{"id":272376,"date":"2026-02-03T20:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T20:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/272376\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T20:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T20:20:10","slug":"metric-are-getting-back-to-their-essence-in-the-era-of-solo-artists-and-billionaires-on-romanticize-the-dive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/272376\/","title":{"rendered":"Metric are getting back to their essence in the era of \u201csolo artists and billionaires\u201d on \u2018Romanticize The Dive\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Metric<\/a> have announced details of their new album \u2018Romanticize The Dive\u2019 with the reflective new single \u2018Victim Of Luck\u2019 and details of a huge tour with Broken Social Scene<\/a> and Stars<\/a>. Check it out below along with our interview with frontwoman Emily Haines.<\/p>\n

The first new material from the Canadian indie heroes since 2022 and 2023\u2019s double album series \u2018Formentera\u2019<\/a> and \u2018Formentera II\u2019<\/a>, Metric\u2019s 10th LP will arrive on April 24 and comes previewed by launch single \u2018Victim Of Luck\u2019. It\u2019s a song that cuts straight to the purpose of the album; celebrating the compulsion and ambition of their early days to illuminate what\u2019s missing in the present.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me take you back, it was the start of something,\u201d sings Haines at the opening of the subtle slow-burner. \u201cI was there not long before all the stardom. Now I\u2019m in front of you and all I\u2019m seeing is all my flaws.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to move away from hiding behind the lyrics,\u201d Haines told NME. \u201cPurple prose aside, my dad was a writer who was always writing in code. And I like writing in code, but I\u2019ve been pushing myself to just say it. I\u2019m saying, \u2018I was a starving artist and I was fearless, but now I\u2019m a bit cowardly.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018I\u2019m scared that you think I don\u2019t look good, I\u2019m getting older, I\u2019m getting up here and I\u2019m not really feeling like I\u2019m owning the bad-ass person that I\u2019m allegedly known to be\u2019. If I\u2019m gonna look bad, then I\u2019m gonna look bad. The vanity is gonna fucking kill me!\u201d<\/p>\n

Haines continued:\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m hoping that it has the same transformational power, even just for me, as \u2018Help I\u2019m Alive\u2019 from [2009\u2019s] \u2018Fantasies\u2019<\/a>. Instead of having all these weird behaviours and because I was so fucking scared of being on stage I just wrote, \u2018I tremble, they\u2019re gonna eat me alive\/ If I stumble, they\u2019re gonna eat me alive, help, help\u2019. There was no hiding and that\u2019s where the magic of music is for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The accompanying music video is made up of previously unseen archive footage of the band\u2019s early years, \u201criding in vans, smoking cigarettes, playing in clubs and goofing around in shitty dressing rooms\u201d, mixed in with imagery of the present as the band reunite with photographer Mark \u2018The Cobrasnake\u2019 Hunter. As well as taking iconic photos of the indie sleaze scene in the 2000s and 2010s, Hunter also took some of the first images ever of Metric when they were starting out in Los Angeles, and has returned to the fold for this new album.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the video, we found these old archival tapes of the band playing in Scandinavia in 2003 or 2004,\u201d said Haynes. \u201cWe were playing to like 10 people and thinking, \u2018We\u2019re doing this whether you like it or not\u2019. We were so lucky to have people like, \u2018I\u2019m down! I\u2019ll dance to \u2018Dead Disco\u2019\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keeping in that spirit of \u201cgoing back to the days of the dive, the beginning of the band, feeling the love\u201d, Metric returned to the city where they first met at the height of the \u201900s indie explosion to record again at the iconic Electric Lady Studios with \u2018Fantasies\u2019 and \u2018Synthetica\u2019 producer Gavin Brown.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor this record, we put back the OG crew that made \u2018Fantasies\u2019 so we could really look back at what our process was back then,\u201d Haines told NME. \u201cWhen we were looking for direction, we would go back and listen to our own work. It makes sense on your 10th album to ask, \u2018What would Metric do?\u2019 I don\u2019t know! Let\u2019s remember. What is the essence of the sound and the emotion of what we are?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were so proud of \u2018Formentera\u2019 I and II, but that was really so exploratory. That\u2019s cool and we can do that for the rest of our lives but Jimmy [Shaw, guitarist] said, \u2018Let\u2019s just have one more shot at the essence of who we are\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

