Five Questions With… Tony Cousins

Tony Cousins became a cutting engineer in 1980 at the Townhouse before becoming a fully-fledged audio mastering engineer when he, Ian Cooper and Tim Young started Metropolis Mastering. Since then, Peter Gabriel, Genesis, Adele, David Sylvian, Steve Winwood, Elton John, Carla Bruni, Amadou & Mariam, Amr Diab, Tom Odell and Foxes all have one thing in common… Tony’s worked with them all!

1. What’s been your favourite release you’ve worked on in 2016 so far & why?

Tough one… probably Rumer singing Bacharach & David catalogue. Brilliant songs done with great attention to detail and mood, she inhabits them. But there are several others I also enjoyed mastering – Inconscientes by the Basque guitarist Iñaki Antón, for example.

2. What are your top three releases you’ve worked on in your career so far and why?

Ha! That’s impossible to answer… As a project probably the Peter Gabriel remastering and his other releases. All the work is considered, usually with sufficient time to make further adjustments as required.

3. How can an artist / band best prepare their tracks for mastering?

By having a good idea of what they are trying to achieve and being able to either illustrate it or discuss it.

4. What’s the best piece of advice you’d give to an aspiring mastering engineer?

Don’t be straightjacketed, listen to as great a variety of music as possible… and wash regularly.

5. What artists should we be looking out for in 2017?

Keep an eye out for Jacob Collier and Eivind Aarset. Both incredible artists.

Metropolis Studios invites you to try our unattended Mixing & Mastering services with a special discount offer for a limited time only. Utilising our offer you can book Tony Cousins to master your next project at an unbeatable price. If you place any iMixing orders before the end of the year, you will automatically be entered into our prize draw. Announced in the New Year, you could win a half day studio session with one of our engineers here at Metropolis!

Five Questions With… Paul Norris.

Metropolis Studios invites you to try our unattended Mixing & Mastering services with a special discount offer for a limited time only. If you place any iMixing orders before the end of the year, you will automatically be entered into our prize draw. Announced in the New Year, you could win a half day studio session with one of our engineers here at Metropolis!

Metropolis Studios is delighted to announced the appointment of music, event, content and brand curator, Gavin Newman, to the new position of Event & Content Director.

Effective immediately, Newman will create and oversee Metropolis’ event and content strategy to drive new commercial and content partnerships, as well as develop new IP and initiatives.

An initial emphasis on blue chip music brands, Newman will focus on best in class partners and brands to synergise with Metropolis’ businesses across recording, production and labels, as well as amplifying Metropolis Studios position as a world class music venue.

One of the first events to be announced is Metropolis Live, a new partnership with Clash magazine. The launch show on December 8th with the enigmatic Saint Leonard’s Horses will take place in Studio A in front of 100 golden ticket holders, available exclusively to Clash Magazine readers. The show will also be recorded for Clash Magazine.

Reporting to Metropolis Studios CEO Ian Brenchley, Newman, who most recently served as Head of Online and Music at private members club, The Hospital Club, brings a wealth of experience to Metropolis. At The Hospital Club he was instrumental in launching their successful live music programme supported by both content partners and commercial sponsors.

Some of the brands he has worked with over the last 4 years included The Guardian, Amazing Radio, The Line of Best Fit, Pledge Music, Original Penguin Clothing, Virgin Media, Sennheiser and Deezer. Artist highlights during his tenure included Morcheeba, Nick Mulvey, We Are Scientists, Twin Atlantic, Carl Barat, Band of Skulls, Gaz Coombes, The Charlatans, Ghostpoet, Jane Weaver, The Cult, John Grant, Lisa Hannigan and Jagwar Ma.

Prior to The Hospital Club, Newman was an early advocator of digital media, working as a web producer for Channel 4 and Virgin Media. His work saw nominations and praise from across the industry, especially in for digital innovation.

“We are all absolutely enraptured to have someone of Gavin’s experience come on board and work across the whole business. Gavin’s passion and vision for the business is entirely complimentary to the ‘Motown’ analogy we constantly talk about and are working towards”.
Ian Brenchley, CEO Metropolis Studios

“Metropolis Studios has an unprecedented heritage and incredible facilities. It will be an extremely exciting challenge to tap into this infrastructure and start building their live music presence as one of London’s most exclusive and intimate venues for music fans, the record industry and brands”.
Gavin Newman, Events Director Metropolis Studios

Max Hole appointed Non-Executive Chairman of Metropolis.

