Alex Henry Foster talks about his new album, and show at Racket NYC

Alex Henry Foster. Photo Credit: Stephanie Bujold.

Canadian artist, singer, and musician Alex Henry Foster chatted about his new LP and upcoming show at Racket NYC on October 17, 2024.

The album “A Measure of Shape and Sounds” will be released on September 20th via Hopeful Tragedy Records, and they just released their sophomore single “Sorrowful Bouquet.”

How did you approach the song selection process for the new LP? 

The song selection process is usually a very organic one for the creative projects I am involved in.

When I start the production process, all the steps from the previous writing sessions have already offered me just enough clarity to literally walk the journey from beginning to end.

It’s the song’s emotional dynamic that ultimately defines the nature of the voyage I want to share with the people.

The outlines will reveal enough of a timeline for me to determine what might be missing, out of place, or simply unnecessary. It’s always an instinctive and sensory process.

It’s like a “Polaroid moment”. And by design, once released, I’m inviting everyone to redefine the project’s essence, allowing them to keep on evolving beyond their initial inception. 

What is the inspiration behind your new single “Sorrowful Bouquet”? 

“Sorrowful Bouquet” was inspired by the everlasting pursuit to find a sense of serenity and peacefulness that results in losing our illusionary control over the conceptual power of time and our physical limitations and tangible perspectives.

It’s a sort of spiritual liberation that offers the possibility to embrace the emotional freedom that comes with the emancipative reflection of who we are and ultimately discover or redefine ourselves.

The music video may be seen below.

What other artists have had a big influence on your music? 

I guess growing up in the rich multi-cultural art scene that Montreal offered me widened the scope of different inspirational elements.

Leonard Cohen’s approach to poetry is a significant part of my foundation, while New York’s avant-garde and modern noise pioneer Glenn Branca along with the experimental band CAN are most definitely the emancipative undercurrent to my creative approach.

Add a bit of Swans’ feral brutalism and Nick Cave’s spiritual tones to it all. I guess those strange, wild, emotional, and liberated elements give me enough of a unique mixture to express myself.

What is your favorite song on there and why?

That’s a tough one since I saw the album as a whole. But if I had one song to pick, I would say “A Mind’s Tapestry” because it evokes a sense of weightlessness, as if you are lying in the middle of an unfathomable body of water, alone, at peace, one with the element’s immensity you are intrinsically part of. To me, it’s an empowering tranquility.

Can you tell us about your upcoming show at Racket NYC… What can we expect?

That is the trickiest of all questions to answer, as every concert is entirely different from one another.

Shows are an evolving assemblage of live improvisations defined by me conducting the band in whatever musical direction I feel like on any given night.

Since the New York concert is pretty much at the end of the tour, the songs, the setlist, and the tones will have considerably evolved from what they were at the beginning of the tour.

That’s more of a question to ask me once the whole stretch of dates will be completed! One thing is for sure: no matter what it might be, it rarely leaves anyone indifferent or lukewarm… It’s a living organism.

What inspires your music and songwriting?

Snapshots of life and their wide range of colors that I’m collecting, reshaping, redefining, and reassembling while looking at the world around me before I reimagine the entire sequencing as a movie created from within.

That’s why it’s as intimately felt as it’s collectively engaging, I suppose.

How does it feel to be a part of the digital age? (Now with streaming, technology, and social media being so prevalent)

It’s funny, but I never felt like I was entirely part of the digital age — nor whatever might have been there before.

I grew up spending almost every Friday night listening to LPs from the likes of Black Sabbath, Zeppelin, Doors, Sade, and King Crimson with my father, while Saturday mornings were rock ’n’ roll dancing time with my mother who was spinning 7” from Elvis, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, and so many other. Music was a ritual, an experience, a unique gathering of sorts. That’s my foundation. 

When Myspace arrived and basically turned my former band Your Favorite Enemies into some kind of internet phenomenon, it was based on the very same paradigm for me, which was to connect and engage with others.

We didn’t have any type of music business experience (thank God), no plans, or any ambitions. We only wanted to commune with people. Music became the “excuse” to get together, breaking the cycle of isolation and depression, turning it all into a unique community.

We all realized we were some sort of congregation of misfits looking for a place to connect, and that place started with social media, rapidly taking place within the “real” world.

That’s why I have never perceived any of it as the big digital revolution everyone was talking about; it was a new set of tools enabling us to address a global and fundamental concern, which is everybody’s need to relate to something or someone.

Admittedly, those were the romantic and innocent years. What it turned into later on is all about human nature, and even if it’s way too toxic for me at times, I’ve learned to keep a sane perspective about it all.

If I’m part of it, to some extent, I always try to welcome everyone as they are and to receive them without my own preconceptions.

For the rest, the X/twitter wars about whatever, the raging rants, the madness and nonsense, I kept that for my friends when the Yankees or the Habs lose. It will all be purged one way or another!       

What do your plans for the future include?

I’m currently in Tangier, Morocco. I know, there are worse places in the world to answer your questions, right? I have a residence set up for a six-week writing session with my backup band The Long Shadows, before I tour across the US with Temples in October.

I should go to Japan soon after to do a pre-release watching of a film I did before I head back to the studio (in Montreal or Virginia where I reside) for the rest of the year.

No wonder everything I create is inspired by freedom and emancipation; my life is usually pretty “organized” to say the least.

Which artists would you like to do a dream duet with someday?

Interestingly enough, I had a strange dream a few nights ago about singing with Cyndi Lauper! We were singing “Time After Time” at one of her gigs or something. It was totally random, but exactly the type of thing I would like to do.

I used to avoid the buzz factor and promotional get-togethers, so I guess this would be improbable enough of an idea to actually do it. So Miss Lauper, if you read this, it would be an honor for me to do so!

Well, maybe I should have said Taylor Swift; she seems to have a nice thing going on for her right now! But this might have some kind of influence on my followers’ demographic. So right after Cyndi, Taylor, I promise you!

What would you like to tell our readers about your new music? (What’s the one thing you want them to get out of it)

It’s about dwelling on the moment, letting go, recentering, defining or redefining how we want to emancipate ourselves, may it be our thoughts, our feelings, our sensations, or whatever we want to look into during that inner journey… That’s the voyage I’m inviting people to join in.

The album “A Measure of Shape and Sounds” is available for pre-order by clicking here.

To learn more about Alex Henry Foster, check out his official website and follow him on Instagram.