With the third installment, Let the World In, Forecast offers a compelling exploration of time and connection, challenging us to view life not as a linear progression but as an ever-expanding continuum. The album unfolds like a lush, instrumental narrative, drawing listeners into vivid, almost cinematic landscapes—sunlight filtering through trees, warm tides rolling ashore, and the hum of unseen life beneath the soil. Without lyrics, the music invites listeners to craft their own stories, making each experience deeply personal and resonant.
From the 17-second opening of “(open),” the anticipation is palpable—a musical equivalent of the curtain rising on a grand performance. The fiddle, plaintive and inviting, feels like a call to connection, leading seamlessly into “Let the World In,” where swirling rhythms and honeyed saxophone melodies weave moments of clarity into reflective, ruminative soundscapes. This is music that dances in the light, filling the air with introspection and hope.
Tracks Rooted in Vitality
Tracks like “Gardener” dives beneath the soil, alive with sonic energy vibrating the nerves like mycelium networks, pulsing with life and grounding the listener in earthy vitality. “Improvisation #1” delivers a sharp, Zappa-inspired jolt, a sharp reminder of life’s fleeting nature crashing in with defiance. It’s as if it is the Winter Solstice and Zappa himself taps your consciousness saying, “Life is short. Nobody owns you.”
At the album’s core, “Chapters” and “Heartland” act as its beating heart, revealing a deeply personal cohesion that elevates Let the World In beyond a collection of tracks. It’s a unified composition, where every layer contributes to a whole greater than the sum of its parts, all the moving parts that you didn’t realize were working together for your benefit. This is an absolute unit of music, connected and calling out to its listeners.
The album’s conceptual richness is punctuated by “Improvisation #2,” serving as a wake-up call that ushers in the only vocal-driven track, “The Road.” This Nick Drake cover, featuring a rare vocal performance by John Mailander, is a jubilant celebration nestled within the album’s reflective nature. If any one singular song explodes from the narrative, this would be it.
Yet, vocals aren’t entirely absent from the project. Lindsay Lou’s voice appears like a hidden treasure, her whispered tones adding layers of intrigue to “Let the World In.” Her subtle presence offers an understated richness, leaving listeners curious to decode her contribution, a quiet susurration woven into the album’s fabric.
Let the World In embraces the unknown while savoring the familiar. Its artistry challenges the boundaries of instrumental storytelling, crafting a delicate balance between illusion and delusion, emotion and imagination.
Forecast’s work here isn’t just music; it’s a meditation on the cycles of connection and creativity. Humans possess the extraordinary ability to break patterns, forge new paths, and redefine what their generations represent. In this circle, no one part is more significant than another. Every player, every instrument, and every syllable, every note and every word contributes equally to the whole. It doesn’t matter which you heard, the holy or the broken. Illusion or delusion? That’s your choice as the listener.
A Collage of Conceptual Richness
For those unfamiliar with John Mailander, you’ve likely heard his artistry without even realizing it. Based in Nashville, TN, Mailander is an acclaimed multi-instrumentalist known for his work on fiddle, mandolin, and other stringed instruments. He’s a member of Bruce Hornsby & The Noisemakers and has contributed to works by Billy Strings (Home), Noah Kahan, Molly Tuttle, and many others.
With Let the World In, Forecast offers listeners fertile ground—less than an hour to immerse themselves in an intricate dance of sound and emotion. It’s an album as much about personal exploration as it is about collective artistry, a testament to the power of music to turn inward and outward all at once.
During our conversation, John Mailander revealed the personal connections and creative process behind the 3rd installment of Forecast
Instrumental Storytelling and Emotional Depth: Q & A with John Mailander
John Mailander: Hey, June. How's it going?
GW: It's going well. Are you on the road?
JM: I'm on my way to Arkansas for a festival this weekend.
GW: Which one?
JM: Ozark Mountain Bluegrass Festival. (He is Artist at Large) Where are you?
GW: I'm at home, due south of the city of Chicago. I went to Chicago last night, actually. I live on a farm, so I'm kind of in the middle of nowhere here.
JM: Very cool. It’s so nice to connect with you.
GW: I know! It feels like a long time coming, John.
JM: Yeah, truly.
GW: I caught the Faux Paws last night. Are you familiar with them?
JM: Oh, yeah, with Chris Miller. Chris played on our first Forecast record.
