Stars is a band from Montreal (via Toronto), who have been making music together since 2000. Their seventh album was released in October 2014. For this episode, I spoke to several members of the band: singer Amy Millan over the phone, and to Evan Cranley and Pat McGee in their recording studio along with their co-producer Liam O’Neil. In this episode, they talk about the inspiration for the phrase “No One Is Lost” which is the title of this song as well as the album. And you’ll hear the original version of the chorus: one that they wrote, recorded, mixed, and finished but then, ended up changing completely.

Buy “No One Is Lost” on iTunes.

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For a transcript of this episode, click here.

footnotes
James Shaw of the band Metric remixed the chorus.

Before The Books broke up, they released four albums that combined composed music and found sounds. In this episode, Nick Zammuto explains how he crafted the song Smells Like Content, off of their 2005 album Lost and Safe, out of unlikely sources, like geometry, chance encounters, and a corrugated PVC pipe.

This video demonstrates how Nick Zammuto creates rhythms within the locked groove of a vinyl record:

Buy “Smells Like Content” on iTunes.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

footnotes
After The Books ended, Nick Zammuto started a solo project, called Zammuto. Check out the new Zammuto record, Anchor, and read Nick’s extensive notes on the making of each track on the record on his blog.

Julia Holter studied composition, and in the song “Horns Surrounding Me,” she arranges not only acoustic and electronic instruments, but also layers of ambient field recordings and background noise. The song was released in 2013 on her acclaimed album Loud City Song. In this episode, Julia deconstructs the recording, and talks about what she did to evoke a feeling of fear in both the music and the way she sang, changing her voice on different parts of the song to create character and texture.

Buy “Horns Surrounding Me” on iTunes.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

footnotes
The song playing when Brian Ferry sings is Roxy Music’s “Love Is the Drug.”