Exclusive album premiere of ‘Always’ by Seattle’s Forest Ray, out October 28th via their own imprint.

‘Always’ dives deeper into folk rock and psychedelic folk instrumentation than previous releases. The band is currently one of Seattle’s most active bands in the psychedelic and folk rock genre, and they have been touring extensively throughout 2022, in anticipation of their upcoming release. Forest Ray began as a recording project in 2015, combining guitar driven psych rock with elements of raw synth-laced post-punk, folk rock and organ-laden pop. Following in the footsteps of Pacific Northwest greats from The Sonics to The Kingsmen. The songs regularly explore diverse instrumentation, which have become staples of the group’s brand of rock n’ roll and psychedelia.

Their first two full length LPs, ‘Musical Witchcraft’ and ‘Laughing,’ were released to vinyl over 2016-18. They toured the US and played SXSW 2019 in support of their 7″ split record with Lasso Spells, released Spring 2019 on Nashville’s Cold Lunch Recordings label. In the Fall of 2019, they released a new LP, ‘Faded Reflection’ along with a collection of basement recorded analog tracks titled, the ‘Wedgwood Tapes.’ Before the COVID-19 pandemic struck the group had also recorded their fourth studio album, ‘Black Pine,’ during the Winter of 2019 to be released in the Fall of 2020. The album, which is an homage to lost loved ones, includes an array of twangy psychedelia, Americana influences and more of a diverse sound than previous records. ‘Black Pine,’ borrows its name from the English translation of “Crnobor,” the autochthonous trees of the Croatian coastal region, Dalmatia, where songwriter Peter Sumic’s family immigrated from, which served as a source of nostalgia and inspiration in the album’s songwriting process. During 2021, they released a follow up of home recorded oddities and popular favorites, in a sequel to ‘Wedgewood Tapes’.

“Always” dives further into folk rock instrumentation and psychedelic folk rock influences, and features slide guitar much more prominently. A US tour is currently in Forest Ray’s immediate future after the full album release, with additional plans to tour the record internationally in the summer of 2023.

<a href="https://forestray.bandcamp.com/album/always-2">Always by Forest Ray</a>

“The main driving concept is introspection”

You decided to dive deeper in the sounds of psychedelic rock this time, would you like to share how you approach album making this time around?

Peter Sumic: In some ways it wasn’t very different from our previous records because I wrote the songs on guitar individually and got together with the band, introduced the material to them and recorded the songs live with bass, drums and rhythm guitar.

What was really different this time around was a focus on certain instruments. I had just found a Rhodes keyboard and was really interested in blending the timbre of the Rhodes electric piano with fingerpicking on an acoustic guitar.

So, the approach mostly differed in that it focused on certain instrumentation. It was also our first record that I did on a 24-track, that was mostly done at home. I had just acquired an old MCI 24 track recorder towards the middle of the pandemic. Some of the psychedelic sounds of reverse snare, and reverse guitars, come up in previous Forest Ray recordings, but this time much of my experimentation was more focused around manipulating the tape. It was our first record that used banjo. I also think the album is kind of a “winter“ sounding record because I recorded and finished a lot of it in November and December of last year, 2021.

Where was the album recorded and what was the production process like?

The entire album was recorded in the basement of my home in Seattle where I recorded the band playing live together on a 24-track tape machine. We use the Sony MCI 24 track and recorded analog through a Trident 65 mixing console. I typically would write the songs, then bring it to the group to send the songs, and then record them with the band live to a 24 track recorder, afterwards I’m typically overdubbing harmonies, guitar solos and keyboards. The writing process took place mostly during the pandemic, it was recorded up until October 2021.

Would you like to talk about audio equipment and instruments, effects and pedals you’re using?

Yeah, a couple of them I just mentioned. But we used a 24-track MCI machine, I used an Echoplex and Roland Space echo, did a lot of the reverse effects by flipping the tape and recording things like the reverb signal backwards, to another track, to create the reverse snare sound.

For guitar pedals, I mostly just use fuzz and compression but I experiment a lot with doubling guitars and melody instruments. Doubling was definitely a big focus in the production of this record.

Is there a certain concept behind the album?

The main driving concept is introspection, themes vary from nostalgia, loneliness, persistence, procrastination, the afterlife et cetera. It’s kind of a general theme of reflection/introspection that I think stemmed from the time during the pandemic. Some of the more organic elements of the themes lent themselves more to folk acoustic instruments like banjo, acoustic guitar, slide guitar and generally more organic textures and less distortion, but still maintained that self-produced analog warble that could intrigue a modern psych or bedroom pop listener.

While the reflective theme is definitely part of the record, I would say the theme is more sonic than anything in its focus on folk instruments and analog tape effects.

What about the cover artwork?

