Museum of Canadian Music

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“If the rest of the music scene seems more concerned with pumping out the party hooks, F&M are still studiously crafting their own brand of cerebral melodies…. and stripping the music down to its most basic, heart-wrenching core.” - The Edmonton Journal

F&M is a gently sardonic, dark and hopelessly clever art-folk band with a sound that can be described as Natalie Merchant sipping Bordeaux with Leonard Cohen in a group home run by Nick Cave.

F&M began in 2002 as Ryan Anderson’s 48 hour experiment in self-recording. Ryan prefers to think of himself as “experience-trained.” He believes in the cocktail-napkin method of song-writing: a brilliant idea could hit at any moment and he has never written two songs the same way. He draws his musical inspiration from some of his favourite artists — Leonard Cohen, Smog, Will Oldham, and The National, to name a few — from famous playwrights like Bernard Shaw — and from human experience. He was once approached after a gig and told “You sing the saddest songs, but with the biggest smile!” After a hiatus to travel and study, F&M grew into a collaboration between Ryan and Becky Anderson, with new music, an updated image, two additional musicians stolen from a defunct electronic-pop band, and a long lost brother to play the bass.

Becky acquired formal music training on the pipe organ, but is mainly self-taught in piano, accordion, guitar and cymbeline. She is rooted in deep academic longings and completed a Masters in Soviet Russian Rock Music Culture. When performing, she has a dramatic playing style and will often leave her microphone to just walk out into the audience to sing and use the accordion acoustically. Becky draws her inspiration for her music not only from her background in literature and music, or some of her favourite artists — like Dean and Britta, Beth Gibbons of Portishead, and PJ Harvey — but also from the imagery of the circus and even the violence of birds.

Currently F&M is partnered with Deadwear entrepreneur and artist Glen Ronald for a thematic album on loss entitled “Every Light Must Fade.” Ronald created paintings inspired by the music of F&M along with a special line of clothing under his brand Deadwear.

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  F&M - Every Light Must Fade

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