What is your name and role within Forrest Hall?
Mislav Belobrajdic. Singer and guitarist.
Where are you currently based and what is the music scene like there?
At the moment I am the only member of the band that isn’t currently living in Sydney, I’m living in a small town on the outer suburbs of the Blue Mountains called Lithgow. There basically is no scene here, but it’s a great environment to get creative writing wise because of the intense feeling of isolation. Otherwise, we have lots of friends in bands in Sydney we love and there is an amazing scene there right now, check out Green Buzzard, Bachelor Pad, Nick Nuisance, Crocadylus, Moody Beach, Murry Darling the list goes on and on.
How and when did Forrest Hall form?
Forest Hall started in 2015 as a recoding project between main songwriter Mislav and old friend/ amazing drummer Julian Moxon. We hooked up with another old friend James Kelly to record our first EP – finished in two day four hour sessions essentially, so a very DIY exercise. As we played more and more shows and brought other friends into the fold Forest Hall’s true form really began to take place.
Please tell us about any new releases that you have coming up:
We’ve just dropped our first single and video ‘Broke Forever’ of our up and coming sophomore EP entitled ‘Eternal Bummer’ to be dropping early next year. We will have some new singles and videos dropping very shortly WATCH THIS SPACE.
What are your thoughts on the state of Sydney’s live music scene?
I think when we started out playing music as youngsters the scene wasn’t that strong or rather, it defiantly wasn’t a diverse scene, but for the kind of music we really like, Sydney right now is killing it. The amount of awesome music coming out of Sydney now is unreal, and it’s a really cool feeling. There’s too many good bands to count, but to name a few you’ve got to check out: Bachelor Pad, Green Buzzard, Nick Nuisance, Murry Darling, DEN, Neighbourhood Void, Moody Beach, Dress Theque, Johnny Hunter, Shrapnel, Tambourine Girls, Ride for Rain, Maple Moths, White Dog, The Phazes. Sydney is pumping out some world class acts right now- I don’t think that could really be said about the city as a whole before until the early 2000’s or like, the 80’s!
Firendlyjordie was involved in your recent music video, please tell us about this experience:
It was good fun! Mislav is involved with the FriendlyJordies Podcast and lives with him, so it was just the most practical way to make a video for us! Jordan had his shitty Kmart camera around and he was filming his stuff at his editor Matt’s house as he does, after he finished up we ran through our video idea, made half of it up as we went and just had fun. The rule was if the scenarios the protagonist was in made us all laugh, it made the cut. It was a very collaborative process between Mislav, Jordan, Matt and our other friend Ali who plays the guy who’s house is broken into and ends up meeting his doom.
Who or what influences your sound and songwriting?
In terms of our sound everyone in the band has a pretty vast variety of influences, but I think it’s safe to say it was defiantly bands like, Wavves, early Best Coast, The Oh Sees, Ty Segall, Qotsa as well as some local Sydney bands like Bachelor Pad that initially sparked the influence of the band. In fact songwriting wise those influences were a pivotal point of reference as well. Otherwise it’s day to day stuff, usually benign everyday observations of life that influence our lyrics and themes.
How do you usually go about writing music/songs?
Honestly, most of the time it’s usually just me (Mislav) smashing out the songs at home & then reworking them with our engineer extraordinaire Oliver Dibley later. Usually the songs come to me pretty quickly and I try to capture and record them as quickly as possible, whether into my iPhone or straight onto GarageBand. For us trying to catch the song as quickly as you can and throw it down is key to our productivity as well as style. I love bands that spend years working and reworking songs but it’s just not really our process. Having said that, once the songs are down, we do enjoy toying with tonality- different amps, compressors, plug-in’s, whatever. Our guitar pedal collection is is pretty silly and only growing.
Where will you be playing the months to come?
Currently our only show coming up is a house party we will be playing at an as of yet undisclosed location in Sydney for our mates Particles. Keen an eye on our socials for the details but it will be in early December! Expect a lot more shows next year in support for our EP though!
Who are you listening to at the moment?
I’m really getting into this guy Joel Williams’s project called Roshi’s Garden. It’s the brother of Nathan Williams of Wavves. The guy releases a bloody album a week and it’s all really interesting and original stuff. Otherwise, Bad Dreems latest album, Bachelor Pad’s new stuff, Deep Sea Arcade’s new album, Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s latest album, The Chats, the new Straight Arrows record, Hatchie’s latest EP, some Iggy Pop…lots! Ha.
What do you like to do outside of music?
What do you mean outside of music…? Ha. I like cooking a lot, watching the cooking channel (Man Vs Food!), playing with my three dogs, drinking, hanging out, bush walking, just the usual stuff.
What do you have planned for the remainder of 2018 going into 2019?
We are dropping two more singles and accompanying videos in 2018 which we are stoked for and next year we drop our EP! No plans yet, but we’ll defiantly do a release show and looking to book some tours around Aus as well! We’re super keen to play some shows around the Gong, Melbourne & Brissy, it’s just a matter or sussing out and organising- Watch this space!
Favourite food and place to hangout?
Ooooh. That’s tough. You’ve left the tough questions for the end just like Sixty Minutes. I’m going to say either Italian or Thai…right now. In terms of places to hang out, in Lithgow I’d say The Blue Fox and Tough Grind Barbers. In Sydney, Grifters Brewery, Young Henrys, Mary’s Burgers in Newtown and for gigs you can’t beat The Lansdowne Hotel.
https://www.facebook.com/foresthallband/
