

After a three-year classical music education at the institution, Shaw decided that his musical interests lay elsewhere Shaw and Campbell returned to Toronto. Campbell convinced Shaw to apply to Juilliard Music School and the two moved to New York City. Shaw, who was born in England and raised in Ontario, was attending a Boston music school when he befriended singer Torquil Campbell and Chris Seligman, both future members of the band Stars. The album included songs written and recorded during her student years. She distributed in 1996 an early album titled Cut in Half and Also Double with a limited number of copies.

Haines attended the University of British Columbia in Vancouver in 1992–1993, at Toronto in 1995, and at Concordia University in Montreal in 1995–1996. Haines and Millan briefly formed their first band around 1990 while at ESA. There she met Amy Millan (future member of Stars and Broken Social Scene), and Kevin Drew (future member of Broken Social Scene). Haines attended Etobicoke School of the Arts. Her father, poet Paul Haines (best known for his lyrical collaboration with Carla Bley in the 1971 jazz opera Escalator over the Hill), often made cassettes of rare and eclectic music for his daughter to listen to, and her early influences included Carla Bley and Robert Wyatt. She grew up as a dual citizen of both Canada and the United States. Haines was born in New Delhi, India, to American-born parents, and was raised in Fenelon Falls, Ontario. 1.8 Dreams So Real and Art of Doubt (2018–present).1.4 Live It Out and Grow Up and Blow Away (2005–2007).1.3 Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? (2003–2004).Their seventh full-length record, the Justin Meldal-Johnson produced Art of Doubt, was released on September 21, 2018. Metric's sixth album, Pagans in Vegas, was released in 2015.

The art director/designer/photographer Justin Broadbent also won an award for "Recording Package of the Year" for Synthetica. The band won two awards at 2013 Juno Awards: "Alternative Album of the Year" for Synthetica and "Producer of the Year" for Shaw. The fifth Metric studio album, Synthetica, was released in 2012. Metric also won the 2010 "Group of the Year". It was shortlisted for the 2009 Polaris Music Prize for "Canadian Album of the Year", and won the "Alternative Album of the Year" at the 2010 Juno Awards. Metric's fourth album Fantasies was released in 2009.

Their third studio album, Grow Up and Blow Away, was recorded in 2001 it was initially planned as their debut album, but was delayed for many years and finally released, with some changes, in 2007. Live It Out, released in 2005, was nominated for the 2006 Polaris Music Prize for the "Canadian Album of the Year" and for the 2006 Juno Awards for "Best Alternative Album". The band's first studio album, Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?, was released in 2003. After releasing an EP titled Mainstream EP, they changed the band's name to Metric. The band started in 1998 as a duo formed by Haines and Shaw with the name "Mainstream". The band consists of Emily Haines (lead vocals, synthesizers, guitar, tambourine, harmonica, piano), James Shaw (guitar, synthesizers, theremin, backing vocals), Joshua Winstead (bass, synthesizers, backing vocals) and Joules Scott-Key (drums, percussion). Metric is a Canadian rock band founded in 1998 in Toronto, Ontario.
