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Few bands have had the longevity, stamina, and enduring cult success of Canadian indie-pop outfit Stars. As they kick off their latest tour, a celebration of 20 years of their outstanding breakout album Set Yourself On Fire (2004), PAN M 360 caught up with vocalist and songwriter Amy Millan, who offered her reflections on more than two decades of playing with the group, shared her love and gratitude for the band’s diehard following, a release window for her first solo project in 15 years, and gives some sage wisdom on making a band a family—and keeping it that way.
PAN M 360: First of all, congrats on a two-decade reign of Set Yourself on Fire. What does it feel like to have the ultimate version of this album out in the world?
Amy Millan: It’s a wild thing. Time is a very confusing thing to comprehend, really. What I found interesting about bringing this album back and playing it every day is we talk a lot about aging. There’s “Reunion” and in “Sleep Tonight” I sing, ‘still young like that,’ and in “Ageless Beauty,” just in its title intimates aging—and we were so young! So actually, they’re landing quite well. “The Big Fight” is about a divorce, which, nobody was getting a divorce in their late ’20s, you know. So it’s quite interesting to be on the record. It feels quite timeless, really, so well done on us. I think we were old souls who found each other, and we were able to connect to people on that level. Because the songs don’t have the energy of a 20-year-old ennui. There’s depth to it. And that’s a testament to our connection as a band.
PAN M 360: Prior to this 20th-anniversary edition, was this an album you thought of fondly when you look back on the catalogue?
AM: Oh, most definitely. It was a very exciting time. It was only my second record with the band. It was Stars’ third record, but I wasn’t really a part of Nightsongs (2001). So Heart (2003) was our first album, and this really felt like we had finally solidified ourselves as a team, and we’d done touring, and so we were just a real band, and we got some real money to make it. So as a memory, it was an incredible time. We had Broken Social Scene, Feist, we had Metric—all these incredible records were coming out at that time. It was a spectacular time for music in Canada.
PAN M 360: What was the tour for Set Yourself on Fire round one like? Any memories that stick out as you gear up to play it again?
AM: Well, it was a really tumultuous time for the band, actually. I had been in a couple with one of the band members, and then we were breaking up, and then I became a couple with another one of the band members, so that became a bit of a big hurdle to get over emotionally. But I think at the base of our friendships, there’s a real family unit, so we overcame those emotional caveats. I remember it being quite a difficult time in terms of what was happening within the structure of the band, but at the same time, we were kind of becoming more well-known through the reviews of that record. So it was mixed, but all went well in the end. It was a very exciting beginning of our lives—it was the beginning of something, at that time. There was a bit of Fleetwood Mac going on without the complete egomania.
PAN M 360: What was the motivation and conversation like to re-release the album? Is it a retrospective celebration, or does it represent something now that it didn’t in 2004?
AM: There’s just such different technology than there was 20 years ago. So to be able to remaster it with the mastering of learning sound over 20 years was kind of interesting, being able to approach it with our knowledge and wisdom of having so much experience. And with the live performance, it’s the same—being able to access these songs from an experienced point of view that we did not have 20 years ago. We’ve been playing on the road for 23 years, and we’re much better as a band than we were in the beginning, of course, because we’ve been doing it for so long. So that’s been really exciting: To land in the songs without the nerves of a younger person, having the confidence that we have, having been together and playing for so long, and having the instruments in our hands be so sure, that’s been really fun.
PAN M 360: Do you listen to your own music often? Whether Stars or Broken Social Scene or your solo work?
AM: No. I’m actually currently making a solo record for the first time in 15 years—my first solo album—it’s gonna come out next year in the Spring of 2025. It’s very exciting, but I’m deep in the process right now and the amount that you have to listen to your music while you’re making it, to make decisions and choices on endings, and whether the guitar stays in at the beginning or comes out, if you want the snap in the middle of it… I mean, it’s constant note-taking and relistening. And then you have to mix it and decide what part of the mix you like or don’t like. And then you have to master it. So, I’ve listened to these songs so many times that once it comes out, I can’t imagine that I would listen to it. Everybody knows that “Superstitious” by Stevie Wonder is an incredible song, but no one’s going to put it on at home, because you know you’re going to hear it out in the world. You’ve heard it enough, your body has taken in that song enough times. That’s how I feel a little bit about my own music at this point.
The amount of times we had to listen to the songs on Set Yourself On Fire to make them perfect—or as perfect as you can with music—your body has taken in the number of times you listen to that song. And then I’ll play them live, so then I’m experiencing them in this whole different way. So, no. Life is too short, I think, to spend that much time listening to your own stuff because there’s so much incredible music to listen to all the time, to be discovered. So I wouldn’t take the time to really put stuff of my own on unless it was an experiment to compare something. It would be work—I’m gonna work and listen to this and see how it sounds compared to our latest work or something like that. But I wouldn’t just be like, “Hey, let’s put on the Stars album and dance!”
I like to play it for taxi drivers. They’re like, “So what do you do?” And I’ll throw it on in the taxi, let them know what I do. And I like to play it for my kids, so that they know that I actually have a job.
PAN M 360: What do your kids think of your music?
AM: They like it, I think. I think they like coming on tour, I think they like being on a tour bus in Europe and getting taken out of school. I got to play with Broken Social Scene opening for Boygenius, and my daughter’s a really big fan of that band, so I looked pretty cool that day. Yeah, they’re into it. I’m sure there’ll be therapy about something.
PAN M 360: What’s the story with the two extra tracks on this version? Were they written for the album originally?
