Metronomy Magic

Metronomy’s Joe Mount on making music for freshers…

Title: ‘The English Riviera’
Confirmed tracks: ‘We Broke Free’, ‘The Look’, ‘She Wants’
Label: Because

How’s the album coming along?

Yeah it’s great. I think it’s one of those things that if you have forever to do it, it would never be finished, but I’m really happy. The whole process of this one has been completely different, I’ve been doing it in actual recording studios instead of my own bedroom, which is part of the reason I could just carry on forever because it’s so much fun. But yeah it’s really good, and it’s sounding solid. The plan was to track everything like they did in the old days in real recording studios. The last record is pretty much all programmed so I wanted to do this one with hardly any programming or as little as possible.

So does it sound more like the work of a full band then, in that respect?

Well yeah, it certainly sounds a lot more – and this is dangerous word to say because I don’t want you to misconstrue it – but it sounds more acoustic, in that you can hear the instruments a lot better.

What’s been influencing you this time out?

In the run up the recording I’ve been listening to a lot of the first studio records done using technology; mainly synthesisers and drum machines. Up until computers and that kind of technology kicked off – particularly if you think about Herbie Hancock or Stevie Wonder records where they were using synthesisers but still recording it in a very traditional way – you know there’s not any editing going on, really. So the idea for this album was to make an electronic record, but recorded in quite a traditional setting and environment using as many real instruments as possible.

Have you got a favourite track so far?

Well yeah, I suppose my favourite track, which was the first one we recorded and is probably going to end up being the first track on the record, is a track called ‘We Broke Free’.

How does it sound?

If it ends up being the first track on the album, as we’re kind of tracking it now it seems to be, it’s almost like a statement of intent. It feels very live and it’s a bit more groovy, then frantic, which is maybe what people have come to expect of Metronomy stuff. It’s a lot more groovy. I guess it’s kind of a slow rocker.

With the record as a whole, was there a main concept or idea?

The idea of the record is, there’s two main ideas, one that I kind of wanted to make, when I was young like 15 or 16 years old, and you go to your first house parties or you first start having a drink and a bit of weed, there are all these records that really remind you of all those kind of nights and all those kind of parties; things like ‘Entroducing’ by DJ Shadow, or ‘The Score’ by The Fugees, or Portishead. Stoner records, in a way; really down tempo. Records that really remind me of feeling I was growing up or something.

It’s about coming of age, then?

Yeah, coming of age. One thing I wanted to do was to make a record that could potentially have that kind of feel to it. I’m imagining that a lot of the younger people who bought the last record are probably now just going to university – maybe in their first year – I kind of want to give them a record they can impress their new housemates with, they can all sit round and be like, “check this out”.