[TUTTOROCK] ALEX HENRY FOSTER – NUOVA INTERVISTA AL CANTANTE, MUSICISTA, SCRITTORE E ATTIVISTA CANADESE

As published in Tuttorock (In Italian and English)

Read the original article here

I interviewed, after more than a year from the previous chat, the Canadian singer and activist Alex Henry Foster who has released his new album “Standing Under Bright Lights” a couple of months ago. “Standing Under Bright Lights” is a live album, featuring the entirety of Alex Henry Foster’s first concert at the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal on July 5, 2019.

Hi Alex, welcome back to Tuttorock, first of all, how are you? How did you experience this year of pandemic and restrictions?

Thank you so much for offering me the wonderful privilege to share with you all again. It feels like family now!

I guess, like pretty much everyone, it’s been a year made of a lot of emotional ups and downs, but I’ve been incredibly fortunate to be able to focus on several creative ventures to express those feelings of turmoil, from live stream performances, direct-to-vinyl special editions, all the different musical projects I have released, up to the book I’m presently writing… It really helped me maintain a certain sense of mental balance in my life. But the real blessing for me has been the fantastic opportunity I had to connect with so many people on a personal level. This would have been almost impossible in a “normal” context. And that, for me, was truly fabulous. Those rich and singular relationships undeniably shaped the person I became after the pandemic. I’ve learned so much, from being more attentive to others to really listening and welcoming others in my life as well. It’s so easy to be your own noise… So I’m deeply thankful for the generosity of every single person who is now involved and has a huge part of my existence.

Has the pandemic also affected your activity as a human rights advocate?

Considerably. I’ve been completely horrified and paralyzed by George Floyd’s assassination. It took me some time to publicly react as I was so angry and powerless. It’s through conversations with friends that I’ve been able to turn that monstrous act of hatred into something positive and collectivizing. I gave life to the “Silence Is Murder” initiative, which was based on the transformative nature of sharing how we truly feel without the fear of being judged, rejected, or ostracized. It was essential for me to celebrate life in that devastating context, so we could remember that no matter how difficult of a moment we are living, we can be heard. Speaking is the spark, but to know someone is listening is not only comforting, it is a vector of hope and faith as well.

I also started the “Alive. Never Alone.” project after a close friend lost his battle at the hands of despair. I was devastated, profoundly confused, and felt guilty that I hadn’t been able to make a difference in his life nor to be more of an empowering light in his fight with darknesses. I wrote a long blog about it, shared about my own emotional issues as well, about the persistent taboos and growing uneasiness surrounding whatever involves mental health and emotional issues. It was another opportunity for me to learn about myself by taking the time to listen to others. And even if I am still suffering from the loss, I’m empowered by the global awareness his departure has inspired. Therefore, it became a magnificent demonstration of love, acceptance, forgiveness, and rebirth for an incredible amount of people, including myself.

I truly wish, as the pandemic is slowly coming to an end, that we will be more attentive to others, that we will come back to compassionate and humanitarian values. I want to believe that, after being deprived of everything and everyone we might have taken for granted, we will be a little less self-centered in the future…

Almost a year after the worldwide release of your first beautiful solo album, “Windows in the Sky”, can you tell me what feedback you’ve had?

The feedback has been tremendously generous and kind. It became the soundtrack of many people during the pandemic, and it received fabulous reviews and outstanding comments, for which I’m deeply grateful. What truly moved me was how much of a comfort it has been for people who were mourning, who were struggling with depression and hopelessness, who were in need of an introspective and musing instant in their lives, as much as for those who simply let go in the album vivid emotions and thus redefined the nature of the record by making it their own. That was for me a real honor, especially as I firmly believe that it’s only once communed that words and sounds have the ability to grow beyond the reasons they were inspired from and are therefore free to evolve and to ultimately become eternal in so many different ways…

In a period of absence of concerts, you wanted to give us a gift, the publication of the live album of your concert at the Montreal International Jazz Festival. If there hadn’t been a pandemic, would you have published it anyway?

