Alex Edkins of grunge-punk trio METZ betrays a quieter demeanour over the phone than his viciously distorted guitar would suggest.
The Torontonian frontman explained how he and METZ’s other two pieces, Hayden Menzies and Chris Slorach, are no different than any other band — they’re hard-working, hard rocking, blue-collar misfits.
The three have been trekking across Europe for the past few months, touring their self-titled label debut with SubPop Records.
They’re just about to head back overseas with the likes of Mudhoney, Titus Andronicus, and Fucked Up.
“It’s great, we really do enjoy it,” Edkins said of life on the road. “The response at the shows has been really overwhelming.”
“It’s exciting for us to be up there and play in a place like Greece, and the shows [are] sold out and people know our songs. It’s really an incredible feeling.”
The debut release was recorded on weekends last year, and more importantly, on their own terms.
The group signed with Sub Pop, which has housed the likes of Nirvana, Soundgarden and more, once the record was complete, meaning creative control was in their hands, and theirs alone.
“There was no one influencing the music we wrote or the way we produced it other than the three of us,” Edkins said.
A noteworthy locale also added to the character of the record.
“We went up to a barn and did a week’s worth of tracking there with Graham Walsh [of Holy Fuck],” Edkins explained.
“And then in the evenings and weekends we kind of finished it up with a guy named Alex Bonenfant at his studio.”
“It wasn’t all one go. It was kind of spread out over weekends cause we were all working full-time.”
Every new punk/grunge band since 1990 has been told they sound like Nirvana or The Pixies, but Edkins thinks it goes beyond that.
“I think it’s kind of just the product of three guys who have similar backgrounds in music,” he said of the band’s sound.
“I think there’s just a total mish-mash of those kinds of bands coming from all three of us, and then you throw it together and [METZ is] what you get. We really didn’t discuss what our band was going to sound like.”
The band has received a fair bit of well-deserved buzz since their 2012 release, and right now they’re riding the wave of grunge resurgence.
“There’s a lot of that happening in Toronto now, and it’s cool ‘cause there’s a lot of great music coming out,” Edkins said on the recent growth of the punk scene.
“I don’t think you could’ve said that two or three years ago, so it seems to be something that’s happening right now. So we’re all for it.”
But like any good musician worth his salt, he stressed all music is worth listening to.
“That being said, we’re all for any kind of good music. We’re just big music fans,” he said.
“And regardless of what it sounds like, it’s good and it’s heartfelt, then we can get behind it.”
METZ will play Ottawa’s Babylon Nightclub on April 10 along with Toronto band The Soupcans.
