Singer-songwriter Emily Haines (b. New Delhi, India; vocals/synthesiser), met Jimmy Shaw (b. James Shaw, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; guitar), while their mutual friends performed, at a small Toronto music venue in 1998. By the following year they had began to write songs together and named their project Metric. Both musicians were classically trained, and the name of the band was a testament to the meticulous nature of their performances. Two EPs were released during this period, 1998's Mainstream and 2001's Static Anonymity. In 2001 the duo expanded their line-up after meeting Josh Winstead (b. Texas, USA; bass) and Joules Scott-Key (b. Denton, Texas, USA; drums) in a Brooklyn bar. Before the recording of 2003’s electro pop outing Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? in Los Angeles, Haines and Shaw had already relocated from Toronto to Montreal, to London, to Brooklyn and back to Toronto. While Winstead and Scott-Key remained resident in California, the founding duo moved back to their old apartment in Toronto, in 2004, and converted it into a home studio. Shaw went on to produce the follow-up, 2005’s Live It Out, which was treated by all concerned as a step forward from the new wave posturing of earlier material. ‘Monster Hospital’ recalled the Cardigans at their most experimental, while other tracks were reminiscent of Britpop underachievers Salad.
By September 2006 Haines had released the solo album Knives Won’t Have Your Back. Sessions had taken place over the previous four years and there were guest performances from members of Sparklehorse and fellow Canadian school friends Broken Social Scene.
