interview with the forum

Hey, it’s Kylie! Before we get into the interview I wanted to make you guys aware of some changes that Soleil is going through. For right now and the foreseeable future, Soleil’s only consistent member will be myself and my editor, Becca. There’s a few reasons for this, but the main reason being I wanted to give a wider audience the chance to get their work published without the true commitment of being part of a publication. What this means is anyone (yes anyone) can submit their work to wearesoleil@gmail.com for the chance to be featured. Whether it’s writing, physical/digital art, or photography, I’d love to hear from you!

If you'd like to flip through this interview:

https://www.flipsnack.com/soleilmag/the-forum-interview.html

(edited for clarity by myself and becca williams)

Kylie: Can you introduce yourself individually and your roles, and then the band collectively, such as your sound?

Michael: I’m Michael, I play guitar and sing.

Ethan: I’m Ethan, I play drums.

Jake: I’m Jake, I play the bass.

Nick: I play guitar.

M: We’re The Forum, we play indie rock music and we’re based in central Florida.

K: You guys right now are going through a rebrand, how has that been and what is it heading towards?

M: Ethan just joined the band and we started writing a lot more new music. We just figured it was kind of time to transition to a new period and a new jumping point for The Forum. We rolled out a new logo, branding, the idea was to get it all ready to go at the same time, so when we announced it it would all be cohesive.

K: Ethan for you, just joining, how has that been? How was your first show?

E: It’s been crazy, but it’s been a lot of fun too. Definitely something I’m not used to, this is the first band that I’ve ever been in, but the whole thing has been a whirlwind of excitement. I played my first show last weekend and it was a lot of fun, very high energy and exciting.

K: How did you guys all get into music, and then how did that transition into wanting to pursue it as a band and becoming The Forum?

E: I started playing drums when I was about 4, my dad had a set in the garage, so pretty much my whole life I’ve been playing. I did middle and high school jazz band and in college I played in the basketball pep band. Any opportunity to play drums, I’m going after. Last December, people saw me playing and Michael hit me up to audition for the band. It’s kind of a big dream of mine to be in a band so that’s why I said yes, and now here we are.

M: My sisters kind of got me into music. They’re older than me and they listened to a lot of music when they were in high school. Also my dad - I would listen to a bunch of classic rock CDs with him in his car when I was in eighth grade, and that’s when I started playing guitar. When I was a freshman in college, I had a lot of downtime in my dorm so I would record really shitty quality songs and from there I started wanting to play with people.

J: I started playing around elementary school in the little band they had. I played the saxophone, that was my first instrument. I just played all the way through high school. I picked up playing the bass in middle school jazz band, because my brother played guitar so I didn’t want to play guitar. I stopped for a bit once I got to college, but I realized I was bored and wasn’t enjoying myself as much as I was when I was playing music so I started asking around to start a band.

N: When I was a kid, around 11, I found this acoustic guitar in my parent’s garage and I started teaching myself how to play. I played music for a really long time before I ever tried to play with a band. When I transfered to UF, that was the first time I ever actually reached out to try to do something more serious with my music.

K: Who would you say influences your personal sound the most?

E: Growing up, one of my favorite bands was Rush. Neil Peart is my drum hero, pretty much. I grew up listening to a lot of classic rock, basically just idolizing these awesome drummers and then as I got older and breaking out my own sound, I turned more towards alt-indie rock, and really all kinds of bands. There’s really too many name but, mainly alt-indie rock right now.

M: Song writing and structure wise, Death Cab for Cutie is my favorite band of all time. Ben Gibbard does a really great job of focusing on these really small, intrapersonal moments in songs that are often overlooked and expanding on them, making them huge. That’s always something I always thought was really cool, ever since I was 13. Guitar wise, it changes but for the past year I’ve been focused on “How can we make this super rhythmic, what would Bad Suns do right now?”

J: Speaking for all of us, we all listen to bands such as The Strokes, The Killers, and more recently Bad Suns and Young the Giant. We take in all those sounds and expound upon them, because we like them and we try to take those sounds and incorporate them into our own unique aesthetic.

N: As far as my personal influences go, there are two bands that are tied for my favorite of all time, Death Cab for Cutie and The 1975. My goal is to sound like both of them at the same time, and if I can do that, I am pleased with myself. We try to take all of our own influences and evolve and build on them together.

K: Who is your dream tour mate?

E: Tame Impala for sure, Fleet Foxes, The 1975, Death Cab, Hippo Campus, I could keep going honestly there are so many to pick from.

M: Death Cab obviously, Bad Suns, Young the Giant, The Neighbourhood. Alvvays would be pretty cool too.

J: Probably more contemporary bands, Alvvays would be pretty cool, Men I Trust, Clairo.

N: The Dream lineup would be Alvvays, Julien Baker and Catfish and the Bottlemen.