Amy Millan’s I Went to Find You is her third solo album after 2009’s Masters of the Burial.Tess Roby/Supplied
The new solo album from Stars indie-popster Amy Millan is called I Went to Find You, but, really, the record found her. A chance onstage meeting with composer-actor Jay McCarrol (of Nirvanna the Band the Show fame) resulted in Millan’s first LP in 16 years. The Montreal-based singer-songwriter spoke to The Globe and Mail about serendipity, stage fright and stars that align.
This is your third solo album. Unlike the first two, it has a bit of Stars sound to it.
It can be categorized as indie pop. I’ve certainly veered away from the twang of my youth.
When it comes to pop musicians veering into country, you were ahead of the curve on that trend.
I know. Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene asked me why this wasn’t a country record. I told him that it wasn’t where the world was taking me.
You collaborated with Jay McCarrol on the album. How did that happen?
We met at the Dream Serenade concert at Massey Hall in 2023. Stars was going on hiatus after that concert for a year. Our vocal chemistry was mind-blowing. I wrote him the next day, and it turned out he had music on his hard drive he didn’t know what to do with.
So it was just a matter of putting words to his music?
Correct. The first song was Make ways for waves. I had written it for Stars a couple of years before, but it had no chorus. I sent Jay what I had, and he sent me back a completed song, with a punch-in-the-gut beautiful chorus. It was a place I wouldn’t have thought to go, but it was exciting to see the road turn. You don’t know where you’re going, and you come across a beautiful beach.
What was it like writing songs with someone you didn’t really know?
It was nerve-racking initially. Actually, we did have an encounter playing with Jason Collett years ago at a Field Trip festival. Jay remembered it, but I have little memory of that day. I was with a baby and I was trying to take care of a child as well as being in three bands.
Sounds like the story of your career.
Exactly. So, I would send Jay lyrics with an emoji of the half face covered, where you’re worried a little bit. The peeking-out emoji. It’s so vulnerable to deliver your heart on a sleeve to someone you don’t know.
Will the collaboration continue?
I can’t imagine making my next album without him. I think we’re halfway into our next record already.
Why was there such a long gap between this album and 2009’s Masters of the Burial?
Brutal, debilitating stage fright. I had a panic attack at Pop Montreal when that record came out. A reviewer wrote, “I’ve never seen Amy Millan more relaxed.” So, luckily, I fooled everybody. But I was having a very challenging time.
You have a solo show at Toronto’s Longboat Hall on June 14. Are you going to be okay?
I’ve done a lot of work over the last many years. I’m ready not to panic. It took a journey.
You seemed fine when you opened for Mae Martin at Danforth Music Hall earlier this year. On stage, you talked about QR codes and TikTok videos. Are you okay with the new technology?
I love to be able to access fans directly. They’re interested in how you make music. I just made a YouTube video on how Jay and I wrote Wire walks. People eat it up. And I don’t have to do a hundred interviews with press to get the information out there.
No more gatekeepers?
A song gets picked up and all of a sudden it starts to move through the world. It can have its own momentum. Look at Julie Doiron. She just had a massive hit on TikTok.
And the song, August 10, is nearly 30 years old. It was her daughter who told her it was going viral.
Well, like so many things in life, it’s the luck of the draw. We never know. In Wire walks, I say, “The story’s unknown and fear is the wire that goes into our bones.”
The fear of the new?
What’s new, and what’s changed. I’m ahead of all that, though. The road is all about the excitement of it.
This interview has been condensed and edited.