Toronto-based indie band Fast Romantics has their own romantic story in their midst. Lead vocalist and songwriter Matthew Angus and singer-songwriter Kirty fell in love after meeting to rebuild the iteration of the band we know and love today. With a prestigious SOCAN National Songwriting Prize and a Prism Prize nomination under their belts, they’re preparing to release their new album, Happiness + Euphoria, on Sept. 29. Ahead of the new release, the pair shares the details of how they met and their rom-com first date moment.

How they met

Matt had been looking to fill a spot in Fast Romantics and had been searching online for Toronto-based musicians. He came across my profile on Bandcamp and reached out via Facebook. I usually don’t answer messages from people I don’t know on Facebook, and I was never interested in playing in someone else’s band, but I answered the message and decided to go out for drinks with Matt to chat about the band and what he was looking for. From there, our conversations expanded into multiple hangs a week where we would chat about music for the first half hour and then play Scrabble and drink way too much bourbon.  

The first date

Those nights kind of blurred into when we officially started dating, so I’m not sure when and where our first official date was. Knowing us, it was probably eating hamburgers, sitting on the floor of my apartment and playing games. As gross and “rom-com-like” as this sounds, at some point the Scrabble pieces flew on the ground and as we were picking them up, we kissed.

The courtship

It’s been almost a decade of life together — with a million memorable moments: Touring adventures and living in a van together, travelling across the continent, travelling to Germany for the first time together, living and recording in New York City, becoming aunt and uncle to a pile of incredible kids across both our large families, hot vacations every winter, being stuck together in the pandemic and loving that time together despite the struggles — the list goes on! 

The proposal

Matt had got a family ring from his mom and had planned a cottage getaway on an island up in cottage country. After ribs and corn dinner one night, he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. To be honest, I was flabbergasted. Most couples talk about these types of things, but Matt went the surprise route. 

The secret to success

I’m not sure if there are any secrets. We love spending time together (even if we’re not doing anything). We challenge each other, and we can count on one another. It sounds crazy, but if we spend a day or two apart, even after a decade, we really miss each other. And one of the most important things is we aren’t ever afraid to be fully honest. If something is up, we just say it, and the other always seems to come at it with both ears, full of understanding and empathy. 

Balancing careers and a relationship

This is a hard one! As two people with a hell of a lot of stuff going on with Fast Romantics and everything else, balancing life and work can be hairy. Thankfully, usually at least one of us is more balanced than the other at any one time, and we’re pretty good about gently nudging the other person when it’s time to take a step back and find some balance.