David Foster - Talent Runs in the Family

In the world of pop music, David Foster is known as the man with the Midas touch. And with a list of accomplishments that include such luminaries as Josh Groban, Celine Dion and Vancouver’s own Michael Buble’, one can only imagine who next will have the good fortune to work with the fifteen time Grammy-winning producer. The Victoria native will be joined this Sunday, November 8 at General Motors Place for a special evening; accompanied by Phillip Bailey of Earth, Wind and Fire, Chicago’s Peter Cetera, The Canadian Tenors and former ‘American Idol’ contestants Ruben Studdard and Michael Johns.

In 1985, Rolling Stone magazine dubbed Foster "the master of bombastic pop kitsch"; the same year he composed the score for the motion picture, ‘St. Elmo’s Fire’. Just three years later Foster was again in the world spotlight having written the theme music for the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.

Meantime, talent in the Foster clan doesn’t seem to fall too far from the tree as his daughter Amy is an accomplished composer in her own right; having written million-selling written hits for a number of artists including Diana Krall, Destiny’s Child and Andrea Bocelli. These days, Amy has turned her attention to the written word; having penned her first novel, When Autumn Leaves.

Described as funny and uplifting, Foster’s book is a touching tale of friends, family, community and finding ones own self, while set in the fictional, picturesque Pacific Northwest town called Avening. I asked her if she felt that her musical inspiration was firmly ensconced in the Foster gene pool.

“I’m very inspired by my dad,” she tells me, “mostly though, I’m inspired by his work ethic – he works harder than anybody else I know and that’s really important, so nothing was handed to me – that’s for sure. After college, I went to London and worked in poetry and started there and that’s where the lyrical side came from. I write lyrics and my dad writes music and sometimes we write together, if my dad needs a lyric, he’ll call me.

Having always wondered whether it’s easier to draft a lyric to a great piece of music than to create a melody to words, I asked the composer turned author what she felt was the simpler task.

“That’s a really tough question,” she says. “But the artists that seem to have great longevity in this industry and have the most respect are artists that have great lyrics. When you talk about people like Bob Dylan or Joni Mitchell or Paul McCartney or Elton John – people who have longevity – the lyrics are generally as good as the music.”

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I caught up recently with Jonathan Torrens, best known to fans as ‘J-Roc on the long-running Canadian hit TV series, ‘Trailer Park Boys’. After having virtually grown up on Canadian television since his teen years as the host of CBC’s ‘Street Cents’, Torrens currently hosts, ‘TV with TV’s Jonathan Torrens’; a pseudo-mockish look at his self-described ‘Golden Age’ of television.

“My Golden Age was circa 1982 – 1989 and the whole notion behind this new show is that I have it in my head that TV was actually better when I was a kid and I guess my focus statement is, is that true or am I just nostalgic for a simpler time in my life, but I am hard-pressed to believe that kids watching ‘The Hills’ today have the same emotional connection that we had to ‘The Cosby Show’”. The show airs on TV Tropolis.

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