Artist Spotlight: Forester

Forester Interview

Special Feature

 

Xander Carlson and David Parris are Forester, an Indie electronic music duo from Los Angeles, California, USA. While both grew up in bustling LA, they both share an intense love of the outdoors, which serves as inspiration for their creative process. The name Forester actually comes from a mountain pass on the John Muir Trail, a multi-week hike around Yosemite that Carlson did when he we was 16 years-old. In fact, both musicians like to infuse elements of nature into their music in stimulating and unpredictable ways. 

To spur their creative process, the musicians often embark on camping and hiking trips to Yosemite, Joshua Tree and the central coast of California. Their latest single, “Symphony,”  (listen below) was written during the back half of a camping trip to Big Sur, which invigorated the song with a fresh, coastal feeling.

Symphony – Forester’s New Single on Palm Tree Records

“Symphony”  is the follow up to their most recent album A Range of Light, released late last year. Forester donated all of the revenue from the live stream of their album release to the Nature Conservancy.

 
Waves Coupon Code
For a limited time only! Up to 80% off all Waves Bundles. PLUS click this link for an additional 10%! This is Waves best deal yet! Get yours today before this special ends! GO!

Forester’s music blends acoustic instrumentation with electronic elements that transport the listener to wide-open spaces, allowing for introspection, as well as the desire to dance. FutureMusic sat down with the duo to discuss their songwriting and recording process.

FutureMusic: Your new album is said to have emerged from camping trips…

Forester: Recently Xander and I went camping up in Big Sur for fun, but that trip ended up inspiring our whole next record. We spent the days surfing and hiking and the nights around a campfire where we’ll pull out the guitars and jam. Sometimes full songs come out right then and there, and other times we use the inspiration from the trips to write songs when we’re back home.

Xander Carlson and David Parris are interviewed by FutureMusic Magazine June 2021

FutureMusic: Tell us about your studio…

Forester: Our studio is a place where we wake up excited to go to every morning. To start, we have a Universal Audio Apollo 8 interface that has really helped with productivity as well as processing UA plugins. Other gear that we have includes: a Sequential Oberheim OB-6, Manley Reference Cardioid Tube Microphone running through a LA-610 MK II Tube Channel Strip, Roland RE-201 Space Echo, Sequential Prophet Rev 2, Adam A7X Monitors, Gibson Les Paul, Fender Telecaster, Fender American Standard Jazz Bass, Kremona F65C Classical Guitar, Martin Acoustic Guitar, Gretsch Lap Steel Guitar and a Vox amp.

FutureMusic: Let’s talk more about processing and effects…what processing did you specifically use for your latest release?

Forester: The processing will change depending on what the sound needs, but we’ll often use a lot of the same plug-ins on our channel strips. On our last release titled Symphony”  we used a good amount of compression and distortion. Every sound is equalized differently, but you can guarantee that there’s an EQ on pretty much every sound. If it’s not a bass sound it’ll most likely be cutting low end.

FutureMusic: Did you employ any studio musicians, or did you utilize samples, or is everything just the two of you?

Forester: We’ll sometimes use individual drum samples in our tracks, but other than that we pretty much do everything ourselves.

Forester Music Studio in Los Angeles, California.

FutureMusic: Do you have any favorite mics for recording vocals? What processing do you employ to get your sound?

Forester: At the moment we’re loving the Manley Reference Mic. It really brings out the highs in Xander’s voice, and overall has a really nice tone. We not only use this for vocals, but for acoustic instruments too. In terms of processing, it varies per track, but we’ll usually need to cut Lows/Low Mids to around 200 HZ with another cut in the Mids around the 2000 HZ area and a high boost in the 10K HZ area. After an EQ we’ll use an 1176 style compressor and an LA 2A style compressor. In terms of creative processing we’ll usually have a reverb (usually Valhalla Room Vintage Verb) and a Delay of some sort on a send.

FutureMusic: Your music has a very soft sound, how do you achieve that?

Forester: Something that I’ve learned a lot from Xander is that it’s important to maintain lot of feeling in a song. In electronic music, a lot of songs are made to hit hard and have power often at the expense of introspective emotion. That’s totally fine and great, but just isn’t us. We aim to strike a balance between a track that feels good, but also has energy. I think we achieve this by using a lot of acoustic instruments in our tracks mixed with synthetic sounds and processing.

FutureMusic: What gear would you like to see in the future, but hasn’t been invented yet?

Forester: A MIDI suit that can take dance moves and synthesize them in the music, so the music is dancing to you.

FutureMusic: Where do you see Forester musically in five years?

Forester: Making something different that doesn’t sound like the music we’re currently making. We hope to always be evolving our sound!

Forester’s new single, “Symphony,”  is out now. Their new album is slated for Fall 2021.

 

Author: FutureMusic

Share This Post On