Talking with Sam Forrest About His New Elliott Smith-Inspired Record, Aeroplane Days

I caught up with the North Yorkshire singer-songwriter to discuss our love of the Portland icon and why indie labels are best

If you were coming of age in the late-’90s or early-’00s, chances are you encountered Elliott Smith. Known for his fragile whisper of a singing voice, his mastery of chamber-pop and intricate melodies set him apart from his peers.

Starting as an acoustic troubadour, he gained acclaim for his early work before his appeal expanded with 1997’s Either/Or. After director Gus Van Sant included some of Smith’s work for Good Will Hunting, Smith was nominated for an Academy Award with his song, “Miss Misery.”

Revisiting his performance at the 1998 Oscars is even more surreal now - here is a cuttingly melancholy song trimmed down to less than two minutes, with an overly saccharine orchestral accompaniment led by Titanic’s composer, James Horner, who was also nominated that night. Smith stood no chance that evening, as “My Heart Will Go On” and the big boat movie was a force that could not be reckoned with. This moment for Smith did, however, lead to a major label deal.

After his flawless Dreamworks Records debut, XO, Smith completely embraced his love of The Beatles and The Beach Boys with 2000’s Figure 8. The album is Smith at his most accessible and graceful, with his signature folk turned to orchestra-filled chamber pop. The bittersweet classic would also be the last released while Smith was alive.

Gone for eighteen years later this month, Smith continues to be a considerable influence. Everyone from Bright Eyes to Sufjan Stevens and Bon Iver owes a significant part of their sound to him, and his inspiration is experiencing another renaissance with artists like Phoebe Bridgers and Justus Proffit leading the way. But while most return to his early work, rare is it that someone can attain that Figure 8-era magic.

This is precisely what interested me about Sam Forrest’s latest record, Aeroplane Days.

Aeroplane Days is the ninth album from the fruitful North Yorkshire singer-songwriter, who has once again reinvented himself with a set of ten euphonic chamber-pop gems. Two years in the making, Forrest teamed up with Micah Calabrese in Los Angeles to make a transcontinental record. It’s a lush outing full of guitars, pianos, organs, ride cymbals, and the occasional synth drift. Songs like the layered opener “A Place to Hide” and “Could’ve Been a Dancer” introduce Forrest in a soft-spoken folk setting, but that hasn’t always been the case for the songwriter who is an industry vet at this point.

Forrest was thrust into the UK press machine in the early-’00s when he moved to Manchester and formed the band Nine Black Alps. “I started Nine Black Alps with a few friends when I moved to Manchester in 2003,” says Forrester. “I had an idea that it would be a pretty instant big-sounding rock band like Pixies and Nirvana.”

Nine Black Alps would quickly gain a massive following with their reputation for energetic live shows while navigating the Manchester scene. At that time, major labels were on the hunt for the next big guitar outfit, and the alternative band was promptly signed to Island Records. For a time, the opportunities were endless, with the band playing Glastonbury and T in the Park while supporting Weezer and Kaiser Chiefs on their UK tours. The band was even able to pick the producer for their studio debut and chose Rob Schnapf, who was behind the boards for Either/Or, XO, Figure 8, and the posthumously released From a Basement on the Hill.

But as Elliott Smith found out, the major label game can be tricky. “For the first couple of years, we had a massive amount of luck and got signed to a major record label, had a big publishing deal, were managed by a big management company, and toured the world,” recalls Forrest. “Then, from about 2006 onwards, our luck reversed, and everything went wrong. It was a bit of a cliche, but good fun too.” Nine Black Alps have since self-released more albums, last appearing in 2014 with Candy for the Clowns.

Continually diversifying his output, Forrest co-fronts The Sorry Kisses with Hayley Hutchinson and plays in Sewage Farm. His solo career has been the most consistent, though, turning out album after album for the last eight years. Forrest is constantly setting aside new songs for specific projects, which leads to steady releases.

Aeroplane Days may be his latest, but last year Forrest released the full-length After Tomorrow and the Crooked Candle EP earlier this year, none of which sound alike. Crooked Candle, in particular, sounds closer to the crunchy guitar neck climbing sounds of Neil Young and Crazy Horse on songs like “Places I’ve Been” and “Disorder.” “After Tomorrow was quickly recorded after the pandemic first started,” says Forrest. “I wanted to record it fast, as I had a backlog of songs, and I wasn't sure if the world was ending or not.”

