John Mailander’s Forecast ‘Let The World In’ On Stunning Nick Drake Cover

John Mailander’s Forecast will independently release a new album entitled Let The World In on January 24, 2025. JamBase is pleased to preview the nine-track collection from the group led by acclaimed multi-instrumentalist John Mailander by premiering the video for its first single: a majestic and expansive cover of Nick Drake’s “Road.”

Mailander initially assembled Forecast for a series of hometown residency shows in Nashville following the release of his 2019 album of the same name. The highly-talented Forecast consists of John Mailander on fiddle, keys and electronics joined by Ethan Jodziewicz on upright and fretless electric bass; Chris Lippincott on steel guitars, keys, and electronics; Mark Raudabaugh on drums and percussion; Jake Stargel on acoustic guitar and David Williford on tenor saxophone and bass clarinet.

“Everyone in the band comes from unique musical backgrounds,” Mailander explained of what makes the outfit tick. “Generally, Jake Stargel and I came up in the bluegrass/new-acoustic world, David from jazz, Mark from rock, Chris from songwriter/ambient, Ethan studied classical bass. They are all exceptional musicians, and they all have strongly individual musical voices, with very open ears and a love for a lot of different styles of music.

While Mailander, a member of Bruce Hornsby & The Noisemakers, has an impressive resume that includes recording with Billy Strings, Noah Kahan, Joy Williams, Molly Tuttle and many others, his bandmates also each produce and releases their own music.

“I try to compose tunes with colors inspired by the disparate styles of music we all love, which we then can collectively explore as a unit and through our individual lenses,” Mailander added. “Part of the sound of this band to me is this unique point where all of our different backgrounds, and our collective limitations, together meet these other colors and genres we’re striving to dig into—That meeting point is where a lot of the magic and individuality is revealed.”

John Mailander’s Forecast recorded 2021’s Look Closer during the height of the pandemic. Much has changed for Forecast since those dark days.

“We isolated for weeks leading up to that session, wore masks the whole time, wiped down surfaces and microphones, brought our own meals to eat outside, all of that,” Mailander said regarding Look Closer. “It was a surreal and beautiful moment of connection for all of us during that difficult time – and I think that music reflects that. We were also figuring out who we were as a band, we only had a few shows under our belt at that time. It’s a more intimate, inwardly reflective album.”

“Between the release of Look Closer and Let The World In, we honed our sound as a live band playing monthly shows at Dee’s Lounge in Nashville,” noted Mailander. “Let The World In feels like more of a statement of who we’ve grown into as a band now. We recorded it in a larger studio, with our friend Brook Sutton engineering, who was new for us to work with. He got some really fantastic, big sounds which reflect the heavier themes and more expansive scope of the album. In the tradition of the Look Closer sessions, we ended each day with a collective free improvisation, two of which ended up on the album. The improvs are particularly revealing to the collective state of mind.”

Let The World is intended to be played loud and came to fruition organically. “Overall, this album was a more communal experience to make, and has a larger scope of ideas,” said Mailander. “Look Closer was an inwardly reflective album to record, and I hear that in the music. Let The World In has also been very personal for me, I think even more so than last time, but the group effort and the resulting music turned out to be much more outwardly reflective of the world we are living in at this moment. It kind of unintentionally became a concept album in that way, discovering that through the process of making it.”

“Road” is the lone cover featured on Let The World In. Nick Drake recorded for his iconic 1972 album Pink Moon.

“Lyrically, it has been a mantra to me over the past couple of years for personal reasons, but it also fits into the themes of the record as a whole to me,” recalled Mailander. “I’ve never considered myself much of a singer, and I imagined collaborating with a guest vocalist for this song, but thematically it felt important to me to sing this myself. I love Nick Drake’s music and he has influenced my own instrumental writing a lot. It’s been fun reimagining his original acoustic take of this song into more of a full-band jam vehicle. I think the take we got on record captures some of the vibe of our live shows.”

John Mailander’s Forecast took “Road” deep during the final day of recording Let The World In and the resulting track shows off the project’s willingness and successful ability to improvise. “I think we did three or four takes in all, and picked the best one, which was of course the first. This take had the more unhinged, spontaneous, and patient live feel I was hoping to capture on record,” John remembered.

“Mark overdubbed an additional drum track for a wider sound and some cool flammy, dead-y moments,” added Mailander. “I overdubbed micro-looper pedal effects in post. I also did a take running the whole mix through the studio’s tape echo machine, riding the feedback up and down dynamically, which ended up being a big character within the mix.”

“Road” arrives with an animated video put together by Grouch Bucket that accentuates the trippiness of the music.

“Ryan (Grouch Bucket) is a friend of mine here in the Nashville music community, and I’ve been a fan of his work for a while. He has a super distinctive, psychedelic style which I love,” stated Mailander. “I knew I vaguely wanted a sort of desert scene, and to incorporate a windmill, which has become kind of a symbol of the Forecast band. Otherwise, this video was totally made from Ryan’s imagination. I love how he incorporated subtle references to Nick Drake’s Pink Moon album cover and made it his own.”

John Mailander’s Forecast will officially release “Road” this Friday, December 6. Watch the animated video for the track below:

Presave ‘Let The World In’ now ahead of its arrival on January 24, 2025.

Let The World In Tracklist

1. (open) (0:18)
2. Let The World In (6:52)
3. Gardener (4:40)
4. (improvisation 1) (1:15)
5. Chapters (2:55)
6. Heartland (6:22)
7. (improvisation 2) (1:44)
8. Road (9:25)
9. (reprise) (1:47)