Montreal’s Young Galaxy are having a great start to their year, having been chosen as the X3 Artist of the Month (look for their new album, Shapeshifting, to be featured on AUX, CBC Radio 3, and Exclaim throughout the month).

“It’s a beautiful way to start the proceedings,” frontman Stephen Ramsay told AUX. “Because this happened so quickly, it was a way to motivate us. It feels like people are watching and people care. We have something to live up to, and we relish that position.”

The band began work on Shapeshifting soon after the release of their previous record, Invisible Republic, which was long-listed for last year’s Polaris Music Prize. Tired of labels like “indie-rock” or “dream-pop,” Ramsay and his bandmates—including his partner and co-vocalist Catherine McCandless and bassist Stephen Kamp—deliberately decided to craft a record that spans genres.

“The band didn’t want to be emotionally direct this time,” says Ramsay. “We wanted to be a lot more abstract and a little more interpretative. Even the title, Shapeshifting, was capturing something in mid-metamorphosis.”

Young Galaxy has seen a steady line-up change since Ramsay and McCandless first founded the group in 2005, something Ramsay embraces.

“On a fundamental level, the main parts of the puzzle are still in place,” he notes. “Catherine and I are the main song writers. The bassist has been the same. But everyone else has been through a revolving door.”

Ramsay points out that every new band member has a different feel and ends up taking a new approach to things, which brings a new perspective to the group.

“It’s a refreshing and terrifying feeling at the same time, and it also helps the band not becoming stale,” says Stephen.

Known for their ethereal lyrics and sonic imagery, Young Galaxy is mainly inspired by emotional states and small moments of beauty. Ramsay notes that as a songwriter, he gets a rush of inspiration by finding new ways to say things rather than falling back on old clichés.

“If the kernel of the idea is in place, the process just flows,” he notes. “There’s a lot of the mundane in peoples’ existence. I wait for the moment when something shows up in the peripheral and reminds you there’s more at work other than the machinations of daily existence.”

This sense of honesty comes across not only in the band’s song writing, but also in their interaction with fans and the media.

“The only way you can have success as a writer is to reveal yourself,” Ramsay says. “It’s hard to be disingenuous and get away with it. If people see that you’re just kind of pissing they would rather find something more genuine. So, you have to be engaged with the audience, be genuine and be willing to put yourself on the line.”

Shapeshifting was overseen by noted Swedish producer Dan Lissvik, who was given full creative control by the band. The record is likely to surprise listeners who might have pigeonholed Young Galaxy as a straightforward indie-rock act—Ramsay is quick to point out that the band takes inspiration from a wide spectrum of music, from hip-hop to Leonard Cohen and Duran Duran.

“That was one of our goals: to have a band that reflected our wide musical tastes,” says Ramsay. “I kind of want to mix everything together and come up with something entirely different and call it Young Galaxy.”

Audiences across the country will soon get a taste of that creatively restless sound, as Young Galaxy embark on a cross-Canada tour with Winter Gloves (labelmates You Say Party! Recently had to withdraw from the tour due to singer Becky Ninkovic’s nagging bronchitis).

“Touring can be double-edged sword,” Ramsay admits. “It’s alienating and exhausting, but the redeeming point is interaction with your fans.”

“The audience, whether, they know it or now, is as vital a component to a show as the band,” he insists. “Ultimately, it’s abstract because they add an invisible layer. A live show wouldn’t be complete without the audience’s energy.”

While he hopes audiences will take to the new album, Ramsay wants Young Galaxy to continue to grow and evolve far beyond simply their current release.

“I would love to be a band like Radiohead that can endure for their tenth album and people still get excited over them,” Ramsay says. “I would love to be that kind of band that can be relevant for so long.”

Read more about Young Galaxy on the X3 Artist of the Month microsite.