Foxygen: Jonathan Rado and Sam France. Photos by Cara Robbins.

Foxygen: "Cosmic Vibrations" (via SoundCloud)

Since the success of their brilliantly shaggy debut album, We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic, Foxygen have gained a reputation as a band teetering on the brink of collapse. First, there was a SXSW set last year that saw frontman Sam France confronting a crowd member—exact quote: “Come on the fucking stage and talk to me about it, you fucking coward”—and then storming off. Then, they canceled a tour. And last summer, rumors of turmoil between France and co-founder Jonathan Rado popped up.

All of which might make you think the sessions for their forthcoming second record ...And Star Power would be rife with conflict and at least a few fistfights. But that would not be the case. In fact, the only moment of contentiousness they can recall involved a five-minute argument about the quality of a certain drum take and a thrown lighter—not exactly "Behind the Music" material. "As far as me and Sam working together as Foxygen, that was never a question," says Rado. France agrees, calling any and all breakup rumors "utter bullshit."

So while their internal drama may not reach Beatles or Fleetwood Mac levels, ...And Star Power still finds the band checking-off another slew of classic-rock tropes. Make a bloated double album? Done. Give it a concept that’s not entirely clear? Sure. Adopt multiple alter egos? Absolutely. Enlist special guests? Indeed, including members of the Flaming Lips, Of Montreal, White Fence, and Bleached. Still, the duo insist they are doing more than simply regurgitating what came before them. "People think we're really stuck in the past, but we don't really think of all this stuff as tributes to old classic rock and shit," says France. "Our philosophy is a little more liquid and modern than that."

Pitchfork: There are a lot of guests on this album, but did you write songs with other artists in mind who you couldn't get?

Jonathan Rado: We wanted the L.A. producer guru Kim Fowley on it, but it didn't work out.

Sam France: Stevie Nicks didn’t work out either.

JR: We tried to get Stevie. Early on, I wanted to get Paul McCartney to play drums on a song, but it didn’t work out with Paul.

SF: Our management did reach out, though.

JR: They just got an email back that said something like, "Paul doesn't guest star." As it is, Star Power is like the budget version of the album that it could've been if Paul McCartney and Stevie Nicks were on it.

... And Star Power cover:

Pitchfork: The liner notes list each side’s theme, and side one is called "Star Power, Side One, Part One: The Hits; What's the Hook?"

JR: [laughs] Yeah, that's the side of the album that I think casual Foxygen listeners will really like. "What's the hook?" is like the album's motto—while we were recording, we wrote that on the wall of the studio, and it was overlooking us the whole time. It doesn't necessarily mean "catchy chorus," but more like, "Why are people going to want to listen to this song?"

Pitchfork: How fleshed out is the Star Power universe? Do you have personas for the band, or is it more of a loose concept?

SF: It's a looser concept—it's just exaggerated ideas of me and Rado.

JR: Our live band right now is kind of like Star Power, so if there was a band that was Star Power, it would currently be Foxygen.

Pitchfork: You credit a Skip Spence song in the liner notes—is it important for you guys to give credit where it’s due as far as borrowing from other artists?

SF: Particularly in that case, yes. It's from a bonus track on Oar by Skip Spence, which is kind of obscure, so I definitely wanted to credit him. But other than that, I don’t think we've ever given too much credit. Our songs have always just been this changing amalgamation of things.

JR: Sometimes you realize you do it after the fact. Not that every Foxygen song is ripped off from other songs, but there were a few moments where it's like, "oops”. But if you’re not realizing it, you're warping it into something else that’s not that person's song anymore.

Pitchfork: Well, for example, when you made "On Blue Mountain", from the first album, were you aware that the chorus sounds like Elvis' "Suspicious Minds"?

JR: No.

SF: There was a point where I was like, "Yo, this is ‘Suspicious Minds.’" But we weren't really thinking about it.

JR: We don't ever go, "Oh, we're going to steal this part." We'll write something and be like, "Oh, maybe that's something else." But we still wrote it and it still came from an organic place.