By Luke Dumpert
Alex Edkins is the guitarist and vocalist for the Canadian noise rock trio METZ. I got to chat with him ahead of METZ’ show at George’s Majestic where we talked about their new album, Up on Gravity Hill, vinyl, and the influence of college radio.
Luke Dumpert: In an interview with thelineofbestfit.com, you mentioned that you found your way into punk and hardcore music through college radio while attending Ottawa University. What was your relationship like with the radio station there?
Alex Edkins: Growing up in Ottawa there were two schools; Ottawa University and Carlton University. They both had pretty awesome radio programs that I would just tune into religiously at night. There’d be a punk show, a metal show, weird hip-hop shows. I really did first hear all these sorts of seminal bands, like Minor Threat and Black Flag. It then opened up to this other world of stuff that was happening downtown; even in a city like Ottawa there was a great underground music scene that I didn’t know existed until the radio shows were advertising for these gigs that were happening in people’s basements or in small clubs. I was living out in the suburbs and when I heard this, I was like, “oh man, okay.” When I worked up the nerve, I started to go into town and go to the shows and that’s kind of where I just fell in love with it all.
LD: You told WLUW that the influences for your solo project, Weird Nightmare, differs from the influences you pull from for METZ. I read in a different interview that your record collection features a lot of 60s psychedelic rock and garage albums, so I was wondering what influences you pull from for both projects since they’re so different, sonically.
AE: Yeah, that’s interesting. It’s definitely true where with Weird Nightmare, I was leaning into more classic songwriting chops and chord structure. Just different stuff than we’re used to with METZ. It’s just trying to invent our own world in some ways, you know? There was a time when I obsessively just collected 60s soul, garage and rock and roll so that hasn’t changed other than I don’t have any space for records in my place anymore. I don’t buy quite as many, but I still seek that stuff out and love spinning that stuff. So, I think in general just the three of us are all over the map and it finds its way somehow, I’m not sure how, into our music. I think it would be almost pointless for me to try to pinpoint one or two groups or records because it really is, just at this point, this melting pot idea of like three people that all kind of grew up in a similar scene, musically. But at this point in our lives, it’s like we just love good music. Whatever it is. So, to answer your question with a non-answer, it’s just all over the place.
LD: The What’s in My Bag video for Amoeba [Records] that METZ did, you mentioned that the Cleaners from Venus album, Midnight Cleaners, is almost a perfect album and coinciding with the topic of records, what other records would you say are near perfect?
AE: Ooh let’s see. I can give you a body of work. My gateway into punk rock was probably the Minor Threat stuff. I think just that body of work, it’s not a [single] record but that body of work as far as like hardcore music, I still think is kind of undefeated. It’s always great, you know? It’s just ageless and perfect in that as far as nailing something.
LD: Oh yeah, I agree. I mean all of Dischord [Records] and anything Ian MacKaye has touched is near perfect.
AE: Yeah, he’s great and Dischord was definitely something we all had in common when we came together as a band. It’s like that was part of our DNA and it’s like a slightly different take on punk music, and I think you can hear that with what we do now.
LD: Congratulations on the new album, Up on Gravity Hill. Where did the album name come from?
AE: That just kind of popped into my head. There’s no great story behind it. I think for me it means this idea of disorientation that I think we can all feel in this modern age and this pushing and pulling kind of feeling that’s happening. I mean a lot of the songs on this record deal with loss and the idea of death, and I’d like to think that term is almost representing to me being in that in-limbo stage between alive and dead. It means a few things to me, but I think it just was one of those phrases that popped into my head. And I was like, “oh, I like that. I think that’s a good title.”
LD: Up on Gravity Hill is the first full-length studio album since 2020’s Atlas Vending. What was the recording and writing process surrounding it like?
AE: Writing was something that took a little bit of time because after Atlas Vending, dealing with the pandemic was very strange. We didn’t get to tour as much as we usually do and to feel that sort of connection with people. I definitely took some time away from thinking about that because we had just been so focused on it. And I went off and did the Weird Nightmare record. I did some more music called Noble Rot that was with Graham [Walsh] from Holy Fuck and that was really an amazing feeling to stay super busy and super creative, but it not be in the same headspace. When the time was right and all of us were ready to get back in the room together, it was a really exciting feeling. That time away, focusing on other things really made it feel fresh again and kind of, I think, magnified what I love about this band and what is special about the music we make when we all come together. There was also a lot of heaviness happening too. I won’t get into it deeply, but there were some band members that had lost people very close to them during that time. It was a huge swirl of emotions. There were good days and bad days where, you know, it was like sometimes you can’t be in the right spot to be working on music and then sometimes you’re in that sweet spot. It was this complicated thing of giving people space that they need and talking things out. We managed to get through, like we always do.
