By telephone from Kent, in the southeast of England, and before being the main act of the third edition of the Music wins the festival (Saturday 10 December at the Club Ciudad de Buenos Aires), Joseph Mount, leader of metronomyit is clear what this homeland means to them.
“If you told me fifteen or twenty years ago that we were going to headline a festival in Argentina in the future, I would have told you you were crazy,” laughs Mount of the event which also includes bands like!! ! (Chk Chk Chk), The Magnetic Fields or The Blaze, soloists such as Devendra Banhart and local credits such as Mi Amigo Invincible, Nafta and Gativideo, among others.
The list is the creme de la creme for the “Homeland Indie Rock”, which has not been summoned for an event of these characteristics for a long time.
Previous visits and albums
“Five or six times… The truth is, I’ve lost count,” Mount says when it comes to confirming how many times his group has visited our country.
Yes, it can be said that the first time was to present The English Riviera (2011), their third album, which gave them prestige and popularity in the British Isles (it was the second best album of that year for the New Musical Express), thanks to an irresistible single like The bay.
Love letters (2014) e Summer 08 (2016) completed their most successful album trilogy. successors Metronome forever (2019) e Small world (2021) are a couple of passes below, but that doesn’t show the combination out of shape.
Mount is a nice chatterbox who doesn’t hesitate to pace back and forth when answering. And he doesn’t even hesitate to greet with a “Good luck for the World Cup” which sounds sincere and not at all demagogic. Next, the dialogue.
“You’ll see the festival version”
-Which version of Metronomy will we see this time?
-I must say that you will see the festival version of the group (laughs). But something very fun and funny happens when we go to South America, which is that we always play when the year is coming to an end.
And I think that’s a good thing, because we’re taking advantage of the excitement that the end of the year brings so, to get back to your question, we’ll also show the party version of Metronomy, which is definitely our best side (laughs).
-More than once you have said that your influences are Bowie and Autechre electronics. But they can also be associated with finding the perfect Steely Dan or Prefab Sprout pop song, mixed with their electronic background. What is your opinion about it?
-I like those kind of songs, but it all depends on the kind of mood you’re in. In my case, many times everything happens more for the emotion than for the search for the perfect pop song. I really like a band like Steely Dan, but for emotion and not for perfection.
When I was young, I spent a lot of time with friends who were obsessed with the Beatles, who are the ultimate pop group, and it was exciting. But then electronica appeared, which is music that often doesn’t have a marked structure, but at the same time can have the same qualities as a pop song.
-To all this add an invitation to dance at your concerts.
-If it’s true. From the way of listening, we look for a physical and atmospheric side to our music. At concerts there is movement, and from there we try to make everyone have fun, alone or with friends. People still want to experience and have fun, and dancing is all about that.
“I have achieved a style for writing”
-From this place you describe, what is your method for working with letters?
-Many times I felt awkward about my lyrics, but then I realized that I had achieved my style, even if I didn’t realize it. I managed to have a style for writing in the same way that one has a style for speaking.
Many times I think I’m saying something super clever but realize I’m not, and vice versa. I think when everything comes naturally, saying and singing, that’s when it comes best.
-Last year was the tenth anniversary of “The English Riviera”, the record that consecrated you. Do you give importance to these dates, as the press usually does now, or do you let them pass?
-I think about how I made music ten years ago and how I do it now. And I see that I feel good composing and touring. That record meant and means a lot to us, and I think it still sounds great.
-How do you see pop music today, and what is your opinion on the sounds that dominate the mainstream?
-Today’s pop music is fine. There are different degrees and modalities within rap, but the same goes for bands as well. In all cases you come across good musicians or good performers to be respected, like Kendrick Lamar.
But, to be honest, the responsibility for today’s pop lies with the young. Right now there are a lot of very cool and exciting bands, like Dry Cleaning or Wet Leg, who are today what The xx were at the time. Something that didn’t sound traditional and at the same time could compete hand in hand with Rihanna.
It also happens that groups take three or four years to release new records, because in the meantime they go on tour after tour, because the money is there, and it’s hard to stop recording.
-Finally, how did you get through the pandemic?
-From my home in England, the pandemic has allowed me to stay at home with my family for a long time, which I don’t do very often. I’ve never spent almost two years in a row with my children, and within the evil of the virus, the issue of staying at home, in my case, was something that made me happy.
But don’t forget that in England, before Covid, there was Brexit. So with Covid, apart from the disastrous effects of the disease, we have realized the effects of Brexit. All this thanks to the catastrophic British government of Boris Johnson, which also destroyed the economy. So for me, all of that was beautiful and awful at the same time.
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Source: Clarin
