Forest dives into the dark on “Vulture”

Forest started learning how to play guitar at fifteen, initially for a crush. “He played guitar, and I was like, ‘He's going to love me if I play guitar,’” the Chicago-born, Los Angeles-based songwriter remembers. “And that didn't happen, which is totally fine. But I think I won the guitar game.” Forest had always been creative, singing constantly as a kid, spending years in ballet, drawing and considering everything from visual art to movie makeup, but music arrived comparatively late. Once she knew enough guitar to fumble her way through writing a song, something shifted. “I was like, ‘Oh fuck, this is the thing,’” she says. “I finally found the thing that is going to stick.” When asked about albums she keeps returning to, Panic! At The Disco’s A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out was an early obsession, with its theatrics, teen angst, and emotionally charged choruses, alongside Chicago 90’s cult favourites Smoking Popes. By the time she began shaping her debut album, Swan Dive, Forest was pulling from the industrial bite of Snake River Conspiracy, or the way the Smashing Pumpkins’ and Elliott Smith can create immediate feelings of intimacy. “I love soft vocals over a heavy guitar,” Fores...