We caught up with Hospital Records’ Metrik in the wake of his brand new debut album Universal Language. The perfect time to reflect on how he arrived at this pivotal moment, we’ve asked him to look back over key moments on his journey so far by way of his key UKF appearances. But first, the album…
“Universal Language is a name which really resonates with me,” he explains. “It was actually the name of a side project I had with a few of my mates! It never saw the light of day, but it was a name that worked well for my first album and I was sold on it when I discovered the link with metric being the universal language of measurement. That satisfied the science geek in me and convinced me to go with it.”
While some albums are a mere collection of tracks, Universal Language stayed true to Metrik’s cinematic concept where he explains how the body of work is bounded by filmic and big screen motifs… Motifs he’s explored since his earliest outings.
The future looks bright for this UK talent. Come to think of it, his past wasn’t half bad either! Join us as we take a look through the history of some of the producer’s most memorable uploads on UKF.
The Arrival (feat. Jan Burton)
Upload: December 3, 2010
“This was the first ever track I made with Jan Burton, someone who I’ve continued to work with over the years and features a lot on my album. Jan is very well known in the EDM world, doing vocals with some huge house and trance artists. His voice works really well with my sound and he’s someone I’ll happily spend a whole week with in my studio working on ideas and writing tunes.”
Camo & Krooked – Cross The Line (Metrik Remix)
Upload: October 14, 2011
“I’ve known Reini and Markus (Camo & Krooked) pretty much from the start when we were sending tracks to each other over AIM 6/7 years ago. We’ve always spoken a lot about music so it was great to get involved in doing a remix for them and I think it helped turn Hospital Records’ attention to my sound. It was also a lot of fun to work with Ayah’s vocals. She’s someone who always delivers!”
Between Worlds
Upload: October 24, 2011
“This was the first track I ever tried at 140bpm. Around the time of writing it, I was working on an EP project that had a very distinctive space and sci-fi theme. The idea of this track was to create a filmic journey, an exploration into outer space if you like. It was a bold move making it the lead track of the EP, given it was dubstep, but it came together really naturally as part of the overall theme of the release.”
Rockwell –Childhood Memories (Metrik Remix)
Upload: August 27, 2012
“I’ve always been a big fan of Rockwell, I feel he is one of the producers in the genre who is really pushing the envelope and doing something innovative so I was really glad to be asked to do the remix. I remember I had about five or six remixes on the go at that point, and the original was very unusual with lots of interesting parts, so it was fun to join that up with my own sound and create something really futuristic.”
Freefall
Upload: August 1, 2012
“Freefall is one of my favourites from my own catalogue but it also took the longest! I started the track a year before it was released – it took a lot of time to get it to sound the way I wanted. It always gets an amazing reaction wherever I play it and saw it as an essential part of my album. When I look back on my album in a few years, there would definitely be something missing if it wasn’t on there.”
ShockOne – Lazerbeam (feat. Metrik & Kyza)
Upload: March 30, 2013
“This is the second track I made with ShockOne after our first collab True Believer. We work really well together and always make an effort to get on a tune when we’re in the same country. This particular project was started in his studio in Australia when I was on tour there. We then finished it off in London over the course of about 6 months. Kyza brought an amazing vibe to the table with the vocal, I remember we were buzzing when he sent it over. It was always intended for Karl’s album, and we’re both perfectionists so we were headbanging for a few months until we finally arrived at the right version!”
Sub Focus – Turn Back Time (Metrik Remix)
Upload: November 19, 2013
“Sub Focus is an artist I have a huge amount of admiration for, growing up on his records over the years. I was really happy he asked me to do the remix. I was really excited by the idea of doing a drum & bass version but I made sure I was careful to keep it true to the original as it was already such a big tune to begin with. It’s sometimes quite hard converting house tracks to drum and bass because of the tempo difference, but in this case the parts were so strong it just translated directly!”
Want My Love
Upload: July 14, 2014
“Elisabeth was somebody who I really wanted to work with for my album, she’s an incredible talent. It was definitely a risk with the track being very minimal and stripped back – but the soundset that I used is still very me, it’s just condensed into the fewest and most key elements. I think people identified with that. They were like ‘oh yeah, it’s different and minimal but it still sounds like Metrik’. I’m very glad it was received that way!
It was crying out for a clubbier mix so it’s really useful to have the two different versions to draw for depending on where I’m playing it. I wrote the original version first, but when I heard the vocal I could instantly hear it with bigger, more maximal production. I did the club mix, and it just worked! There was a moment where I was thinking maybe I should make it the lead version, but I think the overriding feeling was that the minimal version had more of an original vibe.”
Universal Language
Upload: September 26, 2014
“This is the title track to my album. I wrote it as the opener to my album and live sets – I had the entire intro and concept in my head whilst making it. I wanted to create a huge wall of sound, followed by an intense drop to set the scene for what’s to come. The vocal says ‘music is my weapon, music is the universal language’ which it ties in perfectly with the album concept, and provides a great opening statement.”
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