The cover artwork is a picture I took during a photo shoot at a church in North Seattle called the Fremont Abbey. We were working with a photographer, Christian Amburgy, who wanted to project color light in the smoke filled room and take pictures of our silhouettes. I really liked the way it all turned out and we did the shoot around the time we finished the record. Our friend, Brennan Moring, did a really cool design for the album with that and the second picture was taken while I was in my home studio by a friend named Reid Immel.

Would you share your insight on the albums’ tracks?

Sure! The title track, ‘Always’ is the chill dreamy acoustic folk tune, but it still maintains a lot of classic Forest Ray warble. It incorporates a lot of influences from George Harrison’s guitar playing to a lot of acoustic folk like Jeff Tweedy and John Prine. Like I mentioned, the combination of Rhodes piano and acoustic guitar fingerpicking is something that I’ve always really loved on John Prine’s early recordings. Those timbres mix really well for me in a natural way and it was something that I wanted to include on this song. Track 6, ‘Wide Asleep’ is definitely adjacent to ‘Always’ stylistically and because of its overall dreaminess and soft timbres. It incorporates slide guitars with pedal steel, acoustic guitar fingerpicking and blends psychedelic effects with a lot of the organic elements that were intended for the album. ‘Wide Asleep’ is the track where I experimented with the reverse guitar and reverse snare sounds with the tape. It was definitely one of the most fun songs to record.

Next, ‘Make Some Time,’ track 2, is also a song that incorporates more folk instrumentation. Funny enough, it’s our only song to ever include banjo. Our guitarist Simon lent me his brother’s banjo during the pandemic and I found myself playing constantly for a month. It also has Rhodes piano but it has a little bit more of a rock ‘n’ roll drive and some percussion that really helps a groove including cabasa. The third track, ‘Close Your Eyes’ is kind of like a 70s country tune. To me it’s got a very “wintery” vibe because I recorded it in November before the holiday season and ended up filming the video in some Seattle snow. Now, everytime I hear the song it takes me right back to winter, the slide guitar also dominates in the chorus and there’s a vocal harmony, performed by my friend Ashlyn Nagel. He sings in Seattle band, TV Star and VLLY and often records with Forest Ray.

‘Close Your Eyes’ has a different sound than previous Forest Ray tunes. This one also marries a lot of organic elements in folk and country with the fuzz and raunchiness on the guitar solo, reminiscent of earlier Forest Ray songs. ‘At Night (I See)’ is the last track and has a much more driving rock ‘n’ roll kind of country feel that uses baritone guitar right out of the gate. Probably the fastest song on the record. ‘Modern Life’ is similar in that it has a twangy, tremolo rock n’ roll feel and faster tempo with a big horn section. We just released our last single video for ‘Modern Life’ on August 19th, 2022.

Would you like to talk a bit about your background? How did you first get interested in music?

Originally I started getting into music from MTV as a kid and listening to records at home that my dad had. My dad had things like the Eagles, Simon & Garfunkel, Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin, Bijelo Dugme and Arsen Dedić and some other ex-Yugoslavian rock bands that we listened to a lot at home. On MTV I was seeing a lot of Nirvana, watching Headbangers Ball, Beavis and Butt-Head and being introduced to a lot of louder rock music. I definitely think I lean more towards the sounds in my dad’s records, but it was around that age of five or six that I really started to consume a massive amount of music and process it. I grew up in Seattle, Washington and my family immigrated to the United States in the early 1990s with my sister. I was the only one of my family born in the United States, and spent most of my childhood here. So early on, I was introduced to a massive amount of Americana rock ‘n’ roll and American music while I was growing up in Seattle but I also was influenced heavily by ex-Yugoslavian rock bands, Balkan music, … Turkish music in those elements have definitely influenced my rhythmic elements of songwriting as well as my melodic sensibilities and affinity for modal playing with modal melodies. Some of those influences you’ll hear on the grooves of tunes like ‘Black Pine.’ But I also think in Forest Ray’s music there is a certain Northwestern American indie vibe that is seemingly inseparable from our sound and identity as a band (obviously because of where we are based).

What did your teenage room look like? What kind of records would we find there?

My teenage room was full of band’s albums and band posters for sure. Although, at that time it was a lot of CDs for me. You would probably find records from the classics like the Doors, the Beatles, Bob Dylan but you might also find records from the Seeds, the 13th Floor Elevators and Strawberry Alarm Clock. Things more in that “Nuggets” psychedelic category. In my mid-teens I started to really like Arlo Guthrie, Jefferson Airplane and Donovan. As a teenager I really got into psychedelic 60s music and was really intrigued by that era. I think part of that interest is still stuck with me but in college I really started to love bands like the Black Lips, the King Khan & BBQ Show, Hawkwind, Jay Reatard, White Fence, Elliot Smith, Jeff Tweedy, Kurt Vile, The Fall, Swell Maps and get more into punk, art rock, rock ‘n’roll and modern takes on psych.

