Metric

Metric are a Toronto-based Canadian indie rock group that forms in 1998. The line-up consists of Emily Haines, James Shaw, Joshua Winstead and Joules Scott-Key. Their music sits across electronic, indie rock, new wave, pop and soft rock, with a strong indie rock identity.

Formation and early work

The band name comes from a sound called “Metric” that James Shaw programs on his keyboard. The group develops across several cities, including Toronto, Montreal, London, New York City and Los Angeles. In the late 1990s, Shaw and Haines write and record early material in home studios, including the song “Butcher” and a set of demos collected on the Mainstream EP, which has a downtempo, electronic feel.

Before the first full line-up settles, Metric operate largely as a studio project. Their early live performances reflect the synthesiser-led and drum-machine-driven character of the recordings. In 2001 they issue the five-track Static Anonymity EP, along with promo singles “Grow Up and Blow Away” and “Raw Sugar”.

Members and related projects

Emily Haines sings and plays synths, guitar and tambourine; James Shaw plays guitar, synths, theremin and backing vocals; Joshua Winstead plays bass, synths and backing vocals; and Joules Scott-Key plays drums. Haines and Shaw also perform with Broken Social Scene. Scott-Key and Winstead have a side project called Bang Lime.

Haines also has solo work under her own name and as Emily Haines & the Soft Skeleton. Her solo discography includes Cut in Half and Also Double, Knives Don’t Have Your Back and the EP What Is Free to a Good Home?. She also appears as a guest on recordings by Stars, The Crystal Method, KC Accidental, Delerium, The Stills and Jason Collett.

Albums and releases

Metric’s first official studio album, Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?, is released in 2003 on Last Gang Records and goes gold in Canada. The band follows it with Live It Out in 2005, which also appears on Last Gang Records and later goes twice platinum in Canada. Their 2001 album Grow Up and Blow Away is released in 2007 after the label that held the rights purchases them and issues the record.

In 2007 the group also releases the live EP Live at Metropolis, followed by a DVD of the same concert the next year. Fantasies appears in 2009 on their own label, Metric Music International, and becomes their most commercially successful record. It includes the singles “Help I’m Alive”, “Front Row”, “Gimme Sympathy”, “Sick Muse”, “Gold Guns Girls” and “Stadium Love”. The album reaches number one on Billboard’s Top Heatseekers chart in the United States, peaks on the Billboard 200, charts in Canada and Australia, and is shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize.

Later releases include the EP Plug In Plug Out in 2009, the live and acoustic EPs iTunes Session, Spotify Acoustic EP and Spotify Covers EP, and the cassette-only The Shade EP. The studio albums Pagans in Vegas and Art of Doubt follow in 2015 and 2018, and Formentera appears in 2022. A further album, Formentera II, follows in 2023.

Recognition and collaborations

Fantasies wins two Casby Awards, including favourite new indie release and favourite new album, and Metric also receive a Juno Award for Alternative Album of the Year as well as Group of the Year. They appear in the Young Artists for Haiti version of K’naan’s “Wavin’ Flag” during the 2010 Winter Olympics. Their song “Eclipse (All Yours)” appears on the soundtrack to The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, and the unreleased “Black Sheep” appears on the soundtrack to Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. “Handshakes” and “Gold Guns Girls” are also used in the game Test Drive Unlimited.

Live work

Metric tour widely and also open for The Rolling Stones in New York City. Their live releases and soundtrack appearances sit alongside a recording career that begins in Toronto in 1998 and continues in the present.