EMILY HAINES & THE SOFT SKELETON
KNIVES DON’T HAVE YOUR BACK

Release Date: September 26. 2006

Emily Haines is an artist that defies labeling. Frontwoman for Metric, she is proud to release her debut solo album, Knives Don’t Have Your Back this fall on Last Gang Records. Written and recorded over the past four years in Los Angeles, Montreal, Toronto and New York, the record sites contributions from the likes of Scott Minor from Sparklehorse, Broken Social Scene’s Justin Peroff, Stars’ Evan Cranley and Metric’s Jimmy Shaw. A distinct contrast from Metric’s bold, danceable sound, Knives is an intimate and subtle collection of mellow, piano-driven tunes complimented by soft string and horn arrangements.

Toronto-based Metric has climbed the ladder the good old-fashioned way. Years of writing, recording and performing have earned them their stripes as a bonafide success story. Their magnificent journey has taken them around the world, collecting accolades and critical acclaim as they went. 2003’s Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? went gold in Canada in December of 2005. Quick on its heels was their September 2005 sophomore release, Live It Out, which achieved a Canadian gold record in March of 2006. The band held their own during a two-night stint opening for The Rolling Stones at Madison Square Garden earlier this year, appearing on Late Night with Conan O’Brien on their day off in between. They performed at the prestigious Coachella festival and will appear this summer at both Leeds and Reading. These experiences and successes are the bold, exuberant part of Emily Haines’ artistic persona. Her solo effort, Knives Don’t Have Your Back, and the intimate live performance she’s created, illustrate her more introspective, personal body of work.

“This is a lovely record.”
- Under The Radar

"Emily Haines' vocals...are an enchanting mix of melancholia and spunk."
-Billboard

Haines’ decision to release a solo album was long in the making. She says, “When I was a little kid…I would creep downstairs to the piano and write rudimentary songs about imaginary places. I’m told the first song I ever wrote was a love song to a cranberry tree. I always used the mute pedal. I hated the idea of anybody hearing me. Everywhere I’ve lived while working with Metric, I’ve written songs on the piano and played them for no one. On the advice of a friend, I decided I’d better start recording them before they were forgotten. Four meandering years later I ended up with this collection of songs featuring a few of my favorite people, a group I call The Soft Skeleton.”

Each song on the album holds a personal story from Haines’ life over the past decade. One track, for instance, was written years ago while she was studying electroacoustics in Montreal, and is an homage to childhood heroes Carla Bley and Robert Wyatt. Several songs, including “Reading in Bed” and “Mostly Waving” were recorded in Toronto during the winter of 2002, while Haines was mourning the sudden loss of her father, poet Paul Haines. A handful of songs were conceived during Metric’s early years, when the band was struggling to make ends meet, while more recent tracks were written with a change in perspective, as Haines faced Metric’s growing success.

Continued…
In the spring and summer of 2005, Haines enlisted local musician Todor Kobakov to add string arrangements to a few songs, while friends from Broken Social Scene and Stars added horns to other tracks. Over the past few months, she has worked with producer John O’Mahony (Metric, The Strokes, System of a Down). O’Mahony introduced Emily to the final contributor to the album: Scott Minor from the band Sparklehorse, who added several instrumental tracks as well as “various mysterious noises from North Carolina.” Finally, as Haines says, “The scattered songs fell together.”

“Haines isn’t afraid to let you feel her pain.”
- Spin

The tracklisting for Knives Don’t Have Your Back is as follows:

1. Our Hell
2. Doctor Blind
3. Crowd Surf Off a Cliff
4. Detective Daughter
5. The Lottery
6. The Maid Needs a Maid
7. Mostly Waving
8. Reading in Bed
9. Nothing & Nowhere
10. The Last Page
11. Winning

For more information, please contact Sophie Smith at Big Hassle Media: 212.619.1360 or

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Photo:
Candace Meyer
    
Photo:
Wendy
Lynch
     

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

MAY 10, 2007

METRIC TO HIT THE STUDIO FOR WORK ON FOURTH ALBUM;

EMILY HAINES AND THE SOFT SKELETON ANNOUNCE RELEASE OF EP;

METRIC’S FIRST ALBUM, GROW UP AND BLOW AWAY TO BE OFFICIALLY RELEASED

Fiery foursome Metric is hard at work this Spring and Summer. After a relentlessly busy two years, supporting 2005’s critically-acclaimed LIVE IT OUT — which took the band everywhere from an opening spot for the Rolling Stones’ dates at NYC’s Madison Square Garden, to the stage of 2006’s Coachella Festival, to Canada’s Juno Awards and across Europe, the states and the UK for multiple sold-out tours — the band has finally had some down time to start thinking about their much-anticipated fourth album. In the meantime, frontwoman Emily Haines, who released her debut solo record, KNIVES DON’T HAVE YOUR BACK last September, will release a follow-up EP, entitled WHAT IS FREE TO A GOOD HOME? Finally this summer, after countless requests from fans, Last Gang Records will officially release Metric’s first album, GROW UP AND BLOW AWAY, which was recorded in 1999, but never released.

