Stars have become an essential soundtrack to life
Montreal musical supernovas, Stars, have been an essential soundtrack to modern day life for years, but now it is more like they are an essential chorus in every couple’s lifelong heart-play.
Stars continues the love with new singles “One Day Left,” “Are You With Me” and “Ship to Shore.”
The dramatic immediacy of “One Day Left” is a mature evolution of the emotional baroquepop roller-coaster “One More Night” from 2010’s acclaimed “Set Yourself on Fire.”
“I feel like ‘One Day Left’ is a part of the lineage of this story between two people that (Stars bandmate) Torq (Torquil Campbell) and I have been writing about for 20 years,” says Stars singer-songwriter Amy Millan, known for her signature dreamlike soprano.
“It’s this tumultuous relationship between these two lovers who can’t quite ever leave each other but can’t quite ever be comfortable where they are.”
The rich hypnotic drone of “Are You With Me” sounds like an aural seance.
“‘Are You With Me’ came to be because (Broken Social Scene co-founder/singer/producer) Kevin Drew wanted to work with us,” says Millan. “We have been friends forever. I met Kevin when he was 13 years old,” says Millan, who went to school with Drew and Metric’s Emily Haines.
Haines and Millan have both contributed to Broken Social Scene over the years.
“Kevin was coming out of a big year with Broken,” she says. “They were winding down and he wanted to stay busy.
“He said, ‘Look, I just want to come in and make a song and see what happens,’ because Kevin loves to make art. It was perfect timing because we wanted to put something out before we hit the road,” notes Millan.
“One of the meditations that Kevin was thinking was ‘are you with me’ but I don’t know if he meant in the way of talking to the dead. I think that is how Torq took it. He thought about the other world. And then we all went into our cold little studio and tried to make a song.”
Amy Millan wrote uptempo power-pop eulogy “Ship to Shore” for late restaurateur, culinary visionary and longtime pal, John Bil.
Millan met Bil when she worked at Cabbagetown’s legendary Jet Fuel Coffee with Haines.
“The thing about John was his generosity,” recalls Millan softly. “I remember asking him to supply some food for an after party
that we had. We were playing the Danforth (Music Hall) and that same night Sam Roberts was playing Massey Hall.
“I thought wouldn’t it be fun if we went to the Jet Fuel coffee shop where I used to work and have an after party with all of our family and friends.
“John was so insane with the amount of food that he brought,” exclaims Millan. “I felt like I had walked inside the belly of a whale when I walked into the Jet Fuel!” she adds, saying Bil also introduced her to the cleanest and most delicious oysters she had ever had.
“There were a bazillion oysters and smoked eel and there was jellied eel. John went beyond and he would never tell me how much it was. He would just say pay whatever you can.”
Bil also published a new book called “Ship to Shore” just before he passed away. Millan, an avid foodie, says one of the most frustrating things is not being able to call Bil while she is cooking his recipes. She is a friend of Bil’s publisher, Sarah MacLachlan from House of Anansi Press.
One of Bil’s dishes calls for 10 grams of saffron.
“We thought this must be a misprint, right? Then we thought probably not because it is John. He is a crazy person,” laughs Millan, adding MacLachlan confirmed that the 10 grams of saffron was right.
“John was a madman, and that was one of the reasons I wanted to write the song!
“Part of it too is that he got cancer — ‘there’s nothing I can do about you’ is pretty much one of my favourite lines because that is how it feels when somebody gets sick. There’s nothing you can do. You have to just accept it is happening and love now. That was the last thing that Gord Downie wrote to me in a text — ‘Love Now.’ That is all we have and is all that we can do. ‘Ship to Shore’ was my song for John but even though it is upbeat that doesn’t mean that I don’t cry.”
For songs, Millan says she and Campbell are in charge of lyrics and melody. The music is written “by the boys” meaning Stars members — bassist Evan Cranley, guitarist Chris McCarron, keys player Chris Seligman and drummer Patty McGee.
“We are a band so everyone is participating in the making for the song.”
The band is playing Maxwell’s for the first time Dec. 7. They will be performing new material, their usual fan requested songs, and work from recent album “There is No Love in Florescent Light” produced by Peter Kadis.
“Peter is so smooth and three dimensional with his music,” notes Millan. “We call him the King Masseuse. We give him a song and he would just rub it like crazy, take it through his Peter Kadis machine and turn it into this beautiful piece ... he is a magic man. He would say, ‘OK go downstairs for 20 minutes.’ It would be way longer than 20 minutes. It would be three hours. We would watch a movie on his gigantic TV in the studio and then come back upstairs and go, ‘Ahh ... the song is really good!’”