Phoenix have revealed that their forthcoming new album, 'Bankrupt!', was recorded on the same console as Michael Jackson's 1982 album, 'Thriller'.

The band's guitarist Laurent Brancowitz bought the Harrison 4032 console on eBay for $17,000 (£10,826) from Clayton Rose, who owns a Christian music studio in California, reports The New Yorker, via Pitchfork.

The band said they purchased the console because they "liked the idea of working with a consecrated artefact, as well as having something strange upon which to fixate between albums." 

Thomas Mars told The New Yorker: "The most mysterious part to me was that no one else - no nerd or music engineer or memorabilia freak - seemed to want it. There was something a little spooky about him [Clayton Rose]. He was very pushy. It seemed like a scam." 

The console was shipped to Paris for the recording sessions for the follow-up to 2009's 'Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix', which is set for release in April. The band originally toyed with naming the record 'Alternative Thriller'.

Phoenix will headline this April's Coachella Valley Festival of Music and Arts in California, and also play the Rock am Ring and Rock im Park festivals in Germany, which take place from July 7-9. 

The French alt-rockers released their debut album 'United' in 2000. This was followed up with 'Alphabetical' in 2004, 'It's Never Been Like That' in 2006 and 2009's 'Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix'.
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