Monroe’s gets set to rock, German style

Enter Metropolis, a German rock quintet, play Monroe’s Live on Sunday, March 29. The band formed two years ago when Florian Muller (guitar), Paul Gostenmeier (bass), Sven Zumbrock (drums) and Ede Zelik were looking for a new project. Their previous project, Peachbox, had finished, having spent a decade trying to break into the German rock scene.

“Peachbox was a very long story,” says Ede. “I mean, we were together for nine or 10 years, playing together all the time. After it all broke up we wanted to start something new. We needed to find a singer because our old singer left.”

Enter Metropolis model their sound on British rock bands like Muse and Biffy Clyro. The final piece to their puzzle emerged when they heard singer Filippo Grasso.

“Filippo is studying Popular Music in our hometown,” Ede says. “Our producer, Michel, taught the production seminar at this university, and he met Filippo. Michel thought he was a good singer, so he invited him to an audition.”

After working with another singer for so long, it must have been a challenge for both Filippo and the band to work together. Why has the partnership worked?

“Filippo has a great flexibility with other people, he knows how to work with them and also he was simply the best singer we could get,” Ede explains. “He has a lot of experience from soul music. He mostly sang soul before he came into this project so we thought ‘why not try this out?’. And now he’s part of the sound of Enter Metropolis.”

How does Enter Metropolis work as a creative entity – is there a chief songwriter or do all five members contribute?

“Everyone us is capable of using a computer and creating small ideas,” Ede says. “But in the end it comes down to when we meet up in our rehearsal room, and try to play stuff. Some songs are created by just jamming stuff and throwing out ideas.  Everyone can put his own imagination into it.”

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune