Alex Henry Foster, Happy to Finally Be Back at Work
Originally Published in Le Soleil on July 18, 2024.
Written by Ian Bussières.
Read the original article here.
Used to leading several projects at the same time, singer-songwriter Alex Henry Foster, known in another life as the leader and singer of the alternative rock group Your Favorite Enemies, is happy to finally get back to work after a long period of forced inactivity.
After releasing the ambient album Kimiyo this spring, Foster is touring European festivals before returning to Quebec on July 29, when he will prepare to release another album, A Measure of Shape and Sound, and a U.S. tour this fall.
“It feels good, because in early 2023 I had open-heart surgery for a double heart valve transplant. It was supposed to last three hours, but it lasted ten. I had to have a lot of blood transfusions and they had to keep me alive with machines,” says the Montrealer, who has lived in Drummondville for several years, via video conference from Germany.
Following this delicate operation, Foster spent a few months unable to speak and had lost a lot of motor skills. “I couldn’t read, couldn’t write, couldn’t play guitar…” he says.
In short, it was a scenario out of a horror movie for the usually busy and creative artist he is. “I gradually started playing music again as I regained my faculties. I have a less busy schedule than usual, because in the past, when I went on tour, it was six nights a week for three months.”
“It feels good, because in early 2023 I had open-heart surgery for a double heart valve transplant. It was supposed to last three hours, but it lasted ten. I had to have a lot of blood transfusions and they had to keep me alive with machines,” says the Montrealer, who has lived in Drummondville for several years, via video conference from Germany.
Following this delicate operation, Foster spent a few months unable to speak and had lost a lot of motor skills. “I couldn’t read, couldn’t write, couldn’t play guitar…” he says.
In short, it was a scenario out of a horror movie for the usually busy and creative artist he is. “I gradually started playing music again as I regained my faculties. I have a less busy schedule than usual, because in the past, when I went on tour, it was six nights a week for three months.”
A Movie
This resumption of activities at his own pace will have allowed the artist who makes post-rock and ambient experimental music to focus again on a film project called Voyage à la Mer, which he had started in 2010 and left unfinished.
“Kimiyo, which I recorded with the singer Momoka Tobari (who can be heard on a few songs from Your Favorite Enemies), is the first step of this project that I launched in Japan. It’s a hyper ambient orchestral project in Japanese. I didn’t give myself a chance!” he laughs, talking about his album released in April and which nevertheless reached twelfth position on the Billboard Canadian albums chart and first for alternative albums.
A Measure of Shape and Sound promises to be in the same contemplative ambient vein, while the film will be out in spring 2025 with launches planned in a few cities in Quebec. “When I needed to start working on my creative projects again, I brought in my partner Ben [Lemelin, bassist for Your Favorite Enemies],” he notes.
“Kimiyo, which I recorded with the singer Momoka Tobari (who can be heard on a few songs from Your Favorite Enemies), is the first step of this project that I launched in Japan. It’s a hyper ambient orchestral project in Japanese. I didn’t give myself a chance!” he laughs, talking about his album released in April and which nevertheless reached twelfth position on the Billboard Canadian albums chart and first for alternative albums.
A Measure of Shape and Sound promises to be in the same contemplative ambient vein, while the film will be out in spring 2025 with launches planned in a few cities in Quebec. “When I needed to start working on my creative projects again, I brought in my partner Ben [Lemelin, bassist for Your Favorite Enemies],” he notes.
The Same "Gang"
Because if Your Favorite Enemies has been left aside for a few years, Foster is still lucky to continue working with the same musicians who are also his friends. Stéphane “Sef” Lemelin, Isabelle “Miss Isabel” Paradis, Jean-François “Jeff” Beaulieu and Charles “Moose” Allicie are still accompanying him in his new musical adventures.
It is with them that he will soon begin writing his next album. “I still tour with the same gang even if it’s completely different music. I am lucky to do what I love and to be able to continue my “last summer” with my friends for all these years,” he illustrates.
And despite the presence of the entire “team”, there is no question of replaying Your Favorite Enemies material during his “solo” shows. “I want to be honest with myself and with the audience. “People ask me when Your Favorite Enemies is coming back, but I refuse to hold them hostage. Maybe one day, but not right away,” says the musician.
It is with them that he will soon begin writing his next album. “I still tour with the same gang even if it’s completely different music. I am lucky to do what I love and to be able to continue my “last summer” with my friends for all these years,” he illustrates.
And despite the presence of the entire “team”, there is no question of replaying Your Favorite Enemies material during his “solo” shows. “I want to be honest with myself and with the audience. “People ask me when Your Favorite Enemies is coming back, but I refuse to hold them hostage. Maybe one day, but not right away,” says the musician.
A Plant and a Hotel
Foster has also launched two other major projects in recent years, a vinyl record pressing plant in Drummondville called Drummond Vinyle and a hotel in Tangier, Morocco, La Maison de Tanger.
“Drummond Vinyle has been open since November and the whole team was trained at Third Man Records in Nashville,” explains Foster, who knows the label’s owner, famed musician Jack White, from running into him at festivals. The pressing plant works closely with artists and record labels.
“We can do lathe cuts [records made one at a time, in a blank disc rather than being pressed into vinyl by a metal stamp] and add screen printing on the product. Jack White was crazy about that, we had a common affinity,” notes Foster.
The hotel is a project that fell into Foster’s lap in 2021, during the pandemic. “It’s an eleven-room boutique hotel. I often went to Tangier to write and I had an incredible opportunity with COVID,” he explains.
Foster emphasizes that his entourage was not sure about his hotel project when everything stopped on the planet. However, time has done things well and, three years after Foster and Jean-François Beaulieu bought the hotel, it has proven to be a great success.
“Drummond Vinyle has been open since November and the whole team was trained at Third Man Records in Nashville,” explains Foster, who knows the label’s owner, famed musician Jack White, from running into him at festivals. The pressing plant works closely with artists and record labels.
“We can do lathe cuts [records made one at a time, in a blank disc rather than being pressed into vinyl by a metal stamp] and add screen printing on the product. Jack White was crazy about that, we had a common affinity,” notes Foster.
The hotel is a project that fell into Foster’s lap in 2021, during the pandemic. “It’s an eleven-room boutique hotel. I often went to Tangier to write and I had an incredible opportunity with COVID,” he explains.
Foster emphasizes that his entourage was not sure about his hotel project when everything stopped on the planet. However, time has done things well and, three years after Foster and Jean-François Beaulieu bought the hotel, it has proven to be a great success.
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