Royal Forest Drops a Track-by-Track for ‘Waiting Drum’

Royal Forest’s latest album, Waiting Drum, will give listeners a kaleidoscope of sounds that blend together for a unique sonic experience.

It is a vivid ride that was written and recorded to tape over two days, in an 80 year old Arkansas farmhouse. Royal Forest takes traditional Americana imagery and bounced between 808s played by hand and melodic West African and Brazilian inspired bass lines. If offers a stark contrast between crisp, hi-fi digital instruments and warbly vintage tape echoes that gives the record a cinematic depth that’s underscored by the minimalist approach of its production.

Before its release, Royal forest invited other great Austin Musicians to write about each track to gave a quick track-by-track explanation of what inspired the songs and what a listener can expect.

Every Other Bird – Schivona Johnson
A static bliss of color and light meets Sesame Street at Dozen Street. Is that Kermit on the synth?

• American Songwriter premiered “Every Other Bird” and if you wanna check that out, it is right here!

Sometimes – Jessica Pyrdsa
The simple yet mesmerizing melody brought images of a found memory of something that hasn’t happened yet. Sometimes is what I imagine it would feel like to be rolling around in the under current of a wave, without the fear of drowning.

Can’t Be Happening – Paul Price
I feel like I’m trapped in a screen – shirtless, riding a zebra, eating a hotdog with just one condiment on it… relish.

All At Once- Aaron Sinclair 
Do you know what it feels like when your friends blow your mind? It feels like everything is gonna be ok. Feels like fuck it, just do your best cuz if people you know make this crazy shit, I think we all might have a chance.

Homestead – Eric Witthans
This song feels like emerging from some kind of blast bunker with a withered few, to an orange and purple sky gracing this new, colorful, leafy plant you’ve never seen before, and that is seeming to bust from every crack and crevasse.

Memories Thinning – Aaron Teel
A winding, slinky, sideways melody wrapped in shifting forms and textures, all shadows and light and syncopations that get somehow straight to the point, and even if the point they point toward is off in some weird and confusing distance you won’t much mind or maybe even notice, carried along as you’ll be by bouncing bass and shaky sci-fi reverb and wave after wave of by brooding, blissed-out synths. The sheer joy of it! Pop music as an attack on the rational and the everyday.

Featherweight – Jana Horn
It’s like walking around an almost-American landscape, maybe Canada, some place familiar enough… the moment after some great realization. So everything is daze, is without memory, impartial, slow-mo. Getting on the Canadian bus is $3 if you have it, and not-$3 if you don’t; it’s funny now, that you notice it.

Bars and tone – Wilson Marks
Recurring Synth lines and deep drum grooves collided in a tasty amalgam that gave my dinner new meaning. This track sounds like it’s headed for a collision course with the unknown, and I wanna go with it.

Mourning State – Jason Butler
A hopeful twisting of downward notes that turn the frowns upside down, whisked upward by floating beats and butterfly kisses made by swirls of well placed sounds. Not sad nor happy but interesting. A soft voice anchoring the swirl of it all.

Waiting Drum is available August 28th via King Electric Record Company.