About Metric

 
Emily Haines and James Shaw are the two original members of the band who came together in 1999 for a music partnership and decided to call them Metric. Both the artists had strong music backgrounds where Haines already gained exposure to eclectic music at a very young age due to her father, and had been part of a band in the early nineties. Similarly, Shaw had been part of the music group Stars since he was studying at a music school in Boston. The two were introduced in Toronto from whereon they collaborated on projects and came up with songs such as Butcher, The People, The Lifestyle, The Mandate, and The Battlecry, through which they developed a demo collection characterized by an electronic, down-tempo feel. In the beginning of 2000, the two went to London where they signed with Chrysalis Records.
 
In 2001, Shaw and Haines came across Flint-native Joules Scott-Key and his longtime friend Joshua Winstead, who were performing in the Texas music scene. At the time Metric was only a studio band since they did not have a drummer, which presented an issue for live performances that used drum-machine sounds from recordings and were centered round synthesizers. Their shows thus lacked the spontaneity, energy and dynamism that is so essential to a concert. After recruiting Winstead and Scott-Key, live shows gained a certain presence with a strongly interactive vibe, facilitating the band to connect with the audience. Soon the group had the opportunity to gain public exposure in a Polaroid TV commercial for the I-Zone Pocket Fortune film, which featured their song Grow Up and Blow Away. The advertisement’s tune drew attention from music fans who visited the Polaroid website to find out the synth-pop music source.
 
Metric released their first full-length studio album titled Old World Underground in 2003 for which they won a Juno Award in the category of Best Alternative Album. The album produced six singles among which Combat Bay was the most successful and was available on iTunes as a free single.  Produced by composer Michael Andrews, the album was reported to have attained the gold status in Canada by the end of 2005. Their next album Live It Out, issued in 2005 received a nomination from Polaris Music Prize in the category of Canadian Album of the Year while alongside receiving a nomination for a Juno Award in the category of Best Alternative Album. In 2007, the band released the album Grow Up and Blow Away on Last Gang Records, which was initially to be released on Restless Records.
 
Metric released their fourth studio offering titled Fantasies in 2009 in the US and Canada, for which it received a Polaris Music Prize in the category of Canadian Album of the Year. The album also brought the group two more Juno Awards in 2010 for Alternative Album of the Year as well as Group of the Year. Get hold of Metric tickets and be there to listen to the winning indie rock group.