Melbourne post-punk/minimal wave legends The Metronomes recently dropped a long-awaited new album Going Somewhere – their first new material in more than a decade.
We’ve chatted to the band – Ash Wednesday (The Models, JAB, Einstürzende Neubauten), Andrew Picouleau (Sacred Cowboys, Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes) and Al Webb (Streetlife) – let us in on their production methods, going very in-depth “for the synth nerds in the audience”.
Going Somewhere is out now through local underground label It Records, and can be streamed below.
Creating The Record
“Unlike previous albums where we each tended to arrive with fully or partially formed song ideas under our arms,” says Al Webb, “the tracks for Going Somewhere started with backing tracks created on the spot and played together.
“This was more of a real time collaboration than our earlier albums. We have a long history of musical ideas and knowledge of each other, and it shows. No matter how many overdubs we played around with, the raw material never changed from the backing tracks we recorded as a band in various lounge rooms in Geelong and St Kilda, Victoria, Australia.”
Ash Wednesday describes the custom metronomal drum machine the band put together when recording the album.
“I created a 32-plus TR808 style drum machine – 1 or 2 bar compatible yet differing midi ‘patterns’ – within Ableton Live 5. Rather than to arrange these into structured 808 ‘songs’ I incorporated the excellent midi ‘follow-on’ function within Live to construct random order, ‘here and now’ 808 songs. That way we never knew exactly what to expect next from the drum machine. In other words an artificially constructed ‘feel’ was born for the rhythm racks.
“For the sake of retro-familiarity we chose either boss DR55, Roland TR808 or sampled metronome sounds as the voices for the midi songs. Andrew generally played bass and Alister guitar, both DI’d and recorded as audio tracks.
“This was on the same computer as the one playing and recording the midi drum machine tracks, whilst the keyboard line I was playing was simultaneously recorded as a midi and audio track. I often chose virtual synths whose hardware versions were used on early Metronomes recordings too – my beloved ARP Odyssey, a Prophet 5 or a Vox Style Organ.
Somebody There
Al: All the tracks on this LP start in roughly the same place: a chord progression or bass riff against a metronomal drum machine. We add simple synth and guitar parts for a melodic groove. It’s not rocket science. Then we look for things that knock it a bit sideways but don’t destroy the tonality. Here it’s the Fripp-esque guitar drone. “Somebody There” sees Andrew coming out of his sci-fi closet, I think he has a William Gibson altar set up at home. A significant change happened when the bass riff stopped being a bass riff and was EQ’d to become the melodic hyperdrive for the track. We left the bottom end for Ash’s snaking synth line and let the drum machine wander in about half way through. This track may be the only time The Metronomes will ever use a vocoder.
Andrew: I have a very clear memory of starting with the bass part, which was just a riff I started fooling around with in Geelong during one of our early sessions. Sometime after that I did some vocals with Ash which were, as you say, kind of references to Kubrick, but also to David Crosby, and to other sci-fi tropes. The next stage for me was experimenting with some of the more obscure synth noises in Ableton. Then I recall Al took it over, imposed a bit more structure on it, and added the Fripp guitar noises. After that it went through the usual Metronomes mixing and production process involving heartfelt debate and convergence on consensus over various alternative mixes.
Ash: Many of my intuitive first pass keyboard lines ended up in the finished mix. For example the ‘snaking synth line’ audio track Al refers to adds an often chromatic melodic variation to the chosen motif derived from Andrew’s repetitive feel.
Too Much Information
Al: “Too Much Information…too many folders…too many files”. The curse of the digital world. This is me having a whinge. Andrew and Ash found a way to make it fun, which is our wont. The song started life as a swing country thing – really. Sometimes you just have to surrender to the void. And the void said, insistent drum machines and pulsing bass, and so it was. Drum machines are courtesy of an iPad app called Funkbox, layered to make them more frenetic in keeping with the idea. I had just discovered a fabulous Soundtoys plugin called Crystallizer, a kind of reverse delay effect, and decided to try it out with a few simple notes. They fitted so well they stayed, one take.
Andrew: Yes this started as a rather wonderful country swing idea of Al’s, which I tried to put a vocal on, and then got worked over in the mix and production process and kind of lost its way – then Ash took it apart and reconstructed it and then you and he bounced it back and forth and got a consensus.
Ash: Via hitherto means, Al created a compelling dance track to accompany the vocal compilation that had been recorded to a lazy country feel. We weren’t expecting this one.
