Interview with The Fall of Troy’s Andrew Forsman

August 10, 2016, at 7:44 p.m.

Slickster was recently lucky enough to see The Fall of Troy live at The Orpheum in Tampa, Florida. We were also super lucky to have the drummer from The Fall of Troy, Andrew Forsman, answer some nagging questions we had regarding the band’s recording process, gear they use on stage, as well as their favorite go-to road snack while on tour. See the transcript from our interview below.

The Fall of Troy is currently on tour with ’68 and Illustrations, and their newest record OK is available now.

Interview with The Fall of Troy’s Andrew Forsman Slickster Magazine: Doppelganger was a record that got me through some rough patches, and now that I am older I hear it differently and from a different mindset. How has playing those songs differ from then til now?

Andrew Forsman: We just know them a lot better now so their way easier, it used to be a struggle back in the day and we go to them when we need a break in the set, that’s mostly what we do when we play those old songs.

The band went on a brief hiatus in 2010, and to the happiness of the fans, got back together in 2013, can you discuss the reunion and if that brief hiatus recharged the bands outlook for the future. 

Well we didn’t go on a brief hiatus, we broke up because I was stealing money from the band and I was severely addicted to drugs. So we broke up, and in between that time and the time that we reformed a lot of shit happened between all of us. So yes, I would say it definitely recharged the outlook of the future of the band, and the band wouldn’t have kept going the way it was, so we had to break up to get back together if that makes any sense.

Can you tell us a little about the band’s recording process, especially the new record, OK?

We just get in a room and we play the songs we’ve written in the practice space, but we do it into microphones. And then… we put vocals over that, we get the producer to mix it, it’s really straight forward, not a lot of production magic, just three motherfuckers in a room banging it out.

I am a huge fan of instrumental records, and love the blurb on your website about the philosophy behind releasing the OK records as instrumentals. What prompted those releases?

Like we said in the blurb on our website, the songs start in the practice spot and we don’t ever hear the songs with vocals until way after we’ve written them and their recorded, so we figured people can hear them as we hear them first. Give you a little sneak peek into the interior of the bands life… And Thomas is a bad singer, so the records are better without his vocals.

This tour is pretty amazing as well, I love the energy in the small clubs and the intimacy of the crowd, are there any venues that you have enjoyed playing at more than others?

There’s a sports bar in Florida that was pretty insane called O’Malley’s… Shaka’s in Virginia Beach, Virginia, was insane. The Rebel Lounge in Phoenix, Arizona, was incredible. Those small venues where the venue staff aren’t completely idiots, those are the most fun, especially if there is no barrier between us and the fans.

All three of you are tremendous musicians, what inspired you to begin playing, and do you have a favorite musician?

It’s so ingrained in our being that inevitably we were going to pick up instruments. Thomas began playing drums at three, I started playing trombone at 11 or 10, Tim didn’t start playing music until much later, Tim barely plays music now. At some point any of us saw someone playing music and we thought man we’d love to do that, I don’t know what the other two guys would say, my inspiration was hearing Weird Al, I fucking love Weird Al. Do I have a favorite musician? Ya, Josh Scogin from ’68 and Michael McClellan, those fuckers know how to play.

For all the tech heads, can you give us a rundown of the instruments and gear you use on stage?

Well, guitar, drums, and bass and them amplifiers, Zildjian cymbals, C&C drums, Promark sticks, Evan Heads, DW Beater, I use snare weights, Tim plays Fender and Gibson bass, Thomas plays Gibson guitars, And they both play Orange amps, but Tim would love to play an Ampeg SVT Classic, he’s told us it many times, sober, drunk, high on mushrooms, doesn’t matter, he will let you fucking know he wants an SVT classic. And right now he is using an Ampeg SVT Pro on loan from one of our favorite musicians, Josh Scogin, from ’68.

Lightning Round

Current Favorite Record?

We don’t really listen to records in the band, we listen to Podcasts, we’re big into Radiolab and Invisibilia.

Record you couldn’t live without?

Probably the new ’68 record, or Doppelganger cause we’d be broke without that.

First record you bought?

Weird Al Food Album, I already said it, I love Weird Al, Food album was a fuckin’ solid album.

Movie you could watch every day for the rest of your life?

I know I speak for the entire band when I say The Big Lebowski.

First concert you paid to see?

I went to go see Gas Huffer and Mudhoney at Bumbershoot, but I don’t think I paid for that, I think I got in for free cause I was 12. I don’t know maybe Modest Mouse or something like that.

First place the band played a live show…

It was either a church or a place called The Monkey Trap, and they kicked all our friends out like five minutes before we played cause we were all under 21. So that was a fun one.

Go-to road food, and go-to food city?

Thomas loves Panera, and Thomas loves beef jerky, whatever was left over from the rider the night before, maybe some fruit, or pita bread. Go to food city: That’s a tough one, I live in Portland, and that the best place as far as I’m concerned, anywhere in the south is usually a pretty good bet.

Band you would pay anything to see live?

Probably has to be The Beatles for me, just cause you’re never gonna see them, cause their dead, or at least half are, I’m gonna say more than half, because as much as I love Ringo, he’s not a quarter of the band, and certainly I would say the Beatles, cause they are impossible to see.