A Few Words from Buddie’s Dan Forrest about Transplant
”Thoughts about sustainability and equity — or the lack of it — take up so much of my head space,” shared Dan Forrest of evolving Vancouver-via-Philadelphia power pop project Buddie. “I don’t know if I’ve found the right way to join the two (sustainability/equity/science and songwriting), but I’ll keep trying.”
After making waves with Buddie’s 2020 album Diving while rooted in Pennsylvania, Forrest moved to British Columbia in pursuit of further education, studying sustainability while unbottle-ing indie rock magic with longtime Pittsburgh, PA force Crafted Sounds. Buddie most recently released a four-track EP called Transplant, a small collection pulled from a much, much larger Buddie recording session in 2021 pre-relocation that apparently produced roughly twenty tracks.
Forrest spoke to W.W about each Transplant track, looking back on the lyrics written and record during a frenzied time, but not released until he’d found new footing and settled again.
“On ‘Indecision’, I struggled with the idea of moving away from home for five years or more, deciding where that location would be with my partner, and the effect this had on us both — stress!” he told us. “Now that it’s reality, it’s so much easier to accept and I don’t look back and wonder about what could’ve been.”
“On ‘Northern Skies’, I thought about what home means to me: what part of that is people or place, how much of that I can(‘t) take with me, and how that might change me,” Forrest continued. “I think those reflections hold true.”
“On ‘Sunday Morning’ and ‘Take What’s Left’, I may have spent too much time sitting in feelings of despair — climate anxiety, structural inequity and racism — and only touched on the ideas of change and transformation and hope,” they reflected. “I’d rather focus on the latter, but spending time processing those feelings definitely helped me.”
“How does that future look? What do we value? How do we get around? How do we feed ourselves? Where do we live and how do we interact with our neighbors? What do we do for fun? What plants, animals, and built structures surround us?”
Photo by Nada Hayek.
“In the past, and in some of this latest group of songs, I may have spent too much time dwelling on the problems that result from western ideologies, capitalism, etcetera. I don’t know if that’s helping anyone,” the Buddie lead admitted bluntly.
“In the future, I plan to write about the world I, or other people that I speak to, want to see. Some people call this the beginnings of ‘revolutionary prefiguration’ or ‘prefigurative politics’ if you’re looking for search terms [Forrest also recommended this episode of Srsly Wrong], but I’d rather think of it more simply: envisioning a good life for you and your community.”
“How does that future look? What do we value? How do we get around? How do we feed ourselves? Where do we live and how do we interact with our neighbors? What do we do for fun? What plants, animals, and built structures surround us?” What is Wormbrain?
Wormbrain World had the chance to ask Dan Forrest of Buddie to say a few words about their album Transplant, each of the songs on it, and the record label that helped them to release it into the cosmos. Here is what he said:
W.W: Transplant
DF: Uproot, replant, and grow
W.W: 1. Sunday Morning
DF: Disorder spurs transformations; self-encouragement
W.W: 2. Take What’s Left
DF: Remember your values, envision a good life.
W.W: 3. Northern Skies
DF: Home is people & people make place.
W.W: 4. Indecision
DF: Growth through stress, change, and discomfort
W.W: Crafted Sounds
DF: Music without boundaries; carefully constructed
Photo by Nada Hayek.
W.W: What is Wormbrain?
DF: Ideal — a brain that takes in detritus and turns it into fertile soil. Reality — Cysticercosis.
W.W: Thank you for sharing with Wormbrain.
Buddie’s latest album Transplant is out now everywhere on Pittsburgh, PA label Crafted Sounds.
