East Forest, the electro-acoustic artist who merges nature, wellness and spirituality into his sound, will release his new album, Music For The Deck Of The Titanic, August 18. Ahead of the album East Forest has a very unique AI video, created by David Lobser, for the nine-minute spoken word track, “So What?” featuring comedian Duncan Trussell.
The video, premiering here, has to be seen to be believed. Just sit back, watch and enjoy both the craziness and the surprisingly profound message the track delivers at the end. That is what East Forest loved about the final piece he put together from Trussell’s appearance on East Forest’s podcast, as he explained over the course of two interviews.
The first was backstage at BottleRock in Napa Valley this past May with Sage Bava and I, the second a follow-up phone call to discuss the video. Over the course of the two conversations we touched on a wide range of subjects, including the video, why comedians are enjoying a moment in the spotlight, his theater background, Bjork and much, much more.
Steve Baltin: How do you feel about the performance today?
East Forest: I feel good. It’s always a bit of a friction, like trying to come into spaces where there’s so much going on. And especially when you’re first and try to drop in like that.. So it’s a little bit of a daze. I’ve also been in Southern Utah, which is where we spend a lot of time for the last seven weeks. And I see almost no one. So it’s like, “Wow, okay, back to it.” I think it’s harder coming back into society. It’s easier coming out. It’s always been a good respite, you’re out running around, then you get some full nature time. It’s kind of necessary.
Sage Bava: With nature time being your main creating time, do you find you need to excavate yourself from society?
Forest: I actually don’t. I do rehearse and create down there for sure but I find that if you’re always doing s**t and on your phone, it’s like you forget who you are in a way. I do. So I just feel like I have to force myself to take those kind of breaks. It’s hard to do in day to day life. You always can get s**t done. I like to get things done and so I need to go down there where it’s like you’re so surrounded by it and like you have to pay attention to the weather and that humbles you. I think that’s important.
Bava: Since you mentioned sense of self, how much is music tied into that for you?
Forest: I think in a big way ’cause you get to get in touch with the parts of yourself that it’s bigger than yourself. You get so wrapped up in personality. I make music ’cause the creative process makes me feel better and sane. So if I don’t do it, I feel so small and so depressed and so anxious. So that’s actually the real reason I do it as a job ’cause it forces me to keep playing every day [chuckle]. I like doing it but there’s always that resistance.
Bava: You have a role though. For the audience goers, the community you are the respite, the rest.
Forest: Yeah, for better or worse, I’m definitely the lie down guy [laughter]. The whole community aspect wasn’t something that I really chose. It was more like we started doing this in mushroom ceremonies, which is a group. And it was literally a small community because there’s the legality. It’s like we’ve got to keep this tight and it’s held onto that, which is surprising to me. And for a long time, I kind of went a different direction. I was trying to fit into like, “Okay, now I’ve got to bring this into the mainstream space.” I tried things and eventually it’s like, “Why am I not just bringing that ceremony piece back in?” And as soon as I did that, it’s like lean into what you know. I guess I never thought you could amplify that in such a way. But culture kind of met at the moment where it’s like people are looking for that.
Baltin: People want healing, organics, they want community, they want spirituality, they want that connection.
Forest: I was just going to say that. You’re thinking the same thing I was thinking. So we’re already hungry for that authenticity of seeing something alive in front of us and ephemeral and that’s going to just explode. And so, in many ways, live music will become the thing, recorded music will probably become not that interesting. Or not actually it’ll be so ubiquitous, so easy to do, for better or worse. But that’s the future we’re staring down, I think.
Baltin: What’s an example of something you’ve experienced from other people in that way that took you into another world?
Forest: The biggest one was Sigur Rós at the Beacon Theatre in 2005 on their second tour. And I didn’t know them. My friend would always introduce me to music in New York. He worked for Atlantic, so he always had tickets and he told me to eat some mushroom chocolate he made. And that show, everyone was crying walking out of that theater, just in stunned disbelief looking at each other. I remember walking down to 59th Street, Columbus Circle and just sitting there for hours just thinking, “This is what music and art can be as a communal experience and how beautiful it can be.” It was so theatrical and I had a background in the theatre before all this, so I was like, “I want to bring that kind of level of a show.” I’d love to take what I do to Vegas but it’s almost like kryptonite for Vegas. But it’s playing that with that language of lights and emotion and arc and story but I want to do it in a way that to me is more about the inner life as opposed to exterior life.
Bava: I have such admiration for artists that bring in what I think is truth and nature and all of that into the music in a way that can be received because I’m an artist and I have tried so many different ways of writing about nature but I’m met with such resistance. I’m sure you were met with a lot of resistance but are met with more low play.
Forest: Well, it has been a process. Absolutely. I’ve written thousands of s**tty songs [laughter]. And it’s also like I was saying, organically you find the edges and then you eventually come back to your center in a way. And there’s also a freedom in that because you can also continue to write whatever you want to write. You don’t have to say it’s just this kind of music and I like that too.
Bava: Do you encapsulate your core purpose or message onto a sentence or a few words, or you’ve never thought about that?
Forest: Oh, we’ve thought about that [laughter]. But it’s about inner work, inner growth, inner insight, inner fortitude is what I’ve been saying more lately because I feel that’s something we all could always use more of that. But we’re gonna need it more and more and more. My heart tells me we’re in for some serious s**t. So if anything, I’m just trying to get us all like, “Let’s batten down the hatches emotionally and get our connections and our community.” You feel grounded? Okay. Do you know how to breathe? And I just think that’s going to be very valuable and needed.
