#save-a-forest

[save-a-rainforest]

Waiting - Yung Bambi, Foreign Forest, ℒund, Dre Kiken

   This morning I was scrolling our SAF SoundCloud stream when I saw this song appear on the top. I wasn’t reluctant to press play, on the contrary the artwork pulled me into it. The second it started playing, a guitar instrumental fades in and we first hear the voice of singer and graphic designer Foreign Forest. With the release of his last track, Hey October, we were satisfied to find a similar but unique style applied to his influence on this track. His voice meshes with that of another talented emerging vocalist, Yung Bambi. Bambi, with his recent release PUKE, has exemplified his genre-bending skills with his catchy and drawing chorus on this track chanting as if almost possessed, “What do you want, girl. What do you need?” To brighten the scene of the song with an optimistic and harmonic style of singing from singer and producer ℒund, who has been doing numbers for his releases, and to mention a favorite of ours is his newest Rx Luv, which is now in stores (Apple, Spotify, etc.). To conclude the track in a pit of dark, emotional reverb is singer Dre Kiken, who has been dominating Spotify playlists with hit songs, “Always” and “Believe”. All in all, these four captured something magical within this song, and I think with the holidays coming around, they shared it with us just in time.

[save-a-rainforest]

INSIDE THE MIND: MAX WELLS

BEFORE READING PLEASE LISTEN TO: 

MAX WELLS INTERVIEW

SAF: We're glad to have this opportunity to talk to you Max Wells! Your new album is hard as fuck and we want to get a deeper look into it. So when did you decide you wanted CRITTICAL to executively produce the album?

Max: Thank you fam for real I appreciate that!! Honestly... I met CRITTICAL a few years ago when I still lived in Indiana and pretty much right away we made a project ("Normal") and since then we've been super tight friends. I actually was going thru a huge time of writers block a few months ago, so CRITTICAL sent me a package of like 3-4 beats and that sounded EXACTLY what I've been visioning my next project to sound like... So I just recorded a few rough draft/concept songs, and got the project really started.

SAF: We noticed that your only feature on the album was from TrippyThaKid, another artist we've been watching. What reasoning do you have for this? Obviously the entire album rocked without too many features, but it is pretty astounding when you see somebody release an entire album with little to no help in the material.

Max: Yeah man Trippy is the homie! This project just meant a TON to me with the whole concept and everything. I fuck with so many different ppl and cliques but I didn't want to have too many features because I didn't want to accidentally cloud the motive of what I was trying to get across with this you know? I also did it because I wanted to see if I COULD. We live in a day and age where its easy to rely on others for your glo up, and I wont be having any part in that shit...

SAF: In one of our favorite tracks from the album, Lil Light Beam, I shine on for YOU, I go up for ME, What they want from US, ... Watch them run from WE. Who is part of your influence in this chorus that you would say you are also "shining" for? From our perspective we could read that as you putting on for your team, or maybe for the woman included in your album artwork!?

Max: This is one of my favorite tracks ive made! In that hook/chorus part you explained, I'm talking about everyone close to me so you got it right for the most part! I'm ready to shine for my girl, family, homies, supporters, and anyone else who may need a lil more light in they life.

SAF: Can you give us a little more insight into your intermission track, "18hrs, 32min (How You Feel)"?

Max: Everyones been asking what the point of it is or what it means.... But I haven't asked anyone what they thought it meant..... I like keeping it a mystery because it sort of allows you to create your own meaning you know?... And to  me thats what life is about so... YOU TELL ME lol

SAF: Who are some artists from the current "scene" that you vouch for? This project is sure to grow over time and we are curious as to who you would be willing to fuck with as you grow, as well.

Max: Man I can vouch for anyone doing this music shit organically and HONESTLY. Some ppl i've really been fuckin with are Dank $inatra and the rest of KU$HLORDS, NOXIK, Foreign Forest, JOULE$, Nedarb, LUND.... The list could go on for so long man... These are just a few of the dudes I'm really fuckin with right now

SAF: In the premiere track of your album, RUNNIN, along with overly incredible production we hear you lay your chorus and verses so clean...When writing this track and the others on the album, did you write to the beat, or did you already have the lyrics ready before you heard the production CRITTICAL sent you?

Max: Yo CRITTICAL murked that shit didnt he? Lol but yeah man I wrote this track to the beat! Thats normally what I do because for most my songs come about by whatever vibe the instrumental is giving me. There are only 2 songs on "Now I'm Here" where I wrote the lyrics separately from the beats.

SAF: Personally, this album is one of our blog's favorites yet. Where do you see your music career in a year? Who are some artists you would like to work with in the future?

Max:  I just wanna continue to make the best music possible and reach as many ears as I can you know? I have a lot to say and really feel like the youth could gain some influence by listening... So a year from now I wanna be all over the place. I want my mom to be able to wake up in disbelief everyday because her son went and did the impossible. Eventually I wanna work with Allan Kingdom, Kid Cudi, Bobby Raps, $uicideboy$, Corbin (spooky black), lil aaron, Shakewell, Rozz Dyliams, and so so many more

SAF: Anything new in the works?

