Toronto-based songwriter/multi-instrumentalist and long-time Fast Romantics member Kirty announces her new solo album We Are All On Fire will be released on August 20, 2021 via Postwar Records. Alongside the album announcement, the captivating songstress releases a dreamy new track off of her forthcoming solo LP, “Turn You On” and its grotesquely dark and comedic accompanying video, which is premiering via Exclaim!. Says Kirty of the new single, “Turn you on” — a deceiving song title considering this has nothing to do with sex. I wrote these lyrics in a stream-of-consciousness-state one day as I was thinking about the peaks and valleys of trying to make something of yourself in the music business. The good, the bad, and the ugly.”
Conceptualized and shot by director Anne Douris and featuring award-winning Canadian actor and comedian Chris Locke (Baroness Von Sketch Show, Mr. D), the video for “Turn You On” is full of fun, creepy weirdness, and sees Kirty literally consumed by a hedonistic bourgeois. “It’s about feeling consumed, overwhelmed, overworked, and overly digested, and Anne’s concept and treatment matches that sentiment in a splendidly gory way,” shares Kirty.
“Turn You On” follows the poignant, grungy, distortion-rich single, “God Help Us” and the melancholy early 90s-inspired track “This Year’s Been Hell”. The singles found support on marquee playlists like Spotify’s New Music Friday Canada, Indie Playlist BIRP! and Indie to go and garnered praise from outlets like Ottawa Life, Exclaim!, Spill Magazine, Dusty Organ and ET Canada who dubbed Kirty “the coolest woman in the province.”
For Kirty, her latest solo effort just seemed to pour right out of her. Having transitioned from her 20’s to her 30’s, the nine tracks that make up We Are all On Fire bookmark this new section of her life. The result is a deeply personal collection of songs that sees the songwriter confronting and reflecting on the heaviness of impermanence and mortality, everyday humans and their impact on everything; both good and bad, and the many faces of love. From the gut-wrenchingly beautiful “God Help Us” that explores the powerlessness one feels when watching the world around them fall apart, to exploring the different facets of love whether it be for a place (“I Want Your Love”), special person (“Something About You”) or occupation (“We are All On Fire”), We Are All On Fire is bold and deeply honest, externalizing the songwriter’s internal world.
Co-produced with long-time collaborator Josh Van Tassel and Fast Romantics bandmate/songwriting partner Matthew Angus, when it came to recording this album, Kirty kept the circle small. “People who know me know that I can be a pretty private person at times and in the studio, I have some funny habits. I’m not like most musicians in the sense that I don’t always like to be cooped up in the studio. I tend to leave the room unexpectedly, get restless, and fluctuate between bursts of creativity and bursts of stir-craziness. Needless to say, I have my quirks.”
In order to keep the recording experience intimate, Kirty asked her long-time friend, musician, and producer Josh Van Tassel, and long-time bandmate and songwriting partner Matthew Angus to hunker down for the entire length of writing and recording the record. Kirty continues, “Josh played drums, Graeme Moffat played bass, and Matthew played a smattering of other instruments. Some of it happened before the pandemic with us all in a room, but we finished it separately. All the same, there’s this half-fictional image of the four of us in a circle, playing this live in a garage someplace in my head.”
Kirty’s forthcoming LP follows her 2016 acclaimed self-titled sophomore release which the Toronto Star dubbed “your new favourite thing” and the National Post praised “it makes a fine soundtrack for everything from a walk in the park to an evening under the stars… and fits right in on a playlist with the likes of Jenny Lewis, Lana Del Rey and Neko Case.” The release found success on CBC Radio’s Top 20 chart and garnered international placements in commercials and TV including landing lead single and one of CBC Music’s Songs You Need To Hear “That’s Not Me” on a global marketing campaign for EOS, as well as notable sync features in popular teen drama Riverdale and Canadian sitcom Kim’s Convenience.
