Metronomy, the name was originally chosen by founder Joseph Mount as it sounded cool and interesting and was in keeping with the bands he was heavily into, namely Autechre and Funkstorung.
After relocating from Devon to Brighton Metronomy began to build up a reputation for live shows, sometimes solo, sometimes joined by Gabriel Stebbing and Oscar Cash who provided support as Metronomy's backing band, The Food Groups. They are now no longer referred to as The Food Groups having been fully incorporated into the band.
In the autumn of 2005, Metronomy released a debut album, Pip Paine (Pay the £5000 You Owe) and remixed many other artists over the following 3 years.
Metronomy's live shows include dance routines and light shows. Most notably they use push lights stuck to their chests. Mount explained in an interview where the idea came from:
"We did our first gig in Brighton and a few days before I saw these lights in a pound shop and I thought ‘we'll whack these on our t-shirts and do some synchronized light shows!' I'm totally aware that some people hate it but equally I think some people enjoy it just for the fact that it's a bit of fun."
The push lamps have been replaced by pre-synced chest lights that do not need to be pushed.
