Forest Fergus (Altek, Clipped angel wings) is a musician based in Indiana. He places more emphasis on his sound/texture than his compositions; with songs often composed of several layers of guitar, synth, and noise to create all encompassing, ethereal drones.
I sat down with Forest to talk about his early musical influences, how he started making music and the making of his latest release “The Passenger”.
CMM – When did you first start playing music and when did you discover experimental, noise, soundscape type recordings?
Forest – The first music I remember strongly identifying with was Slipknot. I have two 1970s parents, so I grew up with a lot of alt-rock, alt-metal and grunge around the household. I fell down a rabbit hole of progressively heavier music, eventually defeated sanity became (and still is) one of my favorite bands.
CMM – When did you first start playing music and when did you discover experimental, noise, soundscape type recordings?
Forest – I started playing music on my ninth birthday, when my parents got me a red fender stratocaster. I first discovered noise music when I was a middle schooler, when I discovered Merzbow; I didn’t pay any mind to it at the time.
CMM – You recently released a new album called “The Passenger”. What was the recording process like? Any particular gear and instruments you used during the recording sessions that helped inspire you?
Forest – “The Passenger” originally started as a harsh noise/power electronics project. I’ve just recently started to appreciate harsh noise music, and I was inspired by the artists Navicon Torture Technologies, Brighter Death Now, and Kylie Minoise.
I’ve been using the same recording process since I first started making music. It’s all very amateur; for the first three tracks of the passenger, I would use my guitar, pedals and amp setup to generate giant walls of harsh sound. I would improvise three or four different recordings, then use a digital stereoizer to spread the sound around and make it sound truly massive. Once I had all these tracks assembled, for the hell of it I added a ton of reverb and echo to all the channels, and I realized I liked that sound better than the original. After listening to it twice over, I tweaked it just right released it like that. So when you’re listening to the passenger I and II as well as Circle rivers I, you’re hearing a harsh noise track drowned in echo and reverb. For the last track, I used a lot of the same techniques as my previous music; I took a long recording of me playing through a synth pedal into an echo and reverb, then added more layers in post production. This last track was always intended to stand out from the others, especially with the shimmering chords at the end. I wanted the album to feel droning, depressive and claustrophobic, evoking images of abandoned buildings and dark stormy skies. A very long, dark, abandoned tunnel for the listener to faintly shuffle through, with a very dim ray of light on the other end.
You asked about particular gear; I play a Gretsch Electromatic through my pedal setup into a Fender Tone Master Deluxe Reverb. (The tone master version works better for me; it needs way less maintainamce, it’s lighter, and you hardly sacrifice any sound quality by switching fron tubes to solid state in this case. Don’t believe what those guitar snobs tell you; solid state sounds great.)
CMM – If you could do a score for any film director who would it be and what would the film be about?
Forest – This is a tough question! I am honestly not very well versed in movies/television, (My preferred media being music, video games, and listening to video essays on youtube), but out of all the directors I know, my music would probably fit in a David Lynch film the best. My music would probably fit best in a movie without very much plot at all, something that focuses much more on abstract, colorful and psychedelic imagery and scenery than story and cohesion. Pretentious arthouse movies!
CMM – What do you have coming up next? Any new recordings or shows in the works?
Forest – While I do have to focus on my college education, I’ve got some cool projects I might be getting involved in; me and my old bandmates from Altek could be getting back together again during summer break. This time, rather than playing post rock/slowcore, we would take the music in a much more ambient and experimental direction. (Turns out, there’s a thriving music scene in all three of our college towns, which we’ll be taking inspiration from. Local music scenes are everywhere, so you, yes, the reader, go participate in one!)
Also, me and a couple other guys are putting together a hardcore punk band called “Defense Regiment”. The name may change before we release anything though, so you can follow me on Instagram, YouTube and bandcamp to stay updated on all my music stuff.
On the topic of shows, I had never considered preforming in front of a live audience a possibility so I never prepared for it or pursued any concert opportunities. It’s always been my dream to preform for an audience though, and I suppose now that I have a very small following, I could look into venues in the Indianapolis area… (I might be able to talk my way into playing at The Healer!)
