Forevers are an indie-rock band based in Rochester, NY. They will be performing at Lux Lounge on Friday, May 15.
Please buy Forevers’ music at https://forevers1.bandcamp.com
Turtle Time Music Blog got hold of Forevers’ singer/songwriter and founding member David Baumgartner by phone recently to discuss music, suicide, sandwiches, and Steve Vai.
TURTLE TIME: Right, so let’s start with the big one first. The elephant in the room...
…Your guitar rig.
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: Oh, no… (laughing)
Turtle Time: This is the Rig Roundup, David. We gotta know what you’re slinging. What are you going to be playing onstage?
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: (laughing) Yeah, I like this question, because this speaks to me as a guitar player, and anybody who knows me knows that I don’t really know shit about what gear I’m playing.
When I talk to guitar players, I’m always backpedaling. because they’ll say the same thing. “What’s your rig?” And I’m like, well, fuck. I don’t know.
But I like playing guitar very much and I, I love the way it feels playing guitar and I like guitars, but, um, there are just some things about making music and being in a band that I really like, and some things that I just don’t care about. And getting really deeply into gear and knowing a lot about that kind of stuff has just never been my thing. And I think it drives guitar people insane.
TURTLE TIME: I think you’re probably right about that.
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: I can tell you that I will be playing, um, a white tele that I got in 1993 when another band I’m in called Muler was recording. We recorded a record with this guy, um, in Philadelphia, a friend of ours named Red. He is a beautiful, sweet guy, and we had such a great time with him. He had a ton of guitars, and as a gift, as like a thank you for having had a great time with us, he gave me this white 1993 Telecaster, and I’ve had it ever since. So I’m playing that. It’s been beat up a lot, but I’m hoping it it stays, you know, in one piece and reasonably in tune.
TURTLE TIME: Other gear?
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: I use Whirlwind cables that are made right here in Rochester. I try to keep it local. Also uh, You know, I’m Italian, so I use the D’Addario strings
TURTLE TIME: What gauge are the strings?
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: Originally, I started playing heavy gauge strings, hoping that would keep them from breaking, but that might even be a myth, that heavy strings don’t break. But I maybe use, uh, I don’t even know the numbers… are 12s heavy?
TURTLE TIME: They are.
DAVE BAUMGARTNER: Okay. That’s what I would use.
TURTLE TIME: Amp?
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: Um, I have a fender, it’s got one 12″ speaker, I know that much. I don’t know what the Fender people call it exactly, but it’s got like a brown suede case and uh, it’s not too heavy and it bangs around pretty good.
TURTLE TIME: Tell me about the other members of Forevers.
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: There is our lead guitarist, Justin Pulver, who has been in a bunch of other bands, like Dumb Angel, who are really good, and they’re making new music.
Then there’s our drummer, Nate Bellavia, who runs Raincoated records and plays in a band called Home Videos, and several other bands. He’s a great guy and has his hands in everything. He actually went to school where I teach, so I knew him there. He’s a bit younger.
TURTLE TIME: Are you doing most of the writing?
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: I am, but you know just like with most bands that I’ve been in, and maybe a bunch of the bands you’ve been in, I’ll bring in like, a chord progression, a vocal melody, and maybe a drum beat in my head. But the other guys in the band play huge roles in fleshing out a song.
They’re open to me saying, I got a part for guitar. I have an idea for a guitar part here, you know, and because I’m not, the kind of guitar player who can play a lead, I end up always having to just hum the part, and thankfully Justin is patient enough to put up with that and talented enough to play what I’m thinking. Then Nate will come up with a drum beat and it’s usually just great.
TURTLE TIME: Are you surprised at all about the way that the project has developed? Are there any big differences between your original vision for it and what it has turned into?
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: Yeah. It’s a good question. I think that, um, originally, I thought it was going to be a lot of keyboards and I had a bunch of ideas for a sound that might have had dreamier vibes, but also, not to diagnose myself as ADHD or anything, but I do have a lot of scattered ideas. At the beginning of this project, I might have had the idea for kind of a dreamy thing, and then a month later, I might have a bunch of songs that are more rocking, and then I want to do more quiet things, and then I want to do a bunch of punk songs or something, you know? So, um, I think at the beginning that was the case. But honestly, I just wanted an outlet and to work with the kind of people that just would be cool with me bringing in songs, and whatever those songs were, these guys would just be cool to play them. And it’s really been that.
TURTLE TIME: What made you name the band “Forevers”?
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: Oh man, naming a band is a fucking drag. Um, I didn’t have a name at all. But for one thing, it was four dudes in the band, right? And I also wanted the band to have a little bit of like a whimsical thing happening that could feel just a little bit twee.
