Metric

Metric harnessed the potent blend of Emily Haines' intensely shadowed vocals alongside the band's agile and adaptable indie alt-rock drive. Starting out with new-wave leanings, the group soon redirected its ambitions toward filling vast venues through expansive compositions that retained raw emotional resonance. Their 2005 release Live It Out delivered jagged guitar lines, incisive synthesizer elements, and erratic rhythms, casting Haines in the detached persona once defined by Debbie Harry—a role she filled with notable skill. By the time of 2009's Fantasies, the band expanded its sonic space to reach bigger stages, allowing Haines to fully emerge as both vocalist and songwriter. Later works maintained this polished pop framework with strong results; 2018's Pagans in Vegas reintroduced electric guitars, while the two-part Formentera project from the early 2020s exposed underlying feelings beneath sleek surfaces, an approach Metric has long mastered.

The ensemble originated in 1998 after vocalist and keyboardist Emily Haines connected with guitarist James Shaw in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Though born in New Delhi, Haines—the offspring of poet Paul Haines, renowned for his work alongside jazz figure Carla Bley—had settled in the city by age three. During her time at the Etobicoke School of the Arts, a Toronto institution focused on young creatives, she encountered students Amy Millan and Kevin Drew, who would later join Stars and Broken Social Scene. Following university studies in Vancouver and Montreal, she returned to Toronto in 1997 and met British-born Shaw, who had arrived after three years at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City. The pair recognized their shared musical outlook and began composing together.

While spending time in Montreal, Haines and Shaw captured early recordings that formed Metric's debut EP, Mainstream. Following its 1998 appearance, the duo moved to Brooklyn, New York, and worked at times with Torquil Campbell and Chris Seligman from Stars. After producing further tracks with synthesizers and drum machines, they attracted interest from a major publisher, which arranged a trip to London to collaborate with producer Stephen Hague. Combining those London sessions with Brooklyn material yielded Metric's initial full-length effort, Grow Up and Blow Away. In 2000 the group returned to the United States to secure a contract with Restless Records, yet shortly before the planned 2001 release, Restless was acquired by Rykodisc, leaving the album shelved under new management. Around this period Haines and Shaw met Michigan-born drummer Joules Scott-Key, who had come to Brooklyn after studying music in Texas. Scott-Key joined Metric, as did bassist Joshua Winstead, another alumnus of the same Texas school.

The members relocated to Los Angeles while resolving their Restless situation, and Haines and Shaw briefly returned to Toronto to record with longtime associates Amy Millan and Kevin Drew in Broken Social Scene. Upon reassembling in L.A. with their new rhythm section, Metric concluded that the electronic pop direction of Grow Up and Blow Away no longer reflected their current sound. They ended the Restless association and retained the masters. In fall 2003, Everloving Records issued what functioned as Metric's second debut album, Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?, which Last Gang Records also distributed and which achieved notable critical and commercial success, particularly in Canada. This was followed in 2005 by Live It Out, another strong seller, after which the band embarked on an extended global tour and then paused activities.

During the hiatus, Haines spent extended time in Argentina and contributed to releases by the Stills and Jason Collett while issuing two albums under her solo guise Emily Haines & the Soft Skeleton. Scott-Key and Winstead settled in Oakland, California, and formed Bang Lime. Shaw returned to Toronto and established Giant Studio. A reworked version of Grow Up and Blow Away finally appeared in 2007, and Metric reunited the following year once Haines grew weary of the somber material from her Soft Skeleton project. Back in Toronto, the group began work on Fantasies, which they self-released worldwide in April 2009 after prolonged talks with Last Gang Records, who released them from their prior commitment. Fantasies became their biggest success, moving 250,000 copies within a year, earning platinum certification in Canada, and producing a Top 20 American rock single without label support. The achievement brought 2010 Juno Awards for Band of the Year and Alternative Album of the Year.

Metric also entered film circles, placing the theme "Eclipse (All Yours)" on the Grammy-nominated soundtrack for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse and supplying the previously unreleased "Black Sheep" to Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Bryan Lee O'Malley drew from Haines and Metric while shaping the character Envy Adams for his books; in the film adaptation she and her band the Clash at Demonhead, with Brie Larson providing vocals over the original track, perform "Black Sheep." In 2011 the group collaborated with Academy Award-winning composer Howard Shore on the score for David Cronenberg's Cosmopolis, adapted from Don DeLillo's novel. The film debuted at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival around the release of Metric's fifth album, Synthetica, on Mom & Pop Music. It marked their first U.S. Top 50 entry, reaching number 12, and peaked at number two in Canada.

After touring, Haines composed on acoustic guitar during a Nicaragua retreat while Shaw focused on synthesizers in Toronto. They convened at Oscilloscope Labs to record Pagans in Vegas, a reflective, synth-led album issued in September 2015. Haines completed another solo set, 2017's Choir of the Mind, before Metric reassembled at Giant Studio with producer Justin Meldal-Johnsen to shape their seventh record. They pursued a rawer, guitar-centric approach on 2018's Art in Doubt, released via MMI/Crystal Math Music.

The band toured extensively through 2019, then resumed recording at Shaw's new studios north of Toronto. Canadian members began sessions and were later joined by the others once border rules eased. Producers Liam O'Neil, previously involved with Synthetica, and Gus Van Go assisted Shaw, guiding Metric toward lyrics exploring global unease and songs spanning gloomy techno-rock, delicate ballads, and their signature arena-scale indie rock. The resulting 2022 album Formentera took its name from an Italian island the group imagined escaping to once travel resumed. Instead they mounted an extended North American tour lasting through year-end. They also visited Europe and, while in France, added final touches at the historic Motorbass studio in Paris to material developed alongside Formentera. The follow-up, Formentera II, saw its lead single, the melancholic disco-tinged "Just the Once," released while the band supported Garbage and Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds on the road.