Would you care to introduce yourself?
I am Michael and I play guitar and keyboard in The A Forest. The rest of the band are Cat (vocals), Chris (drums), Eilidh (cello), Ewan (guitar and synth) and George (bass).
How would you describe the music you make?
With difficulty...a mixture of slightly dreamy electronic soundscapes and more traditional guitar-based songs. A bit of a split personality, but it all hangs together quite well.
How did you start out making music?
Personally, I learned to play guitar when I was in my early teens (I'd originally wanted to play synth, like Vince Clark) when I became obsessed with music. I was always more interested in being in a band than attaining any level of instrumental prowess. I'd imagine the rest of the band were the same, though Eilidh has played in orchestras, and we met Cat through a mutual friend and twisted her arm until she joined us. The band came together through various friendships and work situations.
What process goes into the way you write songs?
Usually the songs start from an idea on guitar or keyboard that we would then jam on. There's a couple of songs on the album where I had my parts pretty much ready when I brought them to the rest of the band, but most of the songs are worked up from one or two little ideas. No-one's ever sat down and written a whole song for the band on an acoustic.
What can people expect from your live shows?
Minimal visual stimulation. We are all quite familiar with our footwear.
What are you all listening to at the moment?
Right now I really like The Scottish Enlightenment's 'Pascal EP'. I've played shows with them with a couple of other bands I'm in over the last few years and I'm really excited about their album coming out. The National and Los Campesinos! are fairly constant listens, and I actually like quite a lot of European/Scandinavian pop like Annie, Alphabeat and Robyn. George is quite partial to that sort of thing too! Chris gets pretty focussed on only a handful of musical things at a time - any time we're in the car together I only get to listen to Owen, Bon Iver and Pedro the Lion. As a band we generally share a love of Low, Sigur Ros, Mum, Mice Parade and Life Without Buildings.
What can we expect to see/hear from you in 2010?
Our album! I will mostly be hoping to persuade people that they want to part with cash for it.
The A Forest - Polar White
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