WINTER, DEATH AND FINE WINE
Powerful, thought-provoking themes wind through F&M’s new album
If a local band was going to create an album with three dark muses like those found in an ancient woodland fairy tale, F&M would be your safe bet. Running through the band’s sixth release with nods to falling snow, drinking by the sea and funeral directors is the repeated summoning of Winter, Wine and Death, here capitalized and personified just so we remember them later in the tale.
And this very F&M album, Lessons from Losers, will be featured during a cabaret-style release on Friday at The Aviary.
Literate and considerate, the wife-and-husband team of Rebecca and Ryan Anderson are well known for a certain precise narrative, draped over a bohemian spirit of living life artistically, and whenever affordable, to the hilt.
Their often baroque, pop/folk music takes turns embracing the maudlin and melancholy, but is also warmed with the flickering spirit of resistance. And that album title, Lessons from Losers, actually isn’t meant in a negative way.
Indeed, Rebecca Anderson smiled when she first encountered the phrase in an Ivan Brunetti comic collection.
“He was talking about having three jobs on the side, but no one wanting lessons from losers. I thought that was so funny, how as artists, we always feel, ‘Am I really an artist?’ if we have to do all these jobs on the side.
“The more we thought about the idea of winning and losing,” she said, “well, we like to align ourselves with the underdog.”
Ryan Anderson doesn’t hold back on the subject.
“The brashness and boldness of what’s winning right now is disgusting. If that’s what winning is, I’m out. But that doesn’t mean you have to stop. Really, we have to kick against it.”
He brings up a Pedro the Lion quote about appreciating being second best.
“We aren’t the best,” he said, meaning their band.
“There is no best,” his wife added.
OK, now let’s return to the new record. We’ll start with Winter, as it seems to be creeping in anyway.
“A lot of the songs were written in winter, but your songs reference winter more than mine,” said Rebecca, turning toward her husband.
He takes the cue. “F&M’s always had this idea where the environment influences the writing. We make unique bands because of what we face up here. And there’s nothing more beautiful than coming out of the cold into a nice warm apartment or bar.”
A pattern is starting to emerge in this conversation: he goes wide, she takes it home.
She notes: “I also like that winter is a chance for slowing down. And a lot of the idea of the album is taking your time to do things, not rushing. Being more contemplative.”
She brings up Death next with a laugh.
“Ryan references winter, I reference death,” she said.
He cuts in: “The whole album’s about death, but nothing miserable.
“Actually, I don’t think there’s actually a single idea holding the album together. It’s not prescriptive, it’s supposed to be thoughtprovoking.
“Hopefully that’s what happens when we talk about losers, too.”
So we kind of dodged Death there, but it inevitably emerges as we discuss the power of good wine.
“Wine is one of those things that takes time,” said Ryan. “This is a pinot noir record. I would definitely say a burgundy.”
This leads him to start talking about his favourite local wine store.
“People ask why I push, say Color de Vino. But we need more of that, more Aviarys.”
“We need to support these things so they don’t go away,” said Rebecca. “Getting back to the record and the idea of losers, I love that idea of people doing these things, making that sacrifice, even though that might be the end of you.”
The album’s most penetrating song by far is Council of Misery, where Rebecca really wails.
“I wanted it to be more Godspeed You Black Emperor,” she said. “Working together, you end up with a different beast. I’d heard the line at a show and found it overdramatic and funny, but at the same time, it resonated with me.”
Rebecca laughs when she thinks of her childhood diary, which she re-read recently.
“One of the things I wrote was,” she said, “‘I hope a disease will be named after me.’ My goal in life.”
But the story speaks to embracing the darkness. There’s a phrase in the first song, “cradle your hate,” and they both talk about it.
“Hate gets a bad rap,” said Ryan. “It’s OK to embrace it for a little while. But don’t stay there.”
Rebecca: “It comes back to taking the time to think about things. In order to move on, you have to nurture your hate for a while. We have to take our time with loss, with grief with anger.”
Now Rebecca goes wider. “Ryan thinks about things more about the outside, political — I’m very much introverted and think on a spiritual level. So Council of Misery, to me, felt more about getting back into music, just struggling with my own doubt and misery,” she said with a laugh.
“I think that happens throughout a lot of the songs.”
A record release is, of course, a form of show-and-tell, and so in the spirit of both sharing and learning, they decided to have the album release — their first on vinyl — be exactly this.
Before F&M plays their set, the night will include an artistic “show-and-tell” hosted by Rylan Kafara from CJSR’s History of Punk, with short sets by Tanyss Nixi, Mike McDonald, Mark Davis, poetry from Wendy McGrath, DJ David Stone, and art by Amy Freelend, who did the album cover.
Each has been asked to bring an object of significance and tell about it.
“There’s a theme of dark arts, lessons learned,” said Rebecca. “There’s a little darkness with everyone we picked.”
“We don’t know what everyone will do. It’s exciting,” said Ryan.
Rebecca added: “Hopefully it gives an insight into encouraging a creative spirit, or shows how people make things.”
Ryan smiled as he summed up their own situation, Death and Winter aside.
“I’m in a band with my wife, that’s pretty cool. If life in Edmonton is that I have a bottle of wine on a nightly basis, it’s not too bad.”