Ian Foster is a singer-songwriter, producer and filmmaker, from St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. He is a MusicNL and East Coast Music Award winner, a finalist for the International Songwriting Competition and has been a touring artist since 2007. He was also previously the Arts and Entertainment editor for The Muse in the early 2000s.
His most recent album “Nerve” came out Friday, May 31st, and is available through all streaming platforms but more about that in a bit!
Recently The Muse had the opportunity to interview Ian on our radio show, Muse News. Continue reading for some highlights from our chat on-air.
Student years
Foster was an undergraduate at MUNL studying English and History in the early 2000s. It was at that time that he began working with the Muse as the Arts and Entertainment Editor. He explains that as he neared the end of his degree, he began debating what would come next.
“I went straight from High School to University, so I was 21 when I was graduating and I was staring down the barrel of the big world out there and had never not been in school,” he says.
“I just started thinking about when I would do like an American literature course for my English degree and they would be like ‘You can write a term paper on that era, it can be about anything,’ I’d be like, ‘let’s do the jazz age,’ like it would be music even though it was an English degree.”
He continues, saying, “Then when I would work at the Muse- I would give out the stories about various arts stuff, but if it was a musician I’d be like ‘I’ll do that story, I’ll take that as the editor.’ Clearly everything circles back to music for me- in one way or another, I was obsessed with it. And, so, I just made that decision: I’m not going to go to journalism school this year. I’m going to start playing open mics in my last year.”
Feelings of doubt
“What time is it? Yeah of course, still do,” Foster says when asked if he ever felt discouraged when first pursuing his music career.
He explains that like many artists there are always challenges and it’s important to discover for yourself what it is you’re looking to get out of a career in music, further expressing that, “setting boundaries as well as goals is a huge part of understanding your place in the world in general. But specifically, as an artist, what do you have to offer, what works for you, and what might not work for you, as a pathway”
Being a musician from NL
As a musician born and raised in Newfoundland, Foster spoke about his individual experience as a non-traditional Newfoundland artist.
He explains that at the beginning when he would see a sign saying “Ian Foster from Newfoundland” his “heart would fill with dread” not because he wasn’t proud of his heritage but because he worried his audience would be expecting a more traditional or Celtic sound.
“The issue is I’m an original singer-songwriter and I kind of veer into like rock, pop, modern music, like it’s not Celtic or traditional and I would see those signs and at the time- export-wise, people kind of only knew us for the Celtic- and, so, I would see that up on a billboard somewhere in Ontario and go: I’m about to go in and ruin a bunch of people’s nights cause they came to hear Celtic music and they’re going to get me, and I’m like, I’m sorry this is what I do, I didn’t mean to mislead you.”
However, Foster also expressed that times are changing and Newfoundland’s rich music culture is only growing.
“We’re getting a lot more artists of different genres exporting from here,” he says, “It’s not the same expectation when people come to a show, they’ve come to expect the unexpected which is nice”
NL arts community
The NL arts community has been steadily growing for awhile. Especially following the pandemic, we’ve seen a resurgence in the arts scene over the last year. When discussing the major differences between the NL arts community from back when Foster was first starting out to now, he says,
“I think we are steadily exporting more artists, which is really exciting,” adding that “Another big one, I think, has been the growth of the island in terms of being open to instrumental music”
He then recounts a story detailing the current shift and ongoing cyclical nature of the music scene,
“A story that I regularly think about is Ron Hynes playing ‘Sonny’s Dream’ in a bar and people yelling at him to stop playing those made-up songs and to play something we know,” says Foster, “And I love those stories because, of course, now I could be playing some of my songs and someone would be like ‘play Sonny’s Dream,’ you know, the endless circle of how that works and I think about people like Ron who were blazing that trail towards encouraging people to try out and take a chance on original music.”
Reflecting on the evolution of music in Newfoundland, it’s interesting to see the growth in musical exploration both in artists and audiences. Original music has always been a part of the NL music culture, and it’s exciting to see how that culture is continuing to develop.
“There are so many wonderful places to play on the island now,” says Foster, commenting on how there are “so many places that are encouraging of original music and interested in it.”
Nerve
Foster has explored numerous different genres through his music from folk to classical, and alternative. His most recent album, “Nerve” could be considered one of his most significant shifts in sound.
“It’s named classical crossover, which is like a funny genre anyway, like all genres I mean, let’s be real, what is pop? What is rock? They’re so broad” he says. “Classical crossover is sort of the same, you could be like well it’s probably orchestral somehow but also drum synths- It could be anything.”
He adds, “It’s a pretty big shift because I just really, you know, I think every record has an evolution from one to the next- but this one was almost like a unique set of influences.”
When asked about his inspiration for the album, Foster explains “It was July 2020, I experienced this bout of nerve pain which is where the title ‘Nerve’ actually comes from. It became a chronic issue with this sort of random nerve pain in my leg and it obviously ran parallel to the pandemic- it was a very challenging time, as you can imagine, because, you know, I can remember hearing people say like ‘oh god this sucks you can’t go anywhere’ and I really can’t go anywhere, I’m like, it was difficult to walk for a period of time.”
“That was sort of a dark night of the soul kind of thing,” he continues, “And I guess even just the position of sitting at the piano compared to playing guitar for whatever reason, I mean bodies are strange, it’s like it was easier to do that, and piano is my first instrument- I kind of felt like some of the best distractions from all of that came when I was playing the piano and there was comfort in that.”
“It would be easy to infer the record is kind of a painful listen because it came out of a painful experience” he says, “But I don’t think it is, I think the songs are sort of musically introspective or cathartic or they’re meditative- cause that’s kind of what I was looking for, for like a little shelter in the storm I suppose, musically, and that’s where the record came from.”
Stream Ian Foster’s new album ‘Nerve’ on Spotify or Apple Music through the following links:
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/ca/album/nerve/1744157617
Upcoming events
Following the recent release of his new album, Foster also has some upcoming events to look out for!
There will be a St. John’s CD/Vinyl release at Bannerman Brewery on June 8th, with special guests Jing Xia, NCC, The Ballast Collective and Nancy Hynes at 8 pm, tickets are $20 each. Then, on June 9th, there is a ‘Nerve’ CD/Vinyl In-store event at Fred’s Records at 1 pm.
More information about the events and tickets are available here!
Editor’s note: Special thanks to Ian Foster for taking the time to chat with The Muse