Let’s start off with the basics, what do you play in the band and how old are you?
I’m 33, I sing and play the piano and the saxaphone.
Describe Forrest Day using one word only.
Tremendous (laughs).
Why is a Forrest Day show something people should go to?
There’s no gimmicks, no tricks, it’s real, real music, no backing tracks and people, whether they know it or not, don’t hear much of it anymore and when people come to our shows they tend to be excited about how raw it is.
Which is more challenging: studio or live performance?
I guess maybe studio. It’s hard to say, they both have their challenges, but with the studio, I think, when you’re trying to get your headphone mix dialed in to sound kind of how it does live, it’s exciting. Sometimes you’ll go into a recording studio and there is just something stale about they way [the recording] sounds, like how am I supposed to bring it when it sounds so boring? And how are you supposed to come with all the life and excitement, so that can be a challenge. If you have dialed in in the studio and everything sounds perfect and then you go down to lay down your track it’s like, that’s pretty much ecstacy. It never gets that good at shows, you know maybe a snippet of a song once in a while, but at shows you have the adrenaline and the audience and the crowd just wants to pull a good performance out of you, and the studio that all just has to come from yourself.
On your website it says your genre is American Alternative Pop Psychosis- what is that?
(Laughs) I barely remember saying that. There’s definitely, amidst all the eclectiveness, a definite pop sensibility and at the same time it is all over the place and it’s kinda hard to categorize.
Your bio said that your style has an americana vibe to it which is prevalent when listening to your music. Do you have any bands or artists that helped influence your sound?
Yeah, there’s been so many over the years, you know, from rappers to bands. Biggie to Radiohead, Aesop Rock. Definitely punk rock inspired me and jazz, you know, growing up a sax player, jazz has rubbed off on me quite a bit and there’s a fair amount of Sinatra that audible in my music, or the way I sing at least.
What are the best and worst things about being on the road?
I don’t know, there’s not really anything I dislike about it, it’s pretty much what I love doing. There’s a part of every day where it’s hell, for sure, when you’re on the road. Everybody like, hates their life at one point of the day, but when you see something cool or have a great show and then everybody is on cloud 9 for a while.
How long have you guys been a band and where do you hope to see yourselves in the next 5 years?
We’ve been a band for 7 years going on 8 and I would say in the next few years you will see us on national tours and maybe even world tours.
Awesome, well I’m looking forward to that.
(Laughs) Thank you, me too, man.
Where can our readers find you online and listen to your music?
The first place I would say to go is forrestday.com. Anywhere else that people like to go check things out, we are probably there, but I like to tell people to go to my own website because I have all the albums up there to listen to and bios, pictures, music videos; it’s pretty much the best place to go.
Special thanks to guest contributor Eric Gesualdo for this great interview follow him on Twitter @ericgesualdo
