King Gizzard's Stu Mackenzie on leaving Spotify and making all their music free: Sometimes you just forget that you have free will'

"We have done a lot of different things over the years, but sometimes you just forget that you have free will you can do whatever you want in these spaces, says frontman and de facto bandleader Stu Mackenzie over the phone in September. I don't particularly want to try to start a movement or something like that I'm happy if other people join."

"The move was inspired by Leah Senior, another Melbourne musician who is a close friend and collaborator of the group. We had seen a couple of others leaving as well, but it was when Leah left, she and I had this one conversation about it I told her I was really proud of her and I thought it was an awesome thing, says Mackenzie."

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard built a 15-year, 27-album career defined by rapid stylistic shifts across metal, folk, jazz, dance, concept records and microtonal experiments. The band has toured orchestral and rave shows and held residencies in European prisons and amphitheatres. In July the group removed all their music from Spotify in protest of CEO Daniel Ek's A$1.06bn investment in the AI military tech firm Helsing. The move was inspired by musician Leah Senior and framed by Stu Mackenzie as an exercise of free will and an ethical decision about their music. The band reports minimal financial consequences, noting Spotify contributed only a small portion of income.

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