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2013 was a busy year for Lake Forest with an eight country summer tour of Europe including shows in the UK, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Iceland. In the fall, Lake Forest returned to Europe for additional dates including a performance at the Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg. In between, founder Will Whitwham recorded an acoustic EP entitled ‘The Silence of Sound' and a more electric, soon to be released album called ‘For Whatever That Was'. 'I let the writing happen over a longer period of time,' confides Whitwham. 'It's more of an album in the conventional or traditional sense because I took the most confluent songs and committed them to tape. ‘Silver Skies' was written and recorded in its entirety in ten days; very reactionary, very fast. That way, you're more likely to end up with a singular feel and theme while this album varies itself to a broader extent; a landscape rather than a portrait.' 'The Silence of Sound EP was a trailing off of old ideas,' he continues. 'It's another snapshot of a time between records. I think EPs are better suited for this; experimenting and shedding old skin.' With For Whatever That Was, Whitwham began some of the songs with only a beat to write vocals to and added instrumentation after the fact. His vocals are still recognizably Lake Forest, but the songs were written and recorded entirely differently than they were for Silver Skies. 'No real conscious decision there. It was just the music I heard in my head and it's getting a lot closer to the music I always find myself coming back to; slow, heavy, loud and melodic.' The recording process was all about creating a band dynamic. The basic tracks were recorded live off the floor in the big room at Revolution Recording in Toronto while Whitwham did the rest of the overdubs at his home studio, Delaware House, where the earlier Wilderness of Manitoba albums were recorded. While still a member of the Wilderness of Manitoba, his solo project allows him to get more personal and creative without limits, even in the mistakes. This influences every moment of the process. 'I think the music we often call 'sad' is very triumphant and uplifting. This is probably why I never talk about how sad a song is; I'll just play it. I'll likely continue to bounce back and forth between these processes, but in a lot of ways, I've been waiting to make this album for quite some time.' For Whatever That Was is purging yourself from a memory or memories. It's giving part of yourself to the past even if you're decidedly fixed on the future. There's a double meaning here because albums represent the same things themselves. They depict where you were, not necessarily where you are. Whitwham likes the idea that, once you accept loss and triumph as recurring equals in your life, you can move into the next phase or change with greater ease and wisdom. 'We also call this 'closure',' he concludes.