Interview with China Forbes of Pink Martini: On 'The Road' Back to Solo Record-Making After 15 Years Away

“The Road” that China Forbes is currently riding down is a special kind of two-lane highway — one which she can shift with ease between the lanes of solo singer and Pink Martini frontwoman.

Stream: ‘The Road’ – China Forbes

Plenty of musicians could tell you about their experiences as solo artists following the dissolution or hiatus of their former bands — Beyoncé, Justin Timberlake, Camila Cabello, and André 3000 among them. But sit down to chat with China Forbes and you’ll gain some insight into a bit less common of a situation — an artist who is branching off as a solo singer, all while staying true to the same band they’ve been with for years.

Forbes has served as one of the two leading vocalists (along with Storm Large) of Pink Martini, the genre-mashing jazz lounge orchestra from Oregon, for the vast majority of its 30-year history. The band maintains a highly active tour schedule— including a recent return to the Montreal Jazz Festival, where Forbes was honored with the Ella Fitzgerald Award a couple of years ago— but she has also occasionally made time to make her own music independently of the twelve other bandmates. She first had a go at this back in 2008 with her solo debut, ’78, and now, sixteen years later, is back with a follow-up entitled The Road.

Forbes largely self-produced this new album, although she did some valuable assistance from two sound engineers, Gregg Williams and Steve Hundholm, in Portland, where she currently resides and where Pink Martini was first founded in 1994.

Forbes addressed her simultaneous responsibilities as both a solo singer and Pink Martini’s leading lady in a recent conversation with Atwood Magazine.

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:: stream/purchase The Road here ::

:: connect with China Forbes & Pink Martini here ::

A CONVERSATION WITH CHINA FORBES

Atwood Magazine: This is your first new album in 15 years. What made you decide it was time to relaunch your solo act after such a long time?

China Forbes: It’s funny – once you get through one project, you need time to recover. My last album came out in 2008 and I tried to tour that album while also being in Pink Martini. [It was] a very vigorous tour schedule, and I quickly realized it wasn’t possible to do both. So, I gave up on that for a while. But the problem is, I’m a songwriter, and so I keep writing songs. Then, I want to record them, and when I have all of these songs in progress, I want them to be complete. And then, if I don’t put them out, I kind of lock my creative progress; I can’t do anything more. So, this album – something just kind of told me that it was ready, and that I needed to release it and go on to the next project.

You’ve described this album as having 15 autobiographical songs. What are some personal stories you’re hoping to share as part of this project?

China Forbes: The album is called The Road, which refers to the path that I’m on and that anyone is on. For me, it’s everything from childhood trauma and divorce, to middle age and motherhood, to the suicide of a bandmate and mental heath. So, I tell stories about that and what’s going on in my life around those topics. And also, [I write] mainly just self-acceptance as one gets older.

What is similar and different in terms of doing your own solo project versus being with Pink Martini?

China Forbes: Even though it’s so not a corporate job, I compare it to having a corporate job versus private practice. Sometimes, I refer to my solo album as private practice. In the corporate job, if I want to just show up and sing, I don’t have to get involved with running the business and all of that. And then, in private practice, you realize, “Oh, now I can make all of the decisions and I have creative control, which is what I want.” But I also have to wear so many hats and do all of the other things that come with it, and it’s just a very different experience. Sometimes, I say it’s like flying first class and staying in suites, or flying coach and driving in a van with four different dudes. Those are the different sides.

How did The Road come together? What was it like working with those two sound engineers out in Portland?

China Forbes: It’s interesting. I met Rickey Minor, who used to be the music director of American Idol. He was on the Tonight Show; he had the band. When we were on the Tonight Show, I met him, and we really hit it off and he became a great friend. He tried to help me make some demos early on in L.A., but it just wasn’t realistic because I have a child and I couldn’t just spend my time in L.A. It was more of a bigger production than I felt like I wanted my album to be, so I came back and was like, “I just want piano and vocals. I just want to work with Steve Sundholm in his home studio.” I put down all the songs as piano and vocal, which is how I started.

Years passed, because I was touring so much and I just couldn’t really work on it. And I tried working with a different producer and thought, “Yeah, this isn’t working.” So, I decided to produce it myself and actually finish it with Greg Williams, who played drums on and produced my last album. We have a great relationship and he could add all of the instruments I thought were needed but not overproduce it. It was just like that was part of the road; it was a long road from starting those demos to finishing. But I just realized that I needed to push through whatever was blocking me and I needed a collaborator to kind of make sure it got done, because I could go on forever just tinkering with things. It forces you to be efficient when you’re working with another person.

