Metronomy are one of the many top-form indie/dance acts that make up this year’s mega Parklife lineup, and with the festival already sold out in several cities across the country, fans will be more than pleased to have another chance check them out. They’ll be returning triumphantly after their successful tour in January that saw them debuting material from their Nights Out album.

Following long-standing member Gabriel Stebbing’s departure to focus on his own project, ITM caught up with band leader Joseph Mount to discuss all things Metronomy, including their upcoming Parklife dates and how the reincarnated band recruited Gbenga Adelekan on bass and Anna Prior on drums, in the process transforming the Metronomy live experience from a laptop-looping trio into a full live band.

Hey Joseph, thanks for taking the time out to chat. Where abouts are you right now?

“I’m actually visiting my parents in Devon right now, just kind of taking a break.”

Devon’s quite small, at least compared to London, right? Are you a small-town hero there now? You know, local boy makes good sort of thing?

“Hah, no not at all. I don’t think anyone here even knows the band. But I really like coming home to Devon, it’s quite peaceful. It’s a big change from London, but it’s good tome come back here and get away from that sometimes.”

I get how you guys might need some down time, it’s seems like been a pretty amazing year or so for Metronomy.

“Yeah, absolutely. We’ve been very busy with lots of touring and it’s only now that we’re just stepping back from the songs on the album and looking at what will come next.”

Now that Nights Out has been out in the public for a while now, are you happy with the reaction that it’s received?

“It’s been pretty amazing, actually. We were most surprised about the reaction we received from the music press here. Typically, they like to build up lots of young bands on the first material that gets released and then by the time the album rolls around they’re really bored of them and just slag them off. We were lucky in that didn’t happen to us, because it happens to so many people these days.”

“I mean, look at that Florence + The Machine record, it gets hyped up on the back of one or two good singles and then the album’s out and people realise it isn’t so great.”

“I think what happened for us was our label sent it out the NME and some other places about six months before its eventual release date, and so they were just sitting with it for a while and I think the more and more you listen to it, the more enjoyable that record becomes. So by the time they were reviewing the album, it had really grown on them. I think of it that way too. The more you hear it, the more you like it.”

So when you do look back at it, are there things you hear and think you would change given the chance?

“Yeah I think there’s always a little bit of that in everything you do. There’s always room to fiddle with things.”

I heard recently that Gabriel had left from Metronomy to pursue work with his band Your Twenties, how has that changed things for you.

“That did happen, and although it was sad for him to leave us, we’re still really happy and his new band is really good. I think things have changed a little bit, especially when we play live. We’ve kind of upgraded the lineup now because we’re a four piece instead of three. We thought ‘well, what can we do that’s a bit different?’ So we got in two of our friends to play live and now I’m really pleased with the live show. There’s no backing tracks now, it’s all organic, happening right there onstage.”

“The new live show is actually one of the reasons that we wanted to come back to Australia for Parklife. We were there earlier this year and had a nice time, but we didn’t want to bring the same live show, with the same songs, back again so quickly. With four of us now, it feels like something very new and different. We definitely want to share that with our fans down there.”

Speaking of things new and different, you’ve done a lot of production work for other artists, not just a lot of remixes but you’ve produced tracks for Roots Manuva and Sophie Ellis Bextor, which I think is pretty amazing. What’s behind that? Are you trying to push yourself outside of your comfort zone?

“Working with other people is really interesting for me, it provides me with another outlet. And I don’t really care about sticking to a genre, I’ll try anything. Working with Sophie for her album was fantastic, and also unexpected because she phoned me up for it out of the blue.”

It seems like for a lot people ‘pop’ is a dirty word. But that doesn’t seem to bother you guys, and I think that’s pretty impressive. I read somewhere that you wanted to work with Ne-Yo?

“I have always said in interviews that I’d really love to work with Ne-Yo on something. People would stare at me for a second and they would think I was taking the piss! I actually mean it; that would be wild. We actually got pretty close to meeting him because he was in Japan just after we were recently. We were so excited when we found out and we asked our label people to give him a copy of our album. I don’t know if he ever got it or if he’s listened to it or what, but some part of me hopes he reads this and makes it happen.”

Metronomy play sideshows, presented by inthemix:

Friday, September 25 – The Zoo, Brisbane
Thursday, October 1 – Oxford Art Factory, Sydney

The national Parklife tour is proudly presented by ITM! Keep your eyes peeled to our Festival Page at inthemix.com.au/parklife and check out the national tour dates below…

Sat 26th Sep – Botanic Gardens & Riverstage, Brisbane (SOLD OUT)
Sun 27th Sep – Wellington Square, Perth
Sat 3rd Oct – Birrarung Marr, Melbourne (SOLD OUT)
Sun 4th Oct – Kippax Lake, Moore Park, Sydney (SOLD OUT)
Mon 5th Oct – Botanic Park, Adelaide