Stars, a Canadian indie pop quintet that boasts great male-female vocal jousting, driving bass lines and occasional dreamy, Thom Yorke-esque electronics, will play the Pageant for the first time this Thursday.
Their 2005 LP, Set Yourself on Fire, was a hit machine that earned the band a world-wide fan base.
The band’s lineup has been remarkably stable, going on eight years together. They just released another EP, Sad Robots, that is much more of a jam session than the concept album feel of their previous, In Our Bedroom After the War.
Co-lead singer Torquil Campbell was born in England and moved to Canada as a child with his parents, who were actors.
Virtually all of Campbell’s family members are in the entertainment business and he himself owns a respectable IMDB page as an actor. I caught up with him by phone as he was staying at Niagra on the Lake, Ontario, where his wife (Moya O’Connell) was acting in a few plays.
RC: How did sad robots songs come together – is there a running theme?
TC: We were working on some new songs and having some fun with drum machines. Pat (McGee, drummer) started playing drums like he was a sad robot. The phrase kind of inspired us to write a bunch of songs that reflected that. We had been touring on In Our Bedroom for a year and we wanted to give our fans at shows something new to listen to. It was a fun week-long experiment – we spent a lot less time naval gazing than we normally do.
RC: Did you have a model when you developed your style of trading vocals?
TC: Yes, the Beautiful South were very inspirational. They would write songs with two different perspectives. The male voice would tell his story and then the girl would come in and say, ‘Well, that’s not really the way it was.’ Also, when we were starting out, ‘boys with haircuts’ were the trend. The Strokes ‘four on the floor’ male-centric rock was prominent. I wanted to add some femininity to the mix. I didn’t want to feel like I had to be a rock and roll star, as I was incapable of it anyway. I wanted the band to not be just cool, but human and representing the full human experience.
RC: What occupied your time before Stars?
TC: Mostly acting – I had moved to New York with James Shaw (Metric) and Chris (Seligman, Stars co-founder) and got into Juliard. I spent most of my time trying to get work as an actor and generally not succeeding. I also spent years trying to write good songs with much failure.
RC: How involved have you been with the Arts & Crafts label?
TC: It was started to release Broken Social Scene’s second record, You Forgot It in People (2002). Jeffrey (Remedios, A&C founder) had been at EMI in Canada and he thought it was amazing but nobody would put it out. It’s an interesting question – everyone involved are very good friends and if I hear good band, I’ll go to them and say you should sign them. I’m not involved in the day-to-day operations — if I was, they wouldn’t be doing very well. I would have spent all of their money reissuing indie pop records from 1985. I like to think of myself as a voice, though.
RC: Was Canadian rock this diverse a decade ago?
TC: Maybe as diverse, but not as good. It has thrived for the same reason any scene does – the right people with the right skill sets and the right person to put the records out. It’s a lucky combination. Also, perhaps Canada has a younger society that until recently has felt overshadowed. Music is a way to find our identity apart from America. George W. Bush has helped as well, because he helped us define what we weren’t and helped us know what we were. Really bad leadership can lead to really good art sometimes.
RC: How do you explain Reagan-era music then?
TC: You have a point. During the 1980s there was hard core, but it was much more underground. It’s too bad Fugazi didn’t have access to an Internet and free media.
Stars with Bell X1
Thursday, Pageant, 8 pm, $15.00, All Ages