sorry forever is an indie band from Champaign-Urbana, Il. Their latest E.P. “Learning To Be” features four beautiful songs that radiate with cosmic energy and atmosphere.
I caught up with vocalist/songwriter Ocean Thoreau, guitarist/songwriter Sean Wilkinson and bassist sin ham to talk about their early musical experiences, how the group formed and the making of the new E.P.
CMM-What was the first music that really made an impact on you all as kids and what artist or band did you all enjoy the most?
sin: I listened to Lorde’s Pure Heroine record when I was around 12. I’d never knew music could feel intimate and personal.
Sean: That’s a hard one, I remember my parents would listen to 70s era music a lot, so I think that probably seeped into my influences. I remember my older brother had a vinyl copy of Bright Eyes’ Digital Ash album, and spinning that and really loving it. One of my favorite music moments in my life was in high school, being on a plane on the way to Phoenix for vacation, and the plane had free music on the little TV’s. One of the albums was Sigur Ros’ Valtari, and listening to that album while watching the world from above changed my life.
Ocean: Growing up I was a huge fan of The Killers, John Mellencamp, and Natalie Merchant. My parents were huge fans of 10,000 Maniacs and I had always been so drawn to Natalie’s voice, as I think my mom has a lot of the same vocal qualities as her. John Mellencamp was something I remember our family listening to on the way to my grandpas house. My dad and mom were also fans so that helped! John was the reason I ever wanted to play guitar. I remember sitting on the back of our couch with MTV playing “Rain on the Scarecrow” and pretend playing my dad’s acoustic guitar. The Killers were a band I would watch preform live over and over again. I loved watching all of them on stage, Brandon Flowers vocal tone was something I could always sing along easily to and one of the many reasons I enjoy the band to this day. A lot of my music taste was inflicted by my family and something I’ve continued to share with them.
CMM-How did the band form and start writing songs and developing your own sound?
sin: Ocean and I had been in several iterations of various projects since 2021, including a punk band called Feed the Monarch. Once we had Sean and Jay, the atmosphere finally felt right for everyone to start bringing together their creative works into a cohesive project.
Sean: Sorry Forever formed in 2024 – Ocean and Sin had been in a band called Feed the Monarch, and they were looking for a guitar player. I reached out and offered and from there it just clicked. We all have a similar taste in music, and so I think our sound has taken a lot of inspirations from those artists. What’s cool is that one of us will come in with lyrics or a guitar part, and we’ll essentially form the whole song from that, so our own individual styles just meld together. I’ve historically very much been a perfectionist when it comes to my art, and so it’s been a cool learning curve to come in with drafts of a song and show them to the band and kind of let go of the need to have the whole song done and perfected on my own.
Ocean: Sorry Forever formed in 2024! sin and I had been in a band previously called Feed the Monarch and when that disbanded due to members moving away, sin and I wanted to keep making music together. We put out a post asking for a guitarist and that’s how Sean joined us. sin was responsible for Jay joining the band, as she was the one who had kind of scouted him out and made that initial connection. All of us pull from various other genres of music but a lot of things stay thematically through what we all listen to. I usually come to the band with lyrics and a very simple guitar part when writing and from there we kind of all discuss how we see the song coming together as a full band. Sean is really good about making little demos to give us an idea before we come together in person.
CMM-The group recently released an E.P. called “Learning To Be”. What was the writing and recording process like for those and were there any particular pieces of gear you used to get the sound you were looking for?
sin: Andrew Rodriguez was an outstanding producer; truly we couldn’t have done it without him. He put so much faith in our music and really helped us to push it to the absolute best it could be. I really enjoyed using my Squier Classic Vibe Mustang Bass with flatwounds for “kind”—I knew I wanted an old-school 60s sound for that track, as my part was inspired heavily by early Beatles lines by Paul McCartney, so it was a perfect fit for that sound.
Sean: Two songs on the EP were written by Ocean (Thirteen, Kind) and two were written by me (Sugar, Feel). Back when we initially showed each other the drafts of these songs, they were super barebones, with mostly just guitar chords and lyrics. I know for me personally, it takes me a while to land on lead guitar parts that I’m actually satisfied with. So recording parts and having them set in stone was kind of weird. Shoutout to Andrew for helping write some lead parts and suggesting structural changes to some parts of the songs.
Ocean: When I started writing for this EP, I came with two different ideas. One was way more upbeat and easier to share with everyone, that being “kind”. That song was originally going to just be a placeholder until I wrote something I deemed to be “better” but once the whole band came together, I loved it and I’m so glad it’s part of this first project. “thirteen” was a lot more vulnerable for me to share. I had showed it to the band and I remember shaking and being so nervous only for them to come back with praise and ideas of what everyone can add to the song. Andrew, our producer, was a big part of getting that song to come together as well, so massive shout out to him as well!
CMM-If the band could do a score for any film director, who would it be and what would the film be about?
sin: Jane Schoenbrun for sure. We Are All Going to the World’s Fair and I Saw the TV Glow really spoke to me; I don’t think anyone captures melancholy like them, and as a mostly queer band it would be a meaningful collaboration. If they directed a coming of age in a rural setting, I think we’d be the perfect fit.
Sean: The Shining has some of my favorite film music (thanks Wendy Carlos), so maybe a Kubrick film (which won’t happen for obvious reasons) or a John Carpenter film. I also really love ambient/industrial music, so creating something for David Fincher or an Ari Aster movie would be super fun!
Ocean: I could really see us doing a coming-of-age story! Something about queerness and acceptance of yourself. I really have enjoyed the works of Jane Schoenbrun who directed “we’re all going to the worlds fair” and “i saw the TV glow” – two of my favorite movies
CMM-Anything coming up?
sin: We’re taking a little break while we gear up for our spring show season, and focusing on refining our material for the next release! Announcements soon to come.
Sean: We’re taking a bit of a break in Jan/maybe Feb in order to flesh out new songs and reenergize. I may be moving to Germany in October, so I think we’re trying to put out some more music before then!
Ocean: We’re taking a small break for the rest of December and January, getting some shows lined up for February and going into spring! We’ll be focusing on finishing up some new originals and getting started on a new project before Sean moves while we’re not preforming!