Neo Futurist Cyclo Fascists
Al: Or NFCF as we affectionately know it. Andrew is a placid person who has had some not very pleasant car driving experiences with lycra-clad packs of fascist bicycle riders. So maybe we should call this the revenge of the nerd, reflected in the sometimes spooky vocal FX. The chord progression started life as a death metal riff I bashed out in a plugin called Slayer, just for fun. Five minutes after unveiling it, it had a driving bass line and the kind of expressive synth chords Ash can dial up in seconds. Sometimes we veer away from standard drum machine sounds and go for something different, to break it up a bit. We did that here.
Andrew: Well, this is my enthusiastic response to Al’s mighty guitar riff – I love big guitar sounds – so then we had a great bass line looking for a song. The lyrics aren’t meant to be taken too seriously, although I have had some unpleasant experiences at the hands of bicycle riders, which might have something to do with it.
Ash: I converted Al’s death metal riff back into a midi file and we then cut it into 2 different adjoining sections. The riff then repeated every 20 bars rather than every 16. Played against a conventional 4/4 drumbeat (stretched to 16 bars) a resolution exists every 80 bars rather than every 16. This is consequentLy a far more interesting, yet still repetitive song structure which Al artfully subtracts from in the final mix.
REGRETS
Al: A song built around a simple two-note arpeggio. Ash is a genius of simplicity. Wrap a melodic bass part around it and you have “Regrets”. I always wanted to do a ‘pre-verb’ effect (where the reverb starts ahead of the original sound) and finally got my chance here! You’ll notice there are two guitar parts – fat and skinny. Guitar is wonderful that way, you can use it like a boxing glove or a fine pencil. “I said I was sorry, but I was lying”…please don’t play this song to the kiddies.
Andrew: This started in the usual way with an improvised feel bouncing off each other in a session – the vocal is an early one done at Geelong with Ash. The lyrics are really just me saying its okay to admit to making mistakes, I think, and expressing my feelings of humility.
Ash: The cold minimal keyboard line and tone, not to mention the plaintively non-emotive syncussion voices are a reaction against the so-called humility and subsequent pathos of the lyric.
TAKING THE LONGER VIEW
Al: Another track built around a melodic arpeggiated synth. There is a big wash of sounds on this track, some simple synth lines that go BIG. Sometimes, minimal or not, you just gotta let the reverb loose. We have discovered very late that Ash and Andrew have highly compatible voices. They have room to move and hit the heights here. Andrew may well have surpassed T.S. Elliot, or maybe Saldavor Dali, in this song: “We have gone viral now…We have not had a cow”.
Andrew: Again this started as us fooling around, then got transformed into something rather wonderful by Ash’s synth parts. The vocals were done in my lounge room, and were really stream of consciousness. Ash did a lot of work on this getting it all to sit right and adding additional vocals so that you get that big choral sound
Ash: A quickly derived and well mannered lyric matched to a well-crafted vocal melody. An equally well crafted and shifting arpeggiator help disguise the elementary chord progression.
GOING SOMEWHERE
Al: The lyric idea began life when yours truly, attempting a spoken vocal but lost for words, started commentating on my own situation. The song has to be going somewhere, have meaning, otherwise why bother? It was a short jump to a universal statement about life, death, religion and the whole damn thing. There are many subtle rhythmic layers on this track, but it still didn’t fully come together until an old favourite, the Speak’n’Spell plugin, was rolled out. Now it had meaning. There are probably enough ideas and musical parts from this track left on the cutting room floor to make two albums.
Andrew: Another track from the Geelong sessions – I think we roughed out one of our random number generated chord progressions and then just started playing – it turned into one of the more beautiful pieces of music we’ve produced I think. There was a lot of debate between us about exactly how it should be finished off, many different mixes with varying emphases on different parts of the melody. Wonderful keyboard parts by Ash.
Ash: Yes we did ‘rough out one of our random number generated chord progressions and then just started playing’. Though I remember audibly counting out the unusual bar numbers to the equally odd chord progression (for group reference purposes) whilst playing the single note Prophet lines throughout the initial takes. The synth lines played on the chorus were retained, whilst over the next days I was quick to devise and overdub the ARP Odyssey and related echoes around Andrew’s bassline on the verses. Although monophonic lines, these importantly defined the harmonic nature of the previously nominated chord progression.
