Forest City Lovers are a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

folk

indie pop Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and sub ...

band formed in 2006 in

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

. The band is centred on the songwriting of singer and guitarist

Kat Burns Kat Elizabeth Burns is a Canadian musician known as KASHKA who was the lead songwriter and vocalist of Forest City Lovers. She is also a visual artist and voice over actor. Career Burns led folk-pop band Forest City Lovers from 2006 to 2012, r ...

. She is backed by violinist

Mika Posen Mika Posen is a Canadian violinist and music instructor based in Ottawa. She is known for collaborating and performing with acts including Timber Timbre, Agnes Obel, and Forest City Lovers and performs as a solo artist under the name Merganzer. H ...

, bassist Kyle Donnelly, keyboardist Timothy Burton and drummer Christian Ingelevics.

Biography

Forest City Lovers began as the solo project of singer-songwriter

, from

Whitby Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Scarborough borough of North Yorkshire, England. Situated on the east coast of Yorkshire at the mouth of the River Esk, Whitby has a maritime, mineral and tourist heritage. Its East Clif ...

, Ontario, when she moved to Toronto to go to school in 2005 and began to play around the city. Soon after establishing herself as a talented young songwriter, Burns released her independent solo EP ''For the Birds'' in early 2005. Collecting close friends and peers she assembled Forest City Lovers over the period of recording at the House of Miracles with

Andy Magoffin Joel Andrew Magoffin, best known as Andy Magoffin, is a Canadians, Canadian musician and record producer. He is the songwriter, vocalist and guitarist for the indie rock band Two-Minute Miracles and the touring bass guitarist for Raised by Swans. ...

. Original band members included James Bunton and Andrew Kinoshita on drums and bass. She released ''The Sun and the Wind'', independently in 2006 under the Forest City Lovers moniker. The single "Castles!" was playlisted on CBC Radio 3 and the album charted quite high nationally after its release. In 2007, Mika Posen joined the band on violin. The band contributed a track, "Don't Go, Please", to the charity compilation ''

Friends in Bellwoods ''Friends in Bellwoods'' is a compilation album, released in 2007. It was the first release on Out of This Spark, through a distribution deal with Sonic Unyon Records. The album is named for a house on Bellwoods Avenue in Toronto, shared by two ...

''. In late 2007 Bunton and Kinoshita were replaced by Paul Weadick and Kyle Donnelly on drums and bass. ''The Sun and the Wind'' fared well on

campus radio Campus radio (also known as college radio, university radio or student radio) is a type of radio station that is run by the students of a college, university or other educational institution. Programming may be exclusively created or produce ...

stations across Canada and the United States, and garnered airplay on CBC Radio One,

CBC Radio 2 CBC Music (formerly known as CBC FM, CBC Stereo and CBC Radio 2) is a Canadian FM radio network operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It used to concentrate on classical and jazz. In 2007 and 2008, the network transitioned towards a ...

and CBC Radio 3. The band toured extensively and secured fans far outside of their Toronto home. The band was called a "Band to look out for" in 2008 by ''

eye weekly ''Eye Weekly'' was a free weekly newspaper published in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was owned by Torstar, the parent company of the ''Toronto Star'', and was published by their Star Media Group until its final issue on May 5, 2011. The following ...

'', the "best band you've never heard of" by ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...

'', and a "mess of cute girls and boys who sing about life in Toronto" by ''Nylon''. In 2008 the band released their debut full-length, ''Haunting Moon Sinking'', on

Out of This Spark Out of this Spark is an independent record label founded in the fall of 2006 by Stuart Duncan in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The label is an artist-focused label that works to release fun, exciting and innovative music, with a focus a facilitating ...

. The album did very well nationally and internationally, garnering press and airplay around the world. The entire album was played heavily on CBC's Radio One, Radio 2, and Radio 3, as well as North American campus radio and NPR. Shortly after the release of the album drummer Paul Weadick left the band. He has since been replaced. Since the release of ''The Sun and the Wind'' in 2006, Forest City Lovers have played numerous festivals, including the

Hillside Festival The Hillside Festival is an annual three-day, five-stage (including one kids' stage) summer festival occurring in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, hosting musicians, spoken word artists, workshops and more. The Hillside Festival occurs in late July on Gue ...

in Guelph, Ontario; the inaugural

Sled Island Music Festival The Sled Island Music & Arts Festival is an annual independent music and arts festival formed in 2007 and held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Each June, the five-day festival showcases over 200 bands, visual artists, filmmakers and comedians as w ...

in Calgary, Alberta; Sappyfest in

Sackville, New Brunswick Sackville is a town in southeastern New Brunswick, Canada. It is home to Mount Allison University, a primarily undergraduate liberal arts university. Historically based on agriculture, shipbuilding, and manufacturing, the economy is now driven ...

; Keep It Cool in

Lecce, Italy Lecce ( ); el, label=Griko, Luppìu, script=Latn; la, Lupiae; grc, Λουπίαι, translit=Loupíai), group=pron is a historic city of 95,766 inhabitants (2015) in southern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Lecce, the provin ...

; and

Folk on the Rocks Yellowknife (; Dogrib: ) is the capital, largest community, and only city in the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is on the northern shore of Great Slave Lake, about south of the Arctic Circle, on the west side of Yellowknife Bay near the o ...

in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. The band were among the contributors to two compilation CDs, ''

'', and ''

Friends in Bellwoods II ''Friends in Bellwoods'' is a compilation album, released in 2009 by Out of This Spark as a benefit for Toronto's Daily Bread Food Bank. The album is a sequel to the 2007 compilation ''Friends in Bellwoods''. Where the original album was, in par ...

'', as a benefit for Toronto's Daily Bread Food Bank. Forest City Lovers are nationally distributed through Arts & Crafts after a partnership with their Toronto label Out of This Spark. Previously the disc was distributed by Sonic Unyon. The band released a 7" single in November 2009 and recently completed ''Carriage'', their second album for Out of this Spark, released on June 29, 2010. Carriage has been met with massive critical acclaim. In 2011, Forest City Lovers were nominated for The 10th Annual Independent Music Awards in the Indie/Alt./Hard Rock Album category. On March 27, 2012, in an emotional statement, Kat Burns announced via the band's website that she was putting Forest City Lovers on indefinite hiatus in order to let the band do their own individual things, including her solo project KASHKA.

Members

– songwriter, vocals, guitar, piano, banjo, glockenspiel * Mika Posen – violin, viola, piano, bg vocals * Kyle Donnelly – bass, guitar, glockenspiel, bg vocals * Christian Ingelevics - drums * Timothy Bruton - keyboards, guitar, vocals

Discography

* ''For the Birds'' (Kat Burns solo) - 2005 - Independent / Play the Triangle * ''The Sun and the Wind'' - 2006 - Independent / Play the Triangle * ''Haunting Moon Sinking'' - 2008 - Out of This Spark / Arts & Crafts * ''Carriage'' - 2010 - Out of This Spark / Arts & Crafts

References

External links

Forest City Lovers
official website * http://www.playthetriangle.com/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Forest City Lovers Musical groups established in 2006 Musical groups from Toronto Canadian indie pop groups 2006 establishments in Ontario