With all the talk of flames and burning things on Stars' third full-length album, you might expect 2005's "Set Yourself on Fire" to be something of a death metal concept record about Prometheus' return to Earth to inform humankind of the glories of human combustion. Not so much.
The Montreal quartet, who shares labels and members with fellow Canadian band Broken Social Scene, instead made a glowing, theatrical album about love and loss for grown-ups, riding the vividness and poignancy of its lyrics to acclaim as one of the best pop records released last year. Stars wind down their current American tour in the Northeast with a concert next Tuesday, Feb. 22 at The Paradise Rock Club. I caught up with Stars co-lead singer/songwriter Amy Milan, currently in Colorado for a little chat.
Question: Are you having a good Valentine's Day?
Amy Milan: I don't really believe in Valentine's Day.
Q: Why not?
AM: I just think they should have put it in a better month than suicide month.
Q: I'll agree. So what's it like touring America right now, coming from Canada?
AM: Nice. It brings light and positivity to a place filled with totalitarian systems and darkness.
Q: Which leads nicely to my next question: why did you move to Canada?
AM: We didn't move there; we're all from Canada.
Q: I had read that you all moved from Brooklyn a few years back.
AM: Christopher [Seligman - keyboards, strings, French horn] and Torquil Campbell [co-lead singer/songwriter, trumpet, French horn] lived in New York for a while, but we're all Canadian.
Q: I see. Well, is it true what everyone is saying about how there's such a big scene in Montreal, and how all the musicians are friends with each other? Is it the new musical hotbed?
AM: [Deliberates] We moved to Montreal like five years ago...
Q: So you don't really know yet?
AM: We did become friends with the Dears, which was very nice. They're very close friends of ours, but I guess that it's just such a scene there that none of [Stars] are really there any more.
Q: Do you visit friends?
AM: How would we visit friends? We live on a bus.
Q: What about being on [the] Arts & Crafts [record label]? You talked about the Dears and also Broken Social Scene; what's it like having band members moonlight with other artists? What are the benefits of that?
AM: The benefit is that we actually get to hang out with our friends whenever we get a chance to moonlight on other bands. You know, I haven't seen the Broken Social Scene since Christmastime. I miss my friends, you know, and the only way I am going to get to see them is if I'm lucky enough to be with them on tour. That's the only time I'll be able to, like, sit with them and have a couple drinks and everything.
Q: What about creatively? Are there any creative benefits?
AM: Oh yeah, I mean, it's great. It's always fun to jump around.
Q: Are there any downsides?
AM: No, none.
Q: You talked about Torquil. I know you both sing, but who writes the songs? Do you each write your own part?
AM: We write the songs together, the four of us.
Q: So you could be singing lyrics someone else wrote?
AM: No, Torq and I write the lyrics, but we all write the music.
Q: Right, so lyrically then, do you write all of your parts and Torquil writes his, or do you share, like you write something that he then sings and vice versa?
AM: Yeah, like there are a lot of duets, right? So we'll share on those, but normally, one person will write one song. For instance, Torq wrote "Calendar Girl," but I sing it, and I wrote "The Big Fight," but we sing it together.
Q: I see. So, my feeling when listening to "Set Yourself..." was that it was a way to retreat from newer, more modern, international and political problems into more traditional, personal problems of relationships and love and all that. Is that accurate?
AM: I don't know if it's about retreating, more or less, than like actually putting yourself into the fire of it.
Q: The fire of what?
AM: Put yourself in the fire of ALL of it.
