Indie-rockers Broken Social Scene set to play The Paramount

Broken Social Scene’s newest member Ariel Engle laughs at the idea of explaining how the Canadian music collective — which includes Feist and members of Metric and Stars — differs from a regular band.

“It’s like we’re all part of this constellation,” says Engle, who is on board for the entire Hug of Thunder tour, including a stop at The Paramount on Saturday, April 7. “When you look at the stars through a telescope, sometimes you focus on some and not others, you look at a different subset of the same constellation.”

Though Broken Social Scene has been as large as 19 members and as small as six members over the years, Engle says it is still a cohesive unit with its own indie-rock sound and a sense of creativity that keeps members coming back from their various projects.

“It’s not a cult,” she says, laughing. “We’re all here of our own free will.”

Though last year’s “Hug of Thunder” is the first Broken Social Scene album Engle helped write and record, she has toured with them for years, since she started dating her now-husband, the group’s guitarist, Andrew Whiteman. Despite long feeling part of the Broken Social Scene family, Engle says she was thrilled when the band chose the pretty “Stay Happy,” a song she co-wrote and sings lead on, as one of the album’s singles.

“It meant a lot to me,” she says. “You always bring things with you, ideas you want to work on, and then there’s something about the chemistry in the room that happens. I was so happy with how it turned out. The lyrics are so personal for me.”

Engle, who is working on her own solo album expected to be released in the fall, says it shows why Broken Social Scene has lasted for nearly 20 years, because the input from members of the collective make the music stronger. And that goes for their live shows as well.

“Everyone brings their own flavor,” she says. “We have singers like Emily Haines, Leslie Feist and Amy Millan — everyone is magnificent. We keep it interesting because everyone can be themselves.”