Metric 'Fantasies' album

Following 2005's highly acclaimed Live It Out, Metric returns with their highly anticipated fourth full length studio album Fantasies. Written by the band in a farmhouse outside Seattle and by frontwoman Emily Haines while on a soul-cleansing sojourn to Argentina, Fantasies is a densely textured modern mix of psychedelia, electro, and rock with a "really big and really dreamy" sound, says guitarist/co-founder Jimmy Shaw.

Haines adds, "For me, the major influences on the record were the places we wrote it: Bear Creek, this utopian farmhouse studio, and then our own studio in Toronto, which definitely brought in the electro, dance and rock elements because the city feels so good right now and so many of our musician friends were around. And then for me, being in Buenos Aires, most of the songs I brought to this record came out of being in exile with just a piano and a guitar. And then in the final stages, mixing at Electric Lady in NYC brought everything around to where we first met Josh and Joules."

METRIC made a point of taking their time with the writing process on the new album and many of the songs were road tested between recording sessions. Says guitarist Jimmy Shaw, "We allowed this record to dictate its own process. Whatever that process was going to be, it was going to be, we were relaxed about it. The whole time I could hear the sound I wanted in my head -really big and really dreamy." Produced by Gavin Brown and Jimmy Shaw and mixed by Grammy nominated, long time friend and collaborator John O'Mahony (Coldplay, The Strokes), the album's gilded surfaces and textural density - a mix of psychedelia, disco, electronica, punk-rock and bubblegum pop - manifest Shaw's "dream state" vision.

The band is excited about exploring new ways of getting music out to their fans around the world and hope to be part of a new spirit of innovation in the music industry in that regard. "When we got out of our record deal we took meetings with all the usual suspects, the major labels and the big indies" explains METRIC frontwoman Emily Haines. "It was strange having some real choices for the first time in our career while also feeling like whichever deal we chose was going to end up being restrictive and force us to compromise creatively. At one point, we just said 'oh fuck it, lets gamble', took a deep breath and decided to put this record out worldwide our own way."

Always up for a worthwhile challenge, METRIC self-financed the recordings, set up their own global label operation and assembled a team to release the new album in major territories around the world. "But we're not doing it totally on our own" comments guitarist Jimmy Shaw. "In Canada it's coming out with Last Gang who released Live it Out and Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? and our friends at Arts & Crafts will be releasing the album in Mexico. We've set up distribution and hired our own staff to handle releasing the record in the USA, the UK, all throughout continental Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. It's pretty insane, but it's really exciting. We might go down in flames, or it might be the best move ever. Either way it will have been on our terms, and that for us is success."

While it remains to be seen how these worldwide release plans will play out for METRIC, so far the signs are good. In December 2008, three years after their last album, the band completed their biggest ever sold out Canadian tour. In the process they raised nearly $150 000 for charitable organizations such as Covenant House & The Children's Emergency Fund who help Canadian youth in distress. Unexpectedly, the vinyl single of "Help I'm Alive" being pressed in conjunction with this tour was leaked by the overseas manufacturers and has gone on to generate considerable radio airplay around the world. "It's crazy", says Shaw. " A song like "Help I'm Alive" doesn't qualify as a conventional commercial single but it organically developed a life of its own in all these different countries. Now we're just trying to keep up with it". The song has gone on to become the band's biggest radio hit ever in their home market of Canada where it displaced Kings of Leon to take the #1 spot on the Alternative chart. It continues to race up the Modern Rock chart as well, conquering the #6 position last week. Simultaneously, the track is garnering significant airplay at key tastemaker radio stations across the USA, Germany and Ireland, is the #6 most played song on Australia's prestigious Triple J Radio, and was even featured in the Sunday Edition of the London Times. This unforeseen momentum caught the band by surprise and they are rushing to make the song available digitally everywhere as soon as possible to meet demand. "Help I'm Alive" was released on iTunes in Canada on December 23, 2008 and is already approaching Gold status. The song will be available on iTunes in the rest of the world in the coming weeks.

METRIC's inroads into the world of film and television are also picking up steam. Following several placements in hit TV shows such as CSI and Grey's Anatomy, as well as the band's appearance and participation in the critically acclaimed movie Clean by French filmmaker Olivier Assayas, renowned director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) and legendary music producer Nigel Godrich (Radiohead, U2, Beck) have asked Metric to contribute an unreleased composition, "Black Sheep", for use in their upcoming feature film Scott Pilgrim VS. The World, in theaters early 2010.

METRIC was founded in Toronto by Emily Haines and Jimmy Shaw but has at various times been based in Montreal, London, New York and LA,. Their new album embodies musically the band's nomadic ways. "For me" says Haines, "the major influences on this record were the places in which we wrote it. All the warmth on the album comes from our sessions at Bear Creek, this utopian farmhouse studio in the woods outside Seattle, WA. Working at Giant, Jimmy's studio in Toronto, brought in the harder electro, dance and rock elements. Meanwhile, I did a lot of writing in exile in Buenos Aires with just a piano and a guitar which brought an openness and sense of possibility to the sound. Mixing at Electric Lady in NYC at the end brought the band back to where we started, where we first met [bassist] Joshua Winstead and [drummer] Joules Scott-Key five years ago. It has been quite a journey."

METRIC will embark on a headlining US tour in the month of June, exact dates will be announced in the coming weeks.

meet the band Metric
Emily Haines - Vox + Synth
James Shaw - Guitars + Vox
Joshua Winstead - Bass + Vox
Joules Scott Key - Drums

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Metric - Fantasies