Metric's "Grow Up And Blow Away" will finally see the light of day. The indie rock band recorded the album in 2002 for Restless, but the Los Angeles-based label never put it out. Toronto's Last Gang purchased the master recording six months ago and will release it in June.

"It was self-produced [by guitarist James Shaw]. It was the early days of Metric," says Last Gang founder Chris Taylor, who also co-manages Metric with Matt Drouin. "There are amazing songs on it. Some of the songs are out there because kids are getting bits and pieces of the record all over the Internet, but this will be presented in a way that the band is happy with and comfortable with. There has been some remixing, remastering, re-sequencing of it."

Meanwhile, Shaw, frontperson Emily Haines, bassist Josh Winstead and drummer Joules Scott-Key have been writing and demoing for a new studio album that isn't expected to be released until spring of 2008.

"We're very much in the writing process right now, so we're really enjoying trying some new ideas and sketching some things out, but it's definitely in the early stages," says Haines.

In November, Metric spent three weeks in Seattle at Bear Creek Studio, which resulted in seven new songs, says Haines.

"There are lots of different ways of working and that was one period of time that we went there. It's a really special place. We really like the family that runs the studio. It's been in the same family for 35 years. It's out in the wilderness. It's nice to give yourself opportunities to write in different settings."

The next setting will be in Toronto for the month of April at the new Giant Recording Studios, built by Shaw and ex Death From Above 1979's Sebastien Grainger.

"You have to go into it with an open mind and see what you get," says Haines of scheduled sessions. "We're a very disciplined band, so often time we'll set aside time to write, but it's usually a combination of ways of doing things."

Metric will not tour behind "Grow Up And Blow Away," but will perform on the second day of the Virgin Music Festival in Vancouver May 21 and perhaps include some of the new songs in its set.

"They might do a few more dates to try out more of the material and then we're hoping to record July, August, September," says Last Gang's Taylor. "We've been interviewing and meeting with producers in the last month or so, but we're really going to be doing a lot of those meetings in April."

Haines says the band is not working to a timeline.

"We have a few ideas [about producers], but we like to take our time and not feel rushed or pressured or like we're jumping the gun, just let the songs dictate the direction that the album will take."

Metric sold about 250,000 copies worldwide of 2005's "Live It Out," says Taylor. It well surpassed gold in Canada, with sales just under 70,000 unit, according to Nielsen Soundscan Canada, about 10,000 more than its predecessor, 2003's "Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?"

He says that "Live It Out" sold about 40,000 copies in the U.S. on Last Gang/Fontana; about 15,000 to 20,000 in the U.K. on Metric's own label, Drowned In Sound; and about the same in Europe (on various labels, including Lado and Naive). It also came out on Shock in Australia and Imperial in Japan. Presumably the other 100,000 in sales are online sales and other countries.

"It definitely wasn't a singles-based project anywhere else than in Canada, where 'Monster Hospital' and 'Poster Of A Girl' got incredible support at [Toronto radio station] CFNY and [music video channel] MuchMusic, but in America, Europe, England, it's more based in and around the touring," says Taylor.

In 2006, a decade after her first solo album, Haines released "Knives Don't Have Your Back," which has scanned just under 20,000 units in Canada.

"I'm going to go back to England in June for the release there and do a couple of weeks of shows in the U.K. and Europe," says Haines. "I did a full North American tour, but I'm not going to do the same thing there because the whole point of the record was to make the music and get it out there but I want to get back to Metric."

The album comes out in the U.K. on Drowned In Sound, and in Europe via Gronland. A deal for Japan is just being finalized and Australia is still in the works.

Metric's rhythm section is also releasing an album in June. The side project, called Bang Lime, sees Winstead trading in the bass for guitar and Scott-Key remaining on drums. Taylor, who will release it on Last Gang in Canada, describes the sound as "Velvet Underground meets The White Stripes meets Death From Above 1979." More Lowdown stories