Tori Forsyth is one of Australian music’s most versatile stars, and we almost lost her.
Third album All We Have Is Who We Are is a siren call of lovingly crafted reminders of Forsyth’s value — both as an artist and as a woman who has been through the eye of the needle and lived to pass on her talismans.
With its sparse traditionalism and gut-wrenching self-awareness, it’s devastating to think the record may have never been created. The Queensland Music Award winner considered quitting music altogether in 2022 after the global pandemic left her disoriented. She was unclear on her place in a local industry where her stripes were hard-earned from clocking close to 150 shows a year touring with an output as prolific as it was varied. Meanwhile, the forced introspection of quarantine had her body talking to her in ways she had been distracting herself from: the pain and chronic fatigue syndrome from endometriosis were unbearable.
“It was the first time that I had stopped in my career and stayed in the same place,” she says. “I think that’s where a lot of it kind of came up. […] It was just feeling like my body was against me. And that, you know, takes you down another route within your mind of ‘My body is literally fighting against me.’ I had to really shift that perspective to be able to heal it.”
Moving her focus to her health with the same tenacious zeal that has seen her music take daring swings of the bat since 2018, Forsyth threw herself into studying fitness and nutrition. Incredibly, deprioritising her music gave her the exact guileless nonchalance needed to feel creative again.
“I just felt a pull to sit down every single day for fun and for no reason, just because I wanted to do it. […] If it didn’t happen within 30 to 45 minutes — an hour tops — I was like, ‘Well, it’s not happening today,’ and I’d just stop and move on and get on with my day.
“The way I kind of relate to it is we get to be that childlike self that got us here in the first place; and I think that there’s a lot of freedom in just going, ‘What does it look like to actually enjoy this and have fun again?’”
The result is arguably Tori Forsyth’s most considered, progressive, and alchemic collection yet. Featuring longtime collaborator Shane Nicholson and ARIA Hall of Famer Kasey Chambers, and produced by Scott Horscroft, All We Have Is Who We Are leans into country music in a way Forsyth hadn’t yet explored. It’s more country torch-bearing than first record Dawn of the Dark, and a far cry from the gritty guitars and alt-rock pleasure of Provlépseis.
Unwittingly, Forsyth’s new fervour for music — and the way in which she is doing it — has placed her on the shoulders of music giants like Zach Bryan and Kasey Musgraves, who are bringing daring, lyric-driven authenticity back to the forefront. When I point this out to Forsyth directly, she sees the big picture.
“We hit a very pop-centred version of country a couple of years ago and it was all about the hook. Now we’ve got Zach Bryan releasing music that’s stripped back. He’s releasing poetry and the lyrics are so much the song as is their stories — and it’s a little bit rough around the edges — but that has a place again.
“[…] I’m definitely not putting myself on a level that these giants of the industry are on but I do think that there’s something that you can tap into when you’re fully, authentically creating.”
This article features in the June-August 2024 issue of Rolling Stone AU/NZ. If you’re eager to get your hands on it, then now is the time to sign up for a subscription.
Whether you’re a fan of music, you’re a supporter of the local music scene, or you enjoy the thrill of print and long form journalism, then Rolling Stone AU/NZ is exactly what you need. Click the link below for more information regarding a magazine subscription.
