Meet The Emerging Indie-Electronic Duo… Forester

Emerging indie electronic duo Forester is gearing up to make an everlasting impact on the music scene. Comprised of Xander Carlson and David Parris, the Los Angeles-based group first made their debut in 2019 with their single ‘Kerosene’. Backed by a sound that blends warm acoustic instrumentation with hypnotic electronic elements, the two effortlessly carved out their own unique genre. In 2020, Xander and David landed an incredible major label deal with Palm Tree Records – which was co-founded by music legend Kygo. A few months later, the talented musicians dropped their immersive sophomore project ‘A Range of Light‘. Fast forward to 2021 and Forester is continuing to introduce a new era of music to listeners all over the world. With their latest single ‘To Feel Alive’ making the rounds and the upcoming release of their third album, Forester is a group that needs to be on your radar. We were able to chat with Xander and David about everything from their creative process, live performances, and so much more. Read our full interview below.

Hey Xander and David, thanks for sitting down with SPINDLE. How’s it going? 

Hello! It’s going great, very busy but all good things. Thanks for having us!

 It’s insane to think the year is nearly over. Are you two ready for 2022? 

Yes! We have so much lined up which can feel daunting at times, but we’re so excited. Our third album is slated to drop in February and we’ll be hitting the road for our first headline tour in March! Along the tour we’ll be hitting some festivals that we’ve always wanted to play like Ultra. It’s looking like 2022 will be the year of shows for us. 

Let’s dive into the music shall we? What are the origins of Forester? How did this dynamic music duo come to fruition?

David and I grew up together in Los Angles. We went to neighbouring high schools and hung out on the weekends all the time because our social scenes overlapped. Eventually, we started planning and playing little pop up shows all over the westside of LA where we’d test out whatever songs we made that week. Sort of Warehouse/Underground vibes, those were really fun shows. However, this was long before Forester was born. We went on to attend colleges on opposite ends of the country where we experimented with our own sounds and eventually reconvened with a group of demos our Junior year that became our first album, Kerosene.

This album was our first venture in the world of chill electronic music. We drew a lot of inspiration from the natural spaces that spoke to us over the years. Particularly the Sierra Mountains which is where the name Forester was born. There’s a mountain pass in those mountains called Forester Pass that Xander crossed along one of his many backpacking trips up there. It’s a marvelous spot and at the core of it all we’ve been trying to encompass the feeling of that pass and the nature surrounding it in our music ever since. 

Your music is described as indie electronic. Did you guys always intend on this genre being your signature sound? 

We definitely didn’t start this project with the intention of solely making indie electronic music, that’s just what’s felt best for us so far. I think we both hope to drift genres a bit in the coming work. It’s important to keep the music-making and listening experiences fresh for us and the fans. Lately, we’ve been experimenting with some surf/indie rock sounds. It’s been a lot of fun and I could see us moving towards that sound in the near future. 

What does a studio session with Forester look like? What is your routine when creating music? 

Our favourite kind of session is a writing session but most of our time goes to producing and finishing music. On a writing day, however, David and I will grab instruments and mess around with chord progressions and top-lines until something stands out. It’s only after we write acoustically that we’ll open up the DAW and see what kind of electronic elements we can add.

In 2020, you guys signed with the Kygo co-founded label Palm Tree Records. How have you two evolved as artists since signing?

One of the best things we’ve done since signing with the Palm Tree team is play our first live shows. We now have the perspective of the live setting while writing music which has been influential.  The team has also been great in connecting us with other producers and songwriters that we’ve learned a lot from.

You recently released single ‘Wish You Well’ as part of an upcoming project. Can you take us through the creative process for the record? Is there a specific theme you want to explore with the upcoming project? 

Wish You Well is unique because the main melody line was written in a dream. I woke up one morning and couldn’t get it out of my head, so we wrote chords and lyrics to it and it became a song!

You two have also collaborated with Kidnap on the track To Feel Alive. It’s such a chill banger! How did you three end up linking up? 

We’ve always been huge fans of Kidnap. He helped pioneer the sound of downtempo house music which we’ve always been drawn to. Around a year ago we had a mutual friend link us and we were originally going to work on our song “Tenaya” which is the first track on “A Range of Light”, but that fell through mainly due to time constraints. About 6 months later we sent him our demo of To Feel Alive and he loved it. That’s how we started working together!

Will fans be getting an accompanying music video for the track? 

As of now, we don’t have plans for a music video, but it’s not ruled out yet. We have plenty of work to do on our next album and live show for the fall tour so that might take priority in the coming months.

When can we expect your sophomore album? Can you give us any hints about it?

Yes! We’re aiming for the beginning of February at the moment. Each of our albums so far has been themed as one of the four elements. Kerosene was fire, and appropriately Spark was the first song we released on that one which started the “fire”. A Range of Light is another name for the Sierra Mountains, so that one is earth. And this one is going to be water… that’s all we have to say!

Looking ahead, what are three goals that you want to achieve over the next year?

The biggest goal we have right now is to pull off a successful headline tour in the spring. Playing live has been a more recent development for us, and we’re excited to get comfortable with that. Alongside the tour, we’re excited to release our next album as well as start a merch line!

Make sure to check out Forester’s latest release ‘To Feel Alive’ here or below.