Emily Haines

Michael* · October 26, 2009

Emily Haines

Emily Haines (born 1974) is a member of the bands Metric, Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton and Broken Social Scene, also contributing backing vocals to albums by other Broken Social Scene members, such as Jason Collett and Kevin Drew.

Emily is the daughter of Canadian poet Paul Haines; her sister is Canadian television journalist Avery Haines and her brother is Tim Haines, owner of Bluestreak Records in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. She was born in New Delhi, India, and raised in Canada. After settling in Peterborough at the age of three, she grew up in a house rich with experimental art and musical expression. Paul would often make cassettes of rare and eclectic music for his daughter to listen to and her early influences included Carla Bley, Robert Wyatt, and later PJ Harvey. By her teens she followed her parents' footsteps by attending the Etobicoke School of the Arts to study drama. There she met Amy Millan and Kevin Drew, with whom she would later collaborate in songs for Broken Social Scene and Stars.

Haines and Millan briefly formed their first band around 1990 while at ESA, and with songs later written and recorded while at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver in 1992–1993, at Toronto in 1995, and at Concordia University in Montreal in 1995–1996. The result was Cut in Half and Also Double distributed in 1996 with a limited number of copies.

Haines met James Shaw in Toronto, and the two of them began dating and making music. Their first collaboration was not called Metric, although it contained all the elements that would mark their later music. The two moved to New York, where they recruited their rhythm section and began recording.

Haines also has a solo career, and has released two albums, Knives Don't Have Your Back, and What Is Free to a Good Home?, under the band name Emily Haines and the Soft Skeleton. Her solo work is typically more mellow and piano-based than her work with Metric — in interviews, Haines has stated that "most Metric songs I write would start out sounding the same way that Knives sounds. The only difference is that with Knives, I'm exposing my music in a more vulnerable state."

Haines also appeared in the 2004 drama film Clean. She and her band, Metric, appearing as themselves, performed their song "Dead Disco" and then went backstage for a small speaking role.

Haines made a guest appearance on Tiësto's song "Knock You Out" on his new album Kaleidoscope which was released in October 2009. The track shot to no.1 on the Beatport.com Top 100 chart, the leading online dance music store.

Emily Haines

Official Metric Website

Official French Site