This post was submitted by Zack Rosen

Emily Haines wears her sunglasses indoors. They did not come off in the entire 30 minutes we spent together. Not on the corner of 9th and U where we met, not in the dark confines of DC9, not as we shook hands goodbye in the shade of that bar’s awning. I could actually smell her makeup from across the booth we share. When she compliments my t-shirt I am stunned to silence by such a sudden burt of warmth. But like the cracked sonic gloss over the the dance-rock bombast of her band, Metric, this vinyl edifice contains a huge depth of character.

Haines, a long-time favorite of queer lady indie fans, has much to share. In the midst of touring behind her newest album “Fantasies” and its popular single “Help I’m Alive,” the voice of Metric shared found time to share with us the direction of popular music, her motivations in writing, why the queers love her and, most of all, the eternal importance of being true to yourself.

The New Gay: What themes does your new album have that are different from previous works?

Emily Haines: Reality vs fantasy, which is why it’s called “Fantasies.” [Its about] the power of the imaginary world.

TNG: I’ve wondered about lyrics like “If I tumble, they’ll eat me alive.” Is that reality eating you alive? It made me think its about your some kind of battle between being a rock star and a real person.

EH: Yeah, the writers I really admire have always spoken from honesty and frailty, not bravoado and false pride.

TNG: But why reveal this now?

EH: I don’t think its a change. In all our records, Metric has been themed lyrically of being honest. Even when it’s difficult.

TNG: So tell me more about the fear in “Help I’m Alive.” What is it fear of?

EH: It’s not fear. It’s something that, if I could say in a concise sentence, it wouldn’t ne a song. Life is passing you by as you speak, you’re on a path and you’re all on the same path toward death. Being alive and understanding that and making the decision to acutally live take a lot of courage. lots of people take the option of not activating their own life, of really letting it happen. When you step into your life and realize it’s going on, this is it. There is no other optiopn if you’re not religious. It’s not about fear, it’s about embracing life.

TNG: Those are good words to live by. I have one more song-specific question: There are tons of classic rock allusions in your song “Gimme Sympathy.” [video embedded at end of interview.]  It mentions the Beatles and The Rolling Stones, and obviously “Gimme Shelter.” Is this a purposeful calling back to another time in music?

EH: It’s hard to say with writing that you’re choosing anything. I was hanging out with my friends in our band, in Seattle, in a farm house and we were writing songs. I just write what comes to me. I didn’t sit down and say ok, here is my statement. It’s just a song that has a shout out to those bands, it’s not a statement.

TNG: I ask because Metric’s sound is really of the moment, it’s that awesome brand of dance rock. I wonder if that sound will be around forever, if you see yourselves changing our evolving.

EH: It would be great to think that our generation could step up and create the new classic rock, that we woiuldn’t have to listen to “Stairway to Heaven for the rest of our lives on radio stations.” Those bands, for whatever reason, they still sound amazing and I don’t think that a lot of music today will hold up the same way. The song writing, the sonics or meaning or feeling, it’s an aspiration to have that. Is it possible we’ll stop romanticizing the 60s and 70s and have our bands from our own generation? It’s a dream.

TNG: Think you can do it?

EH: We’re doing something. We try.

TNG: What are some bands around right now that you think could actually make it?

EH: MIA as an artist is such an interesting phenomenon. It’s in a pop realm that she exists, but I think that with the content and depth of her writing, the depth of her identity, she’s someone I’d definitely want to watch my whole life. I hope she keeps making records. TV on the Radio, we’re actually friends with that band, they are amazing people and musicians. And I’m excited for the next MGMT record. The last one was so good, I hope they keep going. I’d love for them to be our next Pink Floyd.

TNG: That leads me to my next question: You guys play your own instruments…

EH: Play our own instruments? Yeah we play our instruments, my god…

TNG: What I mean is you’re actually on stage playing a show, vs a band like MGMT which might have one guys singing while the other is on a computer. Do you think that you, as a band which plays a live show onstage, is becoming a rare breed?

