Album cover for “The Burn Off.” Photo courtesy of Kelsey Foster.
Oak Cliff food photographer Kelsey Foster has released her first album “The Burn Off,” an indie and West Texas folk-inspired compilation of songs that represent the aftermath of a toxic relationship.
“I’ve always done art, whether that be photography or music. I’ve kind of just always intertwined the two, but I make money from photography and then that funds my other hobbies,” she said.
Her biggest hobby and project has been the album, working on it over the course of three years with Ben Fisher and finally releasing the 13 songs together last Tuesday, Oct. 14.
“I think that as a creative, it’s really awesome for me at least to be able to bounce around different creative outlets because I think one inspires the other and so forth,” Foster said. “It’s a really good outlet for me to be able to do music and kind of just let that flow.”
Although this is her first full album, Foster has been writing music since she was a little kid.
With this project, she experimented with music in a whole new way, especially enjoying learning how to manipulate samples into her own sound. Some of her favorite samples include one from Imogen Heap hitting her stomach or thighs that appears at the end of “Mexico City” and another sample using cardboard boxes being hit.
“It was really fun playing around with all of those sounds and then also just running some vocals through some different channels,” she said.
Foster described that as she got older, music began to mean even more than just something that sounded cool but helped her go through experiences such as grief, loss or even joy.
“‘The Burn Off’ is kind of a nod to, when you’re in, whether it be a toxic relationship or just a situation that isn’t good for you, but you’re not aware of it. So this album kind of came out of that, and whenever the fog clears off, like the sun comes out, the burn off of the fog happens … you come to understand what you actually went through in that situation, and what was real and what wasn’t,” she said.
Foster said coming out of that with a new clarity is a cool thing, pointing to the song “Secrets Spilled in the Plains” on the album as the song that says it best.
“Your head and your heart are disconnected. Your emotions might say one thing, but your brain knows what might be best for you,” she said. “So when there’s a disconnect you’re kind of all over the place, but when those things finally align and you’re like ‘oh, I realize what happened’ and then you can kind of move forward with healing.”
That healing comes with two songs of hope that end off the album, “Loop and Lil Agree” and “Aerobat.”
Although the feelings can be really hard, in the end when you’re out of it, it just feels so much lighter, she said.