TATTERED
Al: As near as we get to a ballad. Ultra-simple rhythmic effect (squeezed, filtered, highly EQ’d rhythm machine) with a dissonant background wash – Andrew was experimenting with BeatRepeat and Phil Spector reverb at the time. Ash’s sharp keyboard jabs give it some Metronomes edginess, a deliberate counter-point to Andrew’s charming, lost-soul vocal. It gave me lots of space to play with a big guitar sound – think Hank Marvin on psychedelic drugs. Oh, and the last little metallic percussion roll at the end is a special treat for those who remember ‘Commentator’ from our first album.
Andrew: We had an odd minimalist music track – I had a lyric idea I really liked but wasn’t sure what to do with – then Al took over and added the mighty guitar parts and various percussion/production. Pretty pleased with how this turned out.
Ash: To elaborate on something Al has pointed out, I was determined to retain the edginess of the fractured ‘Prophet piano’ played on the initial band track. Although the reckless timing and note selection were retained exactly as played, I spent quite a lot of time readjusting the midi dynamics of the recorded notes around the recorded bass and overdubbed vocal.
NOW I CAN SEE THE LIGHT
Al: Electronic prog? Neo-futurist epic rock? Our rock band roots come scarily close to the surface on this track. Andrew sings and writes at his most droll. Basic 808 gets embellished with one of the better drum plugins, Tremor. There is an ultra-minimal version of this track with almost all the guitar and keyboard elements stripped out. Luckily I was the only one who voted for it.
Andrew: This was one of those tracks that just come together really effortlessly – the basic track recorded in Ash’s lounge room in a couple of takes – added vocals in my lounge room at a session with Ash – Ash’s vocal accents really push this one over the top. We then sent it to Al, and he came back with this wonderfully polished mix, and it was all done. I really love the keyboards on this track. The vocals are meant to be amusing, but there is a dark side…
Ash: The guitar’s pretty good too. During the vocal recording sessions song, like most of the songs on this album, Andrew simply pulled out a notepad and scribbled the lyrics down before my eyes. Nothing longer than five minutes was spent, usually with this non self critical, stream of consciousness stuff. It was then recorded straight to laptop.
PAINTING IT BLACK
Al: A signature of The Metronomes is crafting bass riffs around chord progressions and turning them into songs. It’s very apparent here. It bops, it sways, it stops, it starts. This track was a lot of fun. We used a wonderful plugin from Rhythmic Robot called Loopscape, from which you can get great Eno-esque textures and backwards guitar effects. This was one of the first tracks to be developed. It started life in Ableton Live, evolved in Logic before migrating back to Live, which had become the DAW de jour.
Andrew: I remember it starting with a good bass line – then a vocal recorded in the lounge room of Ash’s flat (I’m not sure if Ash did his vocals then or later) – then Al put some wonderful percussion and drum effects and guitar, re-edited and mixed. Then began the Al to Ash mixing and production shuffle until a consensus was reached.
Ash: Yes, we recorded our vocals independently but during the same session. I think I might have thrown a few lines into this one. A bit of interaction going on. Al pieced together an excellent compilation from the vocals we provided. And the latter day mixes. He pulled the proverbial rabbit out of the hat, I thought.
MOONRANCH
Al: This is built around beautiful arpeggiated sequences designed by Ash. Someone pushed the reverb to 11 on this one too, perfectly appropriate as you glide across the moonscape, step by step accompanied by the metronome. Then there’s that slightly unsettling horn sound which someone slipped in cleverly before the final mix. The jangliness (is that a word?) of the guitar part is courtesy of the sunburst Rickenbacker I bought myself around that time. Eye candy and fabulous sounds, all in one.
Andrew: This started with improvisations at Geelong, but was really taken over by Ash. Obviously the guitar plays a key role also, I’m not sure when Al put this on, I think towards the later part of the production process – my memory is Ash pulled the final arrangement and mix together.
Ash: This was originally a very sparse recording. A huge sounding motif from Andrew, minimal drum machine (maybe just a metronome) and a bit of sparse, vaguely arabic sounding synth, which was later replaced by the two analog synth sounding sequences (of differing duration of course). These, in combination with some of Al’s moonscape elements, particularly the gentle space-western guitar create an atmosphere reminiscent perhaps of some of our earlier work – ‘Multiple Choice’ for example. This idea did occur to each of us both independently and collectively throughout the making of this album, I think. That is the marriage of technologies and technique throughout our most recent forty years or so.
