INTERVIEW: FORREST KLEINDIENST OF FORREST ISN'T DEAD

I'm music magazine, forrest isn't dead, forrest kleindienst, wash away, the cure, robert smith, the end of everything, pop punk, goodbye, born or made

With so many young artists these days taking notes from the nostalgia of early pop-punk, it’s time for something fresh and new to cut through the masses. Atlanta-based synth-rock band Forrest Isn’t Dead gained an audience from their introspective lyrics and moody dance beats, creating their own authentic sound, and rising in the southern music scenes. The band has been hard at work touring and in the studio, and with their new debut album The End of Everything coming out September 16th , they’re nowhere close to taking a break anytime soon. With singles like “Wash Away,” “Fire” and “Goodbye,” already gaining positive feedback on Spotify, fans have something to look forward to with the full-length release.

We had the chance to sit down with front-man Forrest Kleindienst and discuss the new album, touring, and the band’s writing process and how they turn out such a unique sound, from his influences (and love for The Cure) to sharing which artists hype him up before shows.

So, how’s the recording process been?

Forrest Kleindienst/Forrest Isn’t Dead: It’s been good; it’s a lot of fun. Usually we’ll start with a demo either me or my business partner Vassey and kind of flush out the idea together then bring it to the record label and Wyatt and Tanner here will kind of put some final touches on it, make it feel a little bit bigger. Yeah, that’s the process we’ve got going right now.

Nice, have you experienced any obstacles putting an album together?

Not really, everything looks pretty smooth. I’m trying to think; nothing’s coming to mind really as far as obstacles.

Well that’s good, I just listened to the new album a couple days ago and it’s really good man.

Thank you, I appreciate it. The whole album will be out September 16th, which is actually the day before my birthday.

Nice. Yeah I love every part of t! I love the synth, I love the lyrics.

Thank you, I try to be introspective with the music and share my personal experiences more than like write about subjects.

So, do you write all the songs or is it a group project with the band?

Well it just depends, sometimes we start the songs together. Sometimes I start the ideas because I produce as well, pretty much everybody in the band is a producer. We might bring ideas to the table for each other. A lot of new songs started with me, Matt and Wes which is guitar and keyboard, and some of them started just me, some of them just Matt. We’ll all get together and all flush the idea out together.

Pretty cool, do you have any musical weaknesses, like some artists I’ve noticed they’re not really good with the editing software, but they can write and create. Others are not as skilled musically but can play with the editing and stuff all day long.

I don’t know because I’ve really kind of like tried to learn all the positions of creating music so I’m, I can produce, engineer, I play guitar, bass, drums, and piano, and then I also write all the lyrics and stuff so, not so much, I mean you know there’s always room for growth and there’s a lot of work. I really want to get better at piano so there’s that as far as you know, I thought that would be a little bit of an obstacle for me to write intricate chords and synth parts, or like I like know nothing about music theory and anything like that, I’m self-taught with everything.

I mean that’s pretty impressive.

Thank you, it’s lots of practice.

So how long have you been making music?

So I started playing drums when I was maybe six, and then I started playing guitar when I was twelve, and I started singing, producing when I was fourteen, and I will be twenty- eight next month, but professionally since 2018 so like the last four years. But beforehand, it was just kind of learning and getting prepared for now.

And who are some of your influences?

It’s funny because a lot of the music I listen to doesn’t sound anything like the music I make. Some of my favorite bands, definitely My Chemical Romance, T.S.O.L is a big one for me, Misfits, Smashing Pumpkins, there’s a band called Aiden I really like. The two that kind of have an influence on the music I create are Gorillaz and the Cure. I’m a huge Cure fan, and a lot of our music I take a lot of inspiration from them.

The Cure are great.

Yea, they’re amazing.

Fucking Robert Smith.

I fucking love Robert Smith.

So I was watching some of your music videos, specifically the Fire video and then the Born or Made one. Is there any deeper symbolism in the music videos that relates to the songs or are they like entirely different creative ideas from the songs’ meanings?

Fire initially had a more intricate storyline and purpose with the video and then eventually we kind of felt like it was too on the nose, so we kind of dialed it back and we really for that one went more for aesthetic than we went for storytelling where Born or Made, like the subject of the song is actually like it’s about the anti-glorification of serial killers and people who romanticize serial killers, and how I don’t think that’s very cool, and so the video we kind of wanted to do like, it’s very light but just some kind of like horror movie vibe to it since that’s kind of you know the subject or whatever. There’s not really a lot of symbolism in our music videos…Here We Are is pretty on the nose. Well yeah same with Goodbye, I don’t know, we really just try to think of what we think would be fun or look cool and then rock with that.

Cool cool, and are there any artists you would love to tour with?

There’s a couple, you know like our sounds aren’t exactly linear, but I would love to turn with Turnstile, obviously the Gorillaz, that’d be insane. Our buddies, our friends from Greenville, Luxx, I would love to tour with Luxx, I love them so much, and our friends Vision Video, it’d be cool to tour with them. But yeah those are some of the ones, especially Turnstile, Turnstile would be sick.

Alright and this is similar to influences but not quite the same. Are there any artists that you channel inwardly when you’re playing live, like to give you a boost of confidence? Obviously you have your own unique style, but do you ever try to embody someone inwardly just to give you that confidence performing?

I wouldn’t necessarily embody but I definitely, I watch a lot of concerts. Like a lot of concerts. There are just little things I’ll see artists do that I’ll take note of and then be like “oh yeah I can incorporate that with my own style on stage.” Really like Ville from HIM, and Gerard Way from My Chemical Romance. Those would probably be my two favorites that I take notes and kind of put my own spin on how they do their thing.

So how have you been preparing for this upcoming tour?