I’m sure Forest Ray isn’t the first band that members had, tell us about your previous projects? Is there anything released?

I was also in a Shoegaze project based in Seattle named VLLY for the last six years. We released one full length record and two singles. Those were released through my label Forestry Records.

I also recorded and released music for the Seattle band Smoker Dad and their first single, ‘Do You Want It’ was released by Forest Ray Records. I’ve recorded other Seattle bands at my studio like TV Star, Smoker Dad, Wilting.

What led to the formation of Forest Ray?

I was working/living at a recording studio as a college student in California and began recording specifically on analog machines, and purchased my first 8-track machine. I was recording with my friend Robby Porovich at the time and we were writing songs and recording them specifically trying to reproduce sounds of a different era.

We were really interested in 60s psychedelic at the time, as well as post punk, and some of the bands coming out of the current American garage rock scene. We both played in another band at the time called The Earthtones. There were probably some other bands with that name, haha. Two of the other members of that band Matt Neis and Adam Poelman began recording bass and drums for the songs we were writing. As the band developed I moved back to Seattle to continue playing music and we found new members and continued writing and recording. While in Seattle we began gigging and touring more heavily. One of the former members, Matt, who was in the original formation has been in and out of the band over the last few years and will occasionally come with us on tours. Robby still often engineers with us and actually played bass on ‘Always.’ But really the formations initial impetus is my desire to write and record on an analog machine and produce old sounding rock songs, so it really began as a recording project.

Would you like to talk about your debut album, ‘Musical Witchcraft’?

Yeah, ‘Musical Witchcraft’ was our first record and one that was primarily written between myself and Robby Porovic. It’s unique in that way as it’s one of our few records that was written with two songwriters; but it’s also unique in that Robby and I recorded guitar for most of it first and then found the musicians to record overdubs to it later. So it had a very wide range of performers, it was also one of our releases that was recorded just on the 8-track. To overdub the tracks, we mixed the song as 8-tracks down to a two-track machine (for stereo recording) and then sent it back as a left and right stereo mix. Once we had the stereo track back on the 8-track we could then overdub six more tracks. Some of the low-fidelity aesthetic and production of this record comes from that. This album was significantly more psychedelic and post punk influenced and more experimental, and some things that I really like about the album are its sonic diversity. There are desert rock style songs to ambient songs in there and also a jazzy psychedelic ballad titled ‘Tapioca Timepiece,’ the title being something of an homage to psychedelic 60’s band names like the Chocolate Watch Band and Strawberry Alarm Clock and garage rock tunes and experimental songs. Certainly more low-fidelity in its approach and production style but at the time it was something that I was really really into.

I really enjoyed ‘Laughing’ too.

‘Laughing’ was a great record. It was special for us in a lot of ways, for one it was the first record that we began recording with my friend Erik Takuichi Wallace, who is a recording engineer that I often mix and record with. We’ve worked on all the previous records including ‘Black Pine.’ ‘Always’ was the first where Erik wasn’t involved in the mixing, but he did master the record and he’s currently working with me on some new songs coming out some time in 2023.

It was also the first record where we had our friend Sam Bolt record with us, who you’ll find on a lot of Forest Ray’s discography playing drums, percussion on this record and doing some vocal harmonies on our Black Pine record.

‘Laughing’ was also the record that got us in contact with Cold Lunch Recordings, and is part of the reason we have gone so frequently to SXSW over the last four years. I’d say the title track ‘Laughing’ was the first to really capture the Forest Ray trademark “psychedelic twang” sound that has followed us since then.

How did that 7″ split record with Lasso Spells come about?

The 7″ split record with Lasso Spells in Nashville came about pretty naturally. I received a message from a Nashville label that was friends with Lasso Spells about potentially collaborating at SXSW awesome showcases and putting some shows together. As I mentioned, this came about because they had heard the song ‘Laughing’ and liked it. It seemed like great opportunity to meet some bands in different regions, so we went down, and Forest Ray played a handful of shows and made great friends with that label, Cold Lunch Recordings,

The following year we booked a tour and were going through Nashville and we met up with Lasso Spells to play a show with them. Because we had a large tour planned and were planning to play shows at SXSW with Cold Lunch Recordings again we reached and planned to release a single as a joint release with my label and Cold Lunch Recordings and Nashville!

I’m still good friends with both Lasso Spells and the people and Cold Lunch Recordings stayed with one of them recently in Nashville. They really helped me understand how to operate an independent label but also to properly promote and tour your releases. Lasso Spells was a really great psychedelic band that incorporated southern rock elements and I really enjoyed their music and thought it would be a perfect fit for a split with us. And their musical taste is just one of the few things that we have in common. Really great folks in Nashville. One of my favorite towns in the United States.

