were going to see you doing in the ‘Candiru’ video?

No (laughs). They were excited to see it. I look at it in a more cinematic way. What’s so different to watching a sex scene in a movie? I guess the fact that it is their son might be a bit weird, but they had a laugh. As long as I’m making people happy, that’s what it’s all about.

Joey from Gizzard plays bass on the album. Is it rare that you guys will guest on each other’s solo projects?

I’ve played drums on Cookie’s last two Pipe-eye records, but yeah, there isn’t usually an overlap. Usually if we have downtime, people just want to chill and do their own thing. But Joey came in and did all the bass in a day, which was sick. He’s just a freak and he comes up with some very cool parts because he’s not actually a bass player. I loved his way of writing.

You will get a chance to debut this music live later this spring.

Yes, we’re planning a show on May 22 in Melbourne and then we’ll see how we go from there. At the moment, it’s an eight-piece band but I feel like it doesn’t have to be that all the time. There’s a part of me that wants to hit these tunes without all the instruments — maybe just bass and guitar and flute or something. If I do more shows, it could be the full-eight piece or something else. It’s going to be different every time I do a show, which is cool. For this first show, I’m trying to get all the players that played on the record. I think it’s going to be sweet. We’ll just play the Sojourn stuff, but there will most likely be a drum solo (laughs).

Gizz has been using the modular synthesizer setup on stage a lot more over the past two years. Sometimes you play electronic drums, but sometimes you play your regular acoustic kit. How has this part of the show evolved for you as a musician?

It has been awesome, but it’s a challenge and a learning curve. It was kind of tricky when we first started for me to find a place in it all, but I liked that. Sometimes there’s so much going on with the modules already that my approach is to just play my acoustic kit, but with the electronic one, I am able to provide a pulse when it’s needed, or more of a beat. I see it as just another texture. We’ll go into a song with very little of a basic structure and just work around that. There might be a motif we come back to, or we might not. It’s probably 70% or 80% improv.

Can you reveal any details on what Gizzard is working on musically? Is the new album being made with the Nathan modular synth setup?

Yeah, we’re definitely working on all of our electronic stuff at the moment, which has been really sick. We did a big session last year in between tours. We spent a week in the studio and we just jammed for hours endlessly. Some stuff was good. Most of it wasn’t. We’ve been chipping away at approaching the whole electronic thing in a few different ways. We’re constantly trying to find a place, and to find ourselves, in this electronic world of ours, but it’s getting there. I was playing the drums along to, like, the table kind of thing, but then I had some electronic kit stuff I was doing as well. It’s just trying to find a place sonically. Obviously, Joey’s techno history and background plays a part in it. It’s a big step beyond The Silver Cord.

[Group member] Stu [Mackenzie] said something about ‘working on bluegrass’ right before you guys were in the studio with Billy Strings. Care to comment further?

You’ll see in time (smiles).

Let’s end with this. I imagine getting Field of Vision off the ground was a dream come true. What are your impressions of the first edition and what are you looking forward to for round two in August?

We were just blown away by how professional it was, but also the weirdness of that many people coming out to see a lot of bands they’ve never heard of except for us. It’s so cool. We’re gonna try to stick with that kind of vibe, and there will be more artists announced soon. It’s so sick. As soon as it finished, we didn’t want to leave. It’s a beautiful place and we had so much fun. It really made us feel comfortable, and you’ve got to be comfortable when you’re playing three hours a night (laughs).

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