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Local Gold
The Forties
By David Carlson (with Reyan Ali)
Our members are... David Carlson (vocals, rhythm guitar), Beau Patterson (bass), Alex Long (drums), and Alex Wehri (lead guitar).
We formed in... November of 2008 in Columbus, OH at The Ohio State University.
Our most recent release is... "Here I Go," an alternative-pop-rock song. While the song is upbeat and catchy, the lyrics are about dealing with loss of a close friend.
Our primary musical influences are... the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Incubus, The Faces, Rolling Stones, Blink-182, Kings of Leon, and Nirvana.
Our music is best described as... a hybrid style of rock, mixing modern alternative-pop rock with Third Eye Blind lyrical styles and catchy upbeat guitar riffs similar to that of Blink-182. We find it hard to narrow down our sound to one particular genre. In a recent article written in response to our quick success, the author of the article described our style stating, "The Forties are not your typical punk band, or rock band, or indie band. In fact, it's really hard to even describe their sound. That's part of their charm."
I would describe our live show as... a high energy experience. We love getting the crowd involved and we feed off their energy. I love jumping into the crowd and having them sing along with me. The crowd is just as much a part of the show as we are and we make sure that they are having just as good of a time as we are.
Our band's name comes from... We will leave you to come up with your own interpretation of our name.
It may be amusing to learn that we... we all have man crushes. Beau is obsessed with Flea and Alex W. idolizes John Frusciante, both members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Alex L. is in love with David Grohl from Nirvana/Foo Fighters and I have a fascination with Caleb Followill from the Kings of Leon.
One essential element to our music is... our diversity and our work ethic. We are not trying to fit into any particular style and we never want to make the same song twice. With a lot of bands, you listen to their album and every song sounds almost identical to each other. When you listen to our music, you can tell that it is The Forties but each song is a sort of odd creation that comes from the different styles and influences each one of us brings to the table that day. Also, when it comes to our work ethic, we feel we are one of the hardest working bands in the music industry; we are constantly coming up with ways to improve upon our music, style, and performance so that people will continue to enjoy our music and come see us live.
The best thing about Columbus is... all the people we have had the opportunity to meet [and] all those whom we have come to be friends with. Everyone else whom we have not had the opportunity to meet should come to one of our shows and join The Forties family!
The greatest show we've ever had was... though it sounds cliché, every show we have ever had. Each performance has had its own unique experiences and we have so many great memories from each show that we could not pick just one.
The best thing about playing live music is... that we are getting to do what we absolutely love in front of people who are willing to come and watch us. We can't describe how much our fans mean to us. Individually, each of us has our own favorite thing about playing live, and for Alex L. (I'm taking the liberty of speaking on his behalf), his favorite thing about playing live has to be the girls, because he gets them all. Though it's not fair to the rest of us, we have just had to come to terms with the fact that girls are always going to fall for the drummer.
The worst thing about it is... having to load up all of our equipment after we are done. We would much rather take that time to talk with everyone who came to see us.
In five years... we will be touring, playing shows all over the world, and have signed to a record label. Most importantly, we will continue to pride ourselves on the fact that we are still one of the hardest working bands in the music industry.
The Forties will perform at Lodge Bar (165 Vine St.) on August 8. For more information about the band, visit myspace.com/thefortiesmusic.
Originally Published: August 5, 2009
