John Forte has seen his fair shares of ups and downs throughout his career. A musical prodigy and skilled violinist, Forte earned a full scholarship to New Hampshire's Phillips Exeter Academy before working with The Fugees on their Grammy-winning debut, The Score. He worked with Wyclef Jean on The Carnival before going on to release his own debut, 1998's critically acclaimed Poly Sci. Then, in 2000, Forte was arrested in Newark International Airport with a suitcase containing $1.4 million worth of liquid cocaine and was subsequently sentenced to the mandatory minimum after being convicted on drug trafficking charges. On November 24th, 2008, the musician received a commutation from President George W. Bush, and was released December 22nd of that year after having served over seven years in federal custody.
Since his return, Forte has hit the studio hard, and in the past several months crafted a brilliant new EP titled StyleFREE. The singer has also had his writing featured on The Daily Beast and has been working with at risk youth through the In Arms Reach program in his native New York. With two shows coming up in the Philadelphia area, we spoke to Forte about his introduction to music, what he does to make his live show stand apart from studio recordings, and cleared up a few misconceptions regarding his release from custody along the way.
P: First off, thank you for taking the time out of your schedule to do this interview. What was it that pulled you into music?
JF: I think that my introduction was when I was eight and I was introduced to violin, so I came into music pretty unconventionally. I mean, of course as a fan growing up in an area where radio was king, but I didn't have a personal involvement until I began playing in the school orchestra in the second grade.
P: You later went on to work with The Fugees recording their debut album, The Score. How did that relationship come about?
JF: It's a very small network of friends in the industry in New York and back in 1995 I was friends with their product manager who was a guy that worked over at Columbia named Jeff Borrows. Jeff Burrows invited me to see the then burgeoning group called The Fugees, two guys and a girl, and invited me to the supper club to come out and see them. It was love at first listen. I met Lauryn that night and we, shortly thereafter became friends. It was through Lauryn's encouragement that I came to the studio during the recording of The Score and played some tracks that I thought the guys might be interested in recording. As fate would have it, I also suggested certain rhymes and certain subjects over those beats, and that's what led to my artist inclusion onto that album, not only as a producer and a writer but also as a performer.
P: To touch briefly on the incarceration issue-
JF: (laughs) I like that, the incarceration issue. It sounds like a paper.
P: I'm sorry, I don't mean to make the issue less personal but I know it can be a touchy subject for some people.
JF: Well, number one I do respect that, but number two I also don't feel that I have the luxury to turn my back on where I spent the last seven years. I'm not embarrassed nor ashamed of it; I went through it and I was fortunate enough to come out of it, so it's something that I address and I feel needs to be addressed, especially given the state of the prison industrial complex.
P: Ok, well to get right into things, as far as the pardon you received, a lot of hip hop fans were surprised by it. Were you aware that it was going to happen?
JF: I have to just say, it's been wildly misreported that it is a pardon; it's a commutation and there is a difference. I still have the conviction on my record, it's just that I served my time by definition. My sentence was commuted but I was not pardoned. I can still, in fact, apply for a pardon, which is something that I would like to do, but I've not done that as of yet. In terms of it being a process, I filed for the commutation in 2006. So it was by some standards a relatively lengthy process. I knew that the process kicked off, although there was never any guarantee as to what the state of the process was.
P: I see. Well, like you said, it has clearly been misreported. From a fan's perspective, because nobody knew the details, everybody was like "George Bush did what?"
JF: You know, I actually went on a blog the other day, and I do that frequently just to check what's being said about me, and somebody had said that the only reasons why I was "pardoned" was because I was obviously an informant. I would have the world know that it's a very public thing, you just have to look for it. You can read anything about my case and you can read anything about my history. There's no sort of secret cabal determining my fate. We pushed hard for it and I had lots of support and we had to base it on the merits. It was a long, hard fight and it definitely wasn't as easy as some paint it to.
P: Wow, well, thank you for clearing that up. There is definitely a ton of misinformation on the matter.
JF: A ton of misinformation, but it is what it is. This is the information age and all of the information that's floating around out there can't be accurate.
P: Where you able to listen to music while you were incarcerated?
JF: I was. The facilities that I did time in had CD libraries. Those weren't all together extensive, but I had access to some new music. I got the bulk of my music from the local radio stations; the college radio stations and the public radio stations. I spent most of my time at Fort Dix, which is Southern New Jersey and they have a radio station called WXPN, and I listened to a lot of new music and it inspired me to morph the direction I currently find myself in. Life being as circular as it is, I actually have a show at the World Café Live in Philly this Monday, which is in the same building as XPN and I'll be at the XPN Music Festival this Friday so things are coming full circle.
P: Getting back your music, the StyleFREE EP, just came out last Tuesday.
JF: Yes it did, but it was released exclusively on johnforte.com last Tuesday. We have it coming to iTunes, and I think the official release date is the 28th, but in the mean time what I wanted to do was to give the fans the opportunity to go to johnforte.com and to get it in advance. The street date is iTunes on the 28th, and we have physical CDs coming out shortly thereafter.
P: Speaking of iTunes and physical formats, what's your take on that? How do you prefer to get your music now?
