During a hiatus of the metal outfit Civil Definition, The Ryan Birchwood Project was born. Two recordings were made during this venture that consisted of Michael Portner on acoustic guitar and Jayson Hughes handling vocals. Civil Definition was soon reborn and the project would be put to the side. Two years later Civil Definition fell apart indefinitely which led to Michael and Jayson coming back together in an acoustic project dubbed Before The Ends Meet. The duo wrote three songs together .. More >>which started to incorporate Michael utilizing his feet to play drums while playing the acoustic guitar and Jayson adding keyboard parts to the songs. After a year of writing together Nathan Vorwerk, the former guitar player of Civil Definition joined the band to play the bass guitar.
With all of the pieces now in place the three soon realized that a new musical direction was forming. Though they had focused on a drastically different sound, their heavy metal roots and influences tended to naturally show in the writing. Due to this the band's style and sound now encompass a wide range of diversity and emotion with dark undertones that evolve many times into uplifting moments all in a single song. The band has changed their name to Strange Forest, which the three decided fit where the project has gone musically.
Bella Ruse
Bella Ruse's combination of airy folk and crunchy pop transforms rooms into secret gardens and paints pictures of invading bombardiers, salty sea love, and super glued hearts. Surrounded by a laboratory of instruments - typewriter, suitcase organ, glockenspiel, and kazoos - singer Kay Gillette's antique voice and Joseph Barker's mournful guitar twist and twirl and dip and dive and carry you deep down the rabbit-hole into their magical musical world.
They've been traveling the country for two years, opening for Sarah Mclachlan, Heart, and Hey Marseilles along the way. Their songs have been u..
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