GW: Okay. There you go! I dig the circles we all ripple from.
JM: Yeah. He's so awesome. I love that band.
GW: It was pretty dang good for a Tuesday night, especially. There was lots of dancing going on.
JM: Yeah. Did they play in Chicago?
GW: Yes. The Hideout
JM: Was it at the Old Town? Oh, okay. Cool. I've never been there.
GW: You know what? I had not been either. Highly recommend. It was really, really nice. They had hot cocoa. It was very welcoming and a great intimate space with room for shenanigans as well.
JM: That's awesome.
GW: Top-notch! All right. Can we start back with that first Forecast release of 2019 then? For your 3 Forecast albums, your selection of fun covers, that 1st self-titled album had one cover with one track of lyrics, Imagine by John Lennon, totally reimagined.
JM: Yes
GW: And then Look Closer had two covers.
JM: Yeah. It was our guest vocalists, Maya DeVitry and Kristina Train
GW: Right. So then this new Forecast album, Let The World In, it was your turn to do a track with vocals. What drew you to the Nick Drake song?
JM: That song has gotten me through some stuff in the past couple of years, and I love the lyrics. I really relate to the lyrics.
GW: Being that I am speaking to you while you drive, it's so appropriate.
JM: I feel like it's a mantra. Yeah, it's a bit of a mantra for me. The lyrics relate to the overall themes of the record for me, but they're also open to interpretation. I feel like it says just enough lyrically with what I wanted to say. Initially, I was planning on having a guest vocalist or two on this record. I planned to have someone else sing it, but, as it got closer to the session, I realized it was important to me that I try singing it myself.
GW: I dig it.
JM: Thanks. I'm so glad you like it.
GW: Yeah, so much of the art that you put out there is open for interpretation, which is such a lovely balance.
JM: I love that about instrumental music.
GW: What kind of emotions are you hoping to evoke with this latest Forecast composition?
JM: I'm hoping it can evoke some of those gray area emotions that are hard to explain with words, but with sound, you can. It's definitely a heavier, emotionally heavier, record to me than the last one. I guess it's kind of an overarching thing with all three of the records. I hope it captures some of the in-between space. You can't have joy without sorrow, and vice versa. In some of those emotions, you're able to dig into more with music than you really can with words.
Forecast’s Unique Identity
GW: How do you feel personally - that perhaps Forecast is a bit of a gray area for you? between the other work that you do? How do you separate your collective and individual, which then again, Forecast is also another collective. But you're producing Forecast.
JM: Yeah, it's really been a huge outlet for me. It is a collective and the collaboration of it is a huge part of it to me. But, it's been my outlet for stepping in, and really leaning into the kind of music and genres within my imagination.
I love collaborating with other artists, stepping into other worlds to be a support musician, and supporting other people's visions. But Forecast for me, has been a really amazing outlet for me to to try and create my own world.
Lindsay Lou’s Subtle Touch
GW: It certainly is. Can you tell me, can you share with us - What it is that Lindsay Lou is saying on “Let the World In?”
JM: I could.
GW: Hahahahahaha
JM: That whole section, everyone involved in that section, are just really dear friends to me here in Nashville. They all supported me through some personal things in the past couple of years. It felt really important to me to at least credit all these people on the album in some way. I really wanted their voices on it, even just for a moment.
GW: I love the continuity from Lindsay Lou’s Queen of Time album where she's got a voice memo from her grandma, right?
JM: Yeah, I think that's such a beautiful thing you can do with records, compile sounds from different parts of life. So I asked all my friends on that track to contribute sound bites. A couple of them came into the studio and improvised along with the track, and other friends sent in voice memos from their phones, which I then made into this collage of sound Lindsay sent a voice memo which she's reading some poetry from, the book The Prophet.
GW: Kahlil Gibran?
JM: Right, yep! So she read a couple of quotes from that and sent a voice memo to me. So we mixed that in, which also lyrically is connected as well, but part of the intention with that section is that I hope with headphones a listener will hear something new every time and can tune in to different parts of what's going on. The words are intentionally muffled in the mix because I wanted… I didn't want any one thing to be the standout featured part of that section. I wanted it to be a bit of an overwhelming collage of sound at that moment. I love knowing that Lindsay's voice is in there.
