Interview with Metronomy – made for love
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| Words by Doug Wallen |
Oct 10, 2009 at 08:30 |
Having just played the Parklife Festival in both Sydney and Melbourne last weekend, UK group Metronomy is already off to New Zealand and then America’s west coast, followed by a trip to Iceland. That’s a lot of globe-trotting for a band that wasn’t well known internationally a few years back. In fact, Metronomy began 10 years ago as the just-for-fun solo project of Joseph Mount, formerly a drummer in various bands.
Steeped in the melodic yet glitch-y instrumental electronica of the Warp Records roster, Mount emerged with a ticklish debut album, Pip Paine (Pay The £5000 You Owe), in 2006 and toured as a duo with his friend Oscar Cash. Then came the more pop-oriented Nights Out, last year’s breakthrough second album.
Instrumental no longer, Metronomy was suddenly pushing Mount’s vocals to the forefront on the infectious singles ‘Heartbreaker’, ‘Radio Ladio’, and ‘A Thing For Me’. Nights Out sold well and landed in the sixth slot on NME’s ranking of 2008’s best albums. With a heap of remixes under his belt (Klaxons, Goldfrapp, Ladytron, Root Manuva), a four-piece touring lineup, and the new Not Made For Love EP, Mount is already working on a third Metronomy album. He spoke to us about that as well as the band’s humble origins and steady evolution.
I read that you started the band using an outdated computer you got from your dad.
Yeah, an old G3. One of those slightly translucent G3 towers, if you remember them.
How much of an effect do you think that had on Metronomy’s sound?
I think a huge effect, really. Once I got that computer, I just started doing it as a hobby. I never imagined I’d try to have a band or tour. So I guess the way it developed was very much naturally. I was trying to make music that sounded a bit like the stuff I listened to. And then it just developed. But I think coming at it from that angle made it a lot more natural.
Being English and making electronic music, Warp Records must have been a big influence on you. And you can hear some Plone and Aphex Twin in Metronomy…
Yeah. [On] the first album especially. When I was in my teens, all I was listening to was Warp stuff, really. There’s that whole thing where you listen to almost the most unlistenable kind of music because it’s interesting or whatever. That was definitely some of the first instrumental electronic stuff I would listen to. But then I got to a point where I realised that world is very cliquey. It almost doesn’t want to be loved by everyone. It holds itself back a little bit by making itself only accessible to people in the know. So I moved away from it a bit and went back to listening to the Beatles, like I did when I was eight years old.
Just trying to broaden it?
Well, not even thinking about that but just [deciding] to do what I like hearing and not trying to make music for anyone in particular and just do it for myself, which is weirdly when it became more broad in its appeal.
Was Nights Out the first time you started singing on Metronomy songs?
Yeah. Well, the first time I would’ve let anyone else hear it. After the first record, I tried to do new stuff. And I just found that the stuff I was doing, instead of sounding like instrumentals that were held together in their own right, sounded like they were missing something. And also, I didn’t necessarily want to go over the same ground as I’d done with Pip Paine.
And instead of couching your vocals out of shyness or something, you sing on what became the big singles from the albums.
Which is weird, yeah. It’s funny, because a lot of people ask if I decided to make something more commercial. And that really wasn’t what happened at all. I’d always tried writing little bits of lyrics but never had the confidence. Basically, we just started playing live loads, and ‘Radio Ladio’ was one of the first songs with vocals I’d done. And after singing that to crowds about 20 times, you just end up getting a bit more confident. So I thought, ‘Why not challenge yourself a bit?’
Were you surprised by the mainstream success you’ve had, especially in England?
[Laughs] I think it was a slow year. If there’d been more going on, maybe it wouldn’t have happened. First, you want to make a record that you’re happy with giving to lots of people, if they want it. But it does mean a lot, despite what anyone says, for people to back you up. It makes you feel like all the hard work paid off.
Who plays what live in Metronomy at the moment?
Up until April, it was me and my friend Gabriel [Stebbing]. It’s funny, when I first started playing live, I was just using a laptop, a la Warp people. And now it’s gone far away from that. We’ve got a live drummer called Anna [Prior, formerly of Lightspeed Champion], Gbenga [Adeleka] playing bass, me playing keyboards and guitar, and Oscar [Cash], who plays samplers and keyboards. But we used to use a lot of backing tracks. And then when Gabriel left, we decided to do really become a live live band.
Are you still doing dance routines and things with light sticks?
[Laughs] Well, when we used to really rely on the backing track, we realised we weren’t up to much on stage. Also, the bands that I have a real thing for, like Talking Heads and Devo and Kraftwerk … I just thought we should add ourselves to this legacy of electronic bands who have some stage presence. So we just started having fun with it. But before you know it, you’ve been touring for two years and everyone associates you with dance routines and lights. And I was feeling a little bit annoyed with that. I think everyone in England thought we were a joke, because we’d been doing this stuff. If I didn’t think that the music was strong enough to back it up, I think we’d probably be a lot more conservative in our stage presence. But you can do both. You can enjoy a live thing in a different way to a record.
Finally, I wanted to ask about the new EP, Not Made For Love.
It’s weird, because up until recently there was an idea that there’d be a deluxe edition of [Nights Out] with B-sides and remixes and some new tracks. And the tracks on the EP I wrote with that in mind. So I didn’t necessarily think they were going to be singles. I guess you can think of them like little sketches of ideas that put a full stop on the last record. Because I’ve already started recording for the next record, and it sounds very different from Nights Out and from the EP.
So what’s the new stuff sound like then?
It’s looking like it’s a lot more realised than Nights Out was. Like everything I was saying about being confident in singing and trying to make stuff that I like … the impression I get is that the next record is going to be a lot more assured or something. I don’t mean … that sounds a bit serious. [Laughs] It’s nice to have started recording and to feel quite relaxed in the way that it’s going. It’s like, ‘This is nice, this is good.’ It’s not going to be worse than the last one. [Laughs]
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Posted By: The Vine
Tags: Music, Interviews, Tours
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