I thought the name was just okay. I don’t necessarily like the name. But then some of the guys in the band were like, the name doesn’t matter. You know, like “Guided By Voices”. It’s stupid. “The Beatles”. It’s just stupid. So anyway, picking the name became a months long thing, and we were getting close to a show, so we went with it.
TURTLE TIME: To shift the focus a bit, can name an album you would consider a sort of a slow burn for you? Something that’s really stuck with you for a long time and, uh, you know, continues to be a go-to for you?
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: There’s a band called Frightened Rabbit. Uh, which is a, I think I’m getting this, right? Scottish band. And there are a couple brothers in the band. They’re a rock band, and they have a record called Midnight Organ Fight, which is one of my favorite records.
It’s a guitar record, but it’s also got a little bit of electronic stuff going on, some acoustic guitars and some big rockers. It’s about this devastating breakup that the lead singer goes through and it’s brutal.
He talks about suicide, about jumping off a bridge into a river and killing himself. He’s also um, drinking a ton throughout the record. At the time, I was trying to get sober, so I felt for him. Anyway, in real life, the lead singer of Frightened Rabbit did struggle with depression, and ended up taking his own life by jumping off this bridge in Scotland and drowning, like he wrote about.
TURTLE TIME: Oh my gosh.
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: I know. It’s very dark. But he was a beautiful guy and like, I loved him. And I don’t think I’ve actually ever been as affected by a “rock death” quite like I was by this guy’s. His music really affected me. This record in particular affected me. I loved the record. And, uh, it made me happy, but also it gave me energy. I used to listen to it when I was running, and I listened to it when I was angry.
But then when he took his own life, the whole record changed for me. I listened to it in a much different way. The lyrics are heavier.It’s a very very important record for me.
TURTLE TIME: OK, how about a record that blew you away for just a moment? And now you never go back to it.
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: There a record by this band called the Japandroids, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. They’re 2 piece from Vancouver. They have a record called Celebration Rock. It’s just this giant guitar record. Anthemic. I loved it, but tired of it because I listened to it so much that after about a month, I was done with it. I did listen to it recently, and I thought it was good. But when I first listened to it, I thought it was ground-breaking.
The lyrics are heavy, almost like heavy metal. When I first heard it lyrically, I thought this is great. I thought they had kind of mined something fantastic and they were doing it with a subtle wink and they had nailed it. But then when I went back, it felt like a little corny.
TURTLE TIME: On what do you find yourself having to concentrate the most during a live performance? Of all the plates you’ve got spinning, what requires the most attention from you when you’re playing live?
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: Well, you know, there’s this thing that happens, which is fantastic about playing live, mostly I can just go on autopilot and somehow the songs just come to me and most of the lyrics come back to me. It just happens and I really don’t have to worry about it. I have sometimes had a little bit of stress where I was like, what if just don’t remember the songs, you know? And I really started thinking about it, does this song go from a G to a D, and if I start thinking about it I just fucking can’t remember the songs. That could happen, but It hasn’t.
But I don’t really worry about it too much, I love playing live. It’s one of the least stressful things for me. It’s very fun. A little stage stress is very natural. It’s just like that nice little pit in my stomach. There’s really nothing like it that I’ve done in my life that that feeling of getting up there, having that little bit of stress and then playing, and then all of a sudden it just goes away. Something happens in my body where just these body drugs take over. Especially now that I’m sober and there are no outside drugs happening. The body drugs that I get, whatever it is, is awesome.
TURTLE TIME: Do you prefer to eat before a show, or go on hungry?
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: Hungry. If you eat too much…
TURTLE TIME: Yeah, Fat Elvis effect.
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: No good.
TURTLE TIME: For the next couple of questions, can I get a couple of words for an answer, with no further explanation? Who’s your least favorite singer?
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: Um, Who’s the guy? Who’s, who’s old time rock and roll?
TURTLE TIME: Bob Seger.
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: I don’t like Bob Seeger.
TURTLE TIME: Favorite lyricist?
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: This is a really good question too, because I’m really not a lyrics, guy. I listen to melodies first. It takes me a while to hear what they’re saying. But again, I really do like Scott Hutchison from Frightened Rabbit.
TURTLE TIME: What’s your favorite Forevers song?
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: I actually have a hard time remembering the um, the titles… Plastic room. I like that one.
TURTLE TIME: If anybody else were going to perform that, who would you like it to be? Who would you most trust with it? Anybody.
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: Oh my God. Um, Bono. I mean, why not? He was my first favorite, like rock star, when I was a kid.
