FAST ROMANTICS
“PICK IT UP” THROUGH THE PANDEMIC
“It
wasn’t a creative block, because
there was tons of writing going on;
it was more of a confidence block,
you know?”
That’s how Matthew Angus, the frontman
and principal songwriter of Toronto-based indie
rock outfit Fast Romantics, describes his off-kilter
creative process in the years preceding a fateful
trip to California early into 2020.
The band dropped its acclaimed LP American
Love in April 2017 and split the next few years
between weeks of relentless touring and weeks
holed up in their home studios workshopping
new material. Fans had repeatedly been promised
a new album, but even by early 2020, with
dozens of songs in various stages of completion,
one hadn’t materialized.
“It was just a rough time period,” Angus says
about what he realizes in hindsight was a bout
with depression and self-doubt. “Writing happened
a lot, but finishing didn’t happen at all.”
Subsequently, in early 2020, the six-piece –
Angus, multi-instrumentalist Kirty, bassist Jeffrey
Lewis, guitarist and vocalist Kevin Black, drummer
Nick McKinlay, and keyboardist Lisa Lorenz
– set off on a retreat to California chasing some
creative and collaborative course correction. The
idea was to buckle down for a few weeks, build
some momentum, get some songs finished, and
start fleshing out an album; however, news of
pending border closures in response to a growing
pandemic cut the trip short, and the members of
BY ANDREW KING
(L-R) JEFFREY LEWIS, KIRTY, LISA LORENZ, MATTHEW ANGUS, NICK MCKINLAY & KEVIN BLACK OF FAST ROMANTICS
Fast Romantics soon found themselves on their
way back to Canada.
“Everything just clicked on that flight for me;
I turned to Kirt and said, ‘We’ve gotta put out a
record now, and don’t need to be cute about it,”
Angus reveals. “I think it’s because everything was
kind of in chaos, and when the whole world starts
spinning in another direction, your brain does,
too. I don’t know if it happens for all artistic funks
like this, but when I snap out of something, I go
hard in the other direction; the pendulum really
swings. As soon as that plane landed, it was like,
‘Let’s finish this.’ And it just didn’t stop.”
The result of their subsequent weeks of
self-isolation is Pick It Up, Fast Romantics’ upcoming
collection of sprawling, anthemic indie rock
ripe with the orchestral swells and hook-heavy
rally cries fans have come to crave.
“I’ve always been a ‘do-it-yourselfer’ when it
comes to [my depression], and I’ve been battling
it my whole life,” Angus candidly reveals about
the cause of his creative stagnancy. “It comes in
waves, and you don’t really know when you’re in it
until you’re in it.”
These days, though, he has his partner, Kirty,
to add some informed perspective. “Like he said,
someone might not know they’re in a funk until
someone else points out a pattern, and I started
to notice these patterns related to finishing work
– like Matt came up with a lot of creative ways to
not finish songs” Kirty tells Canadian Musician,
PHOTO: JEN SQUIRES
42 CANADIAN MUSICIAN