A Nanaimo musician’s latest album has a tendency to explore the unnatural.
Singer-songwriter Glen Foster’s latest work, Unnatural Tendencies, will release on Saturday, April 20, and the musician will hold an album release show at Simonholt on Sunday, April 21, at 7 p.m.
Foster said the title represents his stand against the direction the music industry is heading.
“Rather than doing the same thing that myself and other musicians have been doing over and over and over again for the last few years, I’m trying something different now. Trying a lot of things different,” he said.
Even the album’s artwork which depicts Foster floating weightlessly in space symbolizes him dealing with his fear of heights and motion sickness.
The musician’s YouTube channel already includes released music videos and songs from Unnatural Tendencies.
The title of the album is also the name of a suite of songs, one of which was released last September before the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, called Seeing Red.
The singer-songwriter’s music does not keep quiet on social commentary, especially when in dialogue with topics about bullying or idolization leading to manipulation.
Although most of the songs on Unnatural Tendencies were created within the last three or four years, Foster said one song in particular dates back to 1980 and was originally released on his first album – at the time, with a heavy disco influence.
The song, titled Me and Maggy, refers to the musician and his wife, and has now been contemporized with “more of a pop-rock flair” and well-rounded sound.
“It’s just been the one song that I’ve never stopped playing all the years that I’ve been playing music, and it’s kind of neat to think that it’s still just as relevant. Seems just as fresh to me today as when I started it,” Foster said.
The “do-it-all-himself” musician has been performing professionally for more than 40 years, earning two silver medals from the Royal Conservatory of Music, and has released 10 original albums of his own composition.
Tickets for Sunday’s performance are available at Simonholt restaurant or online at www.quadwranglemusic.com.
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