In celebrating their past, Haines said that they tapped into an ethos to live by today that runs throughout \u2018Romanticize The Dive\u2019.\u00a0\u201cPeople light up because this isn\u2019t even escapism \u2013 it\u2019s a way to live,\u201d she added. \u201cYou can have friends, you don\u2019t have to be in this atomised loneliness epidemic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Check out the rest of our interview below, where Haines tells us about life in Trump<\/a>\u2018s America, returning to an analogue reality, and why there\u2019s still hope if you let the light in.<\/p>\n

NME: Hello, Emily Haines. We understand you\u2019re in LA at the moment?<\/p>\n

Emily Haines: \u201cThis trip back to LA is me being like, \u2018OK, let\u2019s try this again\u2019. I\u2019m starting to feel like I\u2019m coming home, in a way. I\u2019ve lived here periodically over the years. The band met in New York but we got our start in LA. They were really good to us \u2013 a scrappy little punk act doing our thing at the Silverlake Lounge. We met all of these people who were like, \u2018You guys have something, don\u2019t give up\u2019, while we were playing to 10 people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s funny with LA; it\u2019s really pronounced here and there are so many ways to be here. It\u2019s such an export: the look of the place itself, the Hollywood sign, people have lots of different ideas about how to live here. There are people in Beverly Hills having a very different experience to mine. I\u2019m part of this scrappy crew that loves the hikes and my favourite place in LA is Elysian Park where you\u2019d never know you were in the city. I\u2019m also a little pissed with Harry Styles<\/a> for fucking up my little local, The Beachwood Cafe. It\u2019s fine. The atmosphere and lifestyle in LA is not actually glitzy and shallow at all. I feel very connected to nature when I\u2019m here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"EmilyEmily Haines of Metric performs onstage at Summerfest 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Joshua Applegate\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

LA is its own world, but what\u2019s it like being in America at a time like this with all the Trump and ICE protests?<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the United States, I\u2019m a dual citizen so I\u2019ve always had this identity crisis. Now, it\u2019s just even more profound. You cut to these past weeks and we\u2019re not even talking about the slippery slope; it\u2019s about Americans being pulled from their cars and unlawfully detained. That is so insane. American citizens are being killed for this. People are in something of a stupor. \u2018Have you heard the Springsteen tune?<\/a> OK, cool! Now what?\u2019 People are sad, exhausted and don\u2019t know what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you think positive change can come around quickly?<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to believe in the system itself. All the moderate people I know are like, \u2018the Constitution is there for a reason, it\u2019s being tested, and it\u2019s going to work\u2019. Artists and musicians talk about this all the time. Our album is called \u2018Romanticize The Dive\u2019. We are romanticising \u2013 for other people \u2013 the time we came up in and the values of friendship and fans, not solo artists and billionaires. It\u2019s a very different ethos and still real. Metric are making our 10th album, we\u2019ve been friends for 25 years. It\u2019s about something else.\u201d<\/p>\n

