|
Kat Burns originally took her song ideas to the stage as a solo artist, but soon developed Forest City Lovers as a full band to bring her songs to life once she moved from her native Whitby to study in Toronto.
Burns’ natural cadence in her voice immediately draws listeners into her songs, and Forest City Lovers immediately developed a reputation – critical acclaim and extreme audience devotion – at the forefront of a growing contingent of pop music makers that incorporated a neo–classicist approach.
Forest City Lovers make music that could be fragile and delicate or elaborate and evocative and that wonderful dichotomy that breaks the boundaries of folk and indie rock has developed with each successive release – The Sun and the Wind in 2006 and Haunting Moon Sinking (Out of This Spark) in 2008. As the music
grew, so too has her band. Now a four piece – including violinist Mika Posen, bassist Kyle Donnelly and drummer Christian Ingelevics – Forest City Lovers brings their particular hybrid of folk–indie pop to Hamilton this week with a new CD, Carriage, in hand.
“The project kind of started as a solo project. I discovered early on that people paid more attention if I played electric guitar,” explains Burns on her approach. “Indie rock encompasses so much at the moment. The band – we’re pretty adaptable – we can play this really quiet folk stuff or be a little bit louder if it’s suiting. We fit into an indie–folk–pop realm I guess, sliding around in there. It sucks because the music obviously has to be categorized, but I never know what to call it. It has elements of pop and of folk and elements of everything like jazz and all that stuff.
“I’m still writing from the same place, but I’m writing with more space in mind for other arrangements of different instrumentation and pushing it more,” she adds on the musical development with each release. “Each one pushed the level up from where we were previously or where I was as a songwriter with experimenting and trying to top it.”
With Carriage, FCL might be writing fully developed pop songs like Metric’s, but with the atmospherics that offer a little more dexterity and texture rather than just bombast. There’s a lyrical elegance and vocal eloquence to what Burns does, and she isn’t afraid to diverge from the pop or indie rock or folk idioms, often within the same song. The music and Burns’ approach is unlimited and she hoped to incorporate that vibe in the album title.
“I really wanted to have one word that embodied a lot of different feelings and could even have multiple meanings,” says Burns. “Carriage was perfect because it could be like your carriage, it could be like the way you hold yourself; it could be a vessel to carry you across places. It embodied the whole album, so it seemed appropriate.”
In the end, FCL is a Toronto quartet, a pop band, one burgeoning with bright string arrangements and quirky art–rock songs with a strong intellectual leaning. It’s their unassumingly poetic music without posturing that will win over critics and fans alike for many years to come. But Burns giggles a little at noting of the intellectual side to her music.
“It’s for the nature of nerds out there,” smiles Burns proudly with a nod to the band’s environmentalist leaning. “I grew up and have continued the tradition of — well, everyone has an Audubon bird guide
book in their car and we just sit out there and identify species. It runs in the family.”
“Whatever opportunities come up, we’ll take them and tour this record as much as possible and slowly see the world, slowly but surely,” adds Burns with a little
laugh. “In general, it’s a nice way to see the world through music and art, so hopefully I continue to do that and go all over the place.” V
FOREST CITY LOVERS
w/Motestra.
@ The Workers Arts and Heritage Centre.
52 Stuart St. Hamilton.
Friday, August 13. 9pm
FOREST CITY LOVERS
@ Mansion House.
5 William St. St. Catharines
Thursday, September 23.
forestcitylovers.com
|
