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Metronomy have a massive year ahead of them. Their fourth album, Love Letters, is their most anticipated yet after the release of the critically acclaimed The English Riviera - and they're now squaring up to the biggest festival slots of their careers.
Metronomy's first two albums Pip Paine (Pay the £500 You Owe) and Nights Out merged indie and electronica in a way that made them underground heroes. However it was third record The English Riviera that really got things moving for Mount and co. The album recieved widespread critical acclaim (including a Mercury Music Prize nomination) as well as commercial success.
With this commercial success, of course, came the demand. The English Riviera saw the band go from the John Peel stage to the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury and the NME stage to the Dance Stage at Reading and Leeds. In 2011, the year the record was released, Metronomy played a dizzying, widely varying selection of festivals as well as the aforementioned: Mallorca Rocks, T in the Park, Lovebox, Bestival, Sonar...basically, every one you can imagine.
Now, Mount and co are gearing up to release their highly anticipated fourth album, Love Letters - and they're also gearing up to headline their first festival. Yep, Metronomy will be headlining London's Field Day festival alongside a little band called Pixies - and Mount admits he's pretty terrified. Well, "excited but nervous", to be exact.
"I think it must be funny for Pixies because I bet none of them have ever heard of Metronomy," he tells Gigwise. "I get the impression that by now they probably don't pay too much attention to what's happening in music. But if you had told me a few years ago that my band would be headlining a festival alongside Pixies I'd be like wow, that's crazy - because they'd split up," he adds, laughing.
Watch the video for 'I'm Aquarius' below:
Hinting at bigger things to come for Metronomy, Mount says the band have to step up to the plate in order to get used to more prominent billings. "I think there'll be more festivals in the future that we're going to be higher up the bill on, so whether you like it or not you have to learn how to be that kind of band."
Mount also confirms that Metronomy, who are gearing up for the release of fourth album Love Letters, will be playing "loads" of festivals this summer. "We're doing all the ones you can imagine really," he reveals.
So that's Glastonbury confirmed, right?
Metronomy are festival pros - and will be back on the scene bigger than ever in 2014
Speaking about how their festival experience has evolved as performers over the past few years, Mount claims not much has changed. "Playing festivals is always fucking shambolic. Festivals are shambolic. You hope that as you crawl up the bill it'll get easier and more organised, but it doesn't. The weird thing about festivals is that for bands, with the technical experience festivals are never enjoyable. But as a fan-band experience, festivals are always amazing."
Mount, who founded Metronomy in 1999, also stressed the importance of smaller festivals such as Latitude and Field Day that promote the smaller bands. "It's great there are festivals that aren't aiming for stupidly big bands," he says. "It's nice that they end up being these facilitators, they get people first - they serve a very important role. And it's nice for us, otherwise we'd always be in the John Peel tent."
Love Letters will be released on March 10. Metronomy will headline Field Day on Saturday June 3, 2014. Tickets are on sale now. For more information visit Gigwise Gig Tickets.