What feeling were you looking to spotlight?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to be valuable and be there to romanticise something that\u2019s not bullshit, in the same way that I grew up romanticising Neil Young<\/a>\u2019s \u2018For What It\u2019s Worth\u2019. Those artists were genuine. Now, to me, I ask if it even works to write songs? I try to go in on a level of people\u2019s mental health and self-knowledge to represent an ethos, and hope that it has a positive outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you think we could all do with a little more living in the real world and less time online?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to know how to move when we\u2019re in this transition. After the killing of George Floyd, we were all so online in that moment due to the pandemic. A lot of people were calling bullshit on \u2018online activism\u2019, and I have huge air quotes around that because people were like, \u2018Oh well, that\u2019s solved\u2019. There\u2019s a lot of peer pressure around that, and it\u2019s very conformist in that, \u2018You have to say this in this way\u2019 or you\u2019re ostracised for not getting on board.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow I think more people want to be in the physical world. Artists make music in all kinds of ways, but it\u2019s kind of cool when musicians play instruments together as people. There\u2019s a paradox between wanting to do something, and not wanting to be someone who\u2019s losing it online. Losing it online is part of what got us into this situation and ratcheting things up. \u2018Online activism\u2019 feels like an oxymoron but then we\u2019re seeing what actually happens when people do something in the real world, it has real consequences. To quote our new song \u2018Tremelo\u2019: \u2018Everybody don\u2019t know, everybody don\u2019t know\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

You mentioned capturing the \u2018essence\u2019 of Metric. What would you say that is?<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has to be an element of directness and the unvarnished part. Early on, as we were finding our feet and being punk-ass little bitches \u2013 which I say proudly \u2013 there\u2019s a confrontational element to this band. \u2018OK, well there are four people in the room, am I just going to sit behind the piano or have a real performance art moment?\u2019 For sure, that comes from our early days in New York sharing a loft with Yeah Yeah Yeahs<\/a>, and what was happening with The Strokes<\/a> and those bands. It was very fucking scrappy. What we\u2019ve found is that the sonic scrappiness is something we\u2019re a little tired of. I\u2019m proud of that energy but we have those songs already, so here the sonics are a little more inviting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I can peel my attitude back to a more vulnerable place, that\u2019s the real magic. I\u2019m a conversational writer and that\u2019s how I write lyrics. What\u2019s the warmest and most real confrontation you can have? That\u2019s what we found from \u2018Fantasies\u2019. I was laying everything out, but I\u2019m a very soft person trying to articulate shit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lyrically, what were you trying to do here?<\/p>\n

\u201cGet out of my own way. There were a lot of rewrites. \u2018How about you actually say what you\u2019re trying to say?\u2019 On \u2018Clouds To Break\u2019, I sing \u2018All this running around, but I never found what I was running towards\u2019. There\u2019s an element of that. You\u2019ve got to ask yourself if it was worth dedicating your life to this and if it\u2019s working out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wanted to reclaim the levity of a life in music. Metric know to throw a party. You come to our shows, and it\u2019s really fucking fun because it\u2019s real. I always have these conversations with my friends about how, as a writer, I\u2019ll always be on the outside of the mainstream, and it\u2019s because I don\u2019t understand how break-up songs are unifying. Crowds being like, \u2018You broke up with me, yaaaay\u2019 \u2013 it just doesn\u2019t resonate. I\u2019ve found my place, and Metric fans feel the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MetricMetric perform in concert at sala Bikini in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo by Xavi Torrent\/Redferns)<\/p>\n

You had years of struggle. Do you feel for artists today who can\u2019t even get on the ladder? Can you have good art without a struggle, too?<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see a pattern of generational stuff. Someone always has a version of, \u2018I used to walk to school in my bare feet through the snow\u2019. Everyone\u2019s always doing that to the next generation, and that\u2019s really lame. I\u2019m definitely not into that. A lot of your fans get it and how we did it. Broadly and culturally, if people don\u2019t have access to the shitty part then I don\u2019t know what happens.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, I really feel for younger artists. Even if you get a huge record deal \u2013 and we know the stats about whether they truly yield results \u2013 it\u2019s all still on you to sell your fucking soul on social media. Just to get in the door, you already have to have such gross numbers. We had the opportunity to be so fucking broke, to live on expired power bars from the 99 cents store, to be in the van, but we\u2019re proud and that\u2019s a badge.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack then, you could knock on the door of the Silverlake Lounge or the Mercury Lounge. We got a residency in Williamsburg, and that was a game-changer for finding our sound. None of us came from money, so we weren\u2019t like a trust fund frollicking around. It was about having that scrappiness and not having the expectation of it being so easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Could a new band like Metric make it today?<\/p>\n

