Music, Style & Culture

Alex Metric: ‘I Want To Hit The Festivals Hard’

With a plethora of high-profile indie remixes under his belt, Alex Metric is poised to become a household name

DJ, producer, radio presenter, remixer, band member, solo artist: no one could ever accuse Alex Metric of being anything less than prolific. With a plethora of high-profile indie remixes to his name, a string of successful club hits and the imminent release of his long-awaited debut album, Alex Metric is poised to become a household name. With the instrumental release of his collaboration with Steve Angello garnering plenty of praise already, Alex is set to re-release 'Open Your Eyes' along with a "secret" guest vocalist. For now Alex is keeping tight-lipped about the mystery collaborator's identity, however he opens up to DIY about his decision to scrap half his album, the reasons why he left Radio 1 and his upcoming remix for Depeche Mode.

Your debut album 'Open Your Eyes' has been a long time in the making, but it's finally got a release date set towards the end of March. How is the material going to differ from your previous EPs and recordings?
I think that the album that is coming out now is quite interesting as it's not the album that I'd intended to write for a while, as it's kind of turned into something else. As I've got busier remixing stuff for other people I've become known a bit more and now there's so many more things than just writing my own material. I've been producing other artists and remixing a lot of big bands and it just feels like the body of work that I've done – the combination of my own material with remixes and productions for other people – are more representative of what I am than the album I had been writing up until that point.

You've mentioned that the album will not be an album in the traditional sense, but rather a collection of all your various material. Can you explain a bit more about this?
Yeah, there's some exclusive new stuff and then there's my favourite bits. It's a sort of “this is what I've done up until this point” kind of thing. I just feel a lot more comfortable with this body of work than the album I've been writing, and although there's some great material on the album, when I do release a normal artist album as well, I'll take some of that material forward. I just feel that this is me, and that there's a broader range of styles. I feel really comfortable with this album.

The album's first single is also called 'Open Your Eyes' and its original instrumental version has had very positive reactions. How did the collaboration with Steve Angello from Swedish House Mafia come about?
EMI is a label that Steve's worked with for a long time and so he became aware of my stuff and he sent me over an idea and said that he'd love me to work on it. It was really organic like that and I don't think that either of us really expected it, but everyone seems to love the track, which is great. I'm really chuffed with the response, as it was one of those tracks where I didn't have any expectations at all, so I just thought, “Yeah, I'll have a go and see what I can do with this riff” and then it turned into this much bigger thing.

Can you tell me any more about the second version of the song that's due out next month? And can you confirm who the guest vocalist is yet?
I can tell you that we've got a quite well-known vocalist who I'm just getting the final mix back from today, so I'm about to sign that off. I can't give away the secret!
It's a famous British indie singer and I used to have pictures of him on my bedroom wall when I was a teenager, so for me to end up in the studio with him and have him singing on a record that I've made is just one of those moments that I won't ever forget. He's done a really great job on it.
Surprisingly nobody's actually guessed who it is yet. I've had a few people on twitter have a go but no one's actually mentioned the name. It's going to be announced pretty imminently as the track itself is mixed but we just have to make sure that everyone involved is happy with it before we start announcing things. We're hoping to get him along to some shows as well, but we'll have to see about that.

You're well known as a prolific remixer and you've remixed the likes of Bloc Party, Ellie Goulding, La Roux and Phoenix. Were these artists who approached you, or did you decide to remix their tracks?
Ninety per cent of the remixes that I do are the artist or the label getting in touch with me and requesting the remixes. The only one out of those that you've mentioned that wasn't was Phoenix. I actually requested to do 'Lisztomania' as Phoenix are my absolute favourite band in the world.
I met Philippe Zdar in Ibiza one summer and sort of got friends with him. I knew that he was producing the album so I sent him an email and said that I would really be honoured to work on it and that if the band would let me have parts that I'd love to do a remix. I was one of the first people to hear the single as it hadn't been on the radio or released yet so I felt really privileged. Doing that remix and having Thomas Mars' voice blasting out the studio was just so amazing.

And have you got a particular remix that you're particularly proud of?
I'd say that 'Lisztomania' is my favourite remix that I've ever done and definitely the most well-received song I've ever done. It just seems to work, my sound and Mars' voice and their guitars, it just all seemed to come together really organically. Although the Depeche Mode one that's due to come out is another favourite of mine and it was a real honour to do that. I've done a remix of 'Personal Jesus' which is just gonna be re-released with the remix album and that was just amazing to do. Having that classic record in my studio was brilliant.

You recently quit your slot on Radio 1's In New DJs We Trust. What were the reasons behind this decision – was it so that you could focus upon making your album and making music rather than playing it?
I make music first of all, that's what I started out doing and that's what I set out to do. Radio 1 was an interesting diversion and something that was unexpected and when things like that get offered to you, you don't want to turn it down.
I really enjoyed it and I learned a lot at the time, but I just became increasingly uncomfortable with being on the radio and presenting other people's music when that's not actually what I want to do. It took up a lot of time and even though it was only one slot a month, it was still three or four days work a month getting the show together and finding the music and sequencing it.
Last year I was just touring so much as a DJ and with my band and doing so many remixes that with the radio show as well I just found so little time to work on my own stuff so it just felt like the right time to go.
I think I left at the right time and I really loved the show and I'm really grateful to everyone at Radio 1 for giving me the opportunity but it was just time to move on. This year's been great having that time freed up and I've really got back into making some more records again, so it worked out really well I think.

When you've performed as Alex Metric in the past it's been primarily as a DJ. How will your live shows change to incorporate your new material in terms of adding vocals, its newer format and guest collaborations?
I was primarily a DJ, but last year I also did a lot of live shows with a full band set up with me on vocals and with guitars and bass which was great. We did Bestival and Transmusicales so we had some amazing shows at festivals, which was certainly a highlight.
I'm kind of re-thinking the live shows at the moment, especially because I want to incorporate 'Personal Jesus' and some of my other remixes. I haven't quite worked out what the new live set up is going to be yet, as it's going to change slightly because last year we were performing the album that I'd written up to that point and now I'm not going to release some of those tracks, so I'll have to switch the set up a bit and add a few remixes in. It's gonna transform quite a bit – there will definitely be more production and a more visual aspect as well. Just how I'm gonna do that, I don't know yet!

You've progressed from being a band member in your teens to a DJ, producer, remixer and now a solo artist with a full band. Would you say that it's been an organic process? And although your own new material is your priority at the moment, are you still actively producing?
Yeah absolutely. It felt like a really, really natural thing, moving in and out of these various roles. But you know, the band thing and producing bands is something that I love doing. I'm still producing and I've just produced the latest Infadels album and that's my favourite production job that I've ever done. It was just such an enjoyable process and it's something that I'd like to do a little more of. Production for me is definitely still important and I'm working with other artists such as Charli XCX, so I'm still very much working with different artists as well as my own stuff.

Finally, what touring and festival plans have you got lined up for this summer and the rest of the year?
I don't know much about summer festivals apart from Secret Garden Party. I'm definitely going to be going back to Ibiza in the summer and then there's the new Warehouse Project in April. I'm also hoping to get out to Asia before the summer. I really want to hit the festivals hard with 'Open Your Eyes'. That scene was definitely in my mind when I was writing and recording it. I was thinking of the open air at Glastonbury with that record, so I'll hopefully be playing Glastonbury – that would be amazing.