TURTLE TIME: Are there any art forms that approach the importance of music in your life? Anything that you do that you would consider a close 2nd?
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: Not really, but I do love cooking. Cooking feels creative sometimes and it’s nice to like cook things for people and have them enjoy. I do have like a style of cooking, so my family knows what they’re going to get when I’m cooking. It settles me too. If I am kind of wound up, cooking settles me in a similar way as song writing. There are some similarities.
TURTLE TIME: I’ve seen Kahil El’ Zabar, the jazz percussionist and drummer, perform a few times. He’s 72 years old and one time he brought a friend of his that he had played with for a long time who was about the same age. They got talking in between songs and it came up that they used to play a shit-ton of basketball when they were younger. They agreed that their level of physical activity earlier in life contributed to their being able to continue to perform at an advanced age. Is there any role that athletics or physicality have played in your music making? Do you think that it has had an impact on how well you perform or on the way that you perform?
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: Yes. My role in Muler is a very physical, the way that I have always jumped around, which is very fun. The last time Muler played was in Buffalo on a big stage and I was able to like have fun and jumped around a little bit. I was sore after, to be honest. Maybe I wouldn’t be able to do that on a regular basis, but I do believe that staying active from a young age obviously keeps your body fit, but it, you know, keeps your, like, brain going and keeps you creative and keeps you like alert. If I’m not staying active, then I would be eating a bunch of shit and then I wouldn’t want to stay up and write a song or something. it’s all connected, and I think the older I get, I have to make sure that all those things stay connected. Because I want to keep writing songs. You know, it makes me happy.
TURTLE TIME: Along the same lines, if you were to start over as a professional athlete, which sport?
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: Maybe tennis?
TURTLE TIME: OK, back to music. Has there ever been a time, when you were raising a family, maybe, that you lost touch with what was going on in music?
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: I always like to read about music. Record reviews and like little online blogs and stuff…
(EDITOR’S NOTE: Full disclosure – Turtle Time Music Blog is a little online blog.)
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: …so I was always reading what music and just seeing kind of what was going on. I like new music and young bands and new indie rock stuff and so I was always kind of trying to keep up with that. I’m also around young people all the time as a teacher. That keeps me kind of young and aware of what’s going on in some circles. I also never really stopped writing for coming up with songs. I always have a song in my head or some song that I’m excited about
TURTLE TIME: Have you ever taken a big chance on a song writing idea, and been burned? Maybe come up with something that you’re embarrassed about later and wouldn’t show to anybody or want to listen to again?
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: Well, I have recorded songs that I am embarrassed of. For sure. I mean, I’ve never…
TURTLE TIME: You’ve never gone through a reggae phase.
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: I’ve never tried to write a reggae song, but there are definitely songs that I’ve recorded with maybe like some kind of like plodding thing or some kind of more overtly rock thing or some schmaltzy strings thing that I thought was cool at the time that just did not work. For sure.
I’ve made a bunch of records now, sober. I heard Paul Westerberg say that when he was making like the Replacements records, he never heard any of the songs sober. He recorded them drunk. He had played them drunk. He had never really listened to the records after they were made. When he finally, years later, listened to them sober. It was just like a brand new experience.
The point being that some records that I’ve made, I definitely wasn’t at my best. I been drinking and doing some drugs and I definitely wasn’t making the best decisions sonically and with arrangements and they just were kind of messy.
I’m definitely not lumping myself in with some of these like giant dinosaur rock bands that went through that, but, you know, you hear about some of these bands that like, you know, locked themselves away and had heroin and cocaine binges and made these records that just sucked. The decisions are terrible. The lyrics are terrible. They sound bad. You know, no one’s there to tell them that it is bad. So that’s one way to make something embarrassing, because you’re not in your best headspace.
TURTLE TIME: Fair enough. Now, to circle back to guitar rigs…
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: (laughs) OK. Yeah.
TURTLE TIME: I’m going to send you a picture right now. Are you familiar with Steve Vai, the guitar player Steve Vai?
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: I am.
TURTLE TIME: Okay. Furthermore, are you familiar with his custom multi-necked instrument, “The Hydra”?
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: (looking at picture of The Hydra) So this is a… this is playable instrument?
TURTLE TIME: It’s THE playable instrument. He and Ibanez worked together on this thing over a period of years, and it combines, uh, let’s see, there’s 3 necks, a 7-string guitar, a 12-string guitar, a headless bass, and the bass, the neck of the bass is fretted along the length of the bottom, but fretless on top. And there’s also a miniature harp built into the body.
