SPOTLIGHT: Musicians love urban green space.
Forest City Lovers members Kyle Donnelly, left, Mika Posen, Christian Ingelevics, Kat Burns, and Tim Bruton.
Photo/RYAN MARR
They are nature-loving urban dwellers, but as far as the band name Forest City Lovers goes, singer Kat Burns says, "if you just watch Dances With Wolves, over and over and over again you will understand."
Burns, a Whitby native, has long had affection for birds and trees and that shines through in her songwriting.
"Our city has a lot of trees, all the streets have trees along them and there are tonnes of little parkettes - it is a really green city," she said. "But I also like trees a lot as metaphors for change in season and emotion.
"I don't want to live in the middle of nowhere but I do really appreciate the big tree that grows outside my apartment and sitting outside underneath it or walking to the park," she said.
Burns, who lives in the north Parkdale area, is the singer and principal songwriter for the band. In fact, the Forest City Lovers started out as a solo project of sorts.
The first Forest City Lovers CD, The Sun and the Wind, came out in 2006 when she was still finding her footing as a musician.
"I was still trying to figure out how to do it all so I had people play on it, but we weren't really a band yet," she said.
After the album came out and she started touring with backing musicians the project grew into more of collaboration. There have been some modifications to the lineup since then but today the Forest City Lovers is made up of Burns, Mika Posen, Kyle Donnelly, Christian Ingelevics and Tim Bruton.
"It is nice to rely on other people on stage and to know that there is a support system behind it," she said. "I also like the band because I can write songs with other instruments in mind so it gives me a little more freedom to expand the sound and let it grow," she said.
The band released the hugely popular album Haunting Moon Sinking in 2008 and Phodilus and Tyto, a 7" vinyl released at the end of 2009.
That growth, Burns said, will be evident on the band's forth-coming album, Carriage, which will be released on June 29.
The latest album isn't going to ostracize any past listener, but it is more experimental according to Burns. The group tries some new things with sound and pushes the songwriting further while keeping with short catchy songs like the band has produced in the past.
"The last album was definitely a break-up album in retrospect," she said. "I had just gotten out of a long relationship and it was a lot about change."
This latest work is inspired by meeting new people and traveling, this album is more about discovery, realizing there is a lot of positive out there. There are nature references, but Burns said she also explores aging and dying.
"Lyrically it comes out in ways that I am sort of absorbed about how life is a cycle," she said. "It is like the opposite of a break-up album. It is rediscovering life and reassessing life."
The band's next Toronto gig will be on June 11 at the Artscape Wychwood Barns as part of the Fourth Annual LEAF Celebration. Appropriately enough, LEAF (Local Enhancement and Appreciation of Forests) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the protection and improvement of the urban forest.
She admits it is somewhat rare for the band to accept Toronto shows.
"We are trying to make it a special thing when we play Toronto," Burns said. "We want to welcome friends and make it really nice, because it is our home town and we don't want to just treat it like any show."
The band also plans to head our on tour after the new album is released.