So Long Forgotten | Welcome To The Scene
Written By: Jameson Ketchum

nyone else having trouble finding a band to fill the void left by the sudden departure of As Cities Burn? Look no further than So Long Forgotten. Five years into their musical journey, SLF have signed to Come&Live and show no signs of slowing down, perhaps preparing to step into the shoes of acts such as the Tooth N’ Nail giants named above. Or maybe SLF is just out there to make an original name for themselves through hard work and a little bit of luck. Either way, SLF is just here to enjoy the ride. So Long Forgotten, welcome to the scene.

Tell us a bit about the origins of So Long Forgotten?

PJ Pence: So long forgotten has been a group for around 5 years now, starting out as some friends playing music in high school.  We started playing local shows at a time when the music scene was really thriving and I believe that we owe quite a bit to everything that was happening in Central Illinois at the time because it gave us the opportunity to play often.  From there we have sort of slowly been attempting to rise from the ambiguity that is the endless amount of relatively unknown bands that are touring.

Walk us through where you guys were at before the opportunity to be on Come & Live came about?

PJP: We had been a touring band for a couple of years at that point, and we had had the opportunity to do some pretty exciting things, but also played our fair amount of shows for only the sound guy and the band we were on tour with.  Touring always seems to be an uphill battle, and honestly if we had to do it all over again I couldn’t guarantee we would have the same outcome.  Ideally good music is all that a band would need, but the fact of the matter is that it is not just music, but also a lot of hard work and a fair amount of luck that mix together to put you in the right places at the right time.

How did Come & Live discover you?

PJP: Before Come&Live! we had done a few tours with some bands whom Chad (Johnson) had been working with at the time and we really built some good relationships with people through those experiences. We got to know Chad at a couple of music festivals, sitting down, hanging out, and at that time we were curious where that relationship was going to lead. Not too long after being offered and subsequently not offered deals from various other record labels Chad pretty much said to us “if you feel like God is calling you to be patient and have faith, I would encourage you to wait so we can talk about something that has been on my heart”.  A lot of phone calls, e-mails, and coffee shop meetings in Nashville later, here we are.

I feel like its rare these days to find a good worship band whose appeal spans genres such as you guys do. What do you contribute that success to?

PJP: Any appeal that we would have I would hope to say is due to a willingness to try anything and the judgment to know when you shouldn’t do that thing you have just tried (laughs). We all listen to very different kinds of music, we certainly have common interests and influences, but I don’t know that any of us would claim to have the same favorite band as another.  Being able to blend those different things together is a long, difficult and stressful process.

Where do you get your inspiration during the writing process?

PJP: The writing process for our newest album was unlike anything we had ever done before.  It was the first time that we were really able to set aside a place and as much time as we did specifically devoted to writing not just songs, but an album.  There was a five day span over a year ago when we literally locked ourselves in a building for ten hours a day in a place where we didn’t really have much distraction. When we left there we had written six songs, four of which made the new album. The rest of the album was written very slowly over the following months when we were able to devote two to four days or nights a week solely to writing. When we are doing something like this, it is inevitable that we will still be listening to music in some form or another that will sneak its way in, but honestly we don’t aim to have our inspiration come from music. Before every session we sat down to start working on the album we would spend as much time as it took to try to get rid of any distractions and look inside of ourselves to guide the music. As kind of crazy as that sounds, I believe and hope that to be the most accurate understanding of what inspired this last album.

What do you want people to walk away with after seeing SLF live?

PJP: Here is a good way to look at our live show: we don’t do it for the fans, plain and simple.  We gave up long ago trying to be the most talented, engaging, precise, fun band around, because we just aren’t! Once we stopped playing for the crowd is when things really started to flow. If you can lose touch with the idea that people are staring up at you on a pedestal, or even the idea that you really have something worth being listened to, and just get down to the worship, then I hope we will have accomplished something. To be on stage for us, albeit disheartening at times to have a crowd who doesn’t particularly care for what you are doing, we are trying to let the overflow of ourselves come out, and musically…we just jam with each other. So the short answer, I would hope that people might experience something real.