Joseph Mount has a message to fans: get his band outside of Dubai International. The frontman of brilliant electronic music group Metronomy would like his next UAE experience to extend beyond the walls of . "We stop there while on tour. The last time was on the way to Australia a few years ago," he says. "We would love to get out and play to you."
Let's hope that happens, as the band is raring to go. In an exclusive interview with The National, hours before their Arab world debut concert Morocco's Jazzablanca Festival, Mount describes the vibe in the group as "energised". This is down to what is happening now and what's to come.
In addition to performing in choice slots at some of the world's biggest music festivals, including last month's Glastonbury in the UK, Metronomy are readying themselves for the release of their sixth album, Metronomy Forever, on FridaySeptember 13. Fans have had a taste of the new material with two singles already out. And true to the band's ethos, both are totally different in style.
Lately is a hazy and mellow treat that finds the band bringing back guitars to the forefront. And if you simply want to dance, the group's latest single, Salted Caramel Ice Cream, is the one for you. From its throbbing bass grooves and synth lines to Mount's nonchalant vocals, it channels the sensuality of '80s rock-pop group The Cars.
Mount says he is pleased and rather relieved that both songs went down well with the fans – it seems success doesn't necessarily breed security. "I am super-happy that people like it because it is something you don't take for granted. You just don't know if people will still like the music or worse, if they even care," he says. "The great thing about this is, I know what's on the new album and they are songs that are definitely much better."
While Mount only goes on to say it has more guitar-based, fans and critics are already discussing its theme.
A major sonic thread that runs through Metronomy's work is the idea of time. Whether it's through the nostalgic turns of their 2011 album The English Riviera and its psychedelic follow-up Love Letters in 2014, or the more immediate feel of the pulsating 2008 release Nights Out, the group always seem to be making some sort of comment on the passage of time.
As the chief songwriter, Mount says the concepts are not all deliberately thought through. "Some of these ideas can be both thoughtful and instinctive, such as a song about ice cream," he says. "But a lot of the time, it's not until you finish the songs that you can find some kind of framework or concept. But now we've reached our sixth album you do start to look back and realise that maybe subconsciously this idea of time is a preoccupation I have."
And while we're on that topic, does Mount often look back at those heady days of the late 2000s when the band first emerged? It was a period in which Metronomy were part of legion of groups, which included Klaxons and Bloc Party, that took rock music away from its raggedy garage sounds, giving it the style and swagger of dance music. "It definitely felt like it was 'a thing' if you know what I mean. And I find that the best kind of musical moment happens when it has a bunch of other stuff attached to it," he says. "So with this scene there was the music, the fashion and the artwork. It had a very coherent feel that people could get into."
Mount says the new album actually makes a subtle comment about how musical fads come and go, and how the often-vaunted musical crown of legacy is a false prize. "To have a legacy means you are actually finished," he says. "When writing this album I've been thinking a lot about the reasons, or shall I say, purpose of making music. I realised that doing it to give yourself a legacy, or some kind of eternal life, is not why you should do it."
That conviction was brought home, he says, while on the flight to Morocco. "I was watching this film about Neil Armstrong and it made me realise that there are very few people from now who will be known to all of mankind. It's people like him [Armstrong, who have a lasting legacy,] as he was the first man on the Moon," he says. "Then you have Metronomy? Maybe not."