\u201cMusic has been so devalued and distribution used to be impossible for us, other than burning CDs. You couldn\u2019t have anyone hear your music. Having someone play \u2018Combat Baby\u2019 on KCRW after giving someone a CD changed our life.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor artists starting out and trying to build something real, it\u2019s almost too easy and too hard at the same time. That\u2019s the vibe of the record. We\u2019re not bitching about it, we\u2019re just saying it was awesome!\u201d<\/p>\n

Is reclaiming that spirit the reason you hooked up with your old friends Broken Social Scene and Stars for this huge indiegasm tour?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more about the ethos of the lifelong friendships. It goes back to people being seven-years-old together. It\u2019s a confusing time for people. Are we supposed to want to be billionaires? Everyone\u2019s made to feel like shit if you\u2019re not super rich, which is everyone apart from a handful of people. It\u2019s not like I tried to do that and didn\u2019t succeed; I tried to do this and succeeded! I tried to spend my life with my friends, make beautiful music and travel the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not selling out six enormo-dones, we\u2019re doing something else. We want to remind people that there\u2019s life to be had that isn\u2019t just chasing that carrot of feeling like garbage if you don\u2019t have all that money. It\u2019s dark.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you think you\u2019ll bring the tour to the UK?<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw a whole routing with the Broken Social Scene for the UK and Europe. This will be so cool. We\u2019re excited to take this little package of joy with \u2018All The Feelings\u2019 all around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve a sentimental history with London, right?<\/p>\n

\u201cJimmy and I were fortunate enough to come to the UK at the beginning of our career in 1999. We signed a publishing deal, did the whole thing, and managed to get a loft on Charlotte Road before the whole Shoreditch thing happened. Poor Jimmy was born in London and his whole family is British. Mr Canada went to Juilliard and pulled it off and his dad goes, \u2018You want to go and live in fucking Shoreditch?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course we went right when the transition was happening in that neighbourhood. It was \u00a390 per week then went up to \u00a3300 and the place itself was full of easels and art supplies. It was right on the corner across from Cantaloupe. We had this sweet old couple in the apartment opposite then one day they\u2019d gone and their loft was full of desks and iMacs. The future was coming! That was such a pivotal moment for us. We had the fucking struggle of trying to get the deal and everything ending up just how it should be.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have so much love for the UK. We toured with Test Icicles<\/a>, Death From Above 1979<\/a> and Klaxons<\/a> and it was so raw. We have to thank that whole era for becoming who we are. We got the love, worked our way up, and when we play The Roundhouse it means something to people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MetricMetric announce \u2018Romanticize The Dive\u2019. Credit: Mark Hunter<\/p>\n

Metric release \u2018Romanticize The Dive\u2019 on April 24 via Thirty Tigers. Check out the tracklist below and pre-order it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2018Victim Of Luck\u2019
\u2018Wild Rut\u2019
\u2018Time Is A Bomb\u2019
\u2018Crush Forever\u2019
\u2018Tremolo\u2019
\u2018Moral Compass\u2019
\u2018As If You\u2019re Here\u2019
\u2018Loyal\u2019
\u2018Antigravity\u2019
\u2018Clouds To Break\u2019
\u2018Leave You On A High\u2019<\/p>\n

\"Metric,Metric, Broken Social Scene and Stars have announced the 2026 \u2018All The Feelings Tour\u2019. Credit: Press<\/p>\n

Metric\u2019s upcoming \u2018All The Feelings Tour\u2019 dates with Broken Social Scene and Stars are above. Visit here tickets<\/a> and more information. Information on UK and European tour dates is expected in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Metric have announced details of their new album \u2018Romanticize The Dive\u2019 with the reflective new single \u2018Victim Of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[146,85,131,46,12594,409],"class_list":{"0":"post-272376","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-indie","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-live-music-news","13":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}