The 3 track EP release from Crooked Forest oozes classic punk rock crossed with garage rock and fuzztone guitars.
A Quiet Place To Scream is a high impact thrasher of a pop punk record that features guitar hooks and some real deal personal lyrical content.
Within the EP's life it goes through some radio friendly rock along with a lo-fi feel and a raw energy that's hard to beat.
The record showcases a youth in songwriters recording music from home and creating songs on their own terms.
Using technique to push the envelope in whatever way they want, this displays an amazing time for music creation as a whole.
Crooked Forest has a large catalog of songs out on their Bandcamp page and if you like one song, you're likely to dig on them all pretty hard.
There is a ton of fun and you can see this is a great outlet for Crooked Forest to get out emotion and this is part of what makes music so good.
We wanted to sit down with Crooked Forest to talk shop. Here's what happened.
RAG: Okay let's start with "Before It Starts". This track is a personal indie folk track with a pop undertone. Where did this track come from?
The idea for that one really just came from wanting to write something that my family could relate to. Growing up I spent most of my summers at our family cottage, but in recent years I haven’t been able to go up much, and we’re rarely there at the same time. It’s full of little references to things we’d do when we got up to Dorset, and I kept it simple, acoustic guitar and vocal only, because that’s how I imagine it performed up there by the campfire.
RAG: You have a great catalog of releases under your belt. How did this all start for you?
I used to play music when I was younger but I stopped in my early 20’s when I was working as an audio engineer, I got a little burnt out working with other artists and couldn’t even think about making my own. When the pandemic hit, I found myself with a lot more free time than I’m used to having, and at the same time I was dealing with a failing marriage. I decided to get back to writing and playing to help myself work through that; Before I knew it I had more songs than I really knew what to do with, so I started recording all of them at home to see what comes and now I just enjoy it so much I can’t stop
RAG: What bands or artists really influenced you?
Tough one but if I had to narrow it down to just a few it’d probably be Jimmy Eat World, Blink 182, Treble Charger and The Rolling Stones.
RAG: What's next for you as an artist?
I’m currently working on a folk-inspired EP, which looks like it’ll be about 10 songs. This one’ll be acoustic guitar and vocals only. And then I’m setting my attention to a full-length record once recording studios open up again.
RAG: Do you think you might focus on performing live when the time comes?
Definitely, I’d like to get a band together and start playing some proper shows once we get back to some level of normalcy, but for now I’m just going to be doing some acoustic livestreams of the songs I’ve been writing.
RAG: You have been releasing songs for a while now. What kind of advice would you have from up coming artists out there?
I think a lot of new artists are held back by their own insecurities and maybe are sitting on a ton of songs that they’re not sure if they should release them. My advice would be to just start putting them out because you never know who’s listening or who’s going to like what you release.
RAG: What non-musical things inspire you to write?
I’m mostly inspired by the conversations I have with other people, what’s said or isn’t said, but I also get a lot of my ideas when I’m just out for a walk listening to the world around me.
RAG: What are you doing when you're not working on music?
These days, mostly watching a lot of Netflix, documentaries, and movies I didn’t get around to catching when they came out. And I spend a lot of time with my dog Dakota walking around the neighborhood. That’ll probably remain the same for the foreseeable future, ha.
RAG: Before we go, what would you like to say to fans?
Thanks for listening! And if you have any recommendations to some other music or movies, send ‘em my way, I’m always looking for new stuff.
Thanks! :)
Jaimee