Emily Haines on the North Vancouver, BC., set of the video for the song her band, Metric, wrote for the new Twilight film.LAURA LEYSHON
Emily Haines pokes her head around the door of the rustic cabin and blinks in an attempt to get her heavily shaded, fake-lashed eyes used to the sunlight.
In a thin grey hoodie, skin-tight black pants and three-inch stiletto ankle boots, she isn't exactly dressed for the woods.
Still, she looks less incongruous than bandmate James (Jimmy) Shaw. He almost appears afraid of the bucolic surroundings, hiding behind his Rayban Wayfarers, collar pulled up, hopping from foot to foot.
Luckily, their demeanour couldn't be more appropriate: They are in this North Vancouver wilderness - along with the remaining half of Metric, Joshua Winstead and Joules Scott Key - to shoot the music video for their latest single Eclipse (All Yours).
The song will grace the soundtrack of the next film in Stephanie Meyer's vampire series, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.
If that seems like an odd gig for Toronto's ultra-indie rock combo, it's worth noting that the Twilight franchise has made a point of cherry-picking cool tunes for its soundtracks. Thom Yorke, Bon Iver, Lykke Li, Jack White - other alt artists connected with the series - don't lack for credibility. (Meyer herself is a known indie chick, going so far as to thank the bands - particularly the English rock bank Muse - that influenced her writing in the back pages of each book.)
Nonetheless, the invitation for Metric to become part of this vampire music club, came as a huge surprise.
"We got a call from our manager saying 'We have secured a possible spot for you to write the theme song to the next Twilight film,'" recalls Shaw. "At which point I hung up the phone and pretended that it never happened, because it was obviously a lie."
The offer, it turned out, had originated with the composer attached to the third movie, Howard Shore, the celebrated Canadian musician best known for his work with David Cronenberg and on The Lord of the Rings films.
And he was looking for more than a Metric song to splice into the soundtrack - he wanted the band to come up with a new piece that would flow directly out of his score, creating the theme song to the entire film.
Haines says she didn't hesitate to accept: "This was Howard Shore - I think the best composer working in movies out there right now. Okay! Already that's amazing.
"And I actually think the character Stephanie created is one of the more insightful representations of what it really feels like to be a young woman," she adds. "So often as a teenage girl you get this version of your life that's like this pink world - as though you're superficial and it's all malls and shopping. If I'd been asked to write the Hannah Montana theme, I probably would have said 'I don't think that's really for me.' I wouldn't have been able to do the job."
At the suggestion that this may be a commercial step too far for Metric fans, Shaw rails: "I didn't say yes to Twilight for money. I said yes to Twilight for the experience of writing with Howard Shore and being a part of a cultural phenomenon that happens maybe once very 20 years. Why would you say no to that?"
Not that he enjoyed having to deal with the corporate mindset. "I've learned that I am really happy that we are completely independent and don't work with major companies on any level," he admits, exasperated with the endless e-mails and phone calls and meetings over every tiny detail.
In contrast, writing the song was a very straightforward process, Haines explains. "Howard said, 'Here's the key, here's the progression, here's the rhythm, here's the script, here's the scene…' And Jimmy and I sat down at the piano, which is the way we always work, and the first thing I said was," - she switches into song for the opening lines of Eclipse - "All the lives always tempted to trade/Will they hate me for all the choices I've made."
"It was just like, 'I feel that, I relate to that.' It wasn't a stretch."
In the video, Haines plays herself, holed up in a tiny log cabin with a piano, writing the song. Though she's reticent to give away too much, the plot includes the rest of the band coming to Haines in dream sequences, as well as specific shots intercut from the movie. Originally, Twilight star Kristen Stewart was going to join Haines in the video, but scheduling conflicts meant she was out of the country. Shooting in four locations around Vancouver, the video's look is intended to mirror the British Columbia landscape that serves as backdrop to the films.
Haines says she is "stoked" to see what comes of the project - and has no regrets. Her only fear going in was that the Twilight team wouldn't like what they came up with - but they loved it.
"I'm actually really surprised," she admits. "I'm not used to things playing out for Metric like this - we usually get the rockier path. Maybe this was just one of those times when things converged."
For Shaw, the key was believing the production team when they kept telling the band they wanted them to stay true to themselves.
"They said to us a bunch of times, 'We wanted you because we wanted it to sound like Metric, so don't make it sound like what you think we want, just make it sound like you guys,'" he says - before giving the earth a kick and adding with a wry smile, "Just make the chorus a bit happier."