I don’t think so. It’s an ensemble of different factors that led to the album’s release. If it wasn’t for the pandemic, I would have been too busy to pay attention to those elements. The main aspect was people who wrote me to know if I had the whole concert after they had seen some excerpts on the internet. That was the trigger, in a way, even if I didn’t know at that point what had been filmed, if it was only a few clips for the festival, if the sound had been recorded and if the quality was any good. It’s only after I started inquiring about it that I not only found out that the whole concert had been filmed on multi-camera, but that we also had the sound recorded on multi-tracks. Even if it was great news, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to release it or not. It’s only when I started to write my upcoming book covering the period from the conception of “Windows in the Sky” to now that I started thinking about it. The Montreal International Jazz Festival concert is a pivotal element in the book, so I thought it would be important for people to actually watch and hear the show in order to be able to fully dwell in the book later…

And when I saw and heard it for myself, I couldn’t believe how unique of a moment it had been, much more so than what I had remembered. It considerably inspired me for the book after, because I knew that everything I had lived and experienced, share and communed with people, was authentic. At that moment, I knew it had to be released.

Why was that concert so special?

It’s the moment that changed everything. It was supposed to be a one-off concert, a homage to my father that was taking place in my hometown and that would be shared with friends and family. At that point, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to keep on playing live past that concert. So it became an incredibly pivotal instant for me. What I felt that night has been somehow so liberating, so emancipative and so enfranchising that it led me to revisit my decisions regarding my future. Since I had no ambition to keep on going, nor was I trying to impress anyone or felt like I had to convince people, I simply followed my instinct and let the songs free from my usual struggles with doubt and fear of failing, conducting the other 10 musicians based on what I felt during the whole concert. It became a stream of living and evolving emotions, freeing the songs from their original structures, improvising based on the flow of magnificent sensations. Considering that it was the very first time I was playing those songs live, adding to the whole self-abnegation and non-careerist egocentrism, I believe it’s the purest spirit and form those songs will ever have…

Are you working on new songs?

I’m presently musing on several new ideas… I would like to accompany my upcoming book with an album. Keeping music away for a while to focus on my book has been a real blessing for me. I hate repetition and format, so to take a little break from all the noise now allows me to start anew, in a way, to explore different creative avenues, but more importantly, to know that I was ready and excited to do so.

Can you tell me a little about your church-studio? It is very suggestive!

What a wonderful place to give life to music and to commune its spiritual essence, right? I’m still amazed by the inspiring nature of the place, even if we bought it 10 years ago. We invested so much of ourselves in the place as well! It took us about 2 years to renovate, fix, and revive the whole place before an acoustician could properly fix the reverb problem the main room had and for a team of 5 from London could build the amazing control room we now have. It took them almost 3 months full-time to build it. It’s now one of the most looked-after recording studios in North America. It even has a studio B, that serves for record production, writing sessions, pre-production, and mixing…

So, again, I’m unbelievably privileged. I can record in different ways, may it be in a live band format or the traditional layer-by-layer overdubs. I can hold public or private concerts, as the church has a 1,200 seat capacity. There is a multi-media studio as well, so I can do live streams involving any type of production, from intimate to grandiose. There is also a vinyl-cutting room allowing me to do direct-to-vinyl performances, as well as a fully-operating merchandising factory in the basement, where I can craft whatever I want to share with people, knowing it’s always top quality and handmade…

We own the priest house building right beside the church-studio as well, where my record label offices are located. It’s the perfect DIY setup for me and everyone being part of that fabulous journey of arts and community with me.

I guess you had to reschedule the tour dates again, are you waiting for better times or are you already working on it?

It’s been rescheduled already. My agents did such a fantastic job. They had such a terrible year, but they kept on pressing for me, more enthusiastic than I was able to be at times. I’m incredibly blessed to have them.

Without their commitment, I wouldn’t have been able to announce the first 20-something European dates for Summer 2022 like I recently have, nor would I have several additional dates coming up – which include Italy! I can’t wait to visit you for the very first time and to finally be able to hug, laugh, and commune with my precious Italian friends. The pandemic has been so implacable for you, so it will be good to give you some love and affection soon. Stay tuned, the dates and all details should be announced soon. I’m still looking forward to doing a full Italian tour, though, that would be awesome, right?

Thank you very much for your time, would you like to add something to close the interview?

First, I want to thank you and the whole Tuttorock team for your kindness and generosity towards me. When I said we were family, I deeply meant it. Thank you for offering me a voice in Italy. It’s a priceless gift for me, really. And I also want to encourage everyone to keep their inspiring resilience. Like every nightmarish darkness, the pandemic is slowly disappearing and the luminescence of a brand new day is coming our way with promises of wonders for us to share… I can’t wait to see you!

MARCO PRITONI
June 18, 2021