Most singer/songwriters are lonely souls with only a stool, an acoustic guitar and a heart-worn sleeve. Not Jason Collett. Oh sure, the Broken Social Scene guitarist has his instrument and a stack of intimate tales to tell—but his new solo album, Idols of Exile, sounds more like a house party.

Since 2001, Collett has been considered the indispensable lynchpin of Toronto’s booming indie scene, thanks largely to his casual (and still occasional) star studded songwriting night known as Radio Mondays. Of course, most of these tunesmiths—such as Hayden, Kathleen Edwards, Weakerthans and most of the Arts & Crafts family—weren’t stars yet. But Collett’s beloved community-building series solidified the Toronto indie movement that would soon take off worldwide andconnected Collett with his future social scene.

Collett was asked to join Broken Social Scene after their breakthrough album You Forgot It In People, but he was a solo artist first and never stopped writing his own tunes. When pressed for influences for his more roots-based style, he cites Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson and Nick Lowe. “My stuff is based around songs and the Social Scene thing is based around busting songs wide open,” he says. “My thing is more schooled.”

But after putting his own music on the backburner—aside from 2003’s internationally-acclaimed Motor Motel Love Songs (which was actually a compilation of earlier efforts)—Collett is ready to fulfill his promise with Idols of Exile, his proper Arts & Crafts debut.

“This is the first time anyone has ever given me any money to make a record,” he says. “I wanted basically to have all my friends on it. That is the spirit of how things are created in our camp right now and I’m smart enough to know a renaissance when it’s happening.”

So friend, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Howie Beck took the producer’s reigns while other pals stopping by to help out included Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew, Brendan Canning, Andrew Whiteman (Apostle of Hustle) and Charles Spearin (Do Make Say Think); Leslie Feist; Andrew Cash; Chris Brown; pedal steel player Bob Egan; violinist Julie Penner; Stars’ Evan Cranley and Amy Millan; and Metric’s James Shaw and Emily Haines, the latter lending her inimitable vocals to the road-song duet “Hangover Days.”