A VERY METRONOMY CHRISTMAS
Words: Sarah Pratt
Comic: Kaitlyn Linke
Yeah we know, Christmas is over, but ’tis still the season to be jolly. Especially when Metronomy are in town. Last month we spoke to Gbenga about coming out to Australia again, Christmas carolling and probably most important – his love for Oporto. Whilst chatting we decided/forced Gbenga to help devise a comic. It’s pretty special. A Christmas tale involing Kanye, and Bon Iver, and shorts! Oh, my!
SPOOK: Hi, how are you going?
Gbenga: Hey, I’m good, how are you?
SPOOK: Good, thank you. So where am I speaking to you from?
Gbenga: I’m in my flat in East London, we’re on our Metronomy Christmas break for two weeks.
SPOOK: Oh perfect, I was actually going to create a Christmas themed comic with you considering it’s the festive season. Do you consider yourself to be the festive type?
Gbenga: (laughs) I’d say I’m reasonably festive. I’m like a 7 out of 10 on the scale.
SPOOK: Oh that’s pretty good.
Gbenga: Like we don’t have a Christmas tree up in my flat. But you know, I like Christmas songs.
SPOOK: Do you partake in any carolling?
Gbenga: You know what? I’m going to for the first time in years. This year I’m spending Christmas with my girlfriend’s parents and her dad is raising money for charity – he’s got a little choir together, so I’m going to do some carolling.
SPOOK: Did you volunteer or did your girlfriend’s dad just force it upon you?
Gbenga: (laughs) Ah you know how it is, it was probably a combination of me volunteering and me not really being able to say no. When I was a kid I sang in choirs, so it’s something that I like to do when I can get the chance.
SPOOK: Do you have a favourite Christmas carol?
Gbenga: O come, O come, Emmanuel is a pretty good one. It’s kind of less popular and when I sing in choirs I sing bass and the bass part in that is very cool.
SPOOK: Oh lovely. So after Christmas you’re heading to Australia. Are you looking forward to coming back?
Gbenga: Yeah, we were there around this time last year, but it feels strange for us not having been back yet because on that tour we were playing The Look and She Wants, we weren’t playing any of the other new songs. Maybe there was one more, I can’t remember. For us in Europe we’re kind of at the end of promoting the album, but we haven’t even started in Australia.
SPOOK: You’re not supposed to lie around Christmas, so be honest – do you like Australia?
Gebnga: Very much so, we always have really, I mean you know as English people, to go somewhere where the weather is so nice is amazing. We’ve always had good shows in Australia – Melbourne and Sydney are probably the places where we’ve played the most shows. But the last time we went out we got to go to Hobart and we were like ‘Why don’t more people go here?’ and then we did our show and then they were like ‘Yeah, nobody really comes out here to do shows’ and we’re like ‘Why wouldn’t you got to Tasmania if you’re already in Melbourne?’ It’s just across the way.
SPOOK: Yeah a lot of Tasmanians are left unimpressed with tour schedules.
Gbenga: The thing is we weren’t even doing our own show there. We were supporting The Temper Trap, so it was like a pretty big place. I think it was a two and a half thousand capacity venue, but there were loads and loads of our fans there, not that they weren’t Temper Trap fans, but it’s like they weren’t that bothered about seeing them because they had just come to see us because it was such big deal that we had made the trip over. Although we’re not doing it this time, but the next time we come over we’re definitely going to try and come out to Hobart again, because as a music fan I feel sad that if I lived somewhere where bands didn’t come through when they came that close.
SPOOK: Is there something in particular that you’re looking forward to coming back to?
Gbenga: It’s a very sad answer, but when we were in Sydney we had a show and then we went out afterwards and so it was like two in the morning and we were going back to our hotel and I saw this kind of fast food place called Oporto. I think it’s called Oporto, and they don’t have them… oh no, I think they have like one in West London where there’s lots of Aussie travellers, but basically they don’t have them here, so I’m looking forward to checking out Oporto again.
SPOOK: What exactly did you eat?
Gbenga: I think it was like a chicken burger, but it was just like… it was just something about the way they cooked it and I was like ‘This tastes amazing!’ But you tend to think that at two in the morning when you’ve kind of been on a night out. So I want to see if lightning is going to strike twice basically.
SPOOK: Okay, let’s get started on this comic. Basically I’m going to suggest a few scenarios and you’re going to pick the people involved and how each situation unfolds.
Gbenga: Let’s do it.
