JOHN Lennon once espoused that the message of rock'n'roll was to "be here now."
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Kurri Kurri singer-songwriter Tori Forsyth might have dropped the "now" off her new single Be Here, but it very much carries a message of rock'n'roll.
Gone is the gothic alt-country of her EP Blackbird (2015) and Golden Guitar-nominated debut album Dawn Of The Dark (2018).
It's been replaced by a squall of electric guitar riffs and a bold rock attitude.
"I don't think I necessarily sat down one day and said, 'I'll give this a go', it was more I was listening to a lot of rock music when we were on tour last year," Forsyth said.
"I was writing a lot at that time too and they came out that way. It wasn't intentional or anything like that, it just worked out like that."
Anyone who's witnessed Forsyth's live show in the past year wouldn't be surprised by her shift away from her folk and country roots. Her cover of Audioslave's Show Me How To Live during her mid-afternoon set at last year's Dashville Skyline was one of the show-stopping moments of the festival.
Forsyth said she constantly played Audioslave's 2002 self-titled debut album last year and it had a profound effect on her music.
"That record had such an influence on me as a person, but also musically," she said. "Listening to it, it shifted my view on enjoying and consuming music and then writing music. It really changed the game for me in putting more energy into shows.
"It's the goal for me going forward. I enjoy the more vibrant shows and I want to be able to give that to people."
Forsyth said Be Here's heavier rock sound is indicative of the rest of her second album, which is still in production. Alt-country artist Shane Nicholson is again producing the album, despite the stylistic shift.
"We're friends and I count on Shane for different things in music and he's played such a massive part in my career so far," she said.
"He has similar tastes in music as me, so it was a no-brainer. I wanted to explore these different sounds with someone I trusted."
"He was still on the same page as me and knew what I was after, which is what I was listening to at the time. It felt natural and nice and easy."
Tori Forsyth performs at the Stag and Hunter Hotel on October 25.