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Metro Station

March 2009 | Pop

Metro Station are Trace (guitars/vocals), Mason (vocals/guitars), Anthony (drums) and Blake (synths), an LA based quartet about to burst onto the UK.

Having formed in 2006, they soon gained a sizable following online (thanks to some nifty work on MySpace) and tastemaker buzz in the music press (months before being signed). They now unleash their infectously catchy pop-punk sound on the UK, with the release of their brand new single "Shake It" - already a 2008 hit in the US.

We7 caught up with tattooed frontman Trace Cyrus (older brother of Hannah Montana star Miley and son of country star Billy Ray) to find out more about the the wonderful world of Metro Station...

The Interview

Hi Trace, how are you today?

I'm awesome.

What was the favourite show on the UK tour you did in January?

I guess the London show at the Electric Ballroom. You know, it's London. What else is there to say about it? An amazing city. You hear about it all the time, even living in the US.

Every single night of the tour was sold out. Our drummer (Anthony) couldn’t make it, so we got the drummer from Boys Like Girls to fill in every night. But it all worked out, we made every show happen. Before the first show we had maybe 15 minutes practice with him, but I don't think the kids actually noticed until we said on stage, "Yo, make some noise for Joel from Boys Like Girls!" Then the audience was kind of shocked.

Can you tell us how you formed Metro Station?

Mason and I met through our siblings - they are on the TV show Hannah Montana together. We met on the set of that show and hung out together. You know, it just grew into us making music all the time. From that I posted some songs on MySpace.

How did you find Blake and Anthony?

I found Blake on MySpace, he was in another band with a girl singer. We made a song called "Seventeen Forever" just for fun. We posted that on MySpace, it had some success so we went full time on Metro Station - every chance we would get we'd go to Blake's apartment to write and record music. Anthony was checking us out at shows and introduced himself. We'd tried out a few drummers by that time, but Anthony had that immediate connection - a great drummer and great dude. Then shortly after that we got our record deal.

How did you get noticed by the record labels?

I was actually checking our email one night and got one from a record company telling us they had heard a song of ours on our page. So we had A&R guys from New York flying to LA to see us rehearse and play live. All of a sudden we had a record contract, and we were out in Minnesota recording the first tracks. It was just a very quick process. We had to work a lot harder, a lot quicker. We are doing a lot of things most bands won’t do for years. You know, we've come into this whirlwind of lots of things to do immediately. It's a lot of work, but we love doing it.

"Shake It" is the brand new single by Metro Station, out in the UK now. It’s already been a big hit in the States.

Yeah, it was pretty massive over there. Shake It kind of took America by surprise and it's still being played on the radio over there. Hopefully it will take off over here in the same way. It was actually being debated if it was even going to make the record by our producers. They were telling us to write a better chorus than "Shake Shake it..." But it ended up being the biggest hit so far. I hope there are bigger hits to come!

Are you looking forward to the album hitting the UK?

Yeah, if the shows are anything to go by then it'll be huge. I can't imagine what it will be like when the album is released and people will have access to it in their hands. It's going to explode even more. I can picture us being bigger over here than in the States. Kids over here love music and we have a very unique sound.

Your dad and sister are very well known, did that make it easier for you to get the band noticed?

I didn't want to be compared to my sister or my dad because we're doing something different - I'm not doing something that's Disney Channel friendly, or making country music. You know, I think if it wasn't for us working from the ground up, working through MySpace and touring in a van, people wouldn’t take us seriously. There could have been different routes. We could have made these songs and passed them off to my sister to give to Hollywood Records (Miley's record label) and she could’ve taken us on tour - like she did with the Jonas Brothers. We chose to be a real band and do it the natural way.