L.A. Foster announces new EP, drops another collab with Young Galaxy

18 October 2019, 09:00 | Written by The Line of Best Fit

(Tracks)

(L.A. Foster)

“Cruel Love” - the new track by Canadian DIY singer/songwriter L.A. Foster, finds optimism while grappling with the confusion of a broken heart and is a teaser for upcoming EP All My Lost Chances Are Beautiful.

"It's about genuinely trying to let go of someone because of truly loving them and wanting them to grow and heal," Foster explains.

Edmonton-born Foster has spent the last three years in and out of Montreal but her musical anchor remains long-time collaborator Stephen Ramsey, from Young Galaxy. “This song in particular is the first time we’ve done a 50/50 collab,” she tells us, “and that’s a new venture for me; you can hear that fluidity and growth.“

"We would spend late nights discussing life and our inspirations, which led to us riffing back and forth to create the songs on All My Lost Chances Are Beautiful."

Foster's self-described "sad dance music" finds its full strength in the poignant downbeat R&B electro of "Cruel Love" The track's serene, 16mm visual - shot in Wetaskiwin, rural Alberta by award-winning Vancouver-based filmmaker Bryce Zimmerman - adds to the track's elegiac appeal. "We're both from Alberta but live elsewhere and we both have this nostalgic tie to the landscape of Alberta," Foster explains. "We're also always coming and going in these ways because we have our roots there. The landscape is really beautiful but it's a place we could never live because of the conservative climate. It's so isolated too. For us, we didn't find our homes there so going into the country and shooting there was a way to say we have a 'cruel love' relationship with the place too."

Now based in Kingston, Ontario, Foster is balancing her music career with study: “It’s an interdisciplinary programme in research creation,” she tells us, “so I get to do research by way of making art or being artistic or creative. I get to blend my backgrounds too - doing anthropology, being a linguist [Foster is tri-lingual]…but going back into the academic realm is helping my music too.

"As a DIY artist, I don’t have a lot of people to bounce things off. When I go into the studio there’s Stephen, but it’s still a lot of me making this engine run. It’s really cool to have another intellectual outlet, and to put energy across in different ways. It makes me enjoy music more - I get to see myself more a whole human, rather than a flat version of myself."