Singers with Unique Voices: Montreal Artist James Forest (The Unique Voices Club #10)

Every Friday, I write a post about unique singing voices not commonly heard in mainstream music in an effort to educate emerging artists and music lovers and inspire them to embrace their own quirks. This week I'm writing on James Forest.

Image by Ezra Soiferman

The video for James Forest's song "Someone Like You" has him dancing around in the snow with these floral print pants and Doc Martens on. So embodies the spirit of true bohemians. And possibly the spirit of Montreal, where he's from.

I have no memory of ever having been to Montreal, but my parents describe it as a combination of my multicultural neighborhood in Boston where there's a lot of vintage record stores, thrift shops and art on the street and the urbanness of the nearby sections with people playing music on street corners. And with a good chunk of his songs consisting of just a guitar and airy vocals that breeze in the wind that sounded like they were recorded on an old recording machine, James Forest represents the traveling attitude that tends to arise from places that prize diversity and open-mindedness. According to his Artlist bio, he often travels all over Europe, India and Pakistan searching for good sounds and words for his music.

James has a small following on Instagram and a little under 9k monthly listeners on Spotify. I discovered James from listening to his single "Hummingbirds,"which has me picturing a wheat field with the wind blowing and the temperature right in the middle of not-too-warm and not-too-cold. And then ends with a distorted loop of the final line of the song. His instrumental album, Silver Forest, available only on Bandcamp and consisting of ethereal 70s synths and a disjointed saxophone, sounds reminiscent of an extraterrestrial mission and blends a variety of soundscapes. Listening to his performance for the Boreal Sessions on a boat at La Mauricie National Park, though, both the folky fingerstyle guitar playing and watching the water flowing in the background makes me want to head over to the Charles right now and rent a kayak. As far as singers with unique voices, he doesn't need to belt like some of us may think. Sometimes less is more. And because there is less to hide behind, leaving his vocals somewhat exposed, the uniqueness is in the nuances - the inflection of every word, the placement of every breath.

So I implore you to go follow James Forest on Instagram and Spotify to keep up to date with any new releases, and don't forget to share this post with your inner circle in case this is a new artist that you like! And maybe plan a trip to Montreal if you're into the arts scene😁.

And that's all for this for the Unique Voices Club! I'm gonna casually plug in that our friend Lucia Flores-Wiseman (written in one of our first Club posts) got to the final 5 of this past season of The Voice. I still can't believe it. Uniqueness truly does win. So if you have no idea who she is, read up her here. And go subscribe to the blog at the bottom of the page to get more artists like these directly to your inbox.

Stay educated,

Alexia