LD: One thing that I picked up on pretty quickly with the new album and something that I’ve always admired about the band, was how effortless the juxtaposition between the dissonance and heaviness of your music kind of clashes with the melodic things like your harmonies. So how do you feel the process of adding those little touches like your harmonies affect the song and direction of what you’re working on?
AE: It’s a lot of fun. It’s something we’ve been trying to do, I think, from day one. But I think we’re just sort of getting slightly more accomplished at it. We’ve doubled down on some of these ideas and not been second guessing ourselves with, “oh, it’s not heavy enough,” you know or whatever it is. It’s like if that part needs to be melodic, then let’s make it super melodic and when something needs to be heavy, let’s make it heavy. It’s like it doesn’t have to be everything at once. I think we like the idea of this record being a bit more of a sprawling piece that takes you on a bit of a ride. Mixing those elements together has always been something we’ve loved doing and we love it when other bands do it, too. It’s always been something that we really appreciate when people can be multifaceted and show different sides; even within the same song and they can show different sides of the same coin.
LD: I think the first instance that I really picked up on the harmonies was the chorus of Mr. Plague. I just remember my band in high school being like, “we’ve got to figure that out”.
Your new album is arguably your most harmonious and textured yet intense album to date so how do you balance the intensity of your music with more introspective moments in your songwriting?
AE: This one unraveled that way. [On] our early records, we were really well prepared. We knew exactly what we were going to do in the studio and as time moves on that’s less of a concern and we’re more like, “okay we know what the song is, but we don’t know exactly how we’re going to approach it,” when it comes to recording and even what instruments are going to be involved. That was, I think, a really cool way to change things up and to add, like you said, different levels of intensity. Once that happens and once there’s these highs and lows it really has a pretty distinct effect on the lyrics and where the songs can go. I just feel far more comfortable singing about certain subjects if the mood is right as opposed to getting pretty one-dimensional if the songs are doing the same thing as far as the level of crushing distortion and stuff like that. That is all well and good, but I think it does narrow your path as far as what those songs can now be about because there’s a certain aggression there. With moments in the songs, even full songs like Light Your Way Home, being definitely more introspective and definitely more like heart on your sleeve, if you will, just makes for this more varied and more interesting album as a whole. We just go so many more different places than we have before and I personally love albums like that, that are kind of a trip to go on.
LD: I know for the opening track, No Reservation/ Love Comes Crashing, you guys enlisted the help of Owen Pallet on violin. What role do you feel the experimentation on tracks like that one kind of plays in your music making process and kind of figuring out where you’d like to take the song?
AE: Well, it’s something that’s new to us because for a long time we wouldn’t have even considered that you know? No one would be allowed into the fold; it was just the three of us and we didn’t trust anyone else’s take on our music. I think now we realize how valuable collaboration can be and someone else’s ears, mind and skills adding to your creation so us getting together with Owen [Pallett] and Amber [Webber] on this record and Seth [Manchester] had some creative impact. It just makes the whole thing, in my opinion, better and way more exciting.
LD: I read on the METZ bandcamp description for Atlas Vending that you guys cover, “seemingly disparate themes such as paternity, crushing social anxiety, addiction, isolation, media induced paranoia and the restless urge to leave everything behind.” What themes would you say represent the latest record?
AE: It’s song to song but 99 is clearly one about big business, about corporate greed. I was influenced by kind of looking at the world through my seven-year-old son and just seeing, when we walk to school, all of the advertisements that from birth are like targeted at you and how kind of grotesque that is. Never Still Again and Light Your Way Home are just love songs about me missing my family when doing this thing I love but also it creating this distance between us when being on the road.
LD: What is it like working with Hayden Menzies who, in my opinion, is one the best living drummers?
AE: Wow, yeah! I agree with you, he’s my favorite drummer and I get to play in a band with him. So pretty awesome. He’s also one of my closest friends. I really can’t say enough good things about him. I’m glad that you’re recognizing that. Sometimes I feel like he doesn’t get enough attention as just an absolutely insane musician and drummer, I think he’s way up there. Hayden’s a special guy, special player and really meticulous about his craft; I think that’s obvious to most people or it should be.