AM: They were, but they just didn’t fit into the world of the music. And at this point, when you release stuff, it’s always exciting for people to hear varied tracks, and whether or not it hits with them doesn’t really matter. It’s really just about the packaging and being able to service them something from the past. It’s a little bit of a clickbait, if I may. At the time, we couldn’t put 17 songs on the record, even though that’s what people do now. Back then, you really tried to make it fit on vinyl as much as you possibly could. But if it didn’t fit on two, then you were in big trouble. We just thought it would be fun to throw them in and pepper in some things from our past.
PAN M 360: We can probably both agree that Spotify has nuked the music industry as we know it. As an artist that’s been creating and releasing throughout this huge transition, what changes have you noticed beyond the financial ones?
AM: There are countless trickle effects to how that changes the industry, like the flooding of the touring industry, because that’s how people make their money. The whole landscape has changed, and we’re just super lucky because we built up such a loyal audience. This whole tour is sold out, and so I’m just super grateful that we have these loyal fans who have stuck with us all this time. And they continue to support us on Patreon. That was a pivot we did because of the changes in the industry—we started a Patreon page which is just one tier. You can have more tiers, but we’re sort of socialist, so we don’t really believe in that. So it’s just five bucks a month, and we have a couple of hundred people there. We DJ for them, we put up songs that have never been heard before, we put demos up and show the process of writing the record. We have lyric pages, we have stories about the songs, and on and on—it’s the world of Stars, it’s like our own app, basically.
And, you know, we have afterparties during these shows to meet them and greet them, and they have full access to a lot of Stars that most people don’t. So, yeah, this loyalty aspect and the fact that we’ve sold every single ticket in Canada is pretty phenomenal.
I think what sets us apart from different bands is, you know, our website is called YouAreStars.com. We’ve made our life a reflection of yourself. We’re not one of those bands where it’s like, ‘Come see us because we’re us.’ It’s like, ‘Come see us because you’re going to be the most you you’ve ever been.’ I think the fact that people feel themselves in the world is quite important, and it’s one of the most important roles we’ve played as a band in people’s lives. So I think that’s why it’s lasted this long. We don’t have to worry about staying in fashion because we never really were.
Someone flew from Singapore to come see us yesterday. It’s amazing. We have the most beautiful, delicious fans. I love them so much. And we have Lydia Persaud opening for us—she’s absolutely incredible. And I’m just so happy that we have the kind of fans that are so generous and lovely. They’re so quiet for her, and they give her so much love and applause, and they’re so present for her. I mean, that’s really a testament to the kind of people that come to Stars shows.
PAN M 360: Obviously, you guys have stuck it out as a six-piece for way longer than most. And you never claimed that was easy. I’m wondering what tips you have for bands trying to manage personalities and egos and conflicts to stay together.
AM: Don’t be greedy, split everything evenly, and know you’re just as annoying as everybody else.
PAN M 360: They say not to mix work and pleasure, but it would seem Stars has transcended coworker status after all this time. What are some pros and cons of being married to your bandmate?
AM: Oh, God. I just don’t know it any other way. I would say the only con is because we’re parents, and we have to both leave our kids, and that’s been the biggest challenge. That’s the only con I can see. Everything else has been great. I got to tour the world with my best friend and my best friends. We’re a family, and that’s why we’ll never break up. It would be very painful to ever imagine us leaving one another, even if we take a hiatus, which we just did, which was wonderful and welcomed. The only thing is being challenged as a parent.
PAN M 360: A certain member of the band has a reputation for being very, very opinionated. Has that ever caused real issues for the band?
AM: Oh well, you’re gonna have to wait for the book for that one.
PAN M 360: Is there really a book coming?
AM: Oh yeah, there’ll be a book, don’t you worry. But I have to get the solo record out first!
PAN M 360: Fair enough! I read that you guys consider the group to be a real democracy. What do you do when you can’t reach a consensus about something, whether it’s creative or logistical?
AM: I mean, in a democracy, somebody’s got to eat it. You know? We’re all such compassionate people towards one another, and if somebody feels extremely strongly about something, then generally we will yield to that person’s opinion. We didn’t want to play “Take Me To The Riot” yesterday, but Chris Seligman really wanted to play it. And so we all yelled about it for a bit, and then we all decided we didn’t really care as much as Seligman cared. So we did what Seligman wanted. It works itself out. We all play kind of our roles in the band, and we all know that if something really matters to somebody, then that’s what matters the most. There’s compassion for people’s feelings. There’s room for people to put their foot down and say, “This is what really matters to me, and if you guys don’t do this, I would be very upset.” And that happens with me. I’ve been that person, and they’ve done what I said. It isn’t always right, but… We’ve been through a lot together. We’ve been through parents dying and babies being born, and we’ve been there for each other. So the benefit of the doubt is always the thing that we try to carry with us in our back pocket.
PAN M 360: When you’re in practice with the band, and you look around, what’s changed, and what’s stayed the same after all this time?
AM: Well, nothing really has changed. The thing that has stayed the most the same is that really, at the end of the day, what we’re trying to do is make each other laugh. Whoever can make the others laugh the hardest has won. So the desire for the joke is always more important than the desire for the conflict. And we have many, many, many catchphrases that we’ve had throughout the years that have stuck. So, like, ‘LaGuardia’ was a catchphrase from 2000 when we first started as a band. And it’s why our greatest hits album was called LaGuardia. We used to joke like somebody was going to quit the band and go to LaGuardia. We still say it. Like, the person who’s guesting with us on saxophone, he’s like, “I feel like I’m watching Seinfeld right now.”
It’s just way more important to make each other laugh. Like, if people aren’t getting to the joke pretty quickly, then people get pretty irritated. In the van, backstage, in rehearsals, in soundcheck, it’s like, “Who’s gonna be hilarious right now?”
