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For music followers who grew up listening to joyously chaotic underground rock, Metz’s self-titled debut album, launched on Sub Pop in October 2012, may have include a sticker declaring ‘Your New Favorite Band’. And with their gorgeous fifth album Up On Gravity Hill, the follow-up to 2020’s Atlas Merchandising, the Canadian trio – vocalist/guitarist Alex Edkins, bassist Chris Slorach and drummer Hayden Menzies – have transcended their impeccable influences to ship a chunk of artwork that’s kaleidoscopic, nuanced and fairly lovely, providing meditations on reside, love and loss that assist illuminate the abyss and shine a guiding mild into brighter tomorrows.
Becoming a member of Louder over Zoom from their respective houses in Toronto, the trio clarify why they really feel that, proper now, they’re making one of the best music of their lives.
Your final album, Atlas Vending, was launched through the pandemic. Did you’re feeling that report acquired a correct probability, particularly given that you just could not tour it?
Alex: “It undoubtedly felt completely different. The timing was unhealthy, and we did not get to really feel that reciprocal vitality from going out and enjoying it for folks. Chris’ line was, ‘It appears like we simply took a report and threw it right into a river and watched it go downstream.’ I believed that was actually becoming.”
That is fairly poignant…
Chris: “Yeah, I am stuffed with strains like that. It got here out at a wierd time, when folks actually wanted a cathartic outlet. However as with just about every thing on the earth nowadays, issues aren’t all the time going to be good, and also you simply should roll with it.”
So let’s go additional again. With the influences you had, I need to ask you the way it felt when Sub Pop mentioned, ‘Come be part of us’, as a result of that sounds prefer it’d be a dream come true for a bunch of children raised on punk rock.
Chris: “Can I I let you know a comic story about that? We made our first report independently initially. And the three of us have been joking round saying that we have been gonna ship it to Sub Pop, as a result of it appeared like the right dwelling for the report, and that in the event that they did not need to put it out, we have been simply gonna name the report Sub Pop. It was a joke, however I give it some thought on a regular basis once we’re making new music.”
Alex: “I feel Sub Pop was the highest of our checklist of dream labels. All of us grew up influenced by Dischord Records, Touch and Go, SST, that aspect of punk, and Sub Pop was proper in there, too. We might focus on, like, ‘Hey, would not that be nice if…’ however I do not assume we ever thought of it an actual chance. I do not assume anybody was that naive!”
I keep in mind reviewing that first report for Kerrang!, and the press launch mentioned that it was for followers of Fugazi, and The Jesus Lizard, and Helmet, and Nirvana, and Unsane, or no matter. I do not assume I’ve ever put an album on so quick…
Alex: “Yeah, that have been the stuff that we’d hearken to, and so all of it went into the blender when the three of us acquired in a room. However, and I joke about it typically, when that report got here out, it was just like the furthest factor from cool.”
With the brand new report, the Sub Pop press launch makes point out of the truth that you are increasing your sound. Have you ever had your first ‘promote out!’ condemnations but?
Alex: “We in all probability acquired that for signing to Sub Pop! You realize, some folks can by no means be comfortable. In my thoughts we’ve got been evolving as a band, and as folks, and as musicians since 2007 once we began. And I feel if individuals are listening intently to our catalog, you’ll be able to hear that. In case you have been to simply evaluate the primary report to this one, you would possibly go, ‘What the hell!’ however our sound has been morphing step by step, at a glacial sort of velocity, for so long as we have been round. I suppose the brand new report would possibly make some folks sad, however on the identical time we have all the time lived exterior the strains of style, and so I do not assume anybody’s gonna be pissed off as a result of we have by no means been the flag bearer for any clique. To date there hasn’t been any condemnation, however then once more, the brand new report’s not out but…”
Chris: “In case you do not learn the Web, you do not have to listen to in regards to the condemnation, you’ll be able to simply proceed making no matter music you need. That is my purpose.”
You’ve got described Up On Gravity Hill as “a report about demise, the best way all artwork is in the end about demise”. Is that one thing that is been weighing closely in your minds in in recent times?
Alex: “Chris and I are each fathers now, and I feel when that occurred it modified our views. Loss of life, and the way brief life is, is one thing that I take into consideration quite a bit. And I feel that is made its means into to our music on this report particularly. We’re not a younger band, we do not fake to be, and so, yeah, life coming to an finish is unquestionably a lyrical concern on this report, and the title itself is referencing the concept of demise.”
Alex, in recent times, you’ve got been engaged on side-project stuff [Weird Nighmare, Noble Rot) and scoring music for TV and films. Has that increased your confidence in your abilities, or taught you any lessons that you were able to bring back to Metz?
Alex: Yeah, definitely. Stepping away from the band and doing other projects was really exciting. And the thing that was really cool about it was that it also made me appreciate Metz that much more. When you’ve been doing something for so long together you can take it for granted, and also it can get stale if you don’t take care of it, and keep things moving forward in in a meaningful and creative way. Doing scoring and making records that were scratching a different itch really made me go, Oh, man, I love this stuff, but I really love Metz too. What the three of us do together is distinct, and there’s a real magic there, if I dare say that, that you don’t find every day. It’s definitely rekindled my love for our band.”
