Forth Wanderers

Making introspective indie rock with a Midwestern emo flavor, Forth Wanderers mix immaculate melodies with a muscular and angsty musical sensibility. The band released their first album, Tough Love, in 2014, but it was their 2018 eponymous debut for Sub Pop that marked their fully formed arrival. After a hiatus prompted by their singer's struggles with a panic disorder, Forth Wanderers were back at it in 2025, when they returned to Sub Pop with the more risk-taking The Longer This Goes On.Forth Wanderers were formed in 2013 by singer/lyricist Ava Trilling and guitarist/songwriter Ben Guterl. The pair established a practice of writing collaboratively from separate locations in Montclair, New Jersey as high-school students. They added guitarist Duke Greene, bass player Noah Schifrin, and drummer Zach Lorelli for their first demo. The EP Mahogany arrived later in 2013 on Seagreen Records, and the band self-released its 2014 debut album, Tough Love. Father/Daughter Records took notice and issued Forth Wanderers' second EP, Slop, in 2016. By the time they wrote their second full-length, Trilling was based in New York, and Guterl had relocated to Ohio. All five members met up in Philadelphia in mid-2017 to record the album with producer/engineer Cameron Konner (aka Loadcard). Its bolder, still angst-ridden sound earned them a record deal with Sub Pop, which released the Forth Wanderers LP in April 2018. Citing a recently diagnosed mental-health issue, the band canceled a planned 2018 tour, including some high-profile festival dates, just a day before it was to start, thus entering an indefinite hiatus.Trilling and Guterl didn't met up again until mid-2021, when they talked for hours at café in Brooklyn, a conversation that eventually led to Guterl asking Trilling if she wanted to try making music again. She said yes, and feeling less pressure this time around, the full original five-piece worked more collaboratively this time around and played with various style influences, tempos, and moods. Still sounding like themselves, the resulting album, the Dan Howard-produced The Longer This Goes On, arrived on Sub Pop in July 2025.
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