Amy Millan Takes the Long Way Home
By: Alison Lang
January 22, 2010 – Toronto, Canada
After logging years in two of Canada's biggest indie-rock ensembles, Amy Millan has garnered her fair share of devotees. The Stars and Broken Social Scene songwriter says one of her favourite fans is a four-year-old boy, who was immortalized on YouTube singing "Ruby II" from her first solo album, Honey From the Tombs. Millan was so chuffed that she posted the video on her website. It's fitting that Millan is so amenable to tributes to her own music, as her sophomore album, Masters of the Burial, features a few cover songs of the likes of Weeping Tile and Death Cab for Cutie.
"It's a huge compliment having anyone cover your songs, even if it's a four-year-old kid on YouTube," says Millan, her voice faintly crackling over a bad cellphone connection. She is travelling in a van with her touring band, including Stars bandmate and boyfriend Evan Cranley, and tells me she's overlooking the Great Plains on the way to Canmore, Alberta.
Along with the covers, there is a gentle wistfulness to many of the songs from Masters of the Burial. The song "Finish Line" seems to reference a romance between two people growing apart, musing, "The twist on your lips says it all/ You're not mine to give away." One might attribute this continued self-reflection to some current developments in Millan's life, including her steady relationship and living arrangement with Cranley. The pair just bought a house in Montreal, and it's Millan's first.
"A lot of people buy their houses when they're younger than me," Millan says with a laugh. (She turned 36 last December.) "But to me, it represents that I bought it by making music. It's something a lot of people don't ever believe you'll be able to do. It's a representation of the work I've done and my true pride. I think I deserve a hearth."
With her trademark candour, Millan compares the "settling down" aspect of home life to her relationship with Cranley (who is no doubt sitting within hearing distance of the conversation in the van).
"For me, home is a person, and wherever he is, that's home, and that's Evan," she says. "We work together so much. [My solo career] is the one place where he gets to be a boyfriend rather than a co-worker. He can come and support me without having his own neuroses about sound check."
Like Broken Social Scene bandmate Jason Collett's 2008 album Here's to Being Here, Masters of the Burial seems to hearken back to a bygone age—the songs are short and economical, and Millan has released it on vinyl due to her own personal preferences about the medium.
"I just started to realize, I love vinyl, I collect vinyl, I need a Side A and a Side B," she says. "When the CD first came out, people were so excited about filling the space with 100 minutes of music, so there were these great long epic records. With MP3s, it's different, and my style of music makes it different too. I do toxic roots, so I'm more traditional that way. The style of the music means you say what you have to say, and hurry it along.
"And there," she concludes, "is your perfect three-minute song."
Video: "Bury This" by Amy Millan
