Ask singer-songwriter Kat Burns where the name for her winsome chamber-pop act Forest City Lovers came from, and she’ll point out, “It’s just a combination of things that are important, you know?”
Sure enough, the finely sketched story-songs she writes for Forest City Lovers incorporate both whimsy and contemplation and are full of such “important things”: love, nature and the urban experience. Since first beginning the Lovers as a solo vehicle for her lyrical, folk-tinged tunes in 2006 (the band became a full-fledged collaborative effort in 2008 with their sophomore release Haunting Moon Sinking), Burns has been slowly carving out a place within the tight-knit Toronto indie scene, pulling in many of the city’s best players to help her along.
Now a five-piece (which includes keyboardist and guitarist Tim Bruton, bassist Kyle Donnelly, drummer Christian Ingelevics and violinist Mika Posen), the current incarnation of Forest City Lovers began to solidify during the writing and recording sessions for their expansive new album, Carriage, which lends a burnished seventies-style pop edge to Burns’s folkier leanings.
Burns, who continues to write the bulk of the Lovers’ songs, penning the poetic lyrics and rough melodies before taking the fledgling tunes to the rest of the band to develop, says she had to learn to let go of the reins when crafting Carriage. (The album features songs written by the full band for the first time.)
“It’s definitely hard!” she admits. “Forest City Lovers was always an outlet for my songs, but we really came together more as a unit during the recording process, and we’ve been trying to write together more when we can find the time. It’s a different process … but it’s an interesting challenge, and I think we’ll probably continue to work more collaboratively in the future.”
Spanning the stylistic gamut from the softer, strummier material Burns has become known for, to full-on indie rock, Carriage feels like a big step up for Forest City Lovers, a record that should introduce the band to listeners beyond their beloved hometown scene. Burns credits the album’s lush, fully realized sound to producer Chris Stringer’s keen instincts.
“This is actually the fewest musicians I’ve ever had on any of my records,” Burns says. “It’s is the first time we kept it to the core band—just the five of us, which is cool. Chris helped us out by playing some guitar lines that worked beautifully, and we also recorded some nice ambient sounds—wooden wind chimes near the window, some weird noises. It’s a bit all over the map, but I think it came together really nicely.”
A highlight of Forest City Lovers’ songs is Burns’s knack for wrapping both the sweet and the sour into little melodic bundles. “I really wanted [Carriage] to be upbeat, but with darker lyrical matter at the same time,” she explains. “Even if it feels a little bit happy-go-lucky, there still might be a little bit of sarcasm or humour in it—other things that aren’t so happy.
“I think it’s just what I want to hear right now,” she muses. “I love happy music. I also love sad music. I love all sorts of different stuff. But I think I just wanted to challenge us to make a record you could bop your head to. I feel like it can be enjoyed on the surface really easily, but I hope that listeners dig in and experience it on an emotional level as well.”
Photo: Ryan Marr.