Max: I'm working on so much new shit! Music videos for songs off the project are getting shot and finished, so as soon as everything is right I'm gonna be flooding the internet with those and shit. I also have a few designer EP's in the works as well as a few pretty big collaborations so be on the look out for those!

SAF: We noticed you are solely distributing the album on BandCamp. Would you ever be interested in getting your music on other distribution platforms such as iTunes, Spotify, etc?, or is there an exclusivity BandCamp offers that makes your project more unique to buy?

Max: Fuck Bandcamp lowkey. lol.. the only thing I like about them is the fact that my supporters are able to pick the price they pay for my work you know? I like that they can choose $0, or $100... it doesn't force anyone to potentially go broke just to be a supporter of mine. iTunes and Spotify are definitely the move the near future... I'm actually trying to get everything all figured out with that at the moment!

SAF: As we've said before, we are thankful for the chance to be talking to you, Max. We are awaiting your next release! Are there any producers, aside from CRITTICAL, that you are looking to work with?

Max: Nah man, blessed to have the opportunity to explain my work a lil deeper. Its not all the time us artists get to do so.... so thank YOU!

[save-a-rainforest]

6 Months Gone...But Finally Back

It’s been an experience. As you may know, I have been running this blog on my own parallel to my other artistic endeavors, aside from a few features here that I allow other writers to do on occasion. It hasn’t been easy, no it’s actually really fucking hard to do. I don’t always have time now. I manage college, my own music and press, my social life, and my other side projects, including this blog. I know some may think that if I wanted it enough I could make it happen. Well, that’s what I am doing. I haven’t given up on you, or this. I think as a musician I can become numb to sounds other than my own, and that is why I originally wanted to create this blog, to get out of my own head and to listen to the wants and needs of others. There is so much out there that I have my mind set on, and like most of us I’m not sure exactly how I’m gonna get there. I’m just gonna take it one day at a time, working as often as I can to help get the sounds of. When it comes to posting music for others, some of you might question how I choose what I post. To be honest, I have a habit of posting what I think is “good” music, and that can hurt and help this blog. Will I ever share something I don’t think is good? No, but that doesn’t mean what I share is limited. On the contrary! I have discovered some of the most beautiful music in my life through this platform. Don’t underestimate the power of sharing music. It has helped your favorite artists grow to where they are now, and has influenced the millions of lives of each listener out there. I do this for the artist and listener alike. It feels good to be back and to have my ears open, and I hope to break the mold I may have set previously for Save-A-Forest. Thank you for listening to the music I share with you, for reading the words I write about each engaging song, and for participating in this... whatever “this” is.

[save-a-rainforest]

Rockett - Yeah Yeah ft. Mikey $avage

   Paint new lines for the lane created by Baltimore rapper Rockett as he flows over an instrumental produced by none other but himself. Mikey $avage’s verse included, the lines in this track are exemplary of the life they live. Getting head in the whip is recommended when listening to this track. Fuck.

[save-a-rainforest]

Touch

Listen to Touch by Foreign Forest #np on #SoundCloud

Foreign Forest - Touch

   In this powerful releases from our friend Foreign Forest, we hear an ultimate arrangement of different sounds. Each track has it’s own feel to it, some may say eclectic, some might say unheard before. We were going to give our review of the project, each tracks meaning and what not, but Forest gave a representation of his experience creating it, which is far more interesting and can be found on his BandCamp site for the album, here.

Forest says, “Thank you for listening to my album, friend. This is the first one that I’ve produced entirely on my own, and though most of it, yes, is production solely, let that not distract you from what the sound of each track portrays. In the time of it’s creation, Touch’s songs were made individually, on different days. It took about 2 weeks to compose, record and prepare it for release. Throughout the 2 weeks, each day was different. The night I made “Upgrades” I was watching Tomorrowland and felt like an inventor building a body suit, and the sound I discovered when producing it gave me the feeling of growing out of my own skin and leaving a worn outer shell warm and in the sun while I crawl into the cool shade beneath the sand, like a crab minding my own business and marking my own personal goals. I made “Summer Camp”, and at the time I was very in love with the cello I put into it, but it wasn’t enough. It faded out and I knew it needed more, because I always feel like I could be doing more, so I added a revival to the end of it because it made it prettier to me, like even when you think something won’t come back it does. “Like The World Isn’t There” was made on a day following a previous night of fighting. “The Chase” was something I made experimentally late night with my heart racing telling me to go to sleep. The tempo races with my heart rate, then towards the end it speeds up only to abruptly halt and be muffled by silence, or sleep. “Wet Leaves” was made after watching Sinister 2 with a single pad bank, which I was lucky enough to have loaded with the ethereal sounds that were included into the track. “Blacklight” was an immediate continuation of my internal feelings in “Wet Leaves”, however every few seconds it jumps from serious to melancholy, similar to my childish attitude. “Tornado” is from a dream I had. In the dream, it’s late at night and I’m in the middle of a field of corn, when suddenly the sky dumps light onto me, and it isn’t until I look up that I realize something is calling my name, and due to my undying fascination it coincidentally is, yes, aliens peering down onto me like a considerable science experiment. In awe and envy, I let them take me. I make it to the top of the beam that lifted me thousands and thousands of feet above the ground, when suddenly the intelligent life realizes it doesn’t need me and drops me to my death. The outro track, “You’ll Stay Too” was made after watching a new favorite movie of mine, American Ultra. I found it pretty how, in the sample, he makes the analogy of the tree and the truck. The truck is always moving, from it’s development to it’s shipment and even it’s use. The tree has always been where it’s been. One powerful force that night, the tree, in the movie, stopped another intriguingly powerful force, which was the truck. I just thought that was beautiful. This album doesn’t have to mean anything to you. You can listen through and find it grossly simplistic or overly complicated, but in the end your understanding of it is your experience listening to it. No matter what, this project will always remind me of those two weeks it took to make this, all the things I was doing then and the people I was with.”

