Singled Out: St.Arnaud's Love You (For Real)

Edmonton, AB's St.Arnaud just released the new single "Love You (For Read) and to celebrate we asked the project's mastermind Ian St.Arnaud to tell us about the track. Here is the story:

I think it was 2022 or 2023, in Calgary maybe, we finished a cute festival show, we walked offstage feeling good, looking forward to just enjoying the rest of the night and getting those little nods of approval as we packed our gear up and carried it back through the audience to leave.

Backstage, we ran into another artist we'd crossed paths with a few times before. Friendly enough. But every interaction with them follows the same script from them: "Hey man, I love you! I love music! I love your cat, I love your dog, I love your dadI Rub-a-dub-dub, I love lub. Life is grand. Life is love. I just love everything and everyone." Just, like, way too much, and this is backstage, talking to maybe 5 people. I felt trapped.

What I typically love about backstage interactions with other artists is when they feel totally normal - It's like running into a coworker in the lunchroom, except if the lunchroom is a festival, the lunch is a post-show beer, and your coworker might be someone whose art you really admire or maybe even a famous person. "Hey! Haven't seen you since Wales last year, what's up! cool! Big Gulps huh? welp, see ya later!".

So I was being polite enough and all, but this over-the-top "love love love" routine just rubbed me the wrong way. I guess I've never been the type of performer to have a big persona on-stage or off - maybe I should develop one? idk. What confused me the most was that everyone else seemed to eat it up - definitely the crowd, but even my bandmates backstage. It made me stop and wonder if I was just being a grump. Maybe I was the one taking it too seriously. Probably. But, in any case, it got me thinking: how can you love anything, if you're too busy loving everything? haha.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more here

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