Forest announces debut album, 'Swan Dive'
FOREST UNVEILS SWAN DIVE
LOS ANGELES ARTIST ANNOUNCES DEBUT ALBUM,
AVAILABLE SEPTEMBER 25, 2026 VIA AWAL
“ANCHOR” PREMIERES TODAY - LISTEN
APPEARING AT ROCKNITE LA ON JULY 23 WITH FAKE DAD AND FIME AT THE ECHO - BUY TICKETS
SUPPORTING IVRI ON TOUR THIS FALL,
BEGINNING SEPTEMBER 28 IN PORTLAND, OR - DETAILS HERE
Today, Los Angeles artist Forest is excited to announce her debut album, Swan Dive, available everywhere September 25 2026, via AWAL. New single “Anchor” arrives alongside the announcement, painting a vivid picture of what it’s like to be tethered to haunted memories. Forest ponders the burden of time over emo-tinged breakdowns as grounding drums carry her to stability.
“‘Anchor’ delves into the idea of becoming wrapped up in something you can’t get out of,” Forest explains. “It was written in my childhood bedroom on a trip to Chicago, at a time when I had felt the past wrap its arms around me. The thought of being stuck and tied to the past was the driving thought throughout this track.”
LISTEN TO “ANCHOR”
Swan Dive arrives as Forest's most fully realized work to date, expanding the alt-rock foundation of her earlier releases into something sonically larger and more fluid. Across the ten-track record, walls of distorted guitars collide with electronic textures, industrial undercurrents, and moments of startling pop clarity. Her new music is intimate but overwhelming, capable of shifting from whispered confession to emotional freefall in the span of a few measures.
Last month, “Lay With Me” thrashed forward with intense drums and chugging riffs that underscored sweet but powerful vocals. Pleading for simple intimacy, Forest opens up over wiry guitars that descend into disarray. “Whore and Savior” arrived earlier this spring. After previewing the new single across her socials, fans and strangers alike were instantly hooked. Pummeling guitars charge forth from the start, building a strong layer of fuzz for Forest’s vocals to hold onto. Contemplating ideas of young love as one crosses the bridge from naivety to maturity, the track explores the push and pull between desire and innocence, cementing Forest as a rising star in the process. “Prosthetic Stars” kicked off a wild year, armed with stadium-ready riffs and brightly toned synths, which soar lightly beneath Forest’s powerful vocals, creating a sense of emotional gravity that swells rather than explodes. Filled with desire and discomfort, drums anchor the melodically boisterous song, keeping in time with the urgency of the moment.
LISTEN TO “LAY WITH ME”
LISTEN TO “WHORE AND SAVIOR”
LISTEN TO “PROSTHETIC STARS”
Known for her unforgettable performances, Forest has shared the stage with bands like Starcrawler, Chokecherry, Empty Shell Casing, and more. To kick off 2026, she played the sold-out emo revival festival BurnDown in Santa Ana, CA. Throughout this spring, Forest has brought her new music to the stage with an expansive North American tour with Clarion. Nonstop touring continues this fall when she supports ivri across the West Coast. To stay in the loop on upcoming appearances, see below and follow Forest on Instagram at @forestband__.
★ FOREST LIVE 2026 ★
JULY
23 Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo *
SEPTEMBER
28 - Portland, OR @ Holocene #
29 - Vancouver, @ Biltmore Cabaret #
30 - Seattle, WA @ Barboza #
OCTOBER
5 - Santa Ana @ Constellation Room #
6 - Los Angeles @ Echoplex #
7 - Phoenix, AZ @ Rebel Lounge #
* - w/ Fake Dad
# - w/ ivri
ABOUT FOREST:
Forest’s debut album Swan Dive began, unexpectedly, in a hotel bathroom.
Two years ago, while trapped in a hotel room with her family, the Los Angeles-based songwriter found herself staring at a framed photograph of a swan hanging behind the toilet. The image lodged itself somewhere in her subconscious. Over time, it accumulated meaning: the doomed romance of Swan Lake, the lifelong pair bonds swans are known for, and an old internet myth that claims a swan will plummet to its death after losing its mate. Whether true or not, Forest was captivated by the idea. It felt dramatic, beautiful, lonely, and a little absurd—all qualities that would eventually define Swan Dive.
Though the album doesn't follow a single narrative, its songs orbit many of the same questions. What parts of ourselves belong to us, and what parts are shaped by the people who see us? How do we carry old relationships long after they've ended? What does it mean to leave home, reinvent yourself, and discover that your past has followed you anyway?
Those questions surface throughout the record in different forms. On "Vulture," one of the album's emotional centerpieces, Forest wrestles with dissociation and with being perceived, particularly as a woman. Elsewhere, "Anchor" examines the feeling of becoming tangled in memories you can't escape. At the same time, "Breathe Out" transforms the loneliness of arriving in Los Angeles into a quiet act of self-preservation. "Prosthetic Stars" captures the aftermath of distraction and self-destruction, looking back on fleeting relationships and empty pursuits with clear eyes. Even the album's love songs carry an uneasy tension, balancing tenderness against distance, devotion against resentment.
The push and pull between opposing forces runs throughout the record. Forest explores the contradictions that have followed her into adulthood: softness and anger, intimacy and isolation, purity and sexuality, longing and independence. Nowhere is that more apparent than on "Whore & Savior," a song inspired by a misheard phrase during a tour stop in New York that became a meditation on first love, memory, and the impossible expectations placed on women. Looking back on adolescence, Forest recalls a period of life spent caught between extremes, trying to become everything at once.
The album was recorded almost entirely in producer Aaron Liebman's backyard garage studio, a deliberately DIY process that mirrors Forest's artistic instincts. In contrast to her previous recordings, which were tracked live with minimal post-production, Swan Dive embraces experimentation. Electronic sounds weave through live instrumentation, processed textures blur into organic riffs, and carefully layered arrangements create a world that feels dreamlike without losing its humanity. Influences from artists like The Smashing Pumpkins, Deftones, Snake River Conspiracy, and Elliott Smith linger in the album's DNA, but Forest's goal was never imitation. Instead, she was searching for a language that felt uniquely her own.
That search is central to Swan Dive. More than a statement of intent, the album documents an artist in the process of becoming. Across its ten songs, Forest confronts loneliness, desire, grief, memory, and self-perception without pretending to have figured it all out. As its title suggests, Swan Dive is less concerned with safe landings than with the leap itself—the terrifying, exhilarating moment of surrender before you know where you'll end up.
Photo Credit: Bella Villa @by.bellavilla
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