Several singles have been released, including the title track. How do you think these singles serve as an introduction to the rest of the album?

China Forbes: Well, the first single I released was “Full Circle.” I almost called the album Full Circle, but when I was doing the graphic design for the cover, I just didn’t like the way Full Circle looked. I was like, “I can’t look at this.” So, I needed a different title and I felt like The Road really did sum up everything.

I call “Full Circle” my wisdom song. It’s sort of stepping back and looking at the ups and downs and going-arounds of life, and just looking at putting it into perspective where you can say, “OK, I’m really happy right now, but I know I’m going to be unhappy again some time. But that’s OK, ‘cause it’s just going to keep going up and down and up and down.” It feels like that— the wisdom song of the album.

And then, the next song I released is “Rise,” which is a song I wrote for my bandmate [percussionist Derek Rieth] who died by suicide. I felt urgently needing to release that song because so many people were dying by suicide, especially coming through the pandemic, and I felt like the song could help someone; it could even help one person. And so, that was why I released that second single.

And then I released “The Road,” the title track. It’s also really cool because this is a song I wrote and it’s based on the chords from a classical piece of music by Erik Satie called Gymnopédies #1. And I wasn’t planning on doing that; I was just playing with chords and realized, “Oh, these are the chords from that piece.” And then, I made a pop song out of it.

I released another single, too, called “Bring on the Rain.” That was the last one that came out, about divorce – my second divorce.

Oh, I’m sorry things didn’t work out.

China Forbes: It’s okay, divorce is great! It’s great if you are unhappy. It’s a great thing to be able to do.

Once the album comes out, how do you hope that fans will receive it? What do you hope to be able to share with them, musically and artistically?

China Forbes: I’m so excited. It’s so scary putting something out that broadly. But so far, the response has been really encouraging, and so many people have told me that one song makes them cry, [while] another song makes them so emotional. Just to feel that I’m connecting that way through my music to other people’s hearts feels so good.

I’m really excited for people to get it, [and] to read the lyrics to the songs, the way I did when I was starting out when I was eight years old and bought my first record, which was Donna Summer’s Live and More. I would look at the album and read all the lyrics and look at the pictures of her. That’s sort of when my dream of becoming a singer started. I went on TV this morning and there were high school girls in the audience. It was really cute to think that maybe they’ll feel excited about this album the way I felt about Donna Summer.

On top of releasing new music and all, this gives you the chance to relaunch your live act. What are your hopes for that and how do you hope this new music will translate onstage?

China Forbes: I’m really excited; I just rehearsed with the band yesterday. I have a great small band and I tell a lot of stories onstage. I talk a lot; I like humor. I bring a lot of that to the show, but the songs are all over the map of emotion. I just want people to feel; sometimes, it’s just so hard to connect to that. If they can come and be happy and sad and grieve and have hope, then I will have done a good show. And also, be entertained. And there are a couple of surprises that I think will be really fun.

Now that this album’s out, are there any other projects you’d like to follow it with?

China Forbes: Oh yes, that’s such a good question. First of all, I want to do a children’s album. When my son was born, I just wrote so many songs about him that were really funny. I just felt like I was dying to make this album. And then, I want to make an opera album and a classical album. I’ve done many recitals of operas over the years and I just love singing that way. It’s such a different way to use my voice. And then also I want to make a dance album– the polar opposite of The Road, my album now. I want beats and electronic sounds, and I could totally see that. I have an image of myself being a DJ; I have a really funny name for who I’d be, but I don’t think I can say it yet because someone will steal it, it’s so good.

So yeah, I have a lot of creative projects that I want to do. And then Pink Martini, which is my full-time job – we need to make another album, so that has to happen, too. There are so many albums to make.

Have you guys not made an album in a while? Are you talking about making a new one now?

China Forbes: No, we haven’t released a new album since 2017. But we do have one that’s allegedly in the works. We are releasing, before then, a live album that we did with the symphony here in Oregon. That was done a long time ago; I think my son was born the year that we did that, so it’s been 15 years or so, but it’s a beautiful concert that we’ve been waiting to put out in album form. I can’t believe we haven’t done that yet.

Anything you’d like to add?

China Forbes: It’s so nice when people support independent music, and Pink Martini has been independent the whole time. We never signed with an outside label and I put my own music out on Pink Martini’s own label, which is Heinz Records. And it’s wonderful when people can support us artists because the industry has clearly turned its back on our type of artists. So, I’m hoping that people will come to the show and buy the album– even buy it to look at the beautiful purple vinyl and put it on the wall, because it’s cool. [I’m] just encouraging people to keep supporting artists.

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