Metric
03.07.06
Q&A
words: Phoebe Assenza
photos: Official Band Site

For as long as a Gen X’er can remember, the ongoing and universally accepted joke was that Canada is like a culturally inferior, retardedly pacifist, boring country cousin to the States. Fast forward a few years, and everyone south of Winnipeg is addicted to Degrassi, Vice has built a veritable little empire on our soil, and we’ll readily scoff at anyone who doesn’t share the same level of obsessive devotion to bands like Broken Social Scene, Stars, and New Pornographers.

Despite the fact they’ve lived in practically every major North American city, Metric are founding fathers (and mother) in the new-ish Canadian invasion, and, with the release of their partly dark, mostly pretty, occasionally loud sophmore release, “Live It Out,” they have put Toronto in the top spot for coolness, beating out previous champions Brooklyn and Manchester. (Don’t be surprised when the pretentious indie anglophile you know starts saying "aboot," eh?)

Frontwoman Emily Haines took some time from a busy tour to talk to Loose Record about, well, touring, French cinema and ghosts.

Loose Record: So, Loose Record sort of focuses its content on live music, so I’ll be mostly be asking questions about the shows and stuff--

Emily: Okay.

LR: But I also tried thinking of some quirkier, funny questions, and a friend suggested I ask if you believe in ghosts.

Emily: I do believe in ghosts! I had a run in with a ghost in a hotel room in San Diego. This was a couple of years ago; she was standing at the end of my bed. And other people saw her, too.

LR: No way! People saw her at the same time as you, or they had just seen her around the hotel?

Emily: They saw her standing there [at the edge of the bed]. She was a murdered prostitute.

LR: Did you already know that the ghost of a murdered prostitute haunted that hotel, or did you find out later?

Emily: No, that’s just my own theory. That she was a murdered prostitute. [laughs]

LR: Well, it makes for a good ghost story, thanks. So, has the tour been going well so far?

Emily: Really good so far, we’re having a great time. I’m so happy about the people that come to our shows. It’s always a good atmosphere.

LR: Do you have any favorite cities you’ve played so far, or one city in particular that’s always hands-down your favorite city to play in?

Emily: Well, there’s no favorite city, but we just had an amazing time in Philly, thanks to this promoter named Sean Agnew. His company’s called R5 and he’s like the last remaining independent promoter, and he just does such a great job. The kids that show up are just the best. So we had a really, really good time.

LR: Besides the music itself, it seems like Metric is known for moving around a lot; you’ve been based in a few different cities like Toronto, Montreal, New York, and Los Angeles. Was this a conscious effort on the band’s part, like, the reason being you didn’t want to be pigeonholed as just another New York rock band, so you ventured out to see where else you could draw from?

Emily: I’ve asked myself that same question, I don’t know what the hell’s wrong with me, but I think it’s just the character of the people in this band. We just happen to be four people that have always lived their lives that way, and as a writer, that’s my main interest is to go somewhere new and just soak it up. It’s just the way we are, there’s no strategy involved. It’s more of a necessity.

LR: Where are you guys based now, if anywhere?

Emily: Well, we made the record in Toronto so that’s kind of where I’ve been for a little while, and I got an apartment there, but I probably spent two and a half months there, in the past year [laughs]. So, we’re already thinking about where our next destination will be.

LR: Well, you guys have been touring like crazy, right?

Emily: We’ve had some good breaks, it doesn’t feel like it’s been incessant touring, and I’ve spent a lot of time in New York and Los Angeles in my time off, and in France, I’ve been spending quite a lot of time in Paris.

LR: What were you doing there?

Emily: We were in this film. We just kind of had a nice little connection in France, it’s a good place to hang out.

LR: What’s the movie called?

Emily: Clean. [2004, directed by Olivier Assayas]

LR: And what do you guys do in it?

Emily: The film starts with us playing, we play "Dead Disco" in it. And then we have a few lines, it’s pretty funny.

LR: I’ll have to Netflix it. So, back to the moving around and stuff, do you think that’s affected the music in any particular way?

Emily: Well, that’s sort of the mandate of the band, so definitely. Yes.

LR: It seems Metric has such an obvious and distinct style, but it’s also really hard to describe or nail down, which might have attributed to the fact that you guys never stayed in one place, like, become a mainstay in one particular city’s scene, and therefore, easily categorized...

Emily: Or easily pegged, yeah. That probably [has something to do with it]. But at the same time, I think that’s always the goal. Just to keep things interesting, I hope I never know exactly what I’m doing.

LR: Do you have any favorite bands that you’ve seen live in the past year or so?

Emily: We had a really good time when we toured in the UK with Test Icicles, that was pretty funny. They just broke up, they’re so young. But they were really sweet. And I really like this band Holy Fuck, we just brought them on the first leg of our tour, they’re from Montreal and Toronto. Yeah, I try to see bands when I can, it’s just hard. But definitely Holy Fuck is something I’ve sought out and really enjoyed.

LR: And how did the Rolling Stones shows go? Were you a big Stones fan before then?

Emily: Umm...sure. Paint it Black!

LR: Paint it Black! Was the crowd very receptive to you guys?

Emily: They were good. I’ve heard [Stones fans] could be really tough, but they definitely didn’t give a shit about us. They were respectful, they weren’t mean.

LR: I would imagine that’s especially good for Rolling Stones show in New York of all places.

Emily: Yeah, that’s about all you could ask for. But it was really fun, and I wasn’t nervous until we I finished the second show. I went up into the crowd at Madison Square Garden, and actually looked down at the stage to watch The Stones, and then I got really nervous. And when we met them, they were really nice. And we got their autograph to prove...

LR: To prove that it actually happened?

Emily: Exactly! [laughs] Yeah, that it actually wasn’t a ghost story.

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