Canadian Musician - January / February 2020 | Page 35

to show some bravery and generosity in putting our emotions
out there.”
“And also, just sitting around watching The Big Lebowski on
the tour bus doesn’t make for a good play,” adds singer/guitar-
ist Amy Millan. “There’s a truth of being together for 20 years
that isn’t tumultuous. There is the part where we just crack
each other up and watch a lot of Seinfeld and have a lot of
white Russians. But in order for the play to work, to be engag-
ing to an audience, you have to really show the drama.”
That drama unfolds on a set based on Mount Zoomer, the
legendary Montreal studio (and former home of Win Butler and
Regine Chassagne of Arcade Fire) where Stars have rehearsed
and recorded for years. While the play debuted in Toronto, the
band is pushing for a 2021 run in Montreal’s Segal Centre.
“I think it’s really important to do this in Montreal because
the play does showcase some important history,” says Cranley.
“The space that we are in has been a space for a lot of very pop-
ular bands over the past 15 years. I think the show shows Mon-
treal can lose this kind of space to gentrifying neighbourhoods.”
While the set occasionally pulls double duty, with the
couch becoming a pretend tour bus at one point, Mount Zoom-
er itself becomes a character of sorts; the band still practices
and writes there to this day. The play is partially a tribute to
how a special geographic space can inspire creativity.
“Every other rehearsal space I’ve ever been in was like a
black box, with no air and no windows,” says Millan. “Just the
fact you’re in an apartment, there’s a kitchen, there’s a bath-
room… It’s a little apartment where we can have our little tree
house. And there’s always been a bar downstairs, which really
helps.”
According to McGee, developing acting chops to go along
with his duties behind the kit was almost enough to drive some
band members to drink. The success of a show starring six
non-actors was anything but assured from the start. At first,
the drummer was “mortified,” but a lengthy rehearsal process
whipped him into shape.
“At first, I was extremely skeptical because it could be
terrible,” he says candidly. “We signed up to do the play before it
had even begun to be created, so if it turned out to be an awful
situation, we would have been on the hook to do it [several
times] a week for three weeks; it could have been a disaster.
But we were in very good hands and thankfully it turned out to
be pretty hilarious. It’s pretty dark and depressing but hilarious
at the same time.”
And while there’s plenty of interpersonal strife (McGee
describes the play as “an hour-and-a-half of us yelling at each
other”), this is not exactly an ode to interpersonal loathing like
Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours. (As with the British rock legends,
(L-R) Chris McCarron, Pat McGee, Torquil
Campbell, Amy Millan, Chris Seligman,
Evan Cranley
CANADIAN MUSICIAN
35