Knives Don’t Have Your Back, Emily Haines’ first publicly-released solo album will surprise many of her following in one way or another. First of all, it’s not the energetic pop Metric. Second of all, it’s not a Diet Coke version of that either. SUPERSWEET chats to Emily, the woman who wins us over with her untamed serenity that exposes the complexity of human minds.
“I love music so much sometimes I’m embarrassed to admit how much I love it,” Emily once randomly announced at one of the Metric gigs. It’s always been quite obvious how passionate this woman is. The day Emily, formerly of Broken Social Scene and currently of Metric, decided to release her own solo project with help from a group of friends she calls the Soft Skeleton. It was clear for anyone who knows of her and her background that this was going to be a very personal one.
“He’s known mostly in the experimental jazz world because he wrote lyrics to an album called Escalator over the Hill which was made in the 70s with composer Carla Bley,” Emily admiringly speaks of her father, Paul Haines, of how he has a huge influence on her as an artist. “It had Jack Bruce of Cream on it, he’s worked with Robert Wyatt from Soft Machine and Linda Ronstadt was on that record… but he’s not really known outside that world.” And even song titles ('Doctor Blind' and ‘Detective Daughter’) or the gold cover art of Knives… pay homage to Escalator over the Hill, bearing almost the same likeness.
Emily admits that this is something that she has strongly taken after her father. Many songs were written during the mourning period of his death a couple of years back. “I’m actually publishing a book of his life’s work which has never happened until now. It’s called ‘Secret Carnival Workers’ which I love, that was part of something when I was thinking this record as well.”
Having an album with lyrics so heartfelt on songs like ‘Crowd Surf off a Cliff’ and ‘Nothing & Nowhere’, beautiful meaning phrases such as “Numb is the new high/All memories die out/Till nothing and nowhere is golden", Emily points out however that it’s not a to be mistaken for a book of poems like her father’s.
“I don’t really write poems that’s the thing. It always happens all at once - the songs, but I guess when it’s sonically quieter like that kind of mood it’s more like a soundtrack so the lyrics speak louder on it,” she smiles. In fact, what makes Knives… an album that at first seems like a mediocre collection of songs, so rich with layers is the fact that the motivation for making this music comes from different aspects in her life.
“Well, it was inspired by soundtracks, the soundtracks to 'Rosemary’s Baby' - a Roman Polanski film and the films of this director called Guy Maddin who made a movie called 'The Saddest Music in the World', and in fact we ended up meeting and he gave me permission to use all the images from his films for the live. It’s kind of like the theme came out of the visual inspirations.”
It's hard to get one's mind around the idea that some visuals could inspire anyone to write an album that seems to have come from personal experiences such as this. An album that, as a collection, takes listener to revisit places they've once been - childhood memories, recent breakdowns or losing loved ones, something close to home. It's hauntingly consoling, kindly increasing immunity for pain with a stab of the darkest pain. At times your mind starts to wonder, what has happened to Emily, for someone to be able to write such songs with emotions like these.
"It’s just another side," she insists. "I know that people have that sense that when something’s quieter and more stripped down that it’s more honest but it’s not the case. For me it’s just more like I felt as though my role in Metric is kind of one dimensional and I’m a writer and I needed to express a bit more of that."
There’s an interview with Metric where Emily mentioned the process of writing songs that they started off with just her on the piano, being slow and sad and then changed into what they are now. Are these songs more or less in the same vein as the baby stage of Metric songs? Excitedly she replies, "Yeah and this is sort of the first time that I just let them stay in that form instead of turning them into this upbeat thing. Some of them were ones that I thought might work for Metric but it’s pretty obvious pretty fast and once I realised I was making a record I started writing to finish this project."
Speaking of other bands, in Canada, there seems to be a more common practice where all musicians contribute and create the cross-over between bands. Emily herself has been in Metric and Broken Social Scene, contributed to The Stills (both on music and in video). It's a shame no other countries are genuinely helping each other out as much and positively as this.
"It’s the sense that when something’s coming, we do something cool instead of ignoring it. You talk it up, and I think that’s part of the reason why when any of us have gotten some attention for the work that we’ve done we’re all really quick to mention the other bands that are also doing stuff which I think the only way for Canadian bands to compete really because the dollars are pretty weak," she laughs, "It’s a lot more fun when you get somewhere and your friends are there with you."
"I’m not sure if that’s the case with all the art circuits," when asked about this close interlinking relationships outside music. "I’m actually working with some film makers right now I’m doing the soundtrack. The concept of the film is the same idea, it’s four different directors linking together in one film so I think it’s inspired some other arts. I’m not sure what it’s gonna be called, I think it might be called 'Toronto Stories'. It needs a better title," Emily teases as she laughs, "but I’ll let you know though."
That's something that has kept everyone busy over there. But Emily's also got one more thing to keep her occupied, "I’ve just recently discovered this young girl who’s a song writer and she’s really talented and I’m gonna produce a record for her."
There are always going to be things to keep her busy, which is probably good news to us. But what exactly does she ultimately want to achieve through all of these?
"I keep forgetting to have goals actually," laughs Emily. "I suppose what happens is I get a vision for something I want to hear, well you can’t see something you want to hear, I’m not sure if that’s possible," she muses to herself. "But I hear it in my head and then I just become obsessed with making it with manifesting it.
"And once it exists..." she coyly pauses, "I’m not really sure, I’m kind of already on to the next thing."