As the lockdown lowered to an uncertain simmer, Forrest continued to explore more influences in his sound. “When I realized that we might have a few more years, I picked another handful of songs for Crooked Candle that were a bit more droney as I was going through a big Sonic Youth phase,” observes Forrest. “I initially meant for the album to be all detuned guitars and drum machines, but then I realized that drum machines were really boring, so I did the drums myself in a stone shed.”

Aeroplane Days has been in the works since 2018, but it was a visit with co-producer Micah Calabrese, who wears many hats on the project, most notably adding the synths on the hypnotizing “Walking on Water.” The duo set the recording process in motion after a road trip from Los Angeles to Santa Cruz that included various mid to later-era Beach Boys bootlegs. Forrest and Calabrese recorded in their homes on different continents and sent each other Pro Tools files while adding layers of instruments.

While the pandemic has been horrific in so many ways, the lockdown helped animate the songs into a fully realized album. Forrest observes, “to be honest, the pandemic probably sped up the whole process as there wasn't much else to do in terms of playing live music and so on. Apart from the drums and piano, most of the album was recorded in our own homes, and all lyrical themes like isolation were already present before the world ended.”

The result is a continuation of the sounds explored by Elliott Smith in Figure 8. Songs like “The Best is Yet to Come” (Forrest’s favorite track on the record) and “Hanging Gardens” feature double-tracked vocals where the layered melodies are supported by harmonies in the chorus, resulting in a warm and inviting mix. Forrest recalls, “I think I must have been going through an Elliott Smith phase when I wrote most of the songs in 2018. I love Figure 8, especially ‘Pretty Mary K,’ ‘Junk Bond Trader,’ and ‘Can’t Make A Sound.’ It's probably my second favourite Elliott album after his self-titled one.”

Long influenced by Smith, Aeroplane Days is where Forrest fully realizes exploring this sound so hard to achieve. “I think (Elliot Smith) is one of the few 'rock' musicians who have the capacity of writing complex, but beautifully articulate music.” Forrest also holds Smith in rare air, commenting, “only Paul McCartney, Judee Sill, Brian Wilson, and Benny Andersson seem to have this internal magic in their music that sounds completely instinctive. Plus, the fact that Elliott seemed fairly anti-rock star seemed cool to me.”

As Forrest is still in touch with Rob Schnapf, he received some first-hand insight on the Figure 8 process. “I spoke to Rob about it and was surprised to hear that the recording for it was difficult compared with XO,” says Forrest. “Figure 8 just sounds effortless to me, really creative and fun. There was no way that I was going to get close to the complexity of Figure 8, but I wanted to give it a try.”

After being burned by major labels, Forrest is also happy to be returning to an indie for Aeroplane Days. The album found a home on Hidden Bay Records, a DIY label out of Toulouse, France, which has given him a whole new audience. “Being with Hidden Bay is way more fun and easy-going than being on a major record label,” says Forrest. “They emailed me out of the blue and asked if I wanted to do a tape with them, and I loved lots of the bands like Unicorns at Heart that they had worked with, so I said ‘yes.’”

“And everyone knows that France is way cooler than England, so it was an easy decision,” quips Forrest.

Never one to stop writing, Forrest already has multiple pots on the stove. Inspired by the outdoors and his move to the Yorkshire coast, Forrest is working on a trio of projects. “One is a detuned rock album, one is a kind of sludgy mid-tempo Neil Young thing, and the final album is something that I am trying to make as hyper-melodic as possible.”

As for another Nine Black Alps album, it’s up in the air as Forrest says, “we're still all friends, and I have lots of songs that would suit a new Nine Black Alps album, but I've got no idea how we'll all get the time to record any more music.”

As Forrest progresses as a songwriter with each record, there may be no need to revisit the past though. With a new label home and a headful of fresh sketches, it may be “The Best is Yet to Come” for Sam Forrest.

Aeroplane Days is available now on Hidden Bay Records. 

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