Black Forest Fire

Black Forest Fire was formed in Austin, Texas out of a dare between drummer/vocalist Karen Skloss and guitar/vocalist Jay C. Tonne Jr. Every time Karen and Jay saw one another Karen held true that she could play the drums, so Jay finally dared Karen to break out her kit one night and Black Forest Fire was born. That first night they wrote several of the songs that would appear on Transit of Venus, and Karen’s heavy, emotional drumming inspired Jay’s love of 80’s new wave and shoe-gazer guitar-driven melodies. Grabbing their friend and local Austin luminary Doug Walseth on bass, they dared to dream and rock outer space pop. During SXSW 2011 the band met the legendary rock album cover art design master Storm Thorgerson (Dark Side of the Moon, Houses of the Holy, Cranberries, Muse, Mars Volta…). Storm took to the band, their music, and most importantly to their lyrics and agreed to create the artwork for the forthcoming album. With Storm on board for the artwork, the band went into the studio with Chris Smith as producer and cut 10 songs in as many days and mixed and mastered the record at Cacophony Studios with Erik Wofford. Jay C. Tonne Jr. received his engineering degree at U.C Berkeley - but upon beginning his first job for the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority’s Hollywood subway construction, became immersed in the local Echo Park rock scene while living and playing with members of Rilo Kiley, Failure, Phantom Planet, The Warlocks, Whiskey Biscuit, Beachwood Sparks, Whispertown. Karen Skloss has an MFA from U.T. Austin and has directed, produced, and edited films screened and awarded at Cannes, SXSW, and Sundance. Doug Walseth plays in almost every cool band in Austin and has recently begun recording records in his all-analog tape studio. Their debut, Transit of Venus, will be released on Sedimental Records (Stars of the Lid, Weird Weeds, and more.) Hypnotic drumming, boy/girl dream-pop vocals, and chiming, arpeggiated guitars swelling to melodic choruses; Transit of Venus is a woefully beautiful and darkly powerful sonic commentary on a modern world gone sad.