Just before the pandemic you released ‘Faded Reflection’ and a collection of basement recorded analog tracks titled, the ‘Wedgwood Tape’.

Yeah, ‘Faded Reflection’ was sort of the bridge between us going to record on a 24-track tape machine. It began on my 8-track, most of the guitars were actually recorded in my bedroom and the rest of the record was recorded live to guitar tracks at The Unknown studio in Anacortes, WA. The Unknown is a really interesting studio and I did a number of sessions there for ‘Black Pine’ as well. It is in an old church that is also home to the American Croatian club of Anacortes, which is an organization that puts on events in Anacortes, because it is Sister cities with Vela Luka and the island of Korcula in Croatia. For me, that’s hilarious, because the first time I recorded there I had no idea that they shared the space. Since then I’ve gone back a couple times for events with my family.

‘Wedgwood Tapes’ was recorded right at the beginning of the pandemic. This one was sort of a return to the 8-track and was a collection of demos, some that have really stuck with me and grown on some of our fans, as well as myself. For me, the stand out tracks here are ‘Make Your Mind Up’ and ‘Read My Mind’. Ironically two of the “mind” songs.

What about ‘Black Pine’, tell us how that came about?

‘Black Pine’ was probably our most important record before ‘Always.’ It was a very personal record to me and it was written partially after the passing of my late grandfather, Vjeko Sumic. A lot of the lyrics and themes relate directly to Dalmatia and my roots there. The album deals thematically more with death, after life, existentialism, remembering loved ones and being true to yourself. Sonically it’s similar to the ‘Always’ album because it is where we really doubled down on incorporating country and folk rock influences; however, ‘Black Pine’ maintains a lot more of the 60s garage and psychedelic elements you would hear on songs like ‘Pass Me By’ and ‘So Many Miles.’ For me the stand out songs are hard to pick out because this one has a lot of them. But ‘Black Pine’ the title track is really cool to me, because it brings together that Balkan 7/4 rhythm with the psychedelic twang that comes from my American influence. The rhythm and groove of that song is also something that came about totally naturally, and that rhythm just sounded right to me, but at first a lot of my friends thought that it was really complex rhythmically even though it was entirely unintentional. I wasn’t trying to sit down and write a song in an odd meter. But to me it couldn’t feel more natural, that rhythm is in my veins or something.

What are some future plans now that we are all waiting for the new record?

Plans for this Summer are to tour central Europe. We’re planning to tour through Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Hungary, Serbia and Bosnia. We also have some new recordings in the works and will be planning on releasing those just before our tour in Summer of 2023.

Are any of you involved in any other bands or do you have any active side-projects going on at this point?

I’m part of a Shoegaze project in Seattle named VLLY (pronounced Valley) and also record a number of projects in Seattle. VLLY released a self-titled debut record in 2020, and some of the tracks that stand out to me on that one are ‘Walk’ and ‘Saved.’ The band is currently on hiatus.

I have recorded TV Star, Smoker Dad, VLLY, Forest Ray and a local band the No Counts. I also play jazz on the side with Ashlyn professionally, and our drummer Nate was drumming in the band Peyote Ugly. I also host a local music showcase/festival in Seattle, called FRyFest, that brings together bands in the Northwest United states and highlights our favorite artists in the scene and some of our recent releases/collaborations with our label.

Let’s end this interview with some of your favourite albums. Have you found something new lately you would like to recommend to our readers?

Favorite albums, that’s a great question I will say my absolute favorites are ‘All Things Must Pass’ by George Harrison, ‘Bruised Orange’ by John Prine, ‘Aufheben’ by the Brian Jonestown Massacre, self-titled album by The Electric Prunes, ‘Grasshopper’ by J. J. Cale, ‘Sweetheart of the Rodeo’ by the Byrds and new albums I’m currently enjoying include Michael Rault’s self-titled album and Dougie Poole’s ‘The Freelancer Blues’ from 2020.

Thank you. Last word is yours.

Well, I just want to thank you, Klemen, for everything you do for artists in the underground and psychedelic rock scenes internationally and say again how much I appreciate being featured here. I love the blog and website and am happy to find so much great stuff through Psychedelic Baby! To all of the readers, who haven’t heard Forest Ray, check us out on YouTube or Spotify or come to a show near you. If you’re a fan of garage, psychedelic rock, folk rock you can certainly find something you like about this record. Thanks again for having me! All the best and hope to see you in Europe next Summer!

Klemen Breznikar

Forest Ray Website / Facebook / Instagram / Bandcamp / SoundCloud / Spotify / YouTube
Forest Ray Records Facebook / Instagram / Bandcamp / SoundCloud / YouTube