Forest (noun): a dense growth of trees and underbrush covering a large tract
A two-year long journey came to an end on September 24. In 2024, singer/songwriter Katie Cole launched her fan-funded Kickstarter campaign and began to work on her upcoming album. 700+ days and finally, the day has come.
Her Forest has arrived.
A perfect title for the album. Cole has been cutting her way through her own forest these past two years. Not just with producing this record, but also on a personal level with the passing of her mother. The album encapsulates the highs and lows of the past few years.
“‘Forest’ is the most complex and ambitious album I’ve ever made, by far,” explains Cole. “It’s about loss, growth and love. It was written and created during a few years of real challenges and great strides along with a lifetime of dreams that were coming to fruition. While recording songs like “Learning How to Lose” and “Forest” that are full of joy and strength, there are also songs like “Love is a Liar” and “You Can Never Go Home Again” that cover areas of loss and grief. There is a lot of juxtaposition on this album, but that’s how it goes. You might be recovering from loss or heartbreak then suddenly fall in love. I suppose life really doesn’t wait for you to be ready to move forward, it just nudges you like a treadmill so you have to keep going and face all things head on.”
The title track “Forest” is one of the album’s growth songs. Some days are better than others, but with every hurdle, you keep pushing to make it through that forest.
Quite apropos, the song itself took some perseverance – pushing, leaving and revisiting:
“This song was really one of the centerpieces for the album. I wrote the lyric first then some music. It’s a darker lyric about societal pressure and being forced down a path you don’t really want to go. The lyric was great, but the music I wrote just didn’t work – at all. I’m fairly used to re-writing my work. What you initially write is not always the best version. So I tried to take a step back and left it alone for a few weeks. I listen to a lot of music from the 60s and a 70s and often circle back to ladies like Dusty Springfield and Bobbie Gentry. Bobbie has a song called “Ode to Billie Joe”, it’s this sweet acoustic guitar driven about …someone who jumped off a bridge. It’s an unsuspecting song about tragedy but is palatable because it sounds easy-going. As it were, I was noodling one day on guitar and thinking about some vague happy memory and I started playing some chords and making it a bit more of a Motown-style chord progression. Something more upbeat and breezy. I liked the way the chords made me feel and I suddenly remembered about the Forest lyric I had sitting around. Pairing the two together within an hour the song was written. I could now heard it in my head to be a dominant vocal and acoustic guitar song, but with strings and some horns in the chorus. I quickly did a demo of the song and played it for Howard. I knew I had something special and I hope you like it too.”
That retro influence comes through in the track, giving the song a sense of timelessness; it could have easily been recorded 50+ years ago. Either then or now, the lyrics are relatable no matter the decade.
Crying out for change
But as always, stumbling on her knees
They say you’re blind coz you can’t find
The thing that you need
It’s calling and calling out your name
Who do you want to be
Just get out of your own way
Can’t see, can’t see the forest for the trees
Maybe today she’s going to be alright
Check out the exclusive video premiere of “Forest” below:
Album BTS from Katie Cole: “Once the ten songs were written, my producer Howard Willing and I brought in our friend Tim Lauer to help craft the beautiful orchestral arrangements that fill out these songs. It was such a whirlwind of emotions finally getting into studios like Blackbird in Nashville to record all the string parts and then vocals, guitars and the rest. Howard and I had a very clear understanding of what needed to be on this record and what didn’t musically so, many great musicians were brought to the table for this project. A lot of people and a lot of tables. Haha. Overall I’m really proud of ‘Forest’ and I can’t wait for everyone to hear it.”
Download/Stream Forest here.
Tune-In Alert: In celebration of this release,
Katie Cole is taking over our Instagram TODAY, September 26th!
For more information on Katie Cole, visit her website www.katiecoleofficial.com and follow her on Facebook and Instagram.