Simply Imperial: Metric

  ‘Hey is that Jimmy? ‘Hey yeah, I’m kinda driving at the moment…can you hold on just a sec…?  ‘…’ ‘Sorry about that how’s it going?’
’No worries.  It’s good how are y…’ ‘**** you!’
’…’ ’**** you!  Sorry, can you hold on for a second?’
’…’ ’Will you get some papers?  I’m busy right now…sorry about that man, my friends being an asshole.  I’m good to go, shoot.’   Jimmy Shaw seems a little distracted.  Not only has he possibly broken the law by answering my call in the first place (there was no indication of a hands free kit being used) the fleeting summer serenity he was enjoying is soon to be disturbed by a yammering hack in one ear and a vocal background disagreement about cigarette papers.  It’s fair enough really as the Metric, and Broken Social Scene guitarist, is probably a little frayed after a year that’s seen Metric open for The Rolling Stones at Madison Square Garden, a gruelling transatlantic tour and the belated release of album ‘Live it Out’ in the Europe.    Oblivious to the fact he’s soon to be left by the highway in the general Seattle area and disregarding the odd 18 wheel interruption and subsequent time lapses spent establishing whether Jimmy’s road kill or not, he’s happy to talk about the Canadian music scene, Sheffield on a Friday night and the prospect of Metric’s coolness.  Actually he’s just happy the sun’s out.   ‘Things are really good.  We’ve been touring for 3 and a half months, finished up in the UK and now we’ve all kind of split up and gone our own ways for a while; four corners of the globe kind of thing.  I’m in Seattle at the moment mixing a record in this wonderful 400 year old barn studio called Bearcreek for a side project and the sun’s out and its summer.’   For anyone unfamiliar with the band, Metric are reinforcements for the current Canadian invasion.  Formed in a Brooklyn basement, Metric’s sultry, refined pop sound might be slightly removed from their raggedy cousins but the maple leaf seal of approval remains much the same even if the band recruitment process isn’t as stringent.   ‘Emily and I have known each other for about 10 years but the band actually formed in an apartment in Brooklyn.  Emily and I were doing some shows where I was drumming and I’m a terrible drummer, and this guy came up to me after one of the shows and said he really liked what we did.  I said he should join us in an offbeat way and it turned out he played drums and we call him Joules now.  He’s our drummer.  He had a great haircut and a nice girlfriend so it all worked out.’   A MSTRKRFT remix of the already sublime ‘Monster Hospital’ gradually worked its way onto playlists and dance floors across the country and despite Jimmy’s insistence ‘the original is better’ it didn’t do too much harm to their street cred as witnesses to any of their UK shows would testify;   ‘The tour was great. We’ve always been really hesitant to come over to England but it was intriguing.  We’d done a huge tour of North America and didn’t really know what to expect coming here.  I think we successfully stayed drunk the whole time and had a load of fun and everyone else had a good time.  I expected arms crossed and serious faces because we were told some crowds can be quite tough but the Barfly was a total mosh pit and kids were stage diving and throwing themselves everywhere.  Everyone was moving. It was chaos.’   ‘Hang on… (Jimmy shouts to Gas station attendant) did the guy who just bought coffee split…the guy in the green convertible?’
’Oh yeah he left.’
’****!   He left me on the side of the highway.  Ah well it’s a nice day and I don’t mind walking…where were we?’ 
Playing Madison Square Garden is like, a big deal.  Supporting the Stones at Madison Square Garden is like, huuuuuuge.  Isn’t it?   ‘It’s the ****ing Stones.  We could headline Madison Square Garden or whatever but because it’s the Stones it’s a big show.  There’s a lot of shitty shows there as well but I don’t look at it as ‘the next big step’ or anything.  We could have been paid £3 million to open for the Stones or played 8 sold out nights in the Coliseum in Rome and it wouldn’t make any difference.’