AVC: Metric is well-known for moving from city to city, but these days the band is centered on Toronto.
EH: James and I went back to Canada to hold down the fort and get everything straight with [the band's label] Last Gang Records, which is based in Toronto and Montreal, and to set up the studio to make Live It Out. Joshua and Joules live in Oakland, [California,] so they came and spent time during recording and when we were touring. I don't know how long we'll stay there, but we're there right now. We're already thinking about where to go next.
AVC: Do you think you would ever settle in a city permanently?
EH: [Laughs.] Yeah, maybe if I can afford it. But right now, travel and writing are kind of tied together.
AVC: It isn't easy for a musician to avoid touring.
EH: People do, and maybe that will come next. But I feel like this is a pretty exciting time to be on the road. We're seeing such a positive rebirth of live music. I think it's great that people are going out to shows. The more people participate in live music, the better the production can get, the better the sound can be. People like the guys in Pittsburgh who started Mr. Smalls—they bought a church, made it into a venue, and they're bringing in all sorts of international acts, and I don't know what else. I'm a romantic, so I like that shit.
AVC: Does the personality of the city you're recording in work its way into the music?
EH: Yeah, definitely. It's like hanging out with different friends. It brings out a different side of all of us. I really value that sense of place—God forbid the world ever becomes so homogenized that cities are interchangeable, because I really like just dropping myself somewhere and seeing how it affects what we do as a band.
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