Go Your Own Wa
y
Joe Mount of Metronomy talks to BRAD BARRETT about Mercury Prize nominations, growing up on the West Coast… of England and Metronomy’s home-brewed sound on their new album The English Riviera.
Photography: Grégoire Alexandre & Phil Sharpe
G
rowing up isn’t something that happens overnight and for most of us it’s not something that stops when you reach a certain age. Let’s face it, life would be incredibly dull if you stopped developing, stopped making mistakes, stopped
learning, stopped achieving. Joseph Mount, the multi-talented songwriter, producer and frontman of experimental electronic band Metronomy, claims that his band’s third album The English Riviera represents something of an artistic and commercial breakthrough. Recently nominated for the prestigious 2011 Barclaycard Mercury Prize, the album captures an almost conceptual blend of influence and nostalgia, perfectly encapsulated by the seaside sounds of seagulls and springing Wurlitzer. Describing his main influences, Joseph explains that his love of electronica was drawn from the dark and introspective sounds of the mid 90s so-called trip hop scene.
“When I was a teenager down in Devon, my enduring memories were of going to parties and people playing certain records,” explains Joe. “These staple party records at the time were things like Portishead, DJ Shadow and Dr Octagon, these moody records. What I wanted to do was not tell a story but try to create a kind of atmosphere that, for me, was evocative of these parties and that feeling of growing up a bit. For me it’s much more to do with this atmosphere which reminds me of being a teenager there.” This conflict of party moods reflected in rather withdrawn, dark and
introspective – though beat-driven – albums certainly rears its face in the murky waters of The English Riviera. In the downbeat, chorused bass line and sparse, slowed punk-funk interplay of She Wants, we hear gloom, uncertainty; the perfect soundtrack to hidden fumbles and alcoholic abandon. The throbbing electronica over the lazy, laconic melody on Love Underlined mirrors the clash of lifestyles – laid-back yet hedonistic, brimming with energy whilst actually doing little with your time. “You have this way of life in that part of England that is very slow, people just hang out in fields and throw parties and have quite a relaxed way of life
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living by the sea and I was thinking ‘how come I grew up in that sort of place and struggled to find any music scene?’ You’d think with all this time on their hands people could be building studios, recording albums and things like that.” Joe’s train of thought, of an idyllic place where the lifestyle could translate to an abundance of music making, led him to a time and a place where Eagles and Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours reigned supreme. “The most obvious comparison was this West Coast American thing that I managed to draw some slightly skewed parallel with. This sunshiny place where people who were just chilling out on the beach were also making a
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