All right. So I’m going to read to you something that I read Steve said about The Hydra. He feels that the instrument has the potential to become historical. And he offered the following invitation:
“Imagine being a half-an-inch tall and exploring the Hydra as an adventurer. It would be like exploring an alien planet!”
There’s also a Hydra NFT available.
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: Imagine sitting around the table at Ibanez and having Vai come in with this idea?
TURTLE TIME: Exactly. So, with that in mind, I would like to ask you, what do you think makes Steve Vai want to do something like developing the Hydra?
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: Well, he is a showman. Uh, he comes from the school of, I don’t know, just like giant guitar. Just the show.
TURTLE TIME: It ain’t coming out of a vacuum.
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: I’m looking at the picture… oh, I see the harp! This thing is… this thing is insane. Could you imagine your friends’ reaction as you pulled this out of a case?
TURTLE TIME: And it has got a custom case, a giant case, and he only plays it for one song. It was designed and built to play one song.
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: A different world…
TURTLE TIME: Now my other question – If you had the money to spare that Steve Vai spent developing The Hydra what do you think you would do with it? And you can’t say “develop my own Hydra”.
DAVE BAUMGARTNER: What! Why? So I can’t use it to develop like a leaner, faster, louder Hydra?
TURTLE TIME: Right.
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: I don’t know, I think I’d probably open up a Hemstrought’s in Rochester.
(EDITOR’S NOTE: Hemstrought’s is a bakery in Utica that is famous for its half-moon cookies. Full disclosure – The interviewer was a fat kid who ate very many of those half-moons.)
TURTLE TIME: Just talking about instruments in general. If you could only hear music performed on one particular instrument for the rest of your life, and you’re given the choice of which instrument that would be, which would you pick? And you can’t pick The Hydra.
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: Now you see, the interview was going so great, and now I feel handcuffed.
TURTLE TIME: I’m just trying to… there’s going to be different vibes throughout this thing. And we got another couple hours to go, just so you know.
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: OK, but… I mean, I guess the piano.
TURTLE TIME: Yeah, me too. Fair enough. Um. Let’s see. So to take that in the opposite direction. The one instrument you absolutely wouldn’t want to be the only instrument you ever hear for the rest of your life. And again, you can’t pick The Hydra.
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: Saxophone.
TURTLE TIME: You know, a lot of people aren’t into the saxophone. Okay. So we had a lot of nice discussion, some silly shit. I’m going to hit you with a lightning-round here, okay?
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: Okay.
TURTLE TIME: What’s the name of the first song you ever wrote?
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: Weekend Girl.
TURTLE TIME: Do you still like it?
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: Yes.
TURTLE TIME: Numbers. Numerals. Do they exist in and of themselves is, say, three. Is that a thing? Or is it just an invented concept that mankind has developed to help us quantify and handle the world around us? Would you say real or invented?
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: it was invented. It’s a concept.
TURTLE TIME: Next question. Peanut butter and jelly?
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: Peanut butter and jelly, but just on a spoon.
TURTLE TIME: Oh, yeah?
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: No bread.
TURTLE TIME: My next question was what kind of bread, but you would say none?
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: No, I just do it on a spoon. And more than I’d like to, to be honest with the good people of your blog audience.
TURTLE TIME: Peanut butter AND jelly on the same spoon. Wow.
TURTLE TIME: Yeah.
TURTLE TIME: Wow.
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: I’ve got my own thing so I can double dip, I can do whatever the fuck I want.
TURTLE TIME: Ok, but now if you WERE to eat a standard peanut butter and jelly sandwich… Chips with that?
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: Yeah. Those go on the sandwich.
TURTLE TIME: Would you be willing to make it Elvis style? With the bacon, bananas, honey, etc?
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: That was his last sandwich, right?
TURTLE TIME: Most likely, yeah.
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: It sounds great. I would definitely, definitely eat that.
TURTLE TIME: Right, that’s good. Final question. If somebody in a movie is scared and running away from a guy who’s chasing them with ill intentions, and the guy that’s chasing them yells, “Get back here!” do you think that’s kind of a funny thing?
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: It’s definitely great writing.
TURTLE TIME: I agree. On a couple levels. Because like, who really thinks that they’re going to holler somebody into coming back to be harmed? And secondly, what writer is thinking, you know, “I can make this line work! I can sell this line.”
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: I think it’s great.
TURTLE TIME: That wraps things up nicely. That’s all I got, man.
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: Fantastic.
TURTLE TIME: Thank you!
DAVID BAUMGARTNER: It was fun.
Go see Forevers live at Lux Lounge on Friday, May 15 2026!
Buy Forevers’s music at https://forevers1.bandcamp.com !!
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