Metric is a Canadian indie rock band founded in 1998 in Toronto. They were also at various times been based in Montreal, London, New York City and Los Angeles. The band consists of Emily Haines (lead vocals, synthesizers, guitar, tambourine, harmonica, piano), James Shaw (guitar, synthesizers, theremin, backing vocals), Joshua Winstead (bass, synthesizers, backing vocals) and Joules Scott-Key (drums, percussion).
The band started in 1998 as a duo formed by Haines and Shaw. Initially, the duo's name was Mainstream. After releasing an EP titled Mainstream EP, they changed the band's name to Metric, after a sound that was programmed by Shaw on his keyboard in 1998. In 2001, Winstead and Scott-Key joined them.
Haines and Shaw also perform with the band Broken Social Scene. In 1996, Haines has released the album Cut in Half and Also Double. Under Emily Haines and the Soft Skeleton moniker, she released in 2006 the studio album Knives Don't Have Your Back, followed in 2007 by the EP What Is Free to a Good Home?. Emily Haines has been a guest on albums by artists like Stars, KC Accidental, The Stills, Jason Collett, The Crystal Method and Tiësto. Shaw issued the studio album Life on the Clock in 1997. Scott-Key and Winstead have their own side project, Bang Lime.
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