Bava: So it’s theater and then music. I’m sure music was a part of it always but I’m curious what drew you to theater? ‘Cause to me I was also a theater nut, Broadway chick and then I now do music.
Forest: Yeah, I was doing music the whole time. And there was the merging with musical theater when you’re younger, it seemed perfect. And I also really had trouble when I was really little with some depression. And so I became a class clown. I think I liked having attention ’cause then I felt special. So I just went into that and I was pretty good at it. And then just kept doing it. Then I went to school for it and then I was doing it and I would do jobs but it was so crazy collaborative to the point where the odds of it hitting and being amazing and you’re like, “That was such a great experience,” was low and they need to be higher. It was really just demoralizing that way. And then it would end if you got a great job. So the music eventually just took over and I made a move to Portland, Oregon and I thought like, “I think this is the time to just go 100 percent into the music.” And it was easier to do and everything really blossomed. And coming to the West Coast helped a lot really, When you’re in New York, everything happens in New York, it’s all that matters what happens in New York. But of course, when I left New York is when I think I was able to take more risks.
Baltin: Where does the new album’s title come from?
Forest: It’s because I think that was beautiful, honestly. It was real people who played music while the ship sank and it’s like those people got it, in a way. It’s like we might as well sing, in a way. And also I feel like we’re going through a huge change. And I just think it takes a lot of inspiration to go through that change. And so I think music is an incredible mechanism to feel those things, concepts that are beyond just words, or even just simple ideas. It’s like there’s things we can’t explain. That’s why I couldn’t explain that Sigur Rós show, really. It changed me. What I love about that record is it’s live drums and bass and piano and strings and singing and it’s just groovy. So I really just… I don’t know where all that came from but it’s like a pretty groovy…
Baltin: Who’s your dream artists to collaborate with?
Forest: Alive, you mean? [laughter] Probably Björk. For many reasons. A, I want to hang and I want to create and I want to sing with her.
Baltin: Were the lyrics to “So What”?” improvised by Duncan or was that written out?
Forest: It was a podcast he did on my podcast so it was just chatting. And then I essentially edited down an hour long conversation into that nine0minute song. So yeah, I was just talking.
Baltin: What was your initial reaction when he brought up the whole thing of we’re you know fragments of a god sticking his dick in the black hole. Were you able to keep it together or did you just lose it at that point?
Forest: Oh, I was laughing my butt off but I think I was laughing partly so hard because we were talking about the cosmic joke and that kind of sums it up, right? It’s like all of creation comes down to like just desire, or just like a dick joke in a sense. It’s like, in some ways it’s fitting, a little too fitting.
Baltin: And yet what I love about it man is there’s a depth to it too. When you went back and edited the hour into this nine minute song were there things that really shocked you when you realized like just how insightful the conversation was?
Forest: Well, I know Duncan and that’s something that’s really one of his strengths is that he’s very funny and he is humble and self-deprecating but he has a lot of depth. He just doesn’t like to lean into it publicly and so forth. And I just found that a lot of songs that really work like this with spoken word either work or they don’t. So I just honestly started putting it together like I would with Ram Dass or I would with other people I’ve worked with. But like you said, there’s humor, there’s a little arc to it and by the end there’s actually a message in a bookend from the beginning. And I find it quite grounded and touching at the same time.
Baltin: You know him but were there things in particular then that when you went back and looked at it that really impressed you?
Forest: Absolutely. He just has a real talent for using humor but also like having a very humble way to give across messages without feeling preachy or it’s just extremely approachable. I wasn’t planning on having any spoken word on the record. I’ve done that a lot over my career but this one just kind of happened organically. And what I like about it is that it’s sort of turning the idea on its head. Like it’s not overtly like a spiritual teacher like Ram Dass. It’s kind of blue humor and yet it’s very approachable to everybody and I love that. So, for me, it felt like pushing the envelope a bit on what you can do with “spiritual teachings” and using humor to do it. And comedians also right now are in some ways like at the forefront of a lot of our culture. They’re having a moment. And so I thought that was kind of fun to lean into that.
Baltin: Are there comedians that really stand out to you for their insight or the way that they’ve been able to do this?
Forest: Of course the guy at the top of the mountain is Dave Chappelle, who’s like the master of it right now. And he’s a little more heavy handed I think in sort of like putting forth a message. And Duncan’s someone that I got to know personally actually ironically through the Ram Dass world and Pete Holmes was there too. And so Pete was someone that I also saw some of this in too, who wasn’t afraid to kind of dance in there. There’s a line that I think it’s so cool that they don’t seem to cross, they just stay in the humor zone and they let the sort of messages speak for themselves as opposed to be very heavy handed about it. So I’d say Duncan and Pete for sure.
Baltin: Talk about the video.
Forest: The video itself, to me, is very Duncan. It’s just like wild and psychedelic and more like visual information at the same time, yet also, somehow very fitting to what he’s talking about. It’s crazy stuff. Here we are in such a strange post-truth world where this kind of stuff starts to come more out and there is kind of like a collective shrug at the same time. Or it’s like there is so much information and weirdness coming out as a part of it is like, “What the f**k does that do to my life? I don’t know.” In some ways it is, “So what? I guess that’s been going on or is going on. Now, what do we do?” It’s like we still have everything else happening at the same time too. And I think that is destabilizing for people. But you’re right, total sign of the times.
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