With you all having had some time away from the band, have there been any conversation where any of you said, ‘We’ve had a good run, so maybe, if everyone’s cool, we can leave this on a high, and can walk away from it.’ Was that ever a consideration?
Alex: “No, I think we’re all pretty obsessed with this thing that we do, so that that’s never really crossed our minds. There’s certainly been highs and lows, and I think the pandemic was certainly a time when you were forced to take stock of things, and also like, realise that it’s not a guarantee that you can do this: going out and playing this music for people is a privilege. If you come to a Metz show, you’ll know we put everything out there every single night like it’s our last show, and that’s always been our head space. So, no, there’s no signs of letting up, and right now we’re making the best music we’ve ever made.”
The reception given to the first two singles from the the record, Entwined and 99, suggests that there’s a real appetite for the new album, and a sense that people have grown with the band, and are up for the journey ahead, wherever that may lead.
Alex: “You know, I’m glad to hear you say that. I think like anyone who’s putting their neck out there – if you’re a writer, if you’re a painter, if you’re a musician – of course you want people to enjoy what you’re making. But at the same time, we are pretty unwilling to pander to any kind of expectation other than our own. But, just like any kind of craft, you continue to learn, and you continue to refine your craft, and hopefully that leads to better records, and better shows. Hopefully, Metz is like a fine wine at this stage.”
Musicians tend to hate this question, saying that it’s like being asked to select their favourite child, but i’ll ask it anyway: for each of you, if you could pick one song on the record, that’s really speaking to you or moving you right now, tell us which song it is, and the reason why you’ve selected it.
Chris: “I’ll go first. I flip flop back and forth between the opening track, No Reservation and the last track, Light Your Way Home. Both of them, I think, have elements that we hadn’t really used in our music in the past, and they both make me excited about the ability for us to move forward with our songwriting.”
Alex: “Great songs…”
Chris: “They’re okay songs. [Laughs] They might be higher, you recognize?”
Hayden: “For me, there’s two particularly, and Chris already mentioned them. But when I had to decide on, I’d in all probability select Mild Your Means Dwelling just because there is a completely different dialog there being had between us because the people who find themselves enjoying it. It appears to bridge this hole between locations we have been and the place we need to go, and seeing these issues merge and grow to be its personal factor is sort of a particular factor. I see that one as a type of an accomplishment.”
Alex: “I’ve heard folks say that they noticed the video and cried.”
Hayden: “Wow.”
Chris: “I by no means heard anyone say something like that. No person talks to me.”
Alex: “These two songs are first and final on the report for a motive, as a result of we expect they’re robust statements, however I additionally Iike Entwined. To me it is acquired among the Creation Data parts that all of us love with the guitars. However, such as you mentioned, that is like choosing your favorite little one. We’re comfortable that the songs all work collectively as a chunk.”
There’s a actual resurgence of affection for shoegaze music now which there wasn’t within the ’90s once I was first listening to it. There’s an apocryphal story about Oasis’ Noel Gallagher refusing to signal to Creation until they dropped Slowdive, and one of many guys from Manic Avenue Preachers famously mentioned that Slowdive have been worse than Hitler. When did you uncover that music, as a result of that is clearly a barely completely different world from the Dischord, Contact and Go, Amphetamine Reptile world?
Alex: “I suppose I do not consider a few of these bands as being shoegaze bands: like, once I consider The Jesus and Mary Chain I consider a punk band. And I feel stuff like Dinosaur Jr. and Swervedriver are nearer than you assume. However what do you guys assume, I really feel such as you noticed loads of these bands, Chris…”
Chris:” I did. Dinosaur Jr., once I was a young person, was my favorite band, and You are Residing All Over Me remains to be a excessive water mark for music for me. I’d learn any interview I may discover with J. Mascis, and I feel the very first thing I learn was an interview with Kevin Shields, and it turned me on to My Bloody Valentine, and was that like a gateway drug to quite a few different acts: Spiritualized, Spacemen 3, Swervedriver… I nonetheless assume Mezcal Head is high notch, it is a fallback report for me, and it is aged amazingly.
Alex: “There’s a resurgence, such as you mentioned Paul, with shoegazing, however I do need to be clear that for us it is not like that, we have been on this trajectory for a very long time now, and I’d be somewhat shocked if folks used that time period when when interested by us.”
To spherical issues off then, in a perfect world, what would you want listeners to remove from Up On Gravity Hill?
Hayden: “It is onerous to reply that as a result of we’ve got such restricted, if any, management over how folks understand it, so it turns into harmful to take a position. However I feel we’d love for folks to see this as a loving endeavour that brings pleasure to folks, sonically and in any other case.”
Alex: “I feel you nailed it. I feel this report is about happiness and pleasure. It’d sound bizarre to say, however all of us turned to music to really feel one thing, and to make our days higher. And that does not imply that it must be lovely music, it may be crushing grind music, it may be no matter makes you content, and so I hope that this album can carry that feeling to different folks, as a result of it brings it to us. That will be an important consequence, that may be killer.”
Metz’s Up On Gravity Hill album is out on April 12 by way of Sub Pop.
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