by LORRAINE CARPENTER

Taking a tiny hiatus from one of Canada’s coolest exports, a little band called Metric, Emily Haines is touring in support of her first solo album. But Haines isn’t the lone star of Knives Don’t Have Your Back, which features members of Broken Social Scene, Stars, Major Maker and Metric—both that set of musicians and her touring band are called the Soft Skeleton. The record was produced by John O’Mahony (whose credits include Metric and the Strokes), with ample help from Sparklehorse’s Scott Minor, who specializes in “creating cobwebs” and cinematic gauze.

Exactly one week after Metric’s electric set at Osheaga, the Mirror caught up with Haines to discuss solo artistry and the strange connections between Sparklehorse, filmmaker Guy Maddin and the Soft Machine’s Robert Wyatt.

Mirror: So what set these songs apart from potential Metric material?

Emily Haines: I guess it’s the fact that I actually finished them. When I write for Metric, I have an idea and I leave it half completed because it’s a collaborative effort. The way my writing’s worked with Metric so far is I bring sad songs to the table and we energize them, and these songs wanted to stay sad… not sad, but soft.

I love Metric, that’s my whole life, and they’re not just an Emily Haines backing band. I needed to do those songs but it’s not where Metric’s at at all. We’re already writing for a new record and it’s nothing like Knives.

M: I understand that a couple of your father’s associates from avant-garde jazz circles really influenced you as a songwriter, particularly Robert Wyatt.

EH: I don’t think you can hear it in my writing, but throughout my life, my dad played me his music, and when I was becoming serious about being a songwriter, I asked if I could write to Robert and we began corresponding by mail. When my dad died, I stopped writing to him altogether, but then, amazingly, I got to meet him for the first time in London this year—I just cried, and it was cool. And, in the end, he wrote the liner notes for the record, so I’m really pleased and honoured.

There are all kinds of amazing connections between things with this record, like [Wyatt] curated a night of music at Royal Elizabeth Hall in London, and he’s friends with people like Dave Gilmour and Elvis Costello, but one of the bands he had was Sparklehorse. I’m used to saying “Robert Wyatt” and having no one know who the hell I’m talking about, but Scott [Minor] knew him.

Another one is Guy Maddin. As this music started to take shape visually, before it took shape musically, I had just seen The Saddest Music in the World and became pretty obsessed with his films, so I contacted him about using some footage to project in my shows. He was really generous and gave me permission to do so, and now it’s incorporated into this little run of shows I’m doing—I’ll have that in Montreal. But anyway, it turns out that Guy Maddin made one of the only legitimate Sparklehorse videos, and it’s the only video he’s ever made. I take comfort in the old-world underground—I’m such a stupid, romantic idealist, still.

At le National on Monday, Sept. 18, 8 p.m., $22, all ages

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