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Amy Millan of Stars & Broken Social Scene fame just released her solo album “Honey From The Tombs” and we had a chance to sit down and chat with her before her double bill at NXNE in Toronto last Friday!

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MuchMusic.com: Congratulations on finally unleashing your album on the world! How does it feel to finally have this longtime material released?

Amy Millan: It’s like hanging out with old friends. It’s a very wonderful experience to bring these little hidden treasures to people - well, I feel like they’re treasures, I really like them. I feel like I sort of ignored them, like I was very neglectful to them for a very long time. I feel like I’ve given them their right in the world so I’m happy about that.

MuchMusic.com: How was the songwriting process different for this album, compared to writing songs with Stars?

Amy: Chris Seligman and Evan Cranley write all the music for Stars and I just basically lay the vocal melody and the words, which is really wonderful because it makes you write in a way that you would never normally write. I mean I wouldn’t normally write like that, because I’m not that sophisticated as them. They’re so much more schooled, and they’ve been trained in classical music from the time that they were kids. I don’t have the ear that they do. I’m more of a songwriter - I pick up a guitar and play a couple chords. Even a [Stars] song like “Look Up” has this crazy offbeat thing that I didn’t even realize until I had to play it on the guitar live. Then I realized, oh god, everything is on the offbeat and that’s so fun to work with people like that. This stuff is very insular and I only write when I’m by myself and if times are tough. I find that writing enables me to get through something difficult, I can find my way through it by writing a song about it. I feel like I can put what happened, whether bad or good, behind me through writing. I can be outside of myself through that. It doesn’t become about me, it becomes about a story. And I can craft it the way I want to and that’s maybe controlling, but hey, I’m a bit controlling!

MuchMusic.com: You and Emily Haines [Metric] performed a solo showcase almost exactly two years ago. How do you think your live performance of these same songs has evolved since then?

Amy: Well I’ve been playing live with these guys Paso Mino - they’ve been great. I mean the shows are a little bit louder now. I didn’t obsess about changing the songs, because they were stories and they were already written. And I know what it’s like to write a book and the editing process in that is unbelievable. But with songwriting, it’s like you’ve got three minutes. The stories will come to life more because I’ve got some drums, some guitars, a lap steel, even some dobro. Michael from Paso Mino plays keyboards and sings backup, he’s amazing. It’s just more of a party instead of this lonely place I was at writing and singing them before.

MuchMusic.com: Do you get nervous when you get up on stage now without your mates in Stars by your side?

Amy: On this tour I’ve had the guys with me but I do get butterflies when I get up on stage alone. I feel a little bit more on the spot, because especially in Stars I have Torquil [Campbell] and he loves to talk! He’s been in front of an audience since he was 4 years old. He sort of leads the way. There’s a little bit more pressure but I’ve had fun with it - I’ve played about 7 shows and we had no rehearsals!

MuchMusic.com: What have you learned from other artists who’ve done side projects?

Amy: I guess that it’s allowed! I just think we all have projects that we’re doing and they’re all important and equally who we are. The press that’s come from putting out my record because of bands like Broken Social Scene and Stars is beautiful but people also say “this is a departure!” but I’m just the same chick working and sitting up in bedrooms and writing little songs. There’s such an iconic idea of how it’s going to be and who you are. Or “she’s cashing in on it!” - wow, cashing in? I paid for this record myself! The first three years of making this record, Arts & Crafts wasn’t even together. I didn’t even think Arts & Crafts would put it out!

MuchMusic.com: Are you going to embark on a huge world tour for “Honey From The Tombs”?

Amy: We can’t talk about touring! I’ve been on tour for three years with all the groups - I’m so exhausted! I’d love to do some domestic touring with this record and stay in North America. I’ll come to Europe eventually but Stars are going to start writing again in October and we’re going to make our record in January so I’ll have some time in there to do some domestic touring a little closer to home. What I want to do is put out another record and then do the world tour.

MuchMusic.com: You’re such a busy lady! What do you like to do to unwind when you have a rare moment of spare time?

Amy: A very, very nice glass of wine helps me relax. But you know, I love Canada! Some of the people I work with want me to go to Europe and do press in August. And I thought there is no way I’m gonna go and leave Canada at the best time of the year, which is August. I’m gonna go camping, I’m gonna hit up Algonquin Park, I’m gonna go look for some bears! I’m gonna go find that loon that’s lookin’ around and maybe hang out with the moose!

MuchMusic.com: Tell us more about the making of the video for “Baby I”.

Amy: I was in Europe playing three and a half weeks with Stars and then I had a little bit of time off, and then I played two and a half weeks with Broken Social Scene and then I went to start doing some solo shows with Jason Collett. So that little tiny bit of spare time that I just mentioned? That’s when we shot the video - right after I had finished my tour with Stars in Madrid. The video was shot by Anthony Seck in La Mancha, Spain, which is incredibly beautiful. The Spanish production company managed to convince the local people who live in the town to be in the video, which was really funny, cause they were these older, really kind men who’d brought their horses to be in the video and they were all farmers and unbelievably sweet people. They were having a hoot - they couldn’t even believe they were in a music video! They were very nice to me and all gave me big hugs when I came out of the car. It was sort of my J-Lo moment, like “Amy’s here! Amy’s here!” It was a beautiful day, it was absolutely gorgeous, and we were surrounded by vineyards and olive groves, plus these old windmills that were the main draw to going to La Mancha.

MuchMusic.com: There’s one song on the album “Wayward And Parliament” that stands out as having a different sound than the others. Talk a bit about when that song was written, compared to the others, and what it’s about.

Amy: At the time I was working at the JetFuel Coffeeshop, which is on Parliament Street, and there’s something very apocalyptic to me about the JetFuel, because everything is sort of stainless and timeless and [owner John Englar] has something like 5000 CDs. You work by yourself when you’re there, and as part of my homework while I was there, as a person who loves music, was to look through every single CD. And I started listening to a lot of Brian Eno and I really loved putting his CDs on, some Spacemen 3 too. I wrote “Wayward And Parliament” for the shop, JetFuel. It was written at exactly the same time as the others, but it’s sort of how I felt when I was at the JetFuel.

MuchMusic.com: Stars are nominated for an MMVA [for "Your Ex-Lover Is Dead"]; are you excited about it?

Amy: Yeah! I’m gonna be at the MMVAs, but I don’t know if we’ll win! I don’t ever get to do stuff like that! Emily & Metric are gonna play and I love those guys - I’m a huge fan of the band! I love Metric and I’m just so proud of them. I’ve been a fan of Emily’s since I was 15. She really inspired me to start writing songs. She’s an amazing person. I really want to be there so we can giggle in the corner like we’re in grade 12!

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Keep your eyes peeled for Amy’s first video for “Baby I”, plus, look for Amy & crew at the MMVAs on Sunday, June 18!

Posted on Monday, June 12th, 2006 at 2:26 pm by Kat and is filed under Blog.

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