Environmental Activist Deejay Duo Forester Invites You to Dance with Them at Santa Barbara’s SOhO Music Club

Inspired by the sounds of California’s breathtaking nature, from Mammoth Lakes to Yosemite, indie electronic duo Forester is expanding their views on tour and making a stop at Santa Barbara’s SOhO Music Club. From meeting in high school to traveling the world with dance music icon Kygo, Forester spoke about making their dreams come true, creating their latest album, Moonlight, and getting to tour with one of their biggest role models.

With their fourth album Moonlight, Xander Carlson and David Parris consider it their “air album,” completing the series of records based around the elements (Kerosene = fire, A Range of Light = earth, Watercolor = water). Like the systems in nature, “[Forester’s] music will change based on what’s inspiring [them] at the moment or what’s feeling right depending on the season,” Parris said. Recording and producing most of the album while traveling made “air” a natural fit for Moonlight’s theme (see video here). 

One of their goals for this album was to get outside of their comfort zone and do more collaborations. While producing and mixing everything themselves had its perks, “getting other people’s perspectives and infusing their sound and their minds into our own music can create really cool new things,” Carlson said. 

Venturing into the Electronic Dance Music (EDM) craze during the “golden era of SoundCloud,” made collaborating with DJ Jai Wolf on “When I Fall Asleep” a highlight for the duo. Another “full circle moment” was when one of their favorite indie rock artists Day Wave remixed that song.

As the sounds of their environment influence each track, that means the music and culture of that setting seep into their sound as well. When Carlson got more into surfing, Parris found that the ocean and surf rock were coming through in their art, resulting in Watercolor.  

Sometimes their taste leans more toward techno or indie rock, but folk music is also a constant. The two bond over their shared love for indie folk band Bon Iver, but the top song on Carlson’s Spotify Wrapped last year “was just like a dude with an acoustic guitar singing ‘Rattlesnake’ by Jack Van Cleaf.” 

Since much of the album was created while opening for Kygo in big stadiums and arenas, the energy was really turned up on Moonlight with vibrant soundscapes and beats that climb to the bass drop. “We saw that some of the more emotional, folk-infused songs maybe didn’t have the same effect live as they do listening to them [recorded],” Parris said. “And just because someone’s not jumping up and down doesn’t mean they’re not enjoying it, but I think we wanted to put on a live energetic show.”

Growing up in the EDM scene, getting to “work with [Kygo] and tour with him and even talk to him was definitely surreal,” Carlson said. When their 2019 debut single “Spark” was picked up by Trap Nation, they got the opportunity to sign with the popular YouTube channel’s label Lowly Palace, allowing them to turn their passion into their careers right out of college. The exposure from Trap Nation landed the song in front of a scout at Kygo’s Palm Tree Records, sparking their relationship with Kygo and a new record deal in 2020.

When their friendship began over a mutual attraction to EDM at a house party in high school, they never imagined where this project would land them. At the party, Carlson invited Parris to his mom’s home music studio on a whim, and a week later, the two were like kids in a candy store messing around with the different synthesizers and drum pads. “We got started making probably the worst music anyone’s ever made.” Carlson said.

“I mean, for the time, they were bangers, but we wouldn’t play them today,” Parris said in defense of their younger selves.

Fully immersing themselves into the world of techno, throughout high school, the duo took any opportunity to deejay, even admitting to illegally renting out venues and warehouses while they were still legally underage. “The culture of the westside of Los Angeles, where we grew up, was one: a lot of parties, and two: going to Coachella every year, so we spent a lot of time in the Sahara Tent [Coachella’s dedicated EDM stage],” Carlson said. 

After making the most of their formative years, the two took some time apart during college before they came back together to launch Forester in 2019, their senior year. The pandemic hit shortly after the success of Kerosene and the pair took it as an opportunity to escape from the “hectic L.A. city lifestyle” and find inspiration in nature. 

Carlson and Parris went up to Carlson’s family cabin in Mammoth Lake and spent their days hiking and fishing. Feeling like they had the “whole place to [themselves]” due to the strange emptiness of lockdown, they retreated to the cabin at night to “write about those experiences,” trying to match that feeling of open air in their music. Inspired by American mountaineer John Muir’s nickname for the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range, they landed on the name Range of Light for this project.

As a way of thanking the wilderness for not only giving them this healing journey, but acting as a creative muse, Forester donated a portion of the proceeds from the album to The Nature Conservancy to plant roughly 1,000 trees. “The Forester project is ultimately a conservation project,” according to Carlson on their website. “We want to spread the word that our planet is both beautiful and irreplaceable.” 

Now with four albums, two opening tours with Kygo, one headlining tour, and hundreds of millions of streams under their belts, the pair is gearing up to kick off the Moonlight tour in Santa Barbara on Thursday, March 7. 

Along with “[spreading] light and positivity,” Carlson’s “favorite part about touring is just getting to meet fans and hear their stories.” Hearing about how the music positively affects people makes both of them happy and encourages them to keep creating.
 
If getting to know Forester has made you want to get up and dance, visit sohosb.com/upcoming-events for tickets to their Santa Barbara show on March 7, and follow along on their journey @forestermusic on Instagram.