Emily Haines does not have time for New Year's resolutions.

Truth be told, the Metric frontwoman doesn't have time for much of anything these days, since her crazy-insane schedule requires her to tour (in support of the recent solo album Knives Don't Have Your Back), stay in touch with her bandmates in Metric and get ready for a round of collaborations with British songwriter Patrick Wolf.

In fact, she's barely got time for an interview, though she does manage to squeeze in a cellphone conversation with the Sun while waiting for a plane at an airport she politely declines to identify.

The setting is apt, given she's recently been quoted as describing her new album as "the soundtrack to a movie set in airports."

"It's that sense of music that accompanies you when you're not at home," says Haines. "It's funny that I'd end up doing all my interviews in airports, which are like my second home."

Though it's being billed as a solo outing, Knives Don't Have Your Back is just as much a product of collaboration as Haines' work with her regular band, only in this case she worked with Sparklehorse drummer Scott Minor, as well as some of her cohorts from Broken Social Scene, Stars and Metric. She'll be joined by the album's rhythm section when she plays the Garrick Centre this Sunday.

On Knives, Haines says she wasn't interested in playing or writing by herself, simply in collaborating with other people to achieve her vision of a "cinematic mood."

And speaking of cinema, her show includes a visual component courtesy of local filmmaker Guy Maddin, with whom Haines has recently become enamoured.

In another recent interview, Haines described herself as "a huge nerd," a term that might come as a surprise to anyone who caught Metric's feisty, fiery performance in Winnipeg last spring.

"I think it's good to be a nerd," says Haines, after explaining the term has more to do with her work ethic than her fashion sense. "I work hard and I spend a lot of time studying, and there are lots of people in rock 'n' roll who are like that ... I just really enjoy a night in."

She also enjoys spending time in Winnipeg, a city she says reminds her of her hometown (which, in typical Haines fashion, she again politely declines to identify).

"It's all the good people," she says when asked what attracts her to Winnipeg. "The decency factor."

So where does Haines -- who has dual citizenship and spends much of her time in studios and airports -- consider her home to be these days?

"It's Toronto," she says. "I've been saying that for a while now, that sometimes you can't choose your home -- it chooses you."

And those New Year's resolutions we mentioned?

"You know, I've never made a New Year's resolution in my life," she laughs. "Maybe this year I can resolve not to resolve anything."

Tickets to see Haines are $23.50 ar Ticketmaster (www.ticketmaster.ca or 780-3333).