When I call up Amy Millan in Montreal, she's shopping for paint at Home Depot.

"I'm renovating my house," she explains with a laugh. "I'm dealing with all the minutiae of the reno at the moment."

It's incredible she has the time. The honey-voiced singer/songwriter is heading out on a national tour in support of her striking sophomore album, Masters of the Burial, and she's been busy recording new material with Montreal indie-pop outfit Stars.

Then again, the multi-tasking that comes with balancing a burgeoning solo career with a full-time gig in a successful band is nothing new for Millan, 35. She managed to release her solo debut, the countrified Honey From the Tombs, in 2006, despite the fact Stars was maintaining a rigorous touring schedule in the wake of 2005's acclaimed Set Yourself on Fire. Work began on Masters of the Burial almost immediately after Honey From the Tombs' release - but Stars put out another album, In Our Bedroom After the War, in 2007, and Millan had to hit the road again.

Still, she wanted to spend some serious quality time with Masters of the Burial, which was released in September. Millan was finding inspiration in some dark places and writing required a great deal of emotional energy.

"I was thinking a lot about the tragedies people live through," she says. "I've had a few, but none compared to people who have lived through war, for example. It's amazing what the human spirit can endure. For as horrible as we can be to each other, it's beautiful that we can have consciousness of our mortality yet still live day to day."

Millan was going through a rough breakup when she first started penning songs for the record, but she was also thinking a lot about her own mortality.

"I think about dying every day," she says. "I think it's important to remember death in order to remember how to live. If you face despair knowing that you could die at any moment, it helps you rise to that challenge."

No song on the record tackles that theme more head-on than her rendition of Death Cab for Cutie's I Will Follow You Into the Dark. The song is one of four covers on the album (Millan also takes on Day to Day by Jenny Whiteley, Run for Me by Richard Hawley and Old Perfume by Weeping Tile - Sarah Harmer's former band), and one she's been playing since Stars went on the road with Death Cab in 2005.

"I learned it with the band to play in Calgary on that tour," she says. "It got such a great response so we decided to hang on to it. A lot of people wanted me to record it, so I did."

It was a good move. Her bluegrass take on the tune is one of many highlights on Masters of the Burial, a more cohesive - and far more understated - collection of tunes from Millan.

"As I was already in a pop band, I didn't feel the need to include the more raucous side of what I do," she says, noting that many of the songs on the frequently rocking Honey From the Tombs were written before she was in Stars. "I was able to concentrate on being soft."

That said, don't expect a sleepy live show.

"I find the shows to be kind of like a party, even though we're playing softer songs," she says. "I like to crack jokes between the sombre dirges."

And while getting heavy in Home Depot.

"Yup, this is my life - looking at paint chips and talking about death."

AMY MILLAN
Oct. 18, West End Cultural Centre
w/ Bahamas