Currently, the members of Metric – Haines, guitarist Jimmy Shaw, bassist Joshua Winstead and drummer Joules Scott-Key are in pre-production at Giant Studios (co-owned by Jimmy Shaw and Death From Above 1979’s Sebastien Grainger) in Toronto. The album first started to come together in November 2006, when Metric went out to Bear Creek Studios, just North of Seattle, and began writing new material together. This was a first for the four-piece, which, in the past, relied on Haines and Shaw writing the songs and then presenting them to the rest of the band to add the final touches. Instead, the new album will be the result of a much more cohesive effort — all four band members, writing songs in one room together. Haines notes “our approach to composition has been very spontaneous.” Location has also been an important factor to the band. Haines recalls that “being isolated in the woods at Bear Creek helped to inspire the vibe for these first songs that we wrote together. We went for a warm sound, using a lot of vintage instruments.” In contrast, the batch of songs that the band is working on at Giant Studios has a completely different feel. Haines reflects, “We found that in the new sessions here in Toronto, the writing went in a much more electronic, beat-driven direction. One of the major changes was that [bassist Josh Winstead] started writing our basslines on the synth rather than the on the bass, which completely changed the tone of the new material.” In addition, Shaw and Winstead would switch instruments, with Shaw writing the basslines and Winstead writing the guitar parts. “The Giant  sessions involved a lot of sonic experimentation,” Haines adds. Beginning in June, the band will finish writing, and begin recording, aiming to complete the project by October.

In addition to the work that the band is doing, frontwoman Emily Haines, along with her backup band, The Soft Skeleton (a collection of collaborators, including Scott Minor from Sparklehorse) is also focusing on the release of her EP. WHAT IS FREE TO A GOOD HOME? contains five previously unreleased songs from the KNIVES recording sessions, as well as a remix of KNIVES track “Mostly Waving” by Soft Skeleton member and noted arranger/composer Todor Kobakov. The title of the E.P is the name of a poem her father, poet Paul Haines, wrote for Robert Wyatt.  The E.P also includes a setting of another Paul Haines poem, “Sprig”, which was produced by Dave Newfeld ( Super Furry Animals, Broken Social Scene). Both poems are included in a book of Paul Haines’ work entitled SECRET CARNIVAL WORKERS which is being released in tandem with the E.P in July.  Culled from reams of writings only fully examined after his death, this first volume brings together Paul Haines’s writing in all its complex and creative breadth.

KNIVES, which is nearing its June release date in the UK and Europe, reached the Top 10 at College Radio and the Top 10 in the AAA Radio charts. The album quickly became a favorite among critics, garnering features in the likes of Interview, URB, The San Francisco Bay Guardian, Performing Songwriter and Harp, among many others, gaining attention for its stripped-down sound and stirring vocals. Most notably, KNIVES marks a vast departure from the bold sounds and sassy persona that Haines is so associated with through Metric. The Fader wrote, "Knives is cinematic, with its ethereal piano lines and touches of strings and horns. Most impressive though is her voice, which is clean and full and breathy — it stands alone;” while Jon Pareles at the New York Times, reflected, "[Haines] trades Metric’s bravado for breathy, moody reflections on love and loneliness...she’s simply heartbreaking;” and Pitchfork Media called KNIVES, Haines' most stirring vocal performances to date.”

Last Gang Records will release WHAT IS FREE TO A GOOD HOME July 24th on CD as well as on limited-edition vinyl. In addition, iTunes will premiere the record two weeks early, with an exclusive digital release on May 22nd.

Finally, on June 26th, Last Gang will release Metric’s first album, GROW UP AND BLOW AWAY. Originally recorded in 1999 and slated for release on Restless Records, GROW UP became victim to label restructuring and was shelved when Restless was bought by Rykodisc in 2001. Though the record, which features Haines and Shaw as a two-piece, was sold at early Metric shows – and became more widely available through online sharing – it has been a fan favorite for years. The record will be available as a digital release two weeks before it hits the stores, exclusively on iTunes, starting June 12th.

Throughout the Spring and Summer, Metric will play various North American shows, including a performance at Vancouver’s VFest in May, to preview and refine their new material. Fans can stay in the loop on all things Metric by going to www.ilovemetric.com.

The Tracklisting for WHAT IS FREE TO A GOOD HOME is as follows:

  1. Rowboat
  2. The Bank
  3. Telethon
  4. Bottom of the World
  5. Sprig
  6. Mostly Waving (TodorK remix)

 

The Tracklisting for GROW UP AND BLOW AWAY is as follows:

  1. Grow Up
  2. Hardwire
  3. Rock Me Now
  4. The Twist
  5. On The Sly
  6. Soft Rock Star
  7. Raw Sugar
  8. White Gold
  9. London Half Life
  10. Soft Rock Star (Jimmy vs Joe Mix)


  
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