Metropolis is delighted to announced the appointment of former Chairman and CEO of Universal Music Group International (UMGI), Max Hole CBE, as the group’s new Non-Executive Chairman.

With immediate effect, Max will join the board assisting the company on wider strategic issues, across music and entertainment alliances.

As one of the music industry’s most respected and influential executives, at UMGI Max was responsible for the operations of Universal Music’s territories and regions worldwide excluding U.S. Joining UMGI in 1998 as SVP Marketing and A&R, in 2004 he advanced to EVP. In 2010 he was appointed COO, and assumed the role of Chairman and CEO shortly after.

Max has been closely involved with the careers of artists from all corners of the world including Bon Jovi, Enrique Iglesias, Andrea Bocelli, Lionel Richie, Sting, Queen, Taylor Swift and The Eagles.

“I am absolutely thrilled Max is joining the board here at Metropolis. We are at an exciting juncture for the company as our portfolio of businesses across production, management, publishing and labels have diversified cementing our ethos of Metropolis as a truly progressive and 360 music company. To have Max share our vision and enthusiasm is a real privilege”.
Ian Brenchley, CEO Metropolis Studios

“I’m very fortunate to have spent my life involved in many different aspects of the music business and having travelled extensively around the World. I love my new opportunity of helping the wonderful business built by CEO Ian and his team at Metropolis. It’s a remarkable model that I find really exciting that is the basis of us building all aspects of managing, recording, publishing and breaking artists in the future”.
Max Hole, Non-Executive Chairman Metropolis Studios

In a career that has involved artist management and record producing, Max joined Warner Music in 1982 as A&R Manager progressing to MD of WEA Records and in 1990 founding Managing Director of East West Records before joining Universal Music in 1998.

Max Hole is also on the board of the BRIT Trust.

Metropolis Live, in partnership with Clash, is a series of free, monthly live shows hosted here at Metropolis Studios, featuring some of the best up and coming talent around…

The events will take place in legendary Studio A showcasing new material from the most compelling acts on the promo circuit. This money cant buy experience will be available  on a first come first served basis, so grab your exclusive tickets right away!

For those that aren’t lucky enough to get tickets, we will be using our state of the art facilities, to capture session recordings on the day which will be shared and distributed by the band, Clash Magazine and Metropolis Studios.

Our launch show features the enigmatic Saint Leonard’s Horses aka Kieran Leonard whose debut LP Good Luck Everybody is weird, wonderful and evocative touching on tales of near death in the desert, misadventures in Tijuana, drinking contests with Tyler The Creator, astronauts, UFOs, psychic dogs, mescal, Christopher Walken and being barred from an occult for one billion years.

Saint Leonard’s Horses will play Metropolis Live on December 8th – to stand a chance of attending simply head over to our Music Glue page…

To borrow a phrase from Duke Ellington, Alexis Ffrench is a musician beyond category. His music has been described as haunting, mesmerising and, above all, deeply moving – the embodiment of beauty and calm in an otherwise frantic world.

Following the huge success of his Classic FM Albums of the Week, The Secret Piano, Piano Karma and Stolen Lullabies, Alexis Ffrench now presents his brand new album – The Piano Whisperer – a timeless meditation in heart-aching lyricism and mystical serenity.

With its directness, simplicity and beauty, The Piano Whisperer looks set to fit straight into the canon of Alexis Ffrench classics with his unmistakable mixture of tenderness and truth. Put simply, The Piano Whisperer radiates hope for our troubled times.

Once again a timeless soundtrack, Alexis’s rapidly growing catalogue of scores for Film and TV have confirmed his fast growing reputation as a composer of spellbinding beauty, with a gift for writing timeless and haunting melodies.

Listen and buy now on Spotify // iTunes.

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Kllo share Lone remix of ‘BOLIDE’ ahead of UK live dates on their mammoth Europe and US tour in support of RUFUS and NAO.

Melbourne duo Kllo’s much anticipated new EP, Well Worn, came out back in August on Different Recordings / Ghostly / Good Manners. In just 3 months since release it has amassed over 10 million Spotify plays and established the band as one of the most exciting new electronic prospects. Today the band share Lone’s rework of Bolide, the lead single from the EP.

(Like the sound of Kllo, catch them on their UK tour in November as part of their huge European & US tour…)

When thinking up remix targets, R&S Records mainstay LONE was right at the top of Kllo’s wish list. As big fans of the UK producer’s textured, eclectic productions, they weren’t disappointed, with Lone offering up a typically lysergic take on the track.

