The inclusion of Canada’s well-loved indie revelers Metric on this year’s enormous Parklife lineup was a head-scratcher to say the least. After all, the synth-rock four piece lean decidedly on the rock side of things, and beloved by the likes of Pitchfork and triple j, Metric are an indie Trojan horse of sorts, its members spilling out into other celebrated alternative acts like Broken Social Scene, among others. Despite this, Metric are unfazed by their seemingly oddball slot on the Parklife bill. Instead, Metric frontwoman Emily Haines gushed to ITM about how excited the band were to embrace their indie edge at the festival.

“We’re really looking forward to doing Parklife. It seems like there’s a huge lineup with some really cool artists, and it’s good to be a part of that,” she says. “I know from looking at who else is playing there that there’s a lot of dance acts and DJs, but that doesn’t worry me. I want to surprise a lot of people at the festival who might not know us, but once they’ve seen us they’ll leave happy.”

But although Metric inhabit a curious spot on the Parklife lineup (second only to The Cool Kids, the festival’s sole hip-hop entry) they’re actually no strangers to the world of dance music, with Haines herself contributing to trance heavyweight Tiesto’s crossover-heavy Kaleidoscope LP and the band pairing up with plenty of notable electronic artists like The Twelves and MSTRKRFT for some buzzed about remixes. Indeed, Haines hints that with her countrymen MSTRKRFT in toe for the Australian tour, Parklife might be the right time for the groups to unite and perform the beloved Monster Hospital remix live. “That’d be really cool, wouldn’t it? We’ll talk to Jesse [F. Keeler] about that,” Haines gushes.

Also on the plate for the plucky group of Canadian synth-rockers is a big hook up with Adam Freeland, who’s been itching to work with Metric for some time now. Thankfully for the revered breaks don, the feeling was mutual from Metric’s camp, Haines explains. “Adam is a really amazing musician, and I know that we have all been a fan of his stuff for a long time, so we’re very excited that we’ve had the chance to work with him,” she says, refusing to give too much away about the collaboration. “It’s a little project, I can’t say too much about it just yet because I don’t think we’re ready to… but yeah, he’s doing some remixes for us, and they’re going to be really big.”

Before Haines gets too ahead of herself looking to the band’s future activities, Metric still a have a whole host of touring duties to burn through on the back of their latest studio splash Fantasies, a record which has seemingly vaulted the band’s popularity to dizzying new heights. “We’ve got a whole lot of European festivals to do over the next few months,” Haines told us back in the midst of the Northern Hemisphere’s summer season. “I don’t what it is about Europe and their festivals, but they just seem to love us right now. We’re doing so many of them this summer, meeting new crowds and that’s great for us,” she says.

“I think this album has been a pretty big thing for us,” Haines muses. “We put so much energy to every record and show that we do, but this seems to have given us a bigger boost than before.” Indeed, a quick browse of Metric’s web profile shows the band indulging their pop-star sensibilities, with ringtones, wallpapers and the whole gamut of downloadable content up for grabs. Weird, right? “Yeah that’s pretty funny,” Haines says with a rush of laughter. “It’s bizarre for us to have those things, but our fans kept asking us for those kind of things, so we had to do it! It’s very ‘pop’ of us, isn’t it? But I guess we should really just take it as a compliment that people want us on their phones.”

Metric play sideshows…

Mon 28th September @ Capitol, Perth
Wed 30th September @ The Metro, Sydney
Fri 2nd October @ Billboard, Melbourne

The national Parklife tour is proudly presented by ITM! Keep your eyes peeled to our Festival Page at inthemix.com.au/parklife and check out the national tour dates below…

Sat 26th Sep – Botanic Gardens & Riverstage, Brisbane (SOLD OUT)
Sun 27th Sep – Wellington Square, Perth
Sat 3rd Oct – Birrarung Marr, Melbourne (SOLD OUT)
Sun 4th Oct – Kippax Lake, Moore Park, Sydney (SOLD OUT)
Mon 5th Oct – Botanic Park, Adelaide