Metronomy – Interview – Brazil, Winter ‘09
By: Thomas Hannan, Hayley Sleigh
When Rockfeedback caught up with Joseph Mount at Sao Paulo’s Planeta Terra festival, the Metronomy founder was so excited to meet the crew of his favourite online music magazine and television series that he suffered a nosebleed. At least, we think that’s what happened. It was either that, or something to do with aliens. Perhaps. Intrigued? Then read on to discover Mount and Metronomy bassist’s Gbenga Adelekan’s unique and thrilling take on whirlwind tours, line-up changes, plane crashes, spotting legendary rappers in Reading train stations, Economy Class-flying pop star non-dickheads, suggesting new business models for Daft Punk and modelling themselves after Latin teen pop sensation Menudo.
Rockfeedback: You guys seem excited about playing today, so much so that your nose was bleeding when we first met there, Joe. Are you full of anticipation for the afternoon?
Joe: “I think so. Wasn’t there an X-Files character, I’m sure, whose nose would bleed whenever aliens were nearby? Yeah, it’s a bit weird. I’m beginning to panic that it could happen on stage, and that that would look pretty spectacular...”
Rockfeedback: That’d look pretty gritty, wouldn’t it?
Joe: “It’s a pretty schoolboy thing to happen. I feel a bit lame, to be perfectly honest.”
Rockfeedback: How have things changed since the fuller band has come together?
Joe: “I think the whole thing has happened very...”
Gbenga: “Organically.”
Joe: “We’ve been playing so much since – well, April was the first gig, I think, with all of us, including Anna [Prior, the band’s new drummer] and Gbenga. That was a long time ago. Eight months.”
Rockfeedback: Do you feel settled now?
Gbenga: “Eight months of bliss. Joy.”
Joe: “We haven’t really had much time to reflect, to be honest. There’s been nothing that’s been flagged up as a problem. So it’s just kind of gone on. It’s been good. Really good. Very good.”
Rockfeedback: Has it affected your process of writing at all, knowing that you’ve got these musicians behind you now –
Joe: “In a way, but I think it’s more the case that the process has just been affected by not happening, because we’ve been away! Actually, just before this interview I was confirming with Gbenga and Anna as to whether they’re free on the 16th to do some recording, and they are, so yeah, it’s happening. Before Christmas hopefully it’ll be finished, that’s the plan. We’ve had such a great year, and the momentum’s good. I think if we just disappeared for like, a year...”
Rockfeedback: You’d lose that forward motion. So, you are quite restless to get back in and lay something down?
Joe: “We’ve had a great year, and the new line-up is going so well. It’d be nice to keep doing this for a bit longer.”
Rockfeedback: On this whirlwind tour, do you ever find time to look back and reflect on how things have changed, and how amazing it must be for you? Does touring get a bit day-to-day and humdrum?
Gbenga: “On a rare day off, maybe.”
Joe: “Eight months ago Gbenga was a twelve year old boy. He couldn’t even play the bass [laughs]. Now he’s a twenty-something year old man.”
Rockfeedback: [Laughs] It’s been a strange year for you, hasn’t it Gbenga?
Gbenga: “We just did a tour of Australia and New Zealand, and then we went to the States. But when we were in Australia we got a bunch of days off. In fact, when we were in New Zealand we got to hang out with So So Modern, who are friends of mine.”
Joe: “When we were flying from Australia to L.A., I fell asleep - luckily it was undersubscribed, and I fell asleep across four chairs.”
Gbenga: “Joe has dreams on planes, about planes crashing. It happened yesterday too.”
Joe: “And today. This morning! But I’ve not got a problem with it.”
Gbenga: “It’s not right.”
Joe: “What happened was that I woke up lying across these four chairs, and I kind of thought – you know when you wake up in a friend’s house, the first thing you do is visualise the layout of the room, or your own room? The door’s there, blah blah blah. I did this on a plane, and I thought ‘God, hang on a minute, I’m in a plane’. And then in a split second, the reality of the situation that I was like, thirty-something thousand feet in the air struck me, and I was horrified. And I just went back to sleep and dreamt about the plane crashing. Which was alright!”
