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Branco reveals the secrets to Phoenix's success (© J. Dennis Thomas /Retna Ltd./Corbis)

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The French band Phoenix have hit the big time - and to think, it's only taken them 18 years, four albums and a zippy little pop song about 19th century composer Franz Liszt to do it.

With songs that veer from punchy hook-a-thons like 1901 to spiraling, Tangerine Dream/Roxy Music-esque dreamscapes such as Love Like A Sunset, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix could see the French quartet (whose members include guitarist Laurent 'Branco' Brancowitz, vocalist Thomas Mars, bassist Deck D' Arcy and Branco's brother, guitarist Christian Mazzalai) hoisting some serious hardware come Grammy night - they've just been nominated for Best Alternative Album, alongside heavy hitters such as Depeche Mode and David Byrne & Brian Eno, among others.

Branco - that's what he goes by, and you have to admit, it's a seriously cool nickname - is an intriguing, post-modern guitar hero, who serves up tasty lines with the same panache as Eric Ripert puts into a chocolate souffle.

Whether Phoenix return to France with Grammys in hand or not, they can lay claim to at least one distinction: they're quite possibly the most remixed band around, so much so that Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix has been issued as a full-length remix album, with Passion Pit, Devendra Banhart, Animal Collective and Friendly Fires, among others, twisting the tracks every which way, almost to the point of unrecognizability.

"It's a great honor when somebody takes your song and does something different with it," Branco says. "That's what music is all about, to constantly change what somebody else has done."

MusicRadar spoke with Branco recently to talk about Phoenix's dizzying success, his love of Fender Bullets and why he hates practicing. Hear it here or scroll down to read it...

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Not a lot of French acts have broken big internationally. Why do you think you guys are doing so well?

"For us, it would be very sad to understand what's happening. We prefer for it to be a bit mysterious. But we do like the idea of doing things that haven't been done before. Having a life outside of France and traveling around the world was always very appealing to us. You know why it's happening; I don't."

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