Whenever I sit down to interview an artist, I'm reminded of that line in Almost Famous where Philip Seymour Hoffman as Lester Bangs warns young William Miller to "never make friends with the rock stars." Perhaps if Mr. Bangs had the opportunity to interview someone as genuine, open, and humbly Canadian as former Stars guitarist Stephen Ramsay, he might have changed his tune. Ramsay and I spoke recently about his new band Young Galaxy, his departure from Stars, and the bittersweet elations of growing up.

Working with Stars meant moving from Vancouver to Montreal. How do their respective music scenes differ?

The biggest difference in Montreal is the decreased economic burden, since rents are much cheaper. I've been able to live without a day job since moving here. If you live in the English section of Montreal, it's assumed you're some type of artist. Everyone goes to each other's shows and strives to breed a healthy arts scene. In Vancouver, your first priority is paying rent and music happens "after hours."

Are you still a "touring guitarist" with Stars?

No, I've left quite amicably; we are still great friends.

And you're all still labelmates on Arts & Crafts; they seem like a musician's dream label.

Well, [label founders] Kevin Drew [Broken Social Scene] and Jeffrey Remedios are first and foremost great fans of music. They believe in giving artists tremendous amounts of freedom. Their emphasis is on making great records and their bands having long careers.

How did Young Galaxy come to be?

We started as a studio project featuring producer Jace Lasek, myself, and Catherine McCandless.

Catherine is relatively new to music?

Catherine is a schoolteacher by trade. She's been my girlfriend for nearly 10 years and I always thought she had a great voice, but she was shy about it. Eventually, I convinced her to sing. About 70 percent of the material on the record we wrote together.

We can't talk enough about Jace Lasek's input on the record. His production style lends itself swimmingly to your sound. I don't know anyone else who could make the clap track on "Swing Your Heartache" sound so depressing.

When we sat down to make the record [the Swing Your Heartache EP is currently available, with a full-length due this spring], we wanted to marry the grand cosmic sound of Spiritualized with the emotional resonance of Fleetwood Mac. Jace has the most amazing studio [Breakglass Studios in Montreal], a converted T-shirt factory, so you get the effects of a big empty space. He also has great old analog equipment that sounds unreal.

I hope we don't scare off your super-cool indie fans talking about Fleetwood Mac and clap tracks.

Every Fleetwood Mac song is so poignantly raw. I'm totally obsessed with them. We cover "Walk a Thin Line" from Tusk. I'm actually wearing a Fleetwood Mac T-shirt as we speak. In the studio the other day, I told another musician, "There are two things you should know about me: I love sad, emotional music full of bittersweet elation and I love clap tracks." Clap tracks are galvanized emotion. They're skin on skin, and they make the listener feel.

It's funny you bring up bittersweet elation—it's one of the record's strongest themes.

As you get older, you realize the world is a frightening place. You can become consumed with its flaws. We are all raised to be optimistic, and youth makes it easier to sustain a utopian worldview. As you get older, your hopes and dreams occasionally get thrown back in your face, leaving you a bit more damaged each time it happens. We finally find joyful balance and grow as people when we stop living in denial. It's the time we become honest about what the world has done to us and accept what we've done to ourselves. That's bittersweet elation.

Any other lighter projects in the works?

I also DJ with a guy named Ethan Wills as Love Bombs. We play all sorts of guilty-pleasure music, stuff you'd be embarrassed to admit to your friends that you like.

Such as?

I, of course, would never play Bob Seger's "Night Moves." But Ethan, well, he would.