   It’s truly beautiful to see each minds interpretation of sound, but we might just let it brew for a while and give it some more time to listen. You can listen to this project now via SoundCloud & Spotify, or purchase a download of the project via BandCamp or iTunes.

[save-a-rainforest]

Arfus - The Velvet Cloak of Darkness

SAF Writer Foreign Forest

   In the end humanity won’t brag about it’s social wars or touch too much on the terrorist activity and worry of the modern world, but instead it will exemplify our success in touching new frontiers. From touching space to inventing the vast field which is the Internet, breaking into new frontiers is truly what drives us as beings. That being said, I believe Arfus created a new frontier of sound not yet discovered by most in this 14-track, independently released album that he describes as “experimental electronic space travel soundscapes or something,” in humor that he really can’t put a definite label on his sound, but I think most musicians creating different sounds than most would agree it’s hard to just give what you make a name when every effort you make changes your sound and who you are as an artist.

   The sound scene drops into a field of jumping synths only to be darkened by bass and an eerie sense of greatness in the project’s first track “Barnacles of Time” featuring another game changing producer TRASH LORD. Transitioning into the next track, “Dagger,” we experience traveling through time and space at light speed with this engaging piece, which notably has one of my favorite climaxes on the project. In track 3 titled “Blood Dust,” I really felt like I was running on a planet of solely metal, cut up but pushing forward as my fate destines, and I really hear a story going on the whole time during this track, no this whole album really. It feels like windows into the life of a space-traveler, to put it simply. 

   Though I can’t go into deep detail and description of each of the following songs on the album (or I guess I could but I don’t want to develop your opinions for you), I think it is well worthwhile to experience this album for yourself, because there is a LOT I haven’t covered on this project. Shit I’m still listening to this for the second time this morning, absorbing what influence I can of this greatness! If you find yourself with an hour and five minutes to spare, take this entire project to the head so you, too, can be part of the journey Arfus created.

[save-a-rainforest]

Foreign Forest - When Things Grow Up (EP)

SAF Writer 7 Oceans Deep

   On Thanksgiving day this year, an EP called When Things Grow Up was released on BandCamp, Spotify, iTunes & Soundcloud by vocalist, producer, designer and all around artist Foreign Forest.

   You may have heard of him through his debut album "Amberwave," but since the release he's kept the streets of the underground interweb buzzing with an amazingly continuous work ethic. From his new found journey into producing to his engagement with harmonizing vocally over instrumentals from talented producers like KALKO, Jamvvis, Canis Major & more, it’s always something different, and still it seems he always has time to reach out to new artists to build with.    From “Better Off” to “Full Belly Boy,” you can find yourself tuned in all the way through this classic project. The production is beyond amazing (being one of the quickly noted quirks). Track 4 of 5 titled "Fancy Feast" was even produced by Forest himself.    The first track opens with a song featuring new & upcoming singer Melanie Marie titled "Better Off". The song radiates a beautiful sound, like something you'd play to break the ice on an awkward first date that isn’t going so well. The two tracks on this project that I find myself replaying most are "Childish Indulgences" & "Full Belly Boy," because of the ambient, angelic feel they offer in which I often get lost in. The vocals in every track are noticeably catchy and beautiful from start to finish. Notably, if you purchase the EP from BandCamp you also get an additional 6th track titled "Killing What You Love."    If you haven’t create a mental image of him in your head, remember the name itself, Foreign Forest. He's changing the platform and standard for music in his own special way. Don't take my word for it though, go stream his EP “When Things Grow Up” via SoundCloud here, and take a journey into something new.

[save-a-rainforest]

Esther & Frander - LOST IN SUBURBIA

   The cassette is in. New work from artists Esther and Frander (ALC) was uploaded tonight in the form of an album. If you like lyrical bars from a very personal standpoint, this project might have an appeal to you. Soft is the complete opposite of this new sound from the two, but go ahead and put your feet up and smoke to this. It’s not “comforting,” or something that is gonna help you through your problems, but more something that you should ponder to, ride to, and something you can expand your musical horizons with. If you fucked with 90′s rap, that’s cool. This isn’t that, but it really can’t be placed in something modern and “electric” sounding, it’s just too unique. That being said, this might just be our favorite project to finish up 2016 to, and that’s why you should not only stream this project but download it here.