On my radar: Joe Mount’s cultural highlights
Born in 1982 and raised in Devon, singer and musician Joe Mount is the founder of the electronic group Metronomy. The 34-year-old’s interest in music began at school, where he played the drums in various bands. While studying at the University of Brighton he became involved in the local electronic scene, later performing as a DJ. Metronomy have released five studio albums, including the Mercury-nominated English Riviera in 2011, and more recently Summer 08 – a mix of “wistful reminiscence and vintage bangers” – which was released to critical acclaim last July. Mount’s range of influences include David Bowie, Prince and the German techno duo Funkstörung. Metronomy play Glasgow 16 May, Manchester 17 May and London 19 May.
1 | Music
SweetSexySavage by Kehlani
Kehlani: ‘Every 10 years or so, I get really into one female R&B singer.’
I remember seeing a picture of this album cover and thinking: “This looks amazing.” It’s a rather beautiful image. Then I was driving somewhere and played it, and I really loved it. Every 10 years or so, I get really into one female R&B singer; it’s my biggest vice. In the 90s it was Aaliyah. This is very expertly produced R&B, and Kehlani has a beautiful singing voice. She’s someone who became famous the modern way and has been working since she was very young. The first thing she did was on America’s Got Talent with a band called PopLyfe, and I looked up this old video clip of them playing and you just see this teenage girl. There’s something really captivating about her kind of image, with all the tattoos.
2 | Book
The Collier Campbell Archive: 50 Years of Passion in Pattern
The Collier Campbell Archive: ‘Simple, colourful, vibrant designs.’
My parents have all these Collier Campbell curtains in their house, and there was an episode of Seinfeld I saw years ago where I saw a duvet cover and thought: “Those are my parents’ curtains.” When I first had to think about getting curtains myself, I did a bit of research and found them. Then I walked past the Fashion and Textile Museum in London not long ago and I saw this book. The designs vary quite a lot, but they’re very simple, colourful and vibrant. I think it’s one of those things, where your parents’ tastes resonate with your own or kind of create your taste. Me and my girlfriend have quite a few different Collier Campbell textiles that we’re waiting to turn into curtains.
3 | Documentary
Child of Our Time, BBC
Child of our Time: ‘You’re seeing what happens to you and what will happen to your own children.’
This is incredibly fascinating to watch. It’s a programme where a group of maybe 10 children are followed from birth, and every so often there’s a catch-up series. What you’re doing is watching people grow up. It’s incredibly unspectacular – you’re seeing what happens to you and what will happen to your own children. But at the same time, when you watch from a distance, you realise how incredible your own development is or was. Being a parent myself now, it has a very different effect on me. Not in a particularly romantic way – I just look at the parents and, oh my God, they’ve aged so much. It happened after the children turned 10. There must be something that happens then.
4 | Building
Philharmonie de Paris
Philharmonie de Paris: ‘A spectacular metallic building that kind of looks like it’s been squashed.’ Photograph: Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP/Getty
I’ve been living in Paris for a while now, and in the time I’ve been here this building is the one big thing that’s popped up. Over the past 10 years or so we’ve seen this thing being built, and obviously getting into trouble. From what I understand, it was over budget and hugely delayed. Parisians generally hate every new building, then it becomes quite a symbolic part of the city. So they loathed it, but now I think they quite love it. It’s this spectacular metallic building that looks like it’s been squashed. The exterior is very pleasing. And it’s gone from being a curiosity that I’ve seen being built from afar, to where we’ll be headlining at a festival this summer.
5 | Place
Sissinghurst Castle Garden
Sissinghurst Castle Garden: ‘Incredible smells and flowers... there’s a Kentish renaissance happening.’ Photograph: Alamy Stock
This isn’t very far from our place in Kent – me and my girlfriend now live between there and Paris. I went there at the weekend, and it was just so hot and warm. It’s a stately 1930s country home, very well kept by the National Trust, with a historical connection to Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West. Of course, in the 30s, to be alternative you had to be quite well-to-do. More than anything, it’s just a very beautiful place to walk around, with incredible gardens, smells and flowers. There’s a Kentish renaissance happening.
6 | Design
Vola faucets
Vola faucets: ‘Designed in the 60s or 70s... I covet them.’
I first saw these in 2006, in the Standard hotel in Hollywood. They have these orange taps and an orange shower head. I’ve always really liked them and I managed to find out while reading about the hotel where they’re from: it turns out they were designed in the 60s or 70s, and you can get them in any colour you want. And I covet them. They make lots of different kinds, but I like a particularly colourful one with this little lever you lift for the water. It’s a very simple, compact, pleasing design. And they’re a signifier of the kind of things I’m into at the moment: architecture, curtains and taps.
7 | Hobby
Gardening
A globe courgette beginning to grow. Photograph: Alamy
We finally have a garden, and I just see myself getting into gardening. I like to think, somewhere within me, I’ve got this gardener who’s been there for years and years, who has awoken. We’re starting with some herbs, and the garden already has rhubarb in it, and bramble, which I guess produces some fruit. If you look after a garden well, it can look after you in all kinds of ways. The past few weeks I’ve been making the ground good for planting. I’d certainly like to feed myself. My parents used to have a lot of success with courgettes – I might start off with them, then maybe try something like avocados.