Metronomy Expect to See Celebrities at Coachella, Jealous of N.E.R.D.

There have been lots of memorable gigs for Metronomy, so it's hard for the band's founder and singer Joseph Mount and his cousin, main man behind the keyboards, Oscar Cash, to pick one favourite from the last year. The four-piece band (along with bassist bassist Gbenga Adelekan and drummer Anna Prior) have been on the road since December 2010 and will be on the road in North America for another month opening for Coldplay starting on April 17 for over a dozen dates before heading back to Europe for more gigs in June.

Mount and Cash sat down with Spinner for a chat days before the first of their two massive festival gigs (April 15 and 22) at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Annual Festival in California.

What are your hopes for the upcoming Coachella gig?

Cash: I hope it's really good because everyone keeps saying it is. We've never done a festival in California. So I'm interested to see what that's like.

Mount: I'm expecting to see celebrities and if I don't I'm going to be very disappointed.Your musical career seems to have had this great natural progression: first by releasing electronic productions, and then by launching a live act, followed by three full-length albums, a Mercury Prize nomination and popular acclaim. So, what, if anything, has been challenging?

Mount: If there has been anything that has been challenging, it has been maybe feeling a bit jealous of other people. You can see how easy it is for some people.

Cash: But it's precarious. For us, having a slow rise in popularity has been good because at least we can see what's coming, rather than having it thrust upon us, not knowing what to do.

Mount: A few years ago, there wasn't as much interest in us, so we had to do some stuff that we felt compromised our integrity a little bit. We have done some crazy stuff, but at the end of the day, all that's ever going to be left is three albums. The best thing is that they're not going to be bad albums.

What kind of crazy stuff have you done?

Mount: There's photo evidence of the most out-of-character things. We did some fashion shoot in France and we were wearing some terrible stuff. It's about promotion, I suppose.

Cash: And us being quite polite, we didn't say "this is the worst idea in the world," we just did what we were told.

Mount: If I see the photos, there's no smile on my face!

Some musicians are quite vocal with their critiques of the music industry. Do you have any complaints?

Mount: My whole feeling about the music industry is that you know what you're getting involved in, and it's not a big evil machine. It's like an employer. I guess you find the people who generally have beefs are the people who are laid off. And I think it's much better to concentrate on what you're doing, rather than blame other people. Having said that, the music industry did screw over a lot of its employees by not sorting out the digital downloads and I think they'll forever regret that. It's something that means that we have to work a lot harder and tour a lot more. But my only problem with that is I like the idea of buying records -- but that's probably old-fashioned.

Cash: We remember what buying an album was like and it was exciting. It's sad if that's lost.

Mount: The haters should just work harder and stop being so naive.

What's your set-up like for your live show? And, what's your current stance on technology in music production?

Mount: Our set up is still pretty technical. But now the dream is to not have a computer involved. When you start you're very involved in what the computer can do. But I find it more exciting now to see what people can do. It's like Oscar saying he got better at the keyboard over time as he played in the band. I think there's this human element that is really nice about music.

What I really respect about people who are technically-minded is that they end up doing things which are going to be really recognizable as the sound of "now." Like, when we first heard N.E.R.D. and they were using these crappy little guitar sounds from old keyboards and it was like "how did they make that sound so good?" There's an element of confidence that I see in other people when it comes to using technology that I'm quite jealous of.

What's coming up next once this tour is over? Have you thought about making a new record?

Mount: It's going to be the fourth record, and I think if there's going to be one that's misunderstood by people, it should be the fourth one. The pressure is off. I like the idea of doing something that's a statement. After the last record, I've been so excited about recording in a studio, and I like the idea that the next record incorporates every different way that I've done stuff, and puts it all together in a way that feels new. There has been a really nice feel to the last record and I think it's a feel that we quite enjoy. It's a bit sultry.