Q&A: Metric’s Emily Haines on playing Parliament Hill, national pride, new music

By David Friend, The Canadian Press

Metric’s lead singer Emily Haines is returning to Parliament Hill on Friday to give Justin Trudeau a lesson in indie rock.

Haines and her bandmates tore through some of their most memorable hits three years ago — “Youth Without Youth,” “Gold Guns Girls” and “Breathing Underwater” among them — for a crowd of thousands, including former prime minister Stephen Harper.

With a new leader in office, Haines is eager to take to the Hill again and mark Canada’s 149th birthday. Metric will be joined by fellow homegrown acts including Coleman Hell, Coeur de pirate and Alex Cuba.

Fans can watch the show on CBC-TV Friday at 9 p.m. ET and stream an extended version of the main event on CBC.ca starting at 8 p.m. ET.

Haines talked to The Canadian Press about what national pride means to her and why Metric decided to scrap what could’ve been their next album.

CP: Friday will mark the second time you’ve played Parliament Hill on Canada Day. What brought you back?

Haines: We did it under Harper and I’m very excited to do it under Trudeau. It particularly resonates for me. Every time it feels like the world is facing intense times it just really confirms how fortunate I feel to live in Canada. Being born in New Delhi, India and being able to come here and grow up here, it’s incredible.

CP: What makes Canada unique to you?

Haines: Last night I had people over for dinner and was sitting in my yard enjoying a beautiful summer night and discussing all the stories of immigration, family members and all the people we know whose parents came here. (I was) really feeling patriotic in the best possible way. So it’s emotional for me.

CP: Are there any highlights from the first time you played the Hill?

Haines: Singing “Gold Guns Girls” to Harper directly was pretty funny. I think I got a little too close … there wasn’t a lot of emotion (from him).

CP: Around the time your album “Pagans in Vegas” was released last year the band hinted that another record was on the horizon. You’ve described it as totally diametric to the sound of “Vegas” — but what’s the difference?

Haines: It was the highly conceptual thing where we were going to do “Pagans” — about this synthesized world … and then we were going to do this complimentary album that’s all organic instruments live off the floor. We were splitting the atom and showing the two sides that make the band who we are — the kind of thing you do when you’re on your sixth record.

CP: That album was recorded last summer while you were opening for rock band Imagine Dragons. When will we hear it?

Haines: (After the tour) we regrouped and were like, “Yeah there’s no (expletive) way we’re putting that record out.” I don’t know what we were thinking. We did all these incredible recordings in Nashville and all over the place, we did a huge amount of work, but there is just absolutely no way. We have all kinds of exciting surprises to come. We promise to keep everyone engaged, but that record — it’s the mystery tapes at this point.

CP: The Imagine Dragons tour sounds like it was a monumental stretch of time for Metric. Following that experience, guitarist James Shaw swore off opening for other huge bands. What happened?

Haines: Well, you’ve known (Metric) for a long time and you’ve watched us make decisions and navigate, change and evolve, which I think you have to do. What we experienced on that tour was … (us thinking) “OK, this is a massive mainstream event” — and it was pretty jarring. On the upside, for me I felt like if I had any fears I was drifting into the mainstream it confirmed firmly that I’m 100 per cent a freaky outsider artist.

CP: Was it the audiences? Were they not engaged?

Haines: It was actually quite full and people were very respectful. For us it was just kind of course correction a little bit. If a pit in the bottom of your stomach can rejuvenate you, then it certainly did.

— This interview has been edited and condensed.

Follow @dfriend on Twitter.

Top Stories

Top Stories

Most Watched Today