{"id":6584,"date":"2013-03-22T17:44:30","date_gmt":"2013-03-22T17:44:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/?p=6584"},"modified":"2013-03-22T17:44:30","modified_gmt":"2013-03-22T17:44:30","slug":"stars-conquer-the-north","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2013\/03\/22\/stars-conquer-the-north\/","title":{"rendered":"Stars :: Conquer the North"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"stars-band\"<\/a><\/p>\n

by Fabian Su\u00e1rez-Amaya<\/strong><\/p>\n

Keeping the same touring and recording line-up together for over a decade, Stars is something of an anomaly among modern musicians. They recently strode through Winnipeg as an opening act for Metric at the MTS Centre. I spoke to Evan Cranley as Stars is preparing to embark on their next tour, promoting their new album The North<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The North<\/em> had been two years in the making, beginning in 2010 with partial compositions bouncing between Cranley (bass, guitar, synthesizer, percussion, trombone) and fellow musician Chris Seligman (piano, keys, synthesizer and French horn). \u00a0While the focus for many fans is the lyrics of Amy Milan (guitar, vocals) and Torquill Campbell (keyboard, vocals), Cranley explained that the music generally comes first. Milan and Campbell draw their inspiration from the \u201cloose compositions,\u201d of the musicians, and begin writing.<\/p>\n

Recently returned from a 13-week tour and preparing for another, Cranley spoke about touring with a young child. \u201cWe were nervous before going on, about how our daughter would react to the lifestyle, but she was incredible. I think it\u2019s in her blood. She\u2019s a natural entertainer and a natural traveler. She\u2019s got 13 aunts and uncles on the bus. She just makes the tour a happier place to be around,\u201d Cranley laughed.<\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cThe highlight for me was having Torq\u2019s daughter and my daughter on the bus together in Europe, going to the Louvre together and hanging out in London together, dancing to sound-check in Vienna together. That was a really special time, to witness our children playing together on the road in all these beautiful cities. They came to sound-check every afternoon and danced. We\u2019ve been around for 13, 14 years, and to finally share a moment like that, with the people you make music with and your family, that was a really special time.\u201d<\/p>\n

From the Twitter pages of Milan, Campbell, and the band itself (@youarestars<\/a>), Stars is unabashedly outspoken online, boasting a recent bottled-water free tour, support of Obama, and criticism of certain Canadian politicians.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t talk about political things overtly, lyrically, and musically. But individually, some of us are very passionate about it. It\u2019s a very delicate thing, to make bold political statements in your music. I think you have to make it about the music first and the message second. [But] I like to be in a band that ruffles feathers, makes people feel uncomfortable. I\u2019d rather be a part of a band like that than part of a collective that doesn’t say anything about anything they believe in. Bands are meant to fuck shit up a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cranley admitted that Stars had ventured a bit more openly on The North<\/em>, with \u201cA Song Is A Weapon,\u201d yet he maintained that subtlety was crucial. \u201cThere\u2019s political tones in that. \u00a0But the reason why it works is because it could be more than one person. It has a very universal sentiment to it. That\u2019s why I think it works. That person\u2019s never named; it could be anyone in power.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was considerably more vocal when asked about a recent article Stars had posted on Internet streaming websites and artist revenue. \u201cAll of that stuff hasn\u2019t caught up to the money that I think the artist should be getting. Here in Canada, you can download things illegally, but if you reach your data [maximum] downloading at home, you have to pay cellphone companies money to steal records from artists. It\u2019s like the Wild West out there!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole thing needs to be revolutionized. It\u2019s totally unfair. I think being an international touring rock act, that\u2019s going to become really exclusive. It\u2019s something that’s for the elite now in a weird way, driven by corporations. I find the whole thing totally gross, now that I\u2019m older. I\u2019m kind of ranting a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emerging online resources and continued government funding are possible solutions. \u201cI\u2019m hoping things like Kickstarter will splinter off into other sort of money-sharing socialist internet sites. So emerging artists can get money from their fans directly. Stars has also really benefited from being a band in Canada. We got a lot of money from grants to tour and to make records and that\u2019s helped our career so much. Let\u2019s hope that artist funding doesn\u2019t go away. There\u2019s people out there that really need it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The North<\/em> received some jabs from music critics like Pitchfork and Slant Magazine for its unapologetic thematic consistency with previous albums, but Cranley was resolute in the band\u2019s focus. \u201cThese are hallmark themes. These are the kind of things that we\u2019ll battle in relationships your whole life, love and loss, light and dark, they\u2019ll never go away, no matter how young or old you are. The themes don\u2019t change, but the textures, the tones, and the compositions change from record to record. I think that\u2019s the important thing, finding a theme, but being really cautious about repeating yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

The repetition is easily justified: it\u2019s what the band knows. It explains Cranley\u2019s comfort in expressing his excitement about his child to a complete stranger, his voice carrying real gratitude that his song could have meaning to a couple of Winnipeg teenagers, or decrying the music industry less with cynicism than with anger. Stars is a group of honest individuals, who wear their hearts on their sleeve because they\u2019re too big to keep in their pockets.<\/p>\n

This propensity for sincere, intense emotional display is most evident when explaining one of Campbell\u2019s more memorable lyrics from the album: \u201cTake the weakest thing in you \/ And beat the bastards with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s better to kill a person with love, than with hate,\u201d Cranley explains. \u201cYou know, we all write the songs, but whether Torq or Amy writes the lyrics – leave it up to the listener as to who wrote that. With that song, the love you make is equal to the love you take. And it\u2019s easier to live your life with love than with hate.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Fabian Su\u00e1rez-Amaya Keeping the same touring and recording line-up together for over a decade, Stars is something of an anomaly among modern musicians. They recently strode through Winnipeg as an opening act for Metric at the MTS Centre. I spoke to Evan Cranley as Stars is preparing to embark on their next tour, promoting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[160,453,908],"class_list":["post-6584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","tag-canada","tag-indie","tag-stars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6584\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}