Metronomy Discuss the Mercury Nominees

On 6 September at London’s Grosvenor Hotel, the winner of this year’s Mercury Prize will be announced. Will they go on to 
be the new Primal Scream or the new Speech Debelle? Joe Mount (pictured, back left), singer of electro outfit Metronomy — who are nominated for their third album The English Riviera, and are currently rated at 9/1 to win with the bookies — discusses the prize and his band’s chances…

TAKING HOME THE PRIZE

“We’re not confident about winning in the slightest. Just being nominated gives you this second wind of promotion, so that’s kind of a prize in itself. 
If I were to actually think about winning, the best aspect would be that it would top off a fantastic year and set us up for the next record. But we’ll just 
be going to have a nice evening, really. The Mercury is one of those awards where, as soon as the nominations are announced, everyone goes, ‘What the f*ck? Is this really the best of British music?’ But if you look back over the past 12 months, they’ve picked the best records from various different genres, so 
it’s a good spread.”

THE CURSE OF THE MERCURY

“There are times that the Mercury works better than others — its history is peppered with people such as Talvin Singh and Speech Debelle. Someone such as Katy B winning this 
year might make up for Speech Debelle’s win in 2009, when they were trying to bring exposure to someone who hadn’t had it, but it turned out that the public weren’t that keen on her.”

WORTHY WINNERS

“James Blake’s singles were good, but the album’s perhaps 
not as captivating. The person who I’m the biggest fan of on 
the shortlist is PJ Harvey, but 
I think that Ghostpoet would 
be a worthy winner, as he’d benefit from the exposure. 
He seems like the kind of artist that this award is for. Him and us [laughs].”

POTENTIAL SHOCKS

“Gbenga from our band knows Gwilym Simcock and I’ve only heard snippets of his stuff, but he’s a pretty exciting guy. I don’t expect him to win, though, as he’s kind of an outsider in this list. I’d also be shocked if Tinie Tempah won, but he’d probably do a pretty good acceptance speech [laughs].”

SUPPORTING THE MINOR LABELS

“I’d be surprised if Adele won. She’s had a brilliant year, but people would be outraged because she’s already such 
a mainstream proposition. 
I’d be a bit annoyed if any of 
the major label acts won — the impression you get is that the award is geared towards breaking, newer artists.”

Metronomy headline the Royal Albert Hall on 3 October

(Image: Rex Features)