Greetings gentlemen! Congratulations with your excellent new album. How are you doing?
The Gentleman: Thank you for the compliment, we are doing splendid, all things considered; we’re all excited to watch the new album finally venture out into the world where it will sink or swim – we’re enthusiastic parents, but it has to stand on its own two feet at some point after raising it for so long. Knowing our luck, it’ll be eaten by a predator no sooner than it steps out the door, but such is life.

Kettleburner: I will go as far as saying that I am excited about the next few weeks and months. It has been a long time since we were last visible to the world and there is a great feeling and camaraderie right now.

The previous album ‘Grave Mounds And Grave Mistakes’ was released in 2018. For the first time you had a longer pause. Can you tell what happened with the band after the release of former album and why it took so long?
The Gentleman: It’s amazing how time gets away from you, isn’t it? We never intended for such a long gap, it just panned out that way. Effectively, after the last album, we were keen to get going on the next, and we ended up with a wealth of material, from which we created a concept double album (is there a more pretentious phrase? Doubt it!) Anyway, that took us up to the pandemic, where, once we’d got our bearings, we presented it to the label, and were about to work out how the heck to record it while isolated, when some of the band started questioning parts of the material and then that spiralled into all sorts of a wider mess and before we knew it we were looking at a band – all isolated in place – at loggerheads with each other and the whole thing (album, band and friendships) falling apart. After the pandemic, we got together face to face, and over the course of a delightful afternoon of talking we’d managed to work through our differences and found that the best way to go forward unified was to ditch the material we’d written and start again from scratch. So that took a couple of years. Then we recorded it, then Katie was finishing her PHD and was understandably persona non grata, so we decided to sit on it for another year (after all, it’s been a long time, waiting a bit longer meant nothing at that point) and… wait. Yes! We’re all caught up with the present. Phew!

On the live front you took a longer break than was needed due to the pandemic, isn’t it? In July 2023 you announced these extra cancellations. What happened?
Kettleburner: There were also some personal & health reasons as well that controlled things later on (we performed live a few times in 2022, so you are right that the pandemic didn’t stop us all the time). We’re collectively quite a fragile object, prone to breakage and bits snapping off the end. We deeply thank promoters and gig-goers for their patience when plans have had to change.

Curse: Unfortunately, it was largely my fault, I have a long history of chronic health problems. During the last plague I developed pretty severe breathing problems (suspected vasculitis). This put a stop to all vocal activities for me for quite a while, and I wasn’t expecting to recover. Fortunately, I did, because I’m a stubborn old bastard, so here we are, back again.

When did you feel ready for making the sixth album and started writing new songs? How do you look back on this process? Did you have certain ideas for approach or style?
The Gentleman: When we agreed to start again from scratch, I think that was 2023. It was an extremely fun and lively time with lots of creativity flowing and enthusiasm for working together. But the songs that were coming out of that just weren’t working; they were a mess. So, it took a while to find the right formula that meant we could keep that creativity up, but harness it to get results that we liked. In the end, part of it was only allowing the “core” songwriters to write the most basic of ideas, which then everyone else could build around and extrapolate from. In my case this meant only being able to use the piano to show any ideas; it is absolutely wonderful to hear how those sparse pieces grew into the lushly dense songs they became by others’ hands, and very, very gratifying too. It meant that everyone could have their full say, but without dominating an idea. And it just really, really worked – so much so that I can’t wait to get going again!

A Forest Of Stars has exceptional lyrics! Mr. Curse, can you tell us how this linguistic wealth grew upon you? When and how did you expand this interest, so that it resulted in a personal trademark I would say…?
Curse: That is kind of you to say! I think it comes from my grandmother, who always wrote in riddles. I’ve been quietly writing so-called poetry since I was a small child, though nothing was ever used musically until we started A Forest of Stars. I am honoured that there are some positive reactions to my writing.

And when did the elocutionist in you (the dramatic despair) in you come into being?
Curse: Far too many reasons to list! Death, sickness, badly wired brain, etc. etc. I would prefer not to go into detail, suffice to say that I am a sensitive little flower, underneath all the howling. You could say that I have taken life very personally.

Is there a concept or a certain flow in the lyrics of ‘Stack Overflow In Corpse Pile Interface’?
Curse: In all honesty, not this time. There is a loose continuity between paranoia, mistrust, merry madness and expectations of a continuation of the long, drawn out apocalypse that we are all wading through, though. Oh, and the ever-present unhealthy disgust for the worst elements that float as scum at the ‘top’ of humanity, as ever.

By the way, what a special album title! I could find out that probably merges the technique (machines) and human beings, but I am stoked to hear it from you?
Curse: You are indeed correct. The title is a reference to our collective over-communication versus our collective lack of communication. Also, how much communication (information superhighway, etc.) has been hijacked into a shadow of its former self to become more of an disinformation alleyway coated with advertisements for things we should never want or perceive ourselves to need in the first place. My apologies, I am struggling to answer this one. By and large, as a technologically arrogant species, we have become so selfish and insular that we are desensitised to the bodies piled around as whilst we surround ourselves in worthless trinkets and take impotent digital potshots at our fellow idiots… Nurse!!!

And how did you ever come to the band name A Forest Of Stars? It really sounds untouchable and mysterious…
The Gentleman: If I remember correctly, it was one of those magical moments; Curse and I were in a pub, a few ales in, sat by the fire, talking about the band and musing over titles. At that time I carried a notebook with me everywhere, full of poems, sketches, ideas, weird this-and-thats. Curse picked it up and started flicking through it, found that phrase as part of a poem I’d scrawled, and just immediately went “That’s it”. And that really was it, no more thought was expended, because it just felt right. I’m glad too, as it’s something that really held up (I hope). Also, the rest of the poem was probably crap, so I’m glad we got some practical use out of it.

Let us focus on some of the songs. The most accessible song – at least through my eyes –  is ‘Roots Circle Usurpers’. Brilliant how its gentle beginning turns into tight rocking areas with violin while ending in captivating turmoil… what can you tell about this song? (whatever you like to unfold qua lyrics or music)
The Gentleman: Musically, this started as a Wight-Barrow special. The opening was (I think) one of the very first things written after the restart and it immediately lit a fire under us. That said, the song itself, though the first written, took the longest to complete. We had all the pieces, but it took forever to get it sounding “right”. For a long time it didn’t flow very well at all. The start never really changed, but the rest of the song went through endless revision until it was knocked into shape. There was – frustratingly – no epiphany moment where it all worked; just a long long uphill slog. But we knew there was a good song in there, it just took time and hard work to develop it. I think this is the best example of the new process we went through as we learned how to write together again anew. Unfortunately, as the first track it suffered the most from that learning process as we went through multiple different approaches trying to find the right one.

Curse: Lyrically, both my fascination with the idea that we are not so much individuals as universal consciousness, and the attempted hijacking of this pleasantness by condensed masses of vermin wrapped up in business suits. Oh, and the usual cheap shots at organised religion.