A Quick Chat With Alex Metric About Dates and Ghosts and Stuff

Rising house producer Alex Metric is currently on a run of summer festival dates behind his April 2014 EP Hope (released by OWSLA, btw), and his three-part Ammunition series EPs before that. His sonic output runs the gamut between darkly futuristic to brightly effervescent, while all remaining utterly soulful—which is all to say that we like this guy. The Britain-based producer took some time to talk to us about dates and ghosts and stuff.

Describe your perfect date.
Well obviously, the person is important, but beyond that, good food. An amazing restaurant with awesome food is the most important thing for me. If you’re both enjoying a really fucking good meal, and you’re experiencing that together, that’s all you need for a date, isn’t it? I like a place where it’s an experience for both of you, versus just ordering food and eating it.

Do you let her pay for half?
No. No. Definitely no.

Have you driven anyone insane?
My parents, when I was a teenager. I was just a rebellious little shit and thought I was right all the time and wanted to do music, and I guess had that sort of musician’s spirit in me where I did what I wanted and rebelled against everything they told me to do. I got kicked out of college for going to Glastonbury Festival. I had been such a nightmare, and I never went to lessons and was always at friends’ houses. We were in a band and playing stuff, and I remember the final straw was that I asked for time off for Glastonbury. The college said, “If you go to Glastonbury Festival and don’t turn up here at college, you’re done.” I went anyway, because music was driving me and was what I wanted to do. My parents rung me up at Glastonbury and said, “We’ve just had a phone call from your college. You’ve been kicked out.” I was a nightmare when I was a teenager.

I swear that I woke up in the middle of the night, and I looked at the end of my bed, and there was somebody standing there.

What song lyric or movie line best describes your philosophy on life?
There’s a lyric from the Charlatans that says, “Live it like you love it.” I think whatever you’re doing in your life, you really have to have that philosophy and enjoy it; otherwise, there’s no point in doing it. It’s one of those things that always come back in my head years and years on. It’s always there.

Are you living it like you love it?
Absolutely. And the moments when I’m not—like, the moments I’m in a hotel halfway around the world, feeling bummed out and missing something, or whatever—I still know I’m lucky to do what I do. The full lyric is “Live it like you love it, because only love is worth it.” That’s a nice sentiment.

Have you ever had a brush with the paranormal or supernatural?
When I was a kid, we used to live in a house quite isolated in the countryside of England. It was a very old house, and one night there was a big storm. I swear that I woke up in the middle of the night, and I looked at the end of my bed, and there was somebody standing there. As I got older, I wondered whether it was me in my head making it into something or not. The guy that had lived there before had died in the house, and I think we found out when I as a kid that that had happened. I wonder whether that story, combined with thunder and lightning, could have made me believe that—or maybe I did see a ghost.

What was the first album you purchased with your own money?
It would probably be Simpsons Sing the Blues, which was The Simpsons covering old blues songs; it was fucking amazing. Marge’s song “Springfield Soul Stew” was my favorite track on it. It was a band jamming, and there was a part where she said, “We’re just going to have a little sprinkle of bass now,” and the bass player would start playing. And then she’s saying, “and some horns,” and the horn section would start playing, and it’d be this whole jam building and building up.

It was either that or the Days of Thunder soundtrack with “Show Me Heaven” by Maria McKee. I don’t think I ever saw the film, but I really liked that track. It has, like, a ‘90s power-ballad sort of vibe, but when I was a little child, I really liked that song.

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