Category: Music

The Metros hail straight from the best part of London, south of the river in Peckham, and have been making their brand of indie noise together since being together at school. Whilst still in the prime of their youth, these lads are no stranger to success and have shared stages with The View and Milburn. With The Metros heading off on the MTV Spanking New tour very soon with Pigeon Detectives and The Rascals, we thought it was time to have words with these upstarts about music, soapy bottles and pasties.

So, The Metro’s are blowing up right now, being kicked off tours, causing chaos all around the country – introduce yourselves….

I’m Charlie and I play bass. We’re from South London. Peckham and Catford way, all around there. Me and the lead guitarist Joe went to school with our drummer, who lived at the back of Jack, our other guitarist’s garden.

In a shed or something?

Pretty much man, it wasn’t a very nice house.

[Saul]I’m Saul, singer. Me and Jack have known each other a long time. Our parents went to school together. Me and Jack were in loads of shit bands when we were like 13-14. Shit punk-ska bands. We finally managed to write a decent song one day. Our drummer now used to drum in our old band and he used to use a keyboard and just play the drum sounds off of that (Imitates drums) in the front room of his mums house. That’s where is all started.

And a few months later, you are signed to a record company and the dream is on….

Yeah, it did happen pretty quickly man. It was kind of unexpected which kind of made it much better. It was a real shock. We didn’t have to work for it too much did we?

So it was handed to you on a plate?

Yeah [laughs] Drunk A&R man…

Did you go through the whole A&R experience?

No, not at all man. James who signed us. He runs our label and he lived in Catford. He puts on a night in Brixton near where I used to live, called ‘The Windmill Of Your Mind’.

Ah we know it well….

We played there once and he saw us and then he came down to a show the next week in Lewisham. He is quite an impulsive kind of guy and he just signed us and that was Christmas…a nice present for everyone.

So it’s been over a year?

Yeah man, we’ve been signed over a year now, we just haven’t fucking done anything because everyone has been at school finishing exams and stuff! The albums done now though.

It must be quite hard juggling school and the band, are you all in the same boat?

Everyone’s finished now, Freddie and Jack are the only ones who managed to stick it out the whole way and get their A levels done. I tried, but never got there. Joe also tried but never went to school, but yeah, the other two stuck it out. Freddie failed miserably, but hey, he tried.

So let’s talk music, what kind of music have you all grown up with?

Erm, Charlie’s dad is really into funk and jazz and I think it has really influenced the way I play bass.

Your sound obviously has nothing to do with Jazz though…

I don’t know, there are elements, some of our later knowns tracks..[laughs] We are influenced by punk, me and the drummer used to have 3 mohawks and hang about on Camden bridge. We were really into American punk and hardcore and stuff like that. Minor Threat and Bad Brains, stuff like that. Later on we got more into more 70’s stuff, more English stuff, like The Squeeze, The Specials, Ian Drury. We are influenced by modern indie as well, like The Libertines and stuff like that. When we started our band I just wanted to be like Pete Doherty, but then I realise that was a really shit idea.

What are you guys listening to at the moment?

I’m really into psychobilly at the moment. Mad punk stuff. Some of that shit is really good.
King Kurt, Meteors…

So, you’re from down Peckham way, now there are a few famous people from down that way, namely Del-boy and Rodders. Do you get many cheeky characters floating around your neck of the woods?

No, not really. Although, we’ve got ‘No Neck Nigel‘..he hasn’t got a neck and he films porn and when he talks to you he has to turn his entire body to look at you. His dad Charlie is so cockney! So cockney in fact that you can’t understand a word he is saying! There are a few characters man, but mainly just rude boys, the kind you just want to avoid.

What about the music scene there?

Down New Cross way man, there is a proper good scene. There is always a lot of gigs going on and they have something called Rocklands which is like a poor man’s Camden Crawl. Mates of ours who we have been playing with for years who are just starting out are really into the scene there. Proper good little scene.

You guys went out on the road with Milburn, it was a university tour wasn’t it? Did it not go to well?

Erm, well it was alright, but we kind of witnessed the death of Milburn. They’re nice blokes but their band has just kind of plummeted. They booked a uni tour, because I think they thought if they played student unions during term times, they would get packed – but that didn’t happen. I mean, it REALLY didn’t happen.

How you guys doing with touring? Are you finding it hard?

I don’t think we are built for touring, or built for big tours any way. How long have we done? 12 days with a few gaps here and there and we are fucking worse for wear [laughs] We couldn’t tour for like 3/6/9 months – fuck that. No, I don’t think we’d be too suited to that. We need to start taking some multi vitamins or something?

Are you just living on chips on the road then?

[Charlie] – I wish! I’ve got an acid problem with my stomach, too much boozing. I’m fed up of paying £5 for a shit pasty from one of those motor way service stations. It’s all you can get apart from maybe a scotch egg! The worst thing is they do those scotch egg bars now! It’s like a sausage roll but instead of sausage, it’s got egg and sausage meat instead of pastry. They are disgusting!

And that’s what you live on, on the road?

Yeah, pretty much. That’s the healthy option! [laughs]

So you can’t wait to get a chef on tour with you then?

Yeah, once you’ve got a sleeper bus, I don’t think touring is that bad.

Are there any band rituals on tour?

Not really? Slapping Joe when he falls asleep, which is pretty much all the time. Our lead guitarist is never awake really?

So are you always slapping him about when he is asleep then?

Yeah, even when he is awake to be fair [laughs]

What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done to him on tour?

Nothing to bad to him, but Charlie…

[charlie] Yeah, I got the worst punishment.

[Saul] – We were all on tour in Norwich and Charlie fell asleep on his bed at the hotel and we had drunk a lot. I grabbed a bottle of beer and put a load of soap on the end of it and I put it up his arse and was waving it about and it made this noise [makes suction noise!]. Charlie then sat bolt up right and puked all over himself. Then Freddie pissed on him! That’s the worst, it was a bit severe! We are like a real family, very close! [laughs]

Is it true that you kicked The Ghost Frequencie’s arses for breaking your amp?

Beat them up? No! We threatened them! They look all cool but when I confronted them about it he was all like (puts on mousey voice) “Oh sorry, sorry, we will buy you a new one“

Does that happen a lot on tour? People borrowing your stuff?

We are quite careful about stuff like that. Their guitarist was jumping about and they had two amps stacked on top of each other and he stood on it and broke it. Bit annoying two minutes before you’re about to go on stage.

So you’re in the studio at the moment?

No no, we’ve just finished.

Who’s been working the record with you?

Baxter Jury, who sung on the late great. He has been wicked, really good to work with him. The majority of the album was done by him. We recorded in Wales and Chelsea. When we finished we did another couple of tracks with this geezer called James Cox, who did Blur, The Gorillaz and Jamie T. We’ve finished, it took a long time, but it has been worth it. We have grown with the music. Evolved. It’s all come together and become more of a master piece.

Do you enjoy being in the studio or do you prefer being out on the road?

It depends, in the studio, musically we aren’t the tightest band, or the most talented [laughs]. So it can be frustrating. We’ve all grown up with each other and we argue like brothers. So we can get at each other sometimes…like really really get at each other. I mean, I like the end process in the studio when you decide where you wants claps and stuff…its nice to hear it all coming together.
I mean, the worst thing in the world is waiting for a drum track to get laid down, so when it finally happens it’s great. To hear a whole song is pretty good.

Have you got a title for the album yet?

We’ve got a few. We aren’t really sure what to call it yet. We won’t be spilling the beans because I am too scared that you will think they are shit. [laughs]

The Metros released their debut single “Education Pt.2” on March 17th through 1965 Records.