Emily Haines of Metric performs at The Masonic in San Francisco on Feb. 23, 2013. Roman Gokhman/STAFF.

This story originally appeared in the Oakland Tribune.

Success has made even an urbane landscape exciting for Metric frontwoman Emily Haines.

Cheerfully chatting from Metric’s bus at a “beautiful” parking lot in Dallas, Haines summed up the band’s accomplishments since the April release of its fourth album, “Fantasies.”

“We found ourselves making our way into radio charts where no other self-released artist has gone,” Haines said. “It’s been a very exciting year for us. We’re creating what we want to create and setting a positive example of what’s possible for independent artists.”

What began 11 years ago as an electronic collaboration between Haines and guitarist James Shaw in Toronto is now a rump-shaking, fist-pumping dance-rock band that visits the Bay Area Dec. 11 for Live 105’s Not So Silent Night.

Metric is far from an overnight success story. The band began to gain traction when Haines and Shaw decided that trying to impress music industry executives was a waste of time.

“We decided we were not going to spend our lives making demos for record companies; we’re going to put a band together and play rock and roll,” she said.

Haines met Shaw in Toronto in 1997, and the two moved to New York where they rented a loft and shared it with other musicians, some of whom would eventually start bands such as Yeah Yeah Yeahs and TV On the Radio.

“They came to us looking for a place to live, and everyone’s lives played out afterward. It was a cool moment,” she said.

The two traveled to England several times, where they attempted to get their electronic music project off the ground. Growing weary of what Haines calls “sterile, formulaic pop music,” they returned to New York in 2000, as the garage band resurgence was in full swing.

Meanwhile, bassist Josh Winstead and drummer Joules Scott-Key, longtime friends, moved from Texas to New York and met Haines and Shaw in 2001 while practicing at their loft.

That year, the newly formed quartet completed its first full-length album, “Grow Up and Blow Away,” a collection of indie pop that put a spotlight on Haines’ ice-crystal voice. The garage influence was manifested in Metric’s next two alums: 2003’s “Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?” and 2005’s “Live It Out.” They showcased more of an edge and spawned modest hits, “Monster Hospital” and “Dead Disco.”

Haines and Shaw also performed with fellow Canadian indie pop bands Stars and Broken Social Scene (among others). Before reconvening to record “Fantasies,” Haines released a solo album, Shaw opened a recording studio in Toronto, and Winstead and Scott-Key started a second garage band on the side.

“That’s sort of how we roll,” Haines said. “We go pretty full-on and have a lot of things going on at once.”

For “Fantasies,” Metric traded in some of its aggressive garage edge for a more melodic, textured sound meant more for arenas than small clubs. The album was released on indie labels in Canada and Mexico and independently by the band everywhere else. Yet somehow, several songs like “Help I’m Alive,” with its kick -drum heartbeat, managed to find it onto radio playlists. 

The surprising success has made Metric in-demand; Not So Silent Night is the band’s second radio festival appearance in the Bay Area this year. Since “Fantasies’” debut, they have toured Australia, Japan, Europe and appeared on David Letterman, among other stops. Not too shabby for a band without a record label, making appearances in the world’s biggest markets.

“I feel very lucky I get to see all these places,” Haines said.

The touring has not stopped the band from releasing an album of six “Fantasies” songs performed acoustically in October. Haines said the inspiration came from the “Fantasies” recording sessions where the band judged all their songs by the “campfire test.”

“The idea was that if you have a song, and you can’t sit there and play it on an acoustic guitar or piano in a room with your friends, then there is something wrong with the song,” she said. “Out of that process, we found ourselves developing these acoustic versions of the songs. They had a different mood but still felt consistent with the feeling of the song.”

Don’t expect to hear more than one of those acoustic songs Friday, however. The band doesn’t like to dampen the intensity of its live shows, Haines said.ã½½

“Our shows are a very high energy experience,” she said.

Note: Live 105’s Not So Silent Night concert is 6:15 p.m. Dec. 11 at Oracle Arena in Oakland. The show is sold out.

Follow editor Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter.