Although it’s been three years since their last album, Tim Hughes finds that Metronomy have been as busy as ever

If there’s one thing you could never accuse Metronomy of, it’s being predictable.

Frontman Joe Mount has made it his mission to keep things fresh, exciting and constantly changing.

“The reason people like Metronomy is because they like being surprised and subtly challenged,” he says.

“It’s good to surprise people and not do what’s expected of you. The best thing you can achieve if you’re in a band is to do what you want.”

Given the slow-burning success of their groundbreaking Mercury-nominated opus The English Riviera, one might have expected the Devon band to serve up more of the same. But, as guitarist, keyboardist and singer Joe says, that’s not what Metronomy do. Instead he has waited three years to come back with something a little bit different.

From their early days as an instrumental electronic-pop act, with circular lights on their T-shirts, Metronomy have encompassed art-rock, glitchy funk, laid-back indie-dance, dreamy keys, and, now, with their fourth album, retro harmonic synth-pop. The record touches on moments of Motown soul, spacey psychedelia yet also retains their trademark quirky electronic flavour.

Love Letters, which has been widely acclaimed by fans and critics and entered the charts at Number Seven, was recorded by Joe, fellow guitarist and saxophonist Oscar Cash, drummer Anna Prior and bassist Gbenga Adelekan at Toe Rag Studios in East London.

“There has been three years between records, but there hasn’t been any gap,” he says. “We toured constantly for 13 months and then took a holiday. Then we did this album and have gone back out again.

“It’s nice people like it,” he adds, talking to me at the start of a tour to promote the record. “It is reasonably different to the last and has different reference points. I guess the thing that held the last one together was that it was about Devon. This time I wanted to record in an analogue studio. I liked the idea of making a record without computers, and that was my starting point. But it was also about revisiting all the ’60s stuff I really like and which has been part of my life. That gives the music more of a traditional flavour. I’m not someone who has a problem with technology,” he adds, as if anyone could ever doubt it. “It’s something I wanted to do for creative reasons, to see how it affected my writing.”

However, he insists he is not trying to be difficult and certainly isn’t out to alienate fans.

“The fans are the most important people,” he says. “I am not making it sound like ‘screw what everyone else thinks’, but you’ve got to temper what you want to do with what your fans expect.

“Being your own boss is a dream, though.”

Joe is more than just Metronomy’s frontman; he is also the composer and creative impetus behind a band which is, effectively, a vehicle for his own ideas.

“From the beginning it’s been a project which has been my thing and I still feel very differently to it than the other people in the band.”

While the band came together in 1999, releasing its first album in 2006, it was the success of English Riviera which earned it many of its fans. Does it annoy Joe that his earlier records, such as 2008’s quirky Night’s Out, may have been overlooked?

“People have to join you at some point,” he says. “You can’t expect them all to come at the beginning.”

And how helpful was that Mercury nomination? “The album was going well anyway, in terms of recognition, but when the nomination happened it made our lives so much easier. It gave the album an overnight boost.”

Another astronomical boost came for their latest single I’m Aquarius, for which promotion has been out of this world. Literally. The song was made available first on a smart phone stargazing application.

Using The Night Sky app, which identifies astronomical bodies, fans were able to scan the heavens for the Aquarius constellation, being treated to a play of the tune once found.

“There’s a real tradition of labels coming up with crazy ideas, and this one was brilliant. It’s not very often that a song would work in that environment and it’s a marvellous idea.”

On Monday, Joe and the band play the O2 Academy Oxford. They return to the county in August to headline Wilderness festival at Cornbury Park.

Joe admits to being excited to be on the road, confessing that he is delighted “to still being around.”

He adds: “You are aware when you start that there are lots of cynical people around. “But we have proved wrong all those people who thought we were just a flash in the pan. We feel established – and that’s a proper achievement.”

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Metronomy play the O2 Academy Oxford on Tuesday. Tickets £15.50 from ticketweb.co.uk This summer they headline Wilderness Festival, which runs from August 7-10. Tickets from wildernessfestival.com