Balancing Collectivity and Individuality
GW: Then that's all that matters! On a deeper note, when you're working with these dear friends, balancing friendships with work and all that… What would you say that we owe each other when we're creating art?
JM: I love that question. Thank you. I think, to listen and honesty. Just being. I think we owe it to each other, to be honest with who we are. Be ourselves. Bring that to the table and serve the music.
GW: I love that so many wonderful artists talk about serving the song. You can marinate on that phrase all day. What does that even mean?
JM: Yeah. That's true.
GW: I have previously interviewed Lindsay Lou. I write a column for American Blues Scene called Gestures where we focus on the gestures that women contribute to the art scene. We were asking her about fresh starts and beginning again regarding her move from Michigan to Nashville. I asked her in what ways was the move like you expected and in what ways was it not. She replied that it was everything she expected because she gets to have jam sessions all night with friends who are also her heroes. Sounds like you are one of these friends she was speaking of.
Can you tell us about the Freedom Expressionists? What is that all about?
JM: Oh, that's what I dubbed that collection of friends who contributed to the sound collage.
GW: Did you all come up with these names together, or is that just you?
JM: That was just me. It took a minute to figure out exactly how to credit them, but that seemed fun.
Spontaneity in the Studio
GW: Can you tell us more about these sessions? You and your friends getting into the studio can't be as spontaneous as it feels, is it?
JM: With the band, we had these four days booked at the studio so that was all planned. We tried to rehearse a bit leading up to it mostly at these shows we were doing once a month. We worked out a lot of the material there but yeah, I'd say it was a mix. There was a lot of spontaneity that happened throughout the session, a lot that made it onto the record. Even within the compositions, the spontaneous, unexpected moments are the ones that we kept on the record. We recorded a lot and worked through a lot of pretty arranged stuff.
There were some stressful moments for sure, but it was all necessary to arrive at those spontaneous moments. A lot of the work for me, once the tracking ended over those four days, was going through everything we did and picking and choosing all the moments that I felt had that kind of spontaneous magic in them, and then trimming it down to what I felt like tells a cohesive story. I just I love the spontaneous moments within even the songs that are more thoroughly composed. Like the end of “Road,” The kind of noise jam at the end of that was spontaneous. We didn't really talk about it ahead of time, and it's kind of my favorite thing on the record. So it's fun creating an environment where you're at work and there is a schedule and a plan every day that's still allowing that spontaneity to exist.
GW: As the tap of the conductor, now that you're done with this process, looking forward, how has Let the World In impacted your personal outlook moving forward with Forecast?
JM: I'm optimistic.
GW: You always seem optimistic John!
JM: No, not always, but, thank you. I think, to me, it's the strongest statement we've made as a band of who we are as a band. So I'm not sure what's next exactly. I think I'd like to release some live recordings. Yes, at some point, probably, that'll be the next thing I look into doing with the band, some of our live shows.
A Musical Birthday Celebration
GW: Your release party! What have we got going on this time?
JM: It's at the East Side Bowl in Nashville, a newer venue. That's on the 31st of the month (January). It's my birthday too, that night. So it's gonna be really fun.
GW: Very cool!
JM: The record will have been out for a week already, so I’m really excited about that. It's with Kyle Tuttle Band and Paper Wings, another great band in Nashville who we've collaborated with before.
GW: Three bands, that will be a good party!
JM: Forecast will have a light show for the first time, which is exciting. They are some friends of ours here in town called Big Deep Light Show. They do improvised liquid art, a live performance that goes along with the live music.
GW: Have you done this before?
JM: No. This is the first time.
GW: Very cool! Do you know you share a birthday with Justin Timberlake?
JM: I didn't know that.
GW: Basically separated at birth, I'm sure. hahaha
JM: I know Jeff Sipe shares a birthday.
GW: No way! I love birthdays. I’ve got an odd memory for that stuff. Also, 1/31 is my niece.
JM: Awesome!
GW: Well, I don't want to keep you too long. Where are you at now? Almost to Arkansas?
JM: I have about seven hours left.
GW: Oh, God. To go?
JM: Yeah, it's a long travel day.
GW: Nice and bright. I hope you have some sunglasses.
JM: Yeah. It's a beautiful day. But I'm always just so appreciative of your support and words and friendship.
GW: I expect a long road for your music John, I really appreciate your music and all you do.
