Canadian Musician - January / February 2020 | Page 37

Stars on Stage
Chris McCarron shows us around
each member’s typical live set-up
masks, just kind of everything on the table.
Maybe it was far enough removed from
that kind of hype and press that we could
get away with this, I think.”
Mid-life crises are a thing for a reason.
As you approach the point where the end
of your life is closer than the beginning,
regrets and nostalgia and what-ifs set
in. So do Stars wonder what would have
happened if the spotlight had stayed on
Montreal? If anticipation for new records
had equaled that of Pearl Jam’s sopho-
more effort?
“I do wonder about that,” Cranley
admits. “I think if maybe we had stayed
on a really high trajectory and became
one of the biggest bands in the world, we
wouldn’t still be a band right now. I think
the fact we maintained a certain level of
success is what’s kept our longevity. I
think we would have imploded 10 years
ago if we stayed on some sort of meteoric
rise. I think that’s actually been a blessing.”
While their career is dramatized in the
play, Stars have also put together a more tra-
ditional and easily-accessible retrospective.
In December 2019, the band released the
20-track greatest hits collection LaGuardia.
The tracks weave through all of the band’s
albums (with the exception of Nightsongs
due to legal reasons) with little regard for
chronology. Ignoring historical accuracy was
very much a conscious decision. 
“The process of that was sort of
quick,” says Millan. “We just wanted to
put them in an order that moved. Chrono-
logically, ‘Calendar Girl’ came before
‘Your Ex-Lover Is Dead,’ but sonically, that
doesn’t work on an album. We wanted to
move you through a story of music; it’s
like writing a setlist. It’s the journey of the
listening, not the journey of history.”
“When we first started putting it
together, it was like, ‘This is going to be a
double album.’ I was like, ‘That’s a lot. It
seems a little much,’” admits McGee. “But
you start going through it and there’s a lot
we put out together, so why not? People
put out playlists now that are endless. It’s
a nice retrospective.”
As a pair, Stars: Together and LaGuardia
are the story of a band so far, but one that
is still alive and vital. That said, middle age
is as much about plotting the way towards
life’s conclusion as it is taking stock of
where you’ve been. Millan and Cranley can’t
help but share some sarcastic jabs while
contemplating how Stars might go out. 
Amy: “The ending? We don’t want to talk
about that! That’s awfully depressing. I
never had an ending in mind. It’s me turn-
ing black and I’m dead; that’s my ending.”
Evan: “My ending is that everyone lawyers
up and it ends up in litigation hell.”
Amy: “To get a piece of five cents.”
“The story of the band has always been
to connect,” Millan continues. “We tried
to tell stories within the songs, within the
play, within the records that will connect
to you and your life and that you are Stars
and so are we.”
As we talk, McGee has given up on finding
his new ride for the time being. He’s being
economical – there is zero temptation
to get a Lambo or whatever the hell it is
someone like Bono drives.
“Hell no. That’s the illusion, is that
we live in mansions on a mountain,
man,” says McGee. “We’re eking by on an
elementary school teacher’s wage. And
we don’t work as hard as they do, that’s
for sure. Things are tenuous, man. It’s the
record industry! We don’t sell records.”
Because in middle age and the middle
class, beyond the hype and now more cyn-
ical about the business of music, Stars are
still here, onstage and ready to connect
through songs and stories alike.
Adam Kovac is a freelance journalist based
out of Montreal.
Let’s start with monitoring. We have a
Behringer X32 Rack mixer with the S16
snake for 32 inputs and we use the six
aux inputs for our three stereo Ableton
Live lines. The outputs are routed to six
Sennheiser G4 Wireless units. We all use
Westone in-ear monitors. We also had a
custom 40-channel split snake made for
us by Cable Factory in Vancouver. All of
this is racked together in a rolling tower.
For mics and DIs, we use Sennheiser
and Radial, respectively.
Synths... For Chris Seligman’s world,
he uses a combination of hardware,
software, and samples to cover all the
sounds from all the records. He uses a
Dave Smith Instruments (DSI) Prophet
8 synth to replicate his vintage Prophet
collection. A Roland FA-08 is used for
piano/strings and to trigger samples
and software synths via Ableton Live. He
also uses various things from the Arturia
V-Collection.
Evan Cranley uses various vintage
and new Fender basses. For amplifica-
tion, he uses Ampeg and has a B-15NF,
B-25B, and SVT-AV. He has an 8 x 10 cab
but has been using the B-25B 2 x 15. For
pedals, Evan uses Earthquaker Devices’
Gray Channel, an Ibanez Bass Chorus,
and Empress Super Delay. He also uses a
DSI Mopho for a bass synth.
Amy Millan uses a Duesenberg
Fullerton C.C. electric guitar and a vin-
tage Martin acoustic. For amplification,
she uses a Dr. Z MAZ 38 Reverb with
a Diamond Memory Lane Delay Pedal,
Earthquaker Devices Dunes Overdrive,
and a Boss tuner.
Patty McGee uses C&C Drums and a
revolving door of vintage kits that he gets
from Greg Millson at Century Drum Shop.
He has a Roland SPD-SX for samples along
with Roland kick and snare triggers. He
uses Istanbul Mehmet cymbals.
Torquil Campbell uses a Sennheiser
vocal mic and a Korg MicroKorg.
Chris McCarron uses various Fender
and Gibson guitars and vintage Traynor
and Garnet amps. For effects, he uses
a Boss DD-200 pedal and Earthquaker
Devices Avalanche Run.
Finally, the band uses Lynx Audio
Engineering cables for instruments and
MIDI.
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