L.A. synth-pop outfit Metro Station have just landed in London. In a little under a week they’ll be taking to the stage at the O2 Arena to open up for Miley Cyrus, a.k.a. Disney sensation Hannah Montana – a.k.a. little sister of Trace Cyrus, front man of Metro Station. Personally I’d find the situation rather embarrassing if I were in the band. Hmmmm… I think a lot of people might.
But not these guys! At least, if they do, they don’t show it. Perhaps they’ve been forced not to by their record company, or their promoters, or perhaps by some unquenchable thirst for fame and fortune, irresistible to them even if it has to come courtesy of hockey mums, Hollywood and eight-year old kids. In desperate search of some answers, I caught up with the drummer, 33 year-old Anthony Improgu.
He explained the band’s take on it: ‘It’s a blessing for us; you know, we’re lucky to be on this tour.’ It’s an unsurprising statement, in light of the band’s overarching aim: ‘We just want to be as big as possible’, he went on to say. But I was puzzled – what are Hannah Montana fans likely to make of a band whose tour partners so far have typically been the likes of emo/punk acts Good Charlotte, Panic at the Disco, and Fall Out Boy?
Improgu has no concerns: ‘Miley’s older now; so her crowd’s getting a little bit older. I mean, we’re a bit more edgy than her but I think it’s actually fine because it’ll be a really pop crowd and the kids are young but, you know, they pretty much love 80s music, and that’s what we bring to the table.’
He acknowledges that, ‘playing to eight year-olds and stuff’, they’ll have to alter their live show – ‘because of the parents and stuff’ – but ultimately he feels that ‘a lot of bands would die for an opportunity like this’.
When he speaks along these lines I begin to wonder whether Improgu and I are on the same planet as each other. Of course, a lot of bands would die for an opportunity like this – bands like Bob the Builder and the Wiggles – not, I’d have thought, bands with front men who sport sleeve tattoos and have symmetrical lip piercings.
This said, he was keen to stress that Metro Station have no pretensions of being a rock band: ‘We’re definitely a pop band’, he asserted, before going on to clarify: ‘What we mean by pop is timeless melodies. The lyric content is not necessarily happy, but it’s hinted with a happy note – it could be rock, it could be hip-hop, whatever – that’s pop.’
Hmmmm… good definition, cleverly vindicating commercially desirable business move… possibly spoon-fed by savvy press agent?
Just kidding. I can honestly say that nothing in my conversation with Improgu led me to suspect that in going on tour with Miley Cyrus the band might be doing something contrary to any artistic principles of theirs. I do believe Improgu when he makes out that he and the rest of the band
are entirely happy – delighted – with the way things are going for them.
Unashamedly seeking to become ‘as big as possible’ whatever the cost, Metro Station occupy a different realm from that in which bands obsess about image and artistic integrity and profess to hold sacrosanct such fickle ideals. The more realistic of the two is surely theirs. Miley Cyrus’ nine-date UK tour is mostly sold out. The few tickets that are still available from online agencies range from £175 to £475. As Bobbi Flekman observes in Spinal Tap: ‘Money talks, and bullshit walks.’
Metro Station’s eponymous debut album was released earlier this year on Columbia Records.
