Edmonton indie pop and folk duo F & M return to Lethbridge to open November by playing their new Cd “Lessons from Losers.”
“ We were at the Owl Acoustic Lounge in February (Feb. 10). We were testing out some of the new songs. This time we have the album out, so we‘re pretty excited to come back,” observed Rebecca Anderson who makes up the duo with her husband Ryan.
Their last album, “At Sunset We Sing,” which was released in 2015, was inspired by visiting Portugal. They stayed closer to home for inspiration for the new one.
“ There was a lot of red wine involved like for the last one. But this was inspired by the really long winter that we had,” she said, enjoying a balmy late Fall day on her balcony.
“The title I came up with, because I’ve been thinking a lot about happiness. Today it seems people’s happiness comes at the onus of other people and it doesn’t seem to matter at whose expense it comes from,” she observed.
“While other people do things that make them happy, just because they think it’s a worthwhile thing to do, which is what people like us who make music for a living, do. Because what we’re doing doesn’t seem to make financial sense,” she said.
The new CD is pretty laid back.
“ But ‘Council of Misery’ and ‘Scribbles On a Sheet’ are more psychedelic with more screaming rather than singing,” she said.
The CD has already received positive response.
“And it’s made a number of top 50 lists and number two on one of them. So it’s going great,” she said
They have released a video for the title track and another for ‘Council of Misery’ is in the works.
“We filmed ‘Lessons From Losers’ in Vancouver last year. We were there for a Nick Cave concert. We filmed it during the day before the concert The new one we want to keep a secret, hut we’re working with a director we‘ve worked with before and gave him free rein. We even let him pick the song. It’s a lot of trust, but I’m excited to see it,” she said.
They are doing a couple of short tours including this one, including stops in Red Deer and Calgary as well as Lethbridge.”
“We’ll do a bigger tour in the spring in November in B.C. And Saskatchewan, so we might save the new video to kick off that,” she said adding they will be concentrating on the new Cd, which m while it doesn’t have any accordion, which marks most of their works, but does have a lot of organ.
“ There isn’t any accordion on this album, but we’ll be bringing it on the tour because people love the accordion and we’ll be playing some of the older songs.”
F & M and Penelope Rose play the Owl Acoustic Lounge , Nov. 3 at 9 p.m. Admission is by donation.
