Phoenix Purchased the Recording Console Used for Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' to Make Their New Album

It’s always cool to hear stories about mythical memorabilia from music’s past popping up in the present day, but sometimes the tale sounds too good to be true. That’s the feeling French band Phoenix got when their guitarist Lauren Brancowitz came across the recording console used to create the best-selling album of all time, Michael Jackson‘s Thriller. They were apprehensive for good reason, though. Brancowitz found the legendary device on none other than eBay and, as stated by lead singer Thomas Mars to The New Yorker, “no one else—no nerd or music engineer or memorabilia freak—seemed to want it.” Regarding the seller, an owner of a Christian recording studio in Fullerton, California, Mars said, “There was something a little spooky about him. He was very pushy. It seemed like a scam.” But when it came down to it, the band decided that they “had to have it.” So, they negotiated the initial asking price down in half to purchase it for $17,000, and then had the 1,100-pound console shipped to Paris. What did Phoenix do with it, you ask? Well, we’ll all get to hear in April when the Coachella-headlining-quartet releases their highly anticipated seventh album, Bankrupt!, which was mixed entirely on the device. Apparently, the LP was actually originally titled Alternative Thriller. That might have been a little much.