Guided by the ghosts of UK garage and like-minded strains of underground dance music, the original Bolide sets a skittish beat against a clipped chorus; second single “Walls to Build” melds Simon Lam‘s synth lines with Chloe Kaul‘s vapor-trailed verses; and the one-two punch of “Sense” and “On My Name” build a couple piano-laced ballads from a pillowy sound bed of laid-back loops and lovelorn melodies. “Don’t Be The One” is deceivingly simple as well, bringing the record to a close alongside a rubbery, elusive rhythm and a growing sense of tension and release. Catchy, yes, but also compelling enough to leave us all longing for the pair’s inevitable LP.

Things happen so fast these days that Kllo barely had a Facebook page or a proper song before a wave of interest began to build around their breakthrough EP, Cusp. What a telling record title; in the year since its release, cousins Lam and Kaul have played sold-out shows and festival slots throughout Australia (Dark Mofo, Splendour in the Grass and Melbourne Music Week among many others) and overseas (The Great Escape, Primavera Sound), racked up millions of plays on Spotify, and landed on several Artists to Watch lists.

Catch Kllo on Tour // iTunes // Spotify // Facebook // Twitter // Instagram

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London duo Alpines will set off on their first extensive headline tour in the UK and Europe this coming February and March following the release of sophomore album Another River on October 28 via Metropolis Recordings.

The tour consists of seven UK dates before crossing the channel to play shows in Paris, Amsterdam and Berlin among others.

Another River sees the pair combining futurist production and R&B melodies into dazzling soundscapes, each thrumming with a life of its own. Masters in creating cerebral and inventive music without compromising on the simple unabashed joy of melody, Bob Matthews and Catherine Pockson here progress into a more spacious emotive outpouring on love and life that will resonate with people everywhere.

Alpines release Another River on the 28th October via Metropolis Recordings and headline London’s Moth Club on the 9th November.There will also be a private preview of the release on the 27th October at Omeara (London Bridge) which as well as free drinks, will exhibit art, video and photography from the campaign as well as DJ sets. Please email for guest list. Preorder Another River here, including instant downloads of ‘Completely’ and ‘Heaven’ – available digitally as well as on CD and transparent vinyl, plus numbered white label vinyl (limited to 100) hand-painted by the band.

DATES – Tickets can be purchased from www.alpinesmusic.com

• Nov 09, London, Moth Club
• Feb 14, Birmingham, Hare & Hounds
• Feb 15, Leeds, Headrow House
• Feb 16, Glasgow, King Tuts
• Feb 17, Manchester, Soup Kitchen
• Feb 20, Bristol, The Louisana
• Feb 21, Oxford, The Cellar
• Feb 22, Brighton, The Prince Albert
• Feb 27, Paris, Le Pop Up
• Feb 28, Brussels, Botanique
• Mar 01, Amsterdam, Paradiso
• Mar 02, Hamburg, Häkken
• Mar 03, Berlin, Kantine am Berghain
• Mar 04, Munich, Milla

Last week Metropolis Studios held the second London Sync Sessions.

Over the course of the 28th & 29th of September, the event played home to the biggest names in sync, music supervision and music publishing.

Billed as the European sync event of the year, the London Sync Sessions did not disappoint. We were delighted to welcome representatives from the likes of Sony Music, BBC, Red Bull and Pusher Music, as well as music supervisors who have worked on film and television series such as Absolutely Fabulous, Deadpool, The Theory Of Everything, Call The Midwife and Luther.

The US executive branch of the Guild of Music Supervisors were also in attendance announcing exciting plans for a proposed GMS European chapter. GMS Secretary Jonathan McHugh and Treasurer Joel C. High provided insight into the charter whilst hosting a jam-packed interactive panel called “Music Supervision around the Globe”.

“We’d like to say a huge thank you to all of our guests, speakers and panelists for making the second London Sync Sessions such a success. We’re delighted that the event is fast becoming the most anticipated conference of the sync calendar. Here’s to next year!”
Rupert Hollier Creative Director Metropolis Publishing & Music Supervision

We’d like to thank our partners Midem, Music Week, Hollywood Records, EMI Production Music and Music Gateway for supporting the London Sync Sessions offering exclusive insight into the current issues surrounding synchronisation and publishing in the creative industries.

We’ll soon be releasing exclusive content from the sessions, including interviews, videos and insights. So make sure you keep an eye on the London Sync Sessions website and partners pages.

After launching in 2015, the two day conference has welcomed over 300 industry professionals each year. The London Sync Sessions has fast become a must attend event for all professionals in the world of sync. Keep your ears to the ground for more information about #LSS17…