'5 Questions With': Forester
"We were on separate sides of the country at the time and only had a few weeks together in the summer to finish it up while we were both working full time jobs..."
Meet Forester, your new favourite indie-electronic duo. Formed in 2019 and comprised of Xander Carlson and David Parris, the Los Angeles-based group is blending acoustic instrumentation with dreamy electronic elements. Even though they haven’t in the scene for that long yet, Forester have already landed a major label tree with Palm Tree Records, a Sony imprint co-founded by none other than producer Kygo, and have surpassed millions of streams. Their latest single ‘Falling Water’ is another testament to the immense talent of the duo who writes, produces and sings their songs altogether. We caught up with them and spoke about Palm Tree Festival, the meaning behind their name and more.
Read the full interview below…
EQ: How did you first meet each other and ultimately form Forester?
F: Xander and I grew up 10 minutes apart but didn’t meet until high school when we got into a serendipitous conversation about music at a mutual friend’s house. We hit it off and the next day hopped straight in the studio, making our first track. For the next few years we threw a lot of warehouse after parties in LA that we would dj and test our latest music at. In college we wrote our first album, ‘Kerosene’, remotely. We were on separate sides of the country at the time and only had a few weeks together in the summer to finish it up while we were both working full time jobs. That album really set the creative direction for the project and since then we’ve been making music together as Forester.
EQ: Is there a story to the name as well?
F: A lot of our music is inspired by hiking trips and other outdoor adventures of ours. We wanted to think of a name that both sounded like our music and represents who we are as individuals. There’s a mountain pass on the John Muir trail called “Forester Pass” which Xander used to hike as a kid. When the name Forester came up and it instantly resonated with us and our mantra.
“There’s nothing like feeding off of the energy of a crowd.”
- Forester
Photo Credit: Madeline Megery
EQ: How was your experience at Palm Tree Festival? What was it like performing in front of an actual crowd after the pandemic?
F: Palm Tree Festival was a huge success. We were able to perform our live show outdoors as the sun was setting which is always the best environment to listen to / play our music. We definitely savor these moments in front of live crowds more than we ever have. There’s nothing like feeding off of the energy of a crowd. We’re really proud of the team for that show, having a palm tree festival has always been a dream of theirs and they pulled it off perfectly.
EQ: What do you want your listeners to take away from your music?
F: I’d say we ultimately want to transport our listeners to a freeing space. We feel most at home and at peace in nature, but we can’t always be there, so we hope to bring some of that to our fans wherever they are. I guess our music could be thought of as an antidote to the hustle.
EQ: What else have you got planned for the remainder of the year, anything you can share with us?
F: We’re really excited for what’s coming in the next few months. We’ve got some collaborations on the way with other producer artists which we’ve never done before. We’ve only ever worked with vocalists, so having a different creative ear on the production of a track has been really fun and we’ve learned a lot from it. Soon we’ll be heading up to the mountains to finish up our next record as well. That might be my favorite part of the album process. Oh and we’re working on some new merch…
Stream ‘Falling Water’ HERE
Keep up with Forester on socials
Instagram: @forestermusic