Gbenga: “It’s not alright. There are people you can talk to about that, that can help you with your problem.”
Joe: “The flight over here was quite turbulent, because I guess there are a lot of storms over the Atlantic or wherever, and Oscar couldn’t really sleep because he kept getting woken up by the jolts of turbulence. The only effect that they had on me was that those little jolts in my dream meant the plane going down. I was asleep, so it was fine.”
Gbenga: “I was going over all the safety videos that I’ve not paid attention to, trying to work out which one was relevant...”
Joe: “What’s the brace position again?”
Gbenga: “Yeah, and people in Club World – yeah, so obviously we weren’t in Club World, I think Primal Scream were probably in Club World – they have a totally different brace position.”
Rockfeedback: Do you ever walk past bands in First Class, knowing that you’re going to be sitting in economy class?
Joe: “We did this Parklife tour in Australia, and there was us, La Roux, Empire of the Sun, Little Boots, some other English people, Lady Sovereign, Crystal Castles... there were loads of bands. Erol Alkan as well – loads of people. La Roux’s doing well, so we thought she’d try and get upgraded, but the only people who did were Mstrkrft. Everyone was like, ‘dickheads!’”
Gbenga: “That’s just the way it goes these days, though. We played a festival in Switzerland, I think, and Q-Tip was in Economy with us. My fifteen year old self would never have believed that one day I’d be sitting in the Economy lounge across from Q-Tip, and that I’d be sitting in the same bit of the plane as him.”
Joe: “I remember after Reading festival I was at the station, and at the other side of the station was Fatlip from the Pharcyde. And I never thought I’d be at Reading train station opposite Fatlip.”
Rockfeedback: So apart these brief bouts of celebrity spotting, what keeps it exciting for you after eight months of being away from home?
Gbenga: “Watching iPlayer documentaries on our laptops.”
Joe: “Yeah. That’s true.”
Rockfeedback: So, nothing musically? Are you bored as hell with all that now?
Gbenga: “The versions of the songs we’re doing now are quite different to the way they were before, when they had a backing track. I think, if you like the music you’re playing, I don’t think eight months is long enough to really get bored of it.”
Joe: “We’ve been touring with this line-up for eight months, and we’d definitely been touring and promoting this record [Nights Out, 2008] with me, Oscar [Cash, keyboard player, saxophonist and original Metronomy member] and Gabriel [Stebbing, the band’s former bassist, currently with Your Twenties] for about... it must have been twelve months actually working towards something. I would have thought that eighteen months doing the same thing would tip us over the edge, but luckily the last eight months have been like starting over again, which has kept us – well, me and Oscar – it has kept us sane, definitely. Maybe just being out of the house has kept Gbenga sane.”
Tom: [To Gbenga] Does that mean your position in the band is kind of precarious? In another eight months, another bass player and drummer come in...
Joe: “Well, the plan is, me, Anna and Gbenga will go and make the record, and we’ve got some new people for Oscar to play with, and he’ll continue promoting this record. Then we’ll do kind of a relay...”
Gbenga: “The ultimate thing is that you want the band to be like Menudo [Puerto Rican boyband featuring a pre- Livin’ La Vida Loca Ricky Martin, whose members were replaced every few years], right? As soon as the guys in the band hit about twenty-two, they get rid of them. They just take them out the back and shoot them in the head, or whatever [Rockfeedback is unable to verify Mr Adelekan’s claim here. Although, come to think of it, has anyone seen Ricky Martin lately? - HS] And then they bring in younger people.”
Joe: “That’s a good idea.”
Rockfeedback: I often talk to people about how bands can achieve timelessness, and I think that we’ve found it.
Gbenga: “We think Daft Punk should do that, because no-one really believes that they’re the dudes at the gigs anyway. They may as well just franchise it out.”
Joe: “That’s true.”
Rockfeedback: Well, whether or not that is the way that your future pans out, I wish you all the best!
Joe: “Thank you!”
Artists in this article: Metronomy