Written by Catie Keck

Photo courtesy of Stars
Canadian five-piece, Stars, all of whom are also members of the indie collective Broken Social Scene, is currently touring for its fifth full-length studio album. The Five Ghosts returns to the band’s signature haunting, hopeless romanticism; however, the new album steps up the synth, and Amy Millan takes center stage for lead vocals on the majority of its tracks.
“A lot of personal, special things were happening to us during the creative process of this record that we really talked about,” says Stars’ Evan Cranley. “Our common obsession with the five of us is pop music and pop songs; that won’t ever change, but it’s important to change the pallet of what you’re doing from record to record. This time, it was pushing the synthesizers more, and maybe backing off on the ornamentation.”
Cranley also pointed out that each record is allotted a specific amount of time between tours to allow all of their creativity to be fed into the production of the album. “When we’re touring a record, we’re touring a record. When we’re not, we’re concentrating on music. This band is very calculated and everything has an intention to it.”
The biggest difference between The Five Ghosts tour and that of past tours is the collection of songs from each of their albums. “You’re really coming to see the whole band’s catalogue,” Cranley says. “This is a celebration of our entire body of work.”
Stars will be playing in Eugene Sunday, November 7 at the McDonald Theater.

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Stars Arrive in Eugene