Torquil Campbell, the co-lead singer of Montreal indie pop band Stars, is a major rabble rouser on Twitter.

In fact, he thinks it’s part of his day job.

“When I was growing up, part of what guys in bands were supposed to do was say annoying s--- that made everybody upset,” said Campbell. “It’s part of my job. Who cares what I say? But part of what I do, being in a rock band, is being a provocative person and making people have feelings and so Twitter is a great medium for that. And I don’t expect anybody to agree with me or even listen to me, but there’s a lot of timidity right now in rock ‘n’ roll. There’s a lot of people afraid of saying something that’s going to offend someone... And if you’re not walking that edge, you’re not really doing your job.”

Let’s just say for the 42-year-old Campbell social media is an outlet to express his anger, among other things.

“To me it’s a graffiti wall,” he said. “I think that as long as Stephen Harper is in power, I’ll be on Twitter because it’s the only way I’m not going to have a coronary of rage.”

We caught up with Campbell down the line from Calgary recently to talk about Stars’ upcoming cross-Canada tour, their latest dance-inspired LP, No One Is Lost, and working with Jian Ghomeshi.

That tour stops at the London Music Hall on Wednesday, Feb. 11.

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IF YOU GO

What: Club date for Canadian band Stars and Hey Rosetta!

When: Wednesday, Feb. 11, doors at 7 p.m.

Where: London Music Hall, 185 Queens Ave.

Details: $35 advance, price plus applicable charges; all-ages; visit londonmusicclub.com or call 519-432-1107

What does touring Canada mean to Stars at this point?

Canada has let us earn a living as artists and have let us raise our kids on art. And the amount of gratitude and love we have for that audience is hard to measure. And so I think, for all of us, this is the big one. This is the one that we want to go out and give people back what they’ve given us.

It sounds like recording No One Is Lost above a Montreal gay disco (the now shuttered Royal Phoenix) helped the new record’s vibe?

Yeah, that was an influence for sure. It was a lovely little bar and they were very kind to us...

Do you think going out never gets old?

That impulse that we all have, young or old, to get out of the house and to be a part of something bigger than ourselves that never changes. And I think it’s one of the nicest instincts that people have. And there’s a cost of it. You wake up the next day and life isn’t as glittery and as beautiful as it seemed when you’d had seven whiskies and it was two in the morning.

What happened to your long-running “rant or rave” spot as “cultural correspondent” on CBC-Radio’s Q program?

As of that event (host Jian Ghomeshi’s firing last fall amid sexual/physical assault allegations) I have never heard from a single human being in an official capacity. I was cut loose without a single, solitary word. I have never received a phone call from the CBC telling me I was no longer working on Q. I think the people higher up on the CBC hated having me there. They didn’t want me there. And so they took the opportunity to dump me as soon as they possibly could.

How were you treated by Ghomeshi?

Jian treated me the way he treated everybody, which is to say you were occasionally in his good books and occasionally not in his good books. And that kind of withholding of approval and then giving of approval is a pretty classic technique of someone is engaged in trying to control the situation... What I can say about Jian is that he wasn’t a nice guy. And that everybody in the Canadian media that I knew felt that way, and that we all played with him because we felt he could get us somewhere. And that is to my shame and it’s to the shame of everyone else who schmoozed with him.

What should happen with that show now?

You should take all those amazing people who work on that show and give them an opportunity to build a new brand and build their own idea and sort of let the 'Q' thing go and start again because it just feels like they’re trying to save something that at this point is not salvageable.

Twitter: @JaneCStevenson

jane.stevenson@sunmedia.ca