EH: We use tracks on some songs. I don’t think the two things are mutually exclusive. There’s the Ashley Simpson style of lip-syncing, there’s no musicianship involved in her music, or performance whatsoever. There’s every variation from that point, though. I’m sure Radiohead uses some,. Their are ways of using tracks where they’re like an instrument. You embrace the technology and electronic element of the music. The key is that the musicianship should match or ideally surpass what you have as backing tracks. If it’s working, you don’t notice they’re being used.

TNG: I have a couple questions from a friend who really loves you: With you as the focal point of your band, he wants to know if you see yourself as any kind of Chrissie Hynde or Janis Joplin type.

EH: I see myself as Emily Haines, not Janis Joplin or Chrissie Hynde. There isn’t anyone else like me.

TNG: You come from a long tradition of highly visible woman vocalists…

EH: I don’t think it’s that long a tradition, and if I fit into it it’s as me.I’m not going into my life looking to emulate anyone else. There are people I look up to, Kim Gordon is an inspiration, but she inspires me to be myself. Not to be her. I would hate to spend this energy developing thing, this sound and meaning, nd to think that it’s because I was trying to be someone like Janis Joplin.

TNG: Because then you’re famous as Janis Joplin, not Emily Haines. So that’s the past of music. Where do you think your sound might be headed, or where rock in general might be headed?

EH: Right now there are so many more bands and so much more music in the world than before. Everyone can record their own music and has a shot at creating something that can connect. If there is going to be a specific pattern toward anything it will be about originality and individually going forward.

A song like “Help I’m Alive” becoming number one in Canada and going number one on commercial stations in the US and around the world, it’s an anomaly. It proves the future is unwritten and anything can happen. When I listened to the record it didn’t qualify as a radio single to me, and when we listen to it now it sounds like “now.” The warmth of the instruments and the honesty of the vocal, and the relaxed feeling of the song, it’s very embracing but it has electronic elements and other elements that keep it from sounding like The Stones. Our direction is to try be the new classic rock and I actually have no idea what that would even sound like. Its all happening, it’s all unfolding, the only thing you have control of is yourself. The story of what you’re writing and what you’re living. It’s really interesting. I have no idea what’s going on.

 

TNG: This is a question you might hear all the time, and you can roll your eyes if you want, but is someone like Metric going number one indicative of a blurring between what is “commercial” and what is “indie?”

EH: Yeah, I don’t know what “indie” means anymore. There was a moment when it was a guitar tone. Then the aesthetic used to be a lot of bands on major labels where indie meant means a vintage t-shirt. It’s not really associated with any affect. So again, it’s hard to put in a box.

We are as independant as can be. We started out own world wide label call Metric Music, we have our own distribution partners. Who knows what we’ll do in the future. If you’re doing something that’s not you in the hopes of gaining more people, then I suppose you could be going down a commerical path. For us the goal has always been to have our music make sense to people,. We don’t fee; like we’re moving in one direction or the other, the songs just unfold. And when you put something really honest and difficult forward and thousands of people say “I undersatnd you and I feel the same way.” And if that means more people that’s great, but it doesnt really mean a connection to commercial.

TNG: Are you aware that you probably have the biggest lesbian following of of any straight woman in indie right now?

EH: Yeah. I don’t know why that is because I’m straight!

TNG: Well, Madonna’s not a gay man…

EH: Actually, we were talking about this last night at a party. We were talking about what it is that gay men in see in female icons like Madonna. What we came to is that anyone who is gay has to go through some process of standing on their own and being really honest about who the are. And they ahve to be willing to do that at the expense of whatever happens. You make a decision where you say “I can either be honest about who I am or I’m going to die.” It takes a lot of courage. I think that maybe what they relate to with me is that I’ve done the same thing with my own life in my own way.I suppose with many female or male musicians, you get the sense that it’s someone who is determined to be themselvs at any cost. Maybe that’s the connection, I don’t know.

TNG: It works for me! Anything you wanna say to all your queer ladies out there?

EH: Keep it queer!TNG

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