Metronomy: 'We always go out on the town after a gig in Glasgow'

As the follow up to 2016’s Summer 08 and No1 hit The Look which launched the band to stardom, Metronomy Forever is the band’s longest album yet with 17 tracks. Yet lead singer Joe Mount says that the album release had him questioning the purpose of creating music in an ever-changing world.

“The whole process of making it was quite interesting for me – it was maybe the first time I’ve made a record and questioned all kinds of big things,” Joe said. “You refine everything till you have the satisfaction of starting with nothing and ending with something refined. I did have some self-doubt moments. You always have them when you make a record but it made me think, ‘why do I make music?’ and 'why am I bothering?'”

Luckily for Metronomy fans, Joe’s self-doubts only served to make the record better. More genre-bending than ever, the record dips from electronic guitar-lead vocal tracks like Lately, to almost wholly electronic tracks such as Lying Low.

“Your relationship to music changes a lot as you grow up. I think that’s what this record is mostly about. Now that it’s done I’m happy with it and I feel like there is a place in the world for Metronomy. I’m looking forward to people hearing it and seeing what they think.”

Since their summer release, album singles Salted Caramel Ice Cream, Walking in the Dark and Lately have already racked up over six million streams on Spotify – people are excited to hear what Metronomy have to say.

“There is an interesting thing that happens when you make anything – it’s the process of it which is the stimulating thing. The pleasure you get from writing is the refining of something, there is a big starting possibility and then its narrowed down.”

With this being the 6th album, Joe says that the band priorities have changed. Whereas before it was about the album, now it's enjoying the touring – which starts in November with an SWG3 date in Glasgow included on the 13th.

“That’s the thing – when you’re young and obsessed with music, which is what I was, what you’re obsessed with is the product. What I’ve realised over the course of making this record that that is now the thing for me, the making and thinking and writing. The first thing that the fans hear is the product, and the tour is the celebration of that product.”

“To hold the finished thing feels great, because that's it finished, and the process has been neatly carried out. It feels cathartic, like you can get on with things. There is bound to be something anti-climatic because of the thing. I think the most important thing that I've came away from this is realising that the touring of the album isn’t the means to the end – it is the thing.

“You're going out and touring the songs not to tour more records but to do it – to celebrate it. So that’s the nice thing.”

Are Metronomy excited to make a return to Glasgow? “We’re totally looking forward to it,” says Joe. “It’s one of the cities that we have a routine where we have gigs there. We always go out after the gig, we never don’t go into town after. There are certain cities we go out and Glasgow is one of them.

“We always used to go to the Art School when we played before: it’s a real shame that that won’t be there anymore in the same way that it was before.”

“I was in Glasgow not long ago, on holiday. we were playing Hogmanay in Edinburgh, and I said to my girlfriend we should go on holiday – if we're going to Scotland, we should go to Glasgow. My sister went to university there.

“I took her to all the music places; Nice N’ Sleazy’s, Stereo... she’s French, and she’s been obsessed with the UK music scene throughout the 90s. She really loved it. It was funny to go there having not done a gig and be there as a regular customer.”

For Joe, Glasgow seems to be a home away from home. He tells me that he grew up near the Buckfast Abbey, home to the infamous drink popular in parts of the West Coast. “We used to watch Rab C Nesbitt as a child and my parents would laugh, but I never got it. It clicked when I was a teenager. I’ve never tried it but it’s a sign: maybe Glasgow and I were always destined to be together.”

Metronomy play SWG3 in Glasgow on November 13