JF: I get my music through iTunes now. I would love to wax nostalgic and to hang out in CD stores and to listen, but people recommend things to me, I go online and hear 30 second snippets of it, and if I like it, I buy it. There is an obvious convenience to this digital age. I think that in place of CD stores or the record stores of old, we now have communities where we can have our CD stores and record stores wherever we go. Case in point, I went out to a restaurant the other day with an artist I'm working with, Bridget Kelly who is signed to Roc Nation, and we had sort of an iPod swapping session. Although we were there and talking, we were able to exchange what we were listening to while we were sitting there, like "ok, you listen to my iPod and check this song out, and I'll listen to what you want me to listen to" and if we liked it, we could go home and get it or some of us who have the technology could download it right then and there, but now we have these mobile communities of exchanging songs. It's pretty exciting.
P: When were the songs from your EP written?
JF: The vast majority of everything that's on the EP was written while I was away, and the inspiration just came from having the time to be introspective. Having the time to consider what I valued and what my priorities were and are, and wanting to remain true to them. The truest way for me to communicate has always been through song. There was no exception to that while I was away; it was probably truer than every, in fact.
P: As far as the update to your direction goes, songs like “Play My Cards For Me” and “There We Are” for instance, are incredible but also incredibly different from some of your previous work. How would you explain the progression from the artist you were on Poly Sci to where you are now?
JF: I think that, while I have firm roots in hip hop and "rap" if you will, it was with the encouragement of my dear friend, mentor and spiritual godmother Carly Simon I was able to find another voice during a particularly challenging time in my life and that's what ultimately led to me believing in that alternative more, which was finding my singing voice. From Poly Sci we had I, John, which was that first foray into music for the sake of music, rather than categorization. I didn't want to walk into the studio and say I, John Forte am a rapper or I am a singer or I'm a guitarist or a pianist or a violinist. I'm all of those things and I'm not ashamed of any of it, so I go where the inspiration goes. If it leads me to sing, or to have some sort of rock influence or country or gospel or hip hop, then I go with it because it feels right rather than doing it for any other reason.
P: Although you aren't just a hip hop artist, considering your roots in hip hop, if you had to think of yourself in terms of that particular genre where would you fit in?
JF: I think I'm playing my position as a lyricist and I think I identify with hip hop primarily because of the great lyricists that have come before me, and I'd like to think that in that tradition of not just putting words together because they rhyme, but because there's a greater significance and there's an attempt at transcending the moment in order to leave something out of prosperity's sake or for the sake of producing good art, that there is some substance to that. So, hip hop to me, in it's purest form is a lyrical substance combined with rhythm. So I'm doing that part; I'm playing my part. I think it's a very, very exciting time, especially with the technological advancements that we have, that artists are able to reach their fans in ways they never have before and fans are conversely able to communicate directly with the artists, so the chasm that used to exist between the artist and his or her fans has decreased, and I think that as a direct result thereof, the abundance of music will produce some really inspiring songs for the times. I'm just hoping that something that I put out will have a lasting impact.
P: The reaction that I've heard to the EP, even only having been in the public's hands for a couple of days, has been phenomenal. Aside from praise for the single, "Play My Cards For Me", the thing that I keep hearing is that that it's short and people want more music. When can fans expect a full length album?
JF: Well, I'm working on the full length now. I've been home for about seven months and we recorded about 60 songs, and that is six zero (laughs) There is a lot of material. The full length is going to come out in the first quarter of next year, so any time between January, February and March of 2010 expect to hear the full length which is right now called Water, Light, Sound. People ought to be aware that none of the songs from the EP are going to be on Water, Light, Sound and this is a seven song EP. Normally EPs are five songs, so if people want to get down with this, if they want to hold on to this, I highly recommend they get on the train right here, right now, because it's not stopping. When Water, Light, Sound comes out next year, it's going to be 12 songs of something brand new. I'm excited that people want more and I'm excited to give them more.
P: 60 songs? Man, you must always be recording.
JF: I am always recording; I am not stopping. This is a labor of love and I do not complain. I realize how blessed I am to make a living off of doing what I love, and I don't take that for granted. It was an important lesson that I had to learn and I'm fortunate enough to embrace that as a truth.
P: With two local shows coming up, fans in Philly will get a chance to hear your music for the first time in a while. What can those who have not seen your live performance expect to see at a John Forte show?
JF: They can expect to see me playing the guitar, they can expect to see me singing, they can expect to see me rapping, they can expect some intra-song banter, because I don't like to just go through the material, I like for it to be an experience, but what they will also experience, if in fact they have the CD to compare the live show with, is the live show is purposefully designed to be stripped down, so it's not going to sound as produced as the recoded material because I want people to be able to connect to the lyrics on a rather simple level. I want that connection to be as uninterrupted as possible, if you will. I think I'm most effectively able to do that by stripping down the music. So it's raw.
P: Before we close this interview, is there anything you would like to leave the fans with?
JF: Well, I would like to just thank the fans for being so supportive, so kind and so compassionate since my return to music, and just as a reminder to them, I want them to remember many of the young brothers and sisters who might not be visible to them on a daily basis, the young brothers and sisters doing time. I think it's important for us to remember.
John Forte will be playing tonight (July 20th) at University City's World Café Live, located at 3025 Walnut St. Show starts at 8 p.m. and tickets are $15.
You can also catch Forte at WXPN's Xponential Music Festival 09' this Friday (July 24th). For more information and to order tickets, visit the festival's website.
