“Clarence Knight chats to Metronomy’s Joseph Mount in anticipation of their appearance at Sydney’s Harbourlife Festival, Australian tour with Temper Trap and forthcoming album release.”
MF: Hey Joe!
J: Hello there
MF: Now where on earth are you at the moment my friend?
J: I’m in a kind of overcast London, at the moment.
MF: Oh really! It’s all dreary and drab?
J: Yeah. Excuse my kind of gravelly voice, cos it’s the morning here.
MF: What time is it for you at the moment?
J: It’s 8.00am
MF: You come over here next month with The Temper Trap; that’s pretty exciting. What’s the basis of this tour? Are you supporting The Temper Trap?
J: I think so, yeah. I mean, I think we’re coming over and we’re doing a few shows with them and then we’re doing some of our own shows as well. I mean we’re over in Australia for 12 days and that’s going to be a mixture of playing shows with The Temper Trap and shows on our own.
MF: When was the last time you were here?
J: Maybe it was a year, about a year ago because the last time we were doing the Parklife tour
MF: Yeah. That would have been exactly a year ago because it’s just been around again. Everyone is still recovering. So, you are touring and are Australian audiences going to be able to see a bunch of new material on that tour?
J: They are. Yeah. We don’t just travel half way round the world to do the same old…
MF: You never know. Your last record was pretty successful here.
J: We’re practicing a whole load of new songs from a new record and we’re thinking ‘should we start playing these songs to people – we’ll do it in the discreet settings of Australia’.
MF: Discreet!
J: It will all be kind of new; new for everyone when we come out, I suppose; new for us.
MF: Okay! So, is Australia going to get their first taste of new Metronomy?
J: Yes, they are.
MF: Excellent.
MF: We’re talking to Joe from Metronomy here on Music Feeds.
MF: Now, I did mention briefly that Nights Out was a pretty big success here in Australia, which was your last record. When it was released, it was kind of the height of electro popularity and pretty groundbreaking I thought. Do you feel now that that genre specifically is perhaps a little overcooked?
J: Yeah, I kind of do, but I suppose I never really thought that what I did was always going to be that, you know. The new record is definitely a lot more acoustic sounding being the opposite to electronic, but it’s still got all those influences, but it may be less electro.
MF: Yeah. I was just going to ask you if you’d opted for something a little bit different stylistically now; why do you think that is? Do you think perhaps electro is just a bit passé or as a band you wanted to move forward and try something a bit different.
J: I think the main reason is that you don’t want to do a ‘nights out version 2’ that is not quite as good as the first one. In fact, wanting to keep yourself excited, more than anything.
MF: Do you think perhaps, I guess you don’t know yet, but do you think you have any idea of how that will resonate with the audiences who really, really loved the nights out electro stuff?
J: I think: I’ve not suddenly gone all David Gray; I’ve not suddenly gone like ‘I tricked you, I tricked you – all I want to do is make ballads’. It’s still got a lot of the same appeal, I reckon. I think it’s different nowadays because people have quite short attention spans because of how easy it is to find music.
J: I kind of feel like someone needs to release at least two or three albums before you really get an idea of where they fit musically, if you know what I mean.
MF: Yeah. Definitely. And speaking of that, and a lot of other people’s way of releasing music as well, Metronomy is also known as a tour-de-force in the world of remixes too. You’ve worked with Goldfrapp, Klaxons and Franz Ferdinand to name a few. What is it stylistically about messing with other people’s music, in a good way, that is so awesome?
J: Well, I guess because I’ve been recording a new record it’s been a little while since I’ve done any remixes.
MF: Are any on the cards?
J: I don’t think so. I always get people asking about them, but after you’ve done a lot you begin to feel like – ‘maybe I’ll do my own stuff for a bit’.
MF: Do you think perhaps it encourages you to do your original stuff after working with other people’s music so much and getting frustrated?
J: Yeah. It’s like ‘so maybe I could review that thought’ and it’s like ‘maybe I’m running out of ideas’.
J: The other thing I’ve really enjoyed about it is having fun with someone else’s ideas and taking chances with stuff, which you might not do on your own music. It’s also kind of like, I did a Franz Ferdinand one and I was just starting to put music out and I thought it would be good if they liked it and I heard from them saying that they liked it. It’s like my way of trying to make friends.
MF: Were you a big fan of Franz Ferdinand.
J: I think at that point when I was doing that remix it was the biggest thing that happened to me, I think, at that point.
MF: Look at you now! International Australian tours; third album!
MF: Thanks for chatting with us. Looking forward to seeing you when you come out to Australia next month.
MF: Joe form Metronomy.
MF: Have a great London morning.
J; Thank you very much.
