The Toronto-based Indie rockers Fast Romantics have officially launched their Get Loved project, an aim to create positivity on social media. And they are headed to Red Deer’s Bo’s Bar and Grill Nov. 2nd.

The social experiment was inspired by the group’s next single Get Loved. The group gave up their social media accounts, letting people share their tales of love and kindness.

“Right now there’s a lot of pretty negative stuff happening, and you go on Twitter and everyone’s just complaining about politics or money or crime, and it’s all real stuff, but we wanted to try something where just for a few minutes people can inject something positive into the world,” said Matthew Angus, vocalist and lead songwriter.

For those tweeting a story with the hashtag #GetLoved, the band will retweet it. The same goes for those sharing their story on camera who post the video on Instagram or facebook using #GetLoved, the group will share or re-post it. For those having a longer story to tell, the group made a web site called GetLoved.org so that people can share their story.

The Fast Romantics have been around for years in different versions, but this particular grouping has been together for about three years, and met through the busy Toronto music scene.

“This city (Toronto) is really quite vibrant and there’s a whole bunch of people that are playing every night, and we just in general found each other just by seeing each other play shows in different bands,” said Angus.

He said he’d call someone up and say, “You’ve gotta join my band,” and every once and a while the right person would come along and agree.

“Kevin took a lot of coaxing. I remember I was sending him texts for about two months with just the words ‘join my band’ in capitals and finally he relented. He gave in,” he said with a laugh.

Angus grew up with music in his veins. His mother was a piano teacher who was passionate about him learning to play piano, even before he could talk.

“She sat me in front of the piano when I was like two or three and that was the start of it for me. I’ve been doing it my whole life,” he said, adding the piano was his first instrument for quite a while until he discovered the guitar and rock and roll.

For Angus, songwriting inspiration comes from a lot of things.

“The best times in my life when I’ve been really fruitful in songwriting are when I have the space to just sit around in a coffee shop, eavesdrop on people or watch people. When you hear interesting news stories or other people’s stories about something that happened to them, you have to have your ears open when you’re writing decent songs.”

When it came to the group’s latest album American Love, things got political.

“We were touring through the States during all the craziness down there (the election), and we’d already had quite a record written. It was mostly love songs at the time, and after touring in the States, a lot of those songs got tinged with the political atmosphere down south,” said Angus.

He said making the album was a long process, and the songs aren’t about politics, but rather are love songs set in the context of what was happening at that time.

“It’s still a love songs record, but it’s a very realistic love songs record,” he said with a laugh.

carlie.connolly@reddeerexpress.com

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