The glimmer takes it all

Stars have been right to the fore in the great flowering of Canadian musical talent over the past few years. The group‘s latest offering, In Our Bedroom After The War, is their most accomplished work to date, a lyrically intriguing and musically inventive collection of tunes that bears comparison with the best output of Broken Social Scene, Feist, et al. Have the band noticed that the increased level of interest in the Canadian indie scene has dramatically bolstered their profile?

“For sure,” replies vocalist Amy Millan (who is also a member of Broken Social Scene), seated in the Crawdaddy bar on the day of Stars’ superb recent show in Tripod. “There’s a good spin on it for journalists, to talk about the Canadian scene. What’s funny is that it all gets kind of mixed up; they stopped talking about Toronto and sort of focused in on Montreal, because of Arcade Fire, I think. But Broken Social Scene are from Toronto, and there are a lot of great Toronto bands.
“I definitely think the reason that a lot of us have been able to come to Europe and be heard is that we have some great grants. It’s incredible to think that the government is helping you to come over here and drink a bunch of Jameson's, it’s pretty weird. But it’s a good thing.
“Basically, what’s happening is that it’s generating income; we actually employ a lot of people on tour. And in turn, we pay taxes which help other bands without any money to go out on the road. It’s really fantastic, it’s actually one of the great things left, although it may not last much longer with the current economic situation.”
Many reviewers have discerned an overall narrative on In Our Bedroom After The War, which appears to have a post-apocalyptic setting, but Amy maintains that the group didn’t have a particular concept in mind when writing the album.
“People have mentioned that post-apocalyptic setting, but I really disagree,” she says. “I think it’s a nice idea that we would all sit down and neatly plan out the record, but that doesn’t leave room for subtleties. Because the album has the title In Our Bedroom After The War and there are songs called ‘Take Me To Riot’ and ‘Barricade’, you might on the surface think that there’s an over-arching story.
“But if you listen to ‘Barricade’, it’s a song about gay sex with violent soccer hooligans, and ‘Take Me To The Riot’ is about two crack dealers in love and trying to survive.”
Having listened to Amy’s explanation of their lyrical content, it’s fairly safe to assume that ‘Barricade’ and ‘Take Me To The Riot’ are unlikely to be covered on the next Charlie Landsborough album. In Our Bedroom After The War features a couple of notable contributions from Daniel Handler, author of the Lemony Snicket series of novels, who plays accordion on one track and also penned a short story for the inside sleeve. How did the collaboration come about?
“He’s a fan of the band,” explains Amy. “I’m not totally positive, but it may have happened through Ben Gibbard from Death Cab For Cutie, who is friends with Daniel. I think Daniel just reached out to us and we ended up becoming friends. He’s a very funny guy, and he came to the studio in Vancouver to hang out for a couple of days. He brought his accordion with him and played with us, and we drank some good whiskey and had a great time. He’s a lovely guy.”
When it comes to Stars’ live performances, Amy says the band are a more frenetic proposition than their records may suggest.
“I think we’re pretty rambunctious. Compared to our records, we’re much more aggressive when we play live. We had an insane show in Cork last night. I felt like I was in the Dr. Who elevator, and that with every song we’d end up on some different planet. And then some kid got up on stage, and Torquil (Campbell, Stars vocalist) collapsed in his arms. Then the kid got thrown out and it was all completely whacked. Afterwards, a guy came up to me and said, ‘That’s the best show I’ve ever seen’. And I thought, ‘That’s good, because I have no idea what the hell just happened.’”

In Our Bedroom After The War is out now on City Slang