Forth Wanderers are five friends who make intimate and emotive music. Comprised of singer Ava Trilling, guitarists Ben Guterl and Duke Greene, bassist Noah Schifrin and drummer Zach Lorelli. The band have been making music from the bedrooms of their Garden State Township since 2013. The quartet recruited good friends Grace Rossi-Conway and Theo Schiller recently to direct the video for the EP title track, shot entirely in their hometown of Montclair, NJ. Watch it here.

The band’s Slop EP, is due out on November 11th, and will be co-released between House Anxiety / Marathon Artists and Father/Daughter Records, who have between them, introduced the world to Courtney Barnett, King Krule, Diet Cig and Mutual Benefit.

“In winter of my junior year of high school I was trying to find a way to talk to Ava, who was a freshman at the time and I kind of had a crush on,” recalls guitarist and songwriter Ben Guterl of Forth Wanderers’ formation. “I had no intention of starting a band, but I thought sending her a demo would be a great excuse to hang out because I knew she sung from middle school. I sent it to her and nothing came of it. We never got together and I forgot about the song, until eventually I received a demo back from her with vocals on and I just thought ‘wow’”. It’s the kind of story that great songs are written about. But such is the perfect narrative that preempted the band’s debut EP Mahogany, as the songwriting partnership was completed by Ben’s three best classroom friends, followed swiftly by long-player Tough Love in 2014.

With the size of the band’s discography, it’s hard to believe that singer Ava Trilling only just graduated high school this June, and the rest of the band are in their junior college year. But it’s fair to say that with EP Slop the band are truly arriving on the international scene. Over just four tracks the band manage to create an intense impact with the effortless, earnest melody of Ava’s talismanic vocals soaring above the untempered churns of Ben’s haunting, raw guitars.

“I love too much, to hurt this bad,” Ava mourns amidst the climactic closing moments of the EP’s title track and lead single in one especially lovelorn refrain. “It seemed fitting to how I was feeling at the time,” Ava recalls of the song’s creation. “When Ben showed me the guitar parts he had written I immediately fell in love with it. Writing the lyrics and melody came super naturally.”

“I was going through a weird time,” she remembers. “But these songs felt great to write. With every song Ben sent me, lyrics would ultimately pour out.” The cathartic reward that Ava speaks of is impossible to escape when listening to the Slop EP, the empathy from laying bare everyday life’s rawest moments. It’s this powerful sense of kinship that will likely see the band continue rising as one of the most eagerly followed new acts around.

Forth Wanderers – Slop – out 11/11/16
via House Anxiety/Marathon Artists (EU) and Father/Daughter (US)

1. Know Better
2. Slop
3. Nerves
4. Unfold