We’ve been practicing a lot, getting our itinerary, mainly just practicing. And relaxing before we go out and do all these shows. We have a little bit of a break in between some of the shows and then I think we got five to seven shows in two weeks then we’ll back in Atlanta for another ten shows night to back, so you know it’s not too bad, probably won’t see the long-extended tours until like probably next year, spring I would assume.

Gives you plenty of time to create something bigger.

Oh yeah, for sure. We’re already working on songs for a second album. That’s actually what we’re doing today.

Hell yeah. You’re constantly working, huh?

Every day all day, it’s funny because yesterday I was hanging out with some friends at my house and I was like this is the first day in like maybe three years that I haven’t gotten up to go do something, either like music related or with my day job. Always trying to make it happen. That’s how it is these days, you have to constantly work especially as a musician to make it.

Oh, for sure. Listening to your music, there’s a lot of very—I don’t want to say negative but definitely moodier lyrics and stuff, do you believe that your best work comes from the heavier moments in life or that it’s more difficult to create when you’re happy?

No, not at all. Like I said, I try to write more introspectively and from just my point of view and what I dealt with, and I try to put a hopeful spin on the negativity, and it’s more so like “this shit’s fucked up and bad stuff happens” but like you know there’s another side to it.

Yeah, yeah I was scared to use the word ‘negative’ cause that sounds so bad but I’m at a lack of words right now.

No, no you’re good.

I love the way you sing too, you have this—I’ve noticed it in some songs that there’s almost like this attitude in your tone that I really like.

I appreciate that, yeah I don’t even—as far as singing I don’t even think about it. Even like with the writing process, I don’t typically write down the lyrics, I will go into the booth and just say what comes to my mind. Even Here We Are, that song, even that version we put out, that is a one take through, first take like no words written.

Wow.

Like just straight up, first take that’s what I got, and then we went and added like layers on top of it. And that’s how I write a lot of the songs.

Are you serious? That’s crazy. Is there any genre that you’d like to experiment with that you guys haven’t already dabbled in?

Not so much with our own sound. I definitely would like to at some point do a side project and play guitar, like a more punk-centered band. Not be the frontman but definitely do guitar shit, but with us I feel like we just expand and grow with the sounds we have. And like I said, we’ve been working on the second album as well and a lot of the songs on there are just exceptionally better work and it just keeps getting better and better.

And are there any songs that get you hyped when you go into the studio or before performing?

I probably—I listen to a good bit of My Chemical Romance and also a band called Armor for Sleep on my way to shows. I actually have a playlist that’s called the pre-show playlist and that’s what I’ll play. It’s on our Spotify.

I’ll have to look that up.

Yeah, if you go to our Spotify page, I got a bunch of playlists on there that I made and curated.

I’m surprised I haven’t seen it because I’ve been playing your Spotify like all the time now.

Oh, thank you.

How did you guys start playing live shows? Did you build an online following first, or did you just know the right people, or did you start a local scene just playing like open mics and stuff like that?

So we actually started off just by putting on our own shit and it’s funny too because when we did our first one, I think there might’ve been like ten people there like here in Atlanta, and now we usually sell like two to three hundred tickets here so it’s just really cool to see over the last couple years just like more and more people show up every time and like now it’s at a point where people will know the words and shit which feels amazing. But you know, we’re new to a lot of the other bars. We’ve got a pretty big fanbase in Greenville, South Carolina and we got a pretty big fanbase in Atlanta but like that’s really it right now which is why we’re trying to branch out and play some of these North Carolina cities, and like Tennessee and shit you know because that’s what we did here and in South Carolina, we just kept playing there until we got the fans.

Oh yeah I’m sure it’ll take quite a few shows to start building that fanbase.

Yeah it goes from ten to twenty-five to fifty to a hundred, you know.

I would imagine touring is pretty fun anyways.

Oh yeah, being on the road is fun. Hanging out with the guys.

Alright so we only got a couple minutes left, we do this thing here called “Three for the Road.” It’s basically where I ask three kind of fun, silly questions to end the interview with if that’s cool.

Alright, let’s do it.

Do you have any weird obsessions or any topic that you’re kind of an expert on outside of music?

Outside of music…

Like just a random topic that you know a lot about.

I feel like I have an answer for this…but it’s not coming to me. Really honestly though, I know you said outside of music but I’m a fucking music nerd.

Okay.

There are even bands I don’t like or don’t listen to I’ll know every little detail about them like I obsess over learning things about other bands and musicians and stuff.

So then what’s one band that you know a lot about?

Definitely My Chemical Romance, and definitely the Cure. Probably those two the most are my two biggest. Outside of music…maybe skateboarding. I used to skate a lot growing up, so I was like really embedded in that community as a kid and teenager.

Alright, next question. Do you have any favorite snacks when you guys tour, like any road snacks that are a must-have?

I like the—what’s it called—the hot lime Cheetos or the hot Cheetos.

Oh those are good.

Yeah and I like Zapp’s Evil Eyes. Trail mix is dope. A lot of water. I drink a shit ton of water.

Hey gotta stay hydrated.

But yea, probably those.

Alright and lastly, what’s something you love that you feel a lot of people don’t like?

Let’s see…

This could be anything.

Man, that’s a hard one.

Or I guess something that’s unpopular.

I like really corny horror movies that a lot of people don’t. Also, there’s some music that I like that just seems like no one else I know really gets into. A lot of more emo stuff.

Name a couple.

Like Alesana is one, Armor for Sleep, and Hawthorne Heights, shit like that.

Cool cool. Well, it looks like our time is up, thank you so much for letting me pick your brain and talk to you.

Yeah of course, no problem.

This has been really insightful.

Fuck yeah.

Good luck on tour and good luck working on the second album. I’m already excited for the first one.