Listeners around the globe rock out to Montreal bands like The Stills, The Dears and Wolf Parade. But if you ask your average Habitants about their province’s contribution to the wider world of pop music, they’ll probably respond, “Tu veut dire Celine Dion?”

As Stills singer-strummer Tim Fletcher explains, “Quebec knows a lot of francophone music and homegrown stuff, but when it comes to the sort of alternative indie scene, you have to be really big in order to be known.”

Even for an anglo indie act, The Stills have always seemed like particular outsiders in their home province. The group spent their formative months in New York City, playing high-profile gigs and eventually signing with Vice, an American label (albeit one established by fellow expat Montrealers). When The Stills’ satisfyingly sleek debut LP Logic Will Break Your Heart dropped in 2003, critics naturally lumped them in with Interpol and other new wave–surfing Big Apple acts who were currently en vogue.

By 2006, however, 1980 was, like, so 2003. Rather than continue to pillage the same Cure and Echo & the Bunnymen records, Fletcher and company returned in 2006 with the radically rootsier Without Feathers.

“It was a reflection of what we were listening to at the time — John Lennon, Dylan and The Band. We were travelling through the States and we were experimenting with writing that way. But it was also, like, ‘Let’s do something different. This band isn’t about one thing. We want to put signposts up along the way and we want our path to be a long one.’”

On Aug. 19, The Stills will sink their third signpost, Oceans Will Rise, somewhere between its dramatically different predecessors. While Oceans recalls Logic’s massive, muddled drumbeats (“Panic”) and crystal-clear, stadium-sized emoting (“Snow in California”), it eschews that album’s angsty, tear-streaked-mascara vibe. And though the disc often echoes the energetic looseness of Feathers (compare it with Oceans’ explosive single “Being Here” or the expansive “I’m With You”), it sports a more restrained sound.

“It’s not as drastic a leap [as the last album],” Fletcher agrees. “There are some familiar elements, but it’s the sound of us moving forward musically.”

The band have also moved forward business-wise, signing with Arts & Crafts, marking the first time they’ve been represented by a Canadian label.

“It felt like the right thing to do because we are a Canadian band. A lot of our friends are on that label and a lot of our friends run that label, so it was, like, this is family already.”
As a member of Can-indie’s ruling family, it’s a safe bet that no one will ever mistake The Stills for New Yorkers again. And as if that’s not exciting enough, the group have finally gained visibility in their home province after playing for some 200,000 odd folks at Quebec’s 400-year anniversary celebration. Says Fletcher, “That was definitely the biggest show we’ve ever played. Before that, we had played a festival in Mexico City in front of 10,000 people, so it was a bit of a jump.”

Of course, most people weren’t there for The Stills. They came to see a certain British icon. Who is knighted. And is a Beatle. (If you need more hints, music history is the least of your problems.)

“That falls into the surreal category,” says Fletcher. “It was basically the biggest audience we’d ever played for and we were opening for Paul McCartney, a guy who completely reinvented the face of rock and roll and pop songwriting. Everyone who’s in a band is in some way indebted to him. Also, The Beatles brought everyone together. He is a unifier.

“When we met him, we had to wait for five minutes while he finished an interview and everyone —?like, 100 people backstage — were all staring at him and watching us as we waited to meet him, shaking in our boots in excitement.”

Asked whether The Stills aim for the same level of attention, Fletcher considers for a moment.
“I don’t know. What I would prefer more than that would be to have the respect of my peers and to win the hearts of the world with music.”

Doesn’t that sound like something Celine Dion would say? Maybe they have more in common than we thought. 

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