Metro Station (band)

• 1. Introduction

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  Metro Station came together not in a recording studio or a garage, but on the set of a television show. In 2005, singer Mason Musso and guitarist Trace Cyrus met while visiting the set of Hannah Montana, where Mason's brother Mitchel starred alongside Trace's sister Miley and father Billy Ray. From that chance meeting, a band was born that would eventually land a single in the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100.

  The story that follows is one of MySpace fame, sibling connections to one of pop music's biggest names, a breakout hit, and a cycle of breakups and reunions that stretched across more than a decade. What drove two young men from such a high-profile family orbit to build something of their own? And how does a band discovered by a record label intern scrolling through unsigned chart results become one of the defining acts of the late 2000s scene pop moment?

• 2. MySpace to Columbia Records

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  Blake Healy, recruited by Trace Cyrus from a band called Synthetic Joy and the Bum Out Eternal, joined as keyboardist and bassist in the earliest days of the group. Anthony Improgo came next, drawn in after the band posted the song "Seventeen Forever" on their MySpace Music page. That upload would prove fateful: the group's following on the platform grew until they topped the MySpace Music Unsigned Band's charts.

  In 2006, before any label had come calling, the group self-released a debut EP titled The Questions We Ask at Night. The breakthrough arrived through an unexpected channel. A Columbia Records intern, browsing the MySpace unsigned charts as part of the label's Walking Eye program, found the band and flagged them for signing. In the July 2007 issue of Alternative Press, the band was listed among the "22 Best Underground Bands (That Likely Won't Stay Underground for Long)" before their debut album had even been released.

• 3. Shake It and the Charts

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  The group recorded their self-titled debut album in New York City, finishing in July 2007. Producers SAM and Sluggo helmed the sessions, and the band drew inspiration from the Postal Service, Forever the Sickest Kids, and the Killers. The first single, "Kelsey," was released on the 7th of August 2007 and hit number one on the US Dance Singles Sales chart. It also reached number 25 on the New Zealand Top 40.

  On the 1st of April 2008, the third single arrived: "Shake It." It peaked at number ten on the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified 2x Platinum by the RIAA. The song's commercial run lifted the debut album, which had been out for months, onto the Billboard 200 at number 39. The album also topped the US Dance/Electronic Albums chart, sold over 87,000 copies in the United States, and earned a gold certification in Canada.

  The fourth and final single, "Seventeen Forever," was released on the 13th of December 2008 and reached number 42 on the Billboard Hot 100, earning its own gold certification in the United States. "Shake It" gathered nominations from the AP Music Awards, the MTV EMAs, and even received a Worst Song of the Year nomination from the Rocksound Awards in 2008, the kind of polarizing reception that tends to follow genuinely ubiquitous pop songs.

• 4. Tours, Breakups, and Hiatus

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  From October to December 2007, the band joined Motion City Soundtrack on a US headlining tour, building a live audience early. The summer of 2008 brought a set at the Bamboozle festival, and that autumn the group launched their own first headlining run, the Disco Balls and Blow Up Dolls tour, with Cash Cash and Tyga among the supporting acts.

  In April 2009, Metro Station joined the Believers Never Die Tour Part Deux alongside Hey Monday, All Time Low, Cobra Starship, and Fall Out Boy, placing them on some of the largest stages the scene pop world had to offer. That November, the band joined Miley Cyrus on the Wonder World Tour. Mid-tour, Blake Healy departed to focus on his marriage, followed shortly by drummer Anthony Improgo.

  By March 2010, personal disputes between Mason Musso and Trace Cyrus in the studio brought things to a halt. Metro Station went on indefinite hiatus, with both founders moving on to solo work. Cyrus launched a project called Ashland High. Musso retained the rights to the Metro Station name, a fact that would matter when the band's story entered its next chapter.

• 5. Reunion, Splits, and Return

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  On the 31st of May 2011, Musso posted a new song, "Ain't So High," to a YouTube channel called metrostation2011, signaling that the name was still alive. A July 2011 Twitter announcement confirmed he was working on new Metro Station material with Anthony Improgo and Blake Healy. In May 2013, Musso released a five-track EP called Middle of the Night through an Indiegogo campaign; the lead single, "Every Time I Touch You," was co-written with Blake Healy and arrived on the 23rd of July 2013.

  On the 13th of August 2014, Trace Cyrus returned to the group, four years after the hiatus. A new drummer, Spencer Steffan, joined alongside him. The band released the EP Gold on the 14th of October 2014, co-headlining the Outsiders Tour with the Ready Set. Their second full-length studio album, Savior, arrived on the 30th of June 2015, featuring 18 tracks and a lead single that included vocals from Ronnie Radke.

  After a 10-year anniversary tour in 2017 celebrating the debut album, the band announced a breakup. They reunited again in 2019, began working on new music in Los Angeles, and released the single "I Hate Society" in April 2020. Kerrang! nominated them for Best Comeback in 2014, a category that could have applied more than once.

• 6. Sound and Influences

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  Kerrang! magazine called Metro Station a power pop act and placed them in the category of "MySpace band," a descriptor that carried both a genre signal and a cultural timestamp. Critics described their debut album as electropop and scene pop, drawing connections to 80s pop, new wave, and pop punk.

  The singles "Shake It" and "Seventeen Forever" were often tagged as neon pop-punk. Music critics compared the debut record to Panic! at the Disco for its songwriting and catchiness. The band's own declared influences reached back to Depeche Mode, New Order, and OMD, electronic acts from a generation earlier whose synthesizer textures found a new audience through Metro Station's glossy, scene-era filter. Those influences help explain why the band's sound sat at such a specific intersection: polished enough for mainstream chart success, loud enough for Warped Tour, and wired to synthesizers in a way that set them apart from guitar-only contemporaries.