Toronto-based indie rockers, Fast Romantics are thrilled to announce that their highly-anticipated sophomore LP American Love will be released on April 28 via Light Organ Records. American Love features 12 anthemic “heart-on-your-sleeve” and lyrically relevant tracks, including buzzworthy new single “Why We Fight”, which hit #1 on the CBC Radio 2 chart knocking out Adele, as well as their infectious SOCAN Award-winning breakthrough song “Julia”. The album is now available to pre-order HERE. Those who pre-order the record digitally will instantly receive both “Why We Fight” and “Julia”.
In support of their forthcoming record, the ambitious 6-piece have also announced that they will support fellow Canadian indie rockers Said the Whale on their upcoming Canadian tour. The tour kicks off with two shows in Toronto at Lee’s Palace and wraps up with a show in Vancouver on April 29th. Tickets for the tour are on sale now. All confirmed dates are listed below. Additional tour dates will be announced in the coming weeks.
Produced by the dynamic duo of Gus Van Go and Werner F (Arkells, Wintersleep, Hollerado), American Love is the follow-up record to Fast Romantic’s 2013 release, Afterlife Blues. Written and recorded over two years, alternating between Toronto and Brooklyn, American Love is a nod to the type of cinematic storybook romance American pop culture has conditioned us to search for, but also explores the realities at play off the silver screen that can wreak havoc on burgeoning love. We live in a time of political and social turmoil, and the twelve songs on American Love don’t deny this, each one marked by poignant references of the time and place in which they were conceived.
“I was falling pretty hard in love when we started the record,” explains frontman and lyricist Matthew Angus. “But the songs ended up being paintings of what it felt like to fall in love while the rest of the world went mad. The American election went bizarre and took over the Canadian one, everybody’s obsession with social media hit some kind of peak, and suddenly everyone — everywhere — was talking about America. Smartphones were going off like bombs everywhere I went. It started seeping into the songwriting, and now I’m not even sure how to describe it. Is it a collection of love songs about politics or is it a collection of political songs about love?”
But Angus insists that American Love is by no means a political protest record. Rather, it’s a series of reflections by a non-American songwriter living so close to the border, hyper-aware of America and its influence on Canada and the people around him.
“I’ve always had some kind of love affair or fascination with America. I think a lot of Canadians feel a push or a pull about our southern neighbours,” Angus says. “But the songs aren’t even really about one country, they’re more about borders. So many borders are blurring. What does it mean to be Canadian, or American, or Chinese, or British? We’ve all got Twitter, we’ve all got the BBC, we all fall in love, but that doesn’t mean we’re the same. Or does it?”
Hailed as an ‘Artist to watch’ in 2017 (Google Play), Fast Romantics is comprised of Angus, Jeffrey Lewis (bass), Kirty (vocals, acoustic guitar, synth), Kevin Black (guitars), Lisa Lorenz (keyboards) and Nick McKinlay (drums). Since reforming the band in 2013, the band has released one full-length LP. Known for their incredible live shows and songwriting prowess, Fast Romantics have received many accolades, including ‘Pop Group of the Year’ at the Sirius XM Indies (2014) and more recently their song “Julia” won the prestigious ‘SOCAN National Songwriting Prize’ in 2016.
