Forty Feet Tall, a post-punk/alternative rock band from Portland, OR, has recently released their new EP, “Tunnel Vision”.
Forty Feet Tall, a post-punk/alternative rock band from Portland, OR, has recently released their new EP, Tunnel Vision. The band is composed of childhood friends Cole Gann (guitar and vocals) and Jack Sehres (guitar), Brett Marquette on bass, and Ian Kelley on drums.
Tunnel Vision is the exploratory counterpart to their BOIL* *EP released last year, which were recorded at the same time (Feb. 2022) and initially to be released together as an album. These guys are consistently updating their fast-paced expansive rock sound, mixed with punk and psychedelic influences, as well as many others, such as Beach Boys-esque harmonies. I was able to chat with the band while they were on their March tour that both started and finished in Oregon (which just ended!) about Tunnel Vision.
Marquette says you can expect an interesting mix of soft and harder songs, as well as one of the longest songs they’ve ever written, “Tunnel Vision”, the last song on the EP. He likes to describe both that song and their sound as “prog punk” – “a very groovy baseline, a weird chorus with pitched down vocals … a B section that’s finger-picky … six part harmonies … with a heavy sludge, metal ending,” he says. It’s all over the place, but in the best way. The title phrase refers to “having blinders on and not really being able to see some of the things going on around you,” Gann says.
“I think that the EP is a perfect example of what this band can make as a whole,” Kelley says. “It’s just a symbiotic melting pot of all of our ideas in one and it’s going to shine through in the next EP as well … a creative process that’s ongoing.”
Before the EP, Forty Feet Tall released a cover of “Shout” by Tears for Fears. The band sat in a room and listened to about thirty songs together and could not agree on a single one besides “Shout” – “We were all like, ‘Yeah, that’s a weird idea. Let’s do that,’” Marquette said.
“It’s just funny that it was that one because it’s not any song that we’re especially connected to or anything, but it just really lent itself to our sound and to make it our own,” Gann said, as a lot of 80s synth songs could be applied to their style. “We had someone come up to us last night that was like, ‘I think that’s the first time anyone has had a mosh pit to Tears for Fears,” he said with a laugh.
In the future, the band will be trying to tour as much as possible, including cities/countries they’ve never played before that are on their bucket list. They have been writing a lot of new music lately, which they are always the most excited about. They are also eager to experiment with their sound even more in future projects.
Learn more about the band here, and make sure to listen to Tunnel Vision on any major streaming platform. Find more exciting new music on our Alchemical Multigenre Mixdown playlist on Spotify.
Emma Page, a recent Journalism graduate of The George Washington University, possesses a passion for music journalism and storytelling in all its forms. Originally from Baltimore, MD, when she is not writing, she can be found at a local concert or making music of her own.
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