Metric’s success ride brings them home to the Juno Awards

Metric is international. They’re citizens of the world who know no borders.

One minute the Canadian indie outfit is tearing up the stage at California’s world famous fest, Coachella, then landing in Saskatchewan for the nation’s biggest night in music, the 2013 Juno Awards.

Riding on the success of their chart topping, fifth studio album, Synthetica, Metric unloaded at Coachella late Friday afternoon where they performed a career spanning live set including fan favorite, “Dead Disco,” from their 2003 gold album, Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?

“‘Dead Disco’ is a fun song to play live, especially when Jules and I do a solo breakdown,” bassist Josh Winstead says in our tour bus interview. “I’m never sad to see it on the set list.”

After closing their Coachella appearance with a watered down “Gimme Sympathy,” these globetrotters rushed home in time to take the stage at the Junos ceremony.

“We never miss a chance to be on stage, especially at home,” Josh says. “Playing live is like a dialogue and we need to have a conversation with our fans. We’re asking, ‘What do you think about this? Do you want us to play this for you? Will this be something you’ll enjoy and dance to? Cheer if you like it, boo if you don’t.’”

Metric fans across the country have definitely voiced their opinion, the band is in the running for this year’s Juno Fan Choice Award.

Metric earned another four nominations, three of which they won this evening at the Juno Awards non-televised gala dinner: Alternative Album of the Year, Recording Package of the Year and guitarist and producer, James Shaw, was honored with the Jack Richardson Producer of the Year award.

Sunday night will tell if Metric will leave with Group of the Year and Fan Choice.

This, of course, isn’t the first time frontwoman, Emily Haines, and her band mates get a pat on the back from Canada.

Metric’s previous album, Fantasies, was rewarded Alternative Album of the Year, while the band was recognized as Group of the Year at the 2010 Juno Awards.

More recently, the collective won Group of the Year and Best-selling Independent Release of the Year at last month’s SiriusXM Indie Awards, and in March, they scored Best Original Song at the Canadian Screen Awards for their work on the soundtrack of David Cronenberg’s film, Cosmopolis.

That is an impressive stack of trophies piled up in a short period of time, still Metric doesn’t measure success by the amount of hardware they collect along the way.

“Success is when you’re really happy and pleased with where you are in your life, and you’re doing what you want to be doing,” James says. “It’s when your visions of what you want your life to be, and how it actually is are completely in line.”

As the male members of Metric nod in agreement, Emily leans forward to the edge of the tour bus couch with a little something to add.

“I’d like to throw in that success is when you no longer have to answer to anybody, and you just don’t give a shit,” she laughs. “Yes, that’s happiness and that’s success.”

Watch the full broadcast of the 2013 Juno Awards at CTV.ca/junos

Follow Metric on twitter and facebook.

Posted by Marc Andrew on Apr 20 2013. Filed under Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.