CREDIT: TRISTAN CASEY
Twin Forks' gig at Call The Office was a perfect example of the 'magic' the band has during performances on stage.

I write about random things a lot. I write a lot about random things. There has been a definite trend lately of artists paying careful consideration to the art of songwriting, even challenging themselves to find innovative ways of creating their music. From turning to archaic analogue recording technology to capture a texture or surrounding yourself with other creative voices, artists are exploring new areas to discover new music.

Following Twin Forks’ headlining gig at Call The Office on November 8 Chris Carrabba described the magic he felt the band – Kelsie Baranoski, Sarah Bost, Jonathon Clark and Shawn Zorn – was capturing together.

“It’s a bit of a rotating cast, but it’s finally settling in,” he said. “After playing constantly on the road, you begin to learn each other’s instincts, and I’m not sure at that point if you’re really writing the song – if I’m shaping the song beforehand, or if we’re all settling it together.”

As a group, Twin Forks takes a highly collaborative approach to writing, exploring ideas without expectations and with little to no verbal communication amongst each other. This way the band relies on its mutual instincts to recreate the spontaneous, immediate nature of its first recordings – though Carrabba says that the band’s new music “feels more live than our last record.”

“Because we’ve been in so many bands, there’s none of the tension or arguments that happens,” he said. “When you don’t know that listening to someone else’s idea is as important as conveying your own. So there’s genuine consideration of all these ideas, and generally speaking we’re all ending up in the same place.”

It had been a year since the band last visited London, touring then in support of its debut EP and building momentum for the February release of the band’s self-titled full-length Twin Forks LP. The band has certainly been busy supporting the album since, keeping sharp on the road by constantly working on its sound. Lineup changes brought fresh voices and ideas into the fold since last they came through town, and Carrabba is more excited than ever about the shape of things to come.

“It was like years and years of holding this [music] back ... if I was more sure of myself when I was younger, or understood this sooner, I might have chased this kind of music first,” he said. “Now I’m not suppressing anything, plus I’ve got a new drummer and mandolin player, a great bass player and two female singers instead of one, and we all think as one person at this point.”

Carrabba has a prolific nature and rarely takes time off of music without moving from one project directly into another – the years preceding the first Twin Forks releases saw him produce a new Dashboard Confessional album that was never fully realized and the latest record by Florida rock outfit Further Seems Forever – but he’s completely invested in his new musical family.

“The fact is that every day I wake up and I try to write a Twin Forks song now, for the past four or five years – I don’t see any end to the level of fulfillment I’m getting from this band,” Carrabba said, describing his excitement to play in London again. “It’s such a virile energy. We’ll meet every person in the room, which is so gratifying – you get to thank every person that came, and not just from the stage. You get to look these people in the eye and say, ‘Thanks for giving our band a chance.’”

Visit twinforksmusic.com for more on the band or their current Canadian tour with Northcote and HIGHS, or follow along on Twitter @twinforksmusic. Also, the band would love you to know that you can get a free sampler EP by sending twinforksmusic@gmail.com an email with the word “Music” in the subject line – you’ll receive an email right away with a Dropbox link, and they rotate out the music regularly like an informal music club.

And for the latest in music news, album streams and more, follow this column on Twitter @fsu_bobbyisms. Support your local music scene, I’m out of words.