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Quite the opposite of acts that skyrocket to overnight fame due to blog approval or the strength of a well-received debut EP, Metric has enjoyed a slow and steady rise. “The nice thing about the path we’ve chosen to take is it has been incremental steps,” says Emily Haines, the group’s vocalist and songwriter, by phone from Toronto.
That’s not to say Haines and her bandmates—guitarist-arranger Jimmy Shaw, bassist Joshua Winstead and drummer Joules Scott Key—haven’t been very, very busy. Since the 2009 release of Juno Award–winning disc Fantasies, the Canadian-American band has performed for the Queen of England; landed the theme song for megablockbuster film The Twilight Saga: Eclipse; wrote the score for David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis with Howard Shore; and collaborated with Lou Reed on its newest and fifth album, Synthetica, issued in June on the band’s own label, Metric Music International (as a joint release with Mom + Pop in the U.S.).
“[Synthetica] feels like the record that people will actually hear,” explains Haines. “That’s been the main challenge for us—we’ve done things our own way, and only recently does it feel like anyone’s been paying attention on a larger scale.”
But with a wider audience comes greater responsibility, a notion that Haines was keenly aware of in the run-up to the American election. Since her emergence in the Canadian indie rock scene during the early 2000s, the 38-year-old singer has become known for fiery songwriting that often grapples with social and political issues.
Synthetica is no exception, though Haines refrains from simply commending or denouncing a particular way of governance. Instead, the album is a call to action. On “Dreams So Real,” Haines considers the role of music in sociopolitical commentary, asking, “Have I ever really helped anybody but myself / To believe in the power of songs?” She engages in harsher introspection on the galloping “Artificial Nocturne,” which opens the album with the resounding statement “I’m just as fucked up as they say” over tense, tight synths. Unexpectedly, this phrase of self-hate has become something of an all-inclusive slogan during shows.
“The songs transform live in ways that I could have never predicted,” says Haines with a mix of relish and surprise. “I’m perhaps nostalgic for another time, but I think there’s a power to a song that can unify people. What I hope is happening on this record is that people feel energized by the fact that we’re not fucking lying. For people as fortunate as us in our generation, you gotta find a way to put your back into it.” Metric, which has placed voter-registration booths next to its merch table at past concerts, appears to be exploring how active it wants to be in this sphere—and how active it ought to be.
Haines’s examination of these topics—which began as notes scribbled on napkins during the band’s whirlwind post-Fantasies era—suits the “sonic palette” her creative other half, Shaw, initially created, described by Haines as a “20-minute orchestral-synth piece full of different movements” that grew into a full album. Grim but catchy, dynamic but constrained, futuristic but created with vintage gear, the instrumental aspect of Synthetica could easily serve as a soundtrack to the end of the world. “Jimmy [Shaw] has a way of expressing sonically what I’m saying lyrically, often by doing the opposite, which is one of the aspects of the band that I enjoy the most,” notes Haines. “Sounds happy? Listen closer. Sounds like it’s really a downer? There’s probably something uplifting in the lyrics.”—Marley Lynch
Metric plays Coachella Friday April 12 and Friday April 19.
Download Synthetica on Amazon Download Fantasies on Amazon
Follow Marley Lynch on Twitter: @marleyasinbob
Portions of this article